Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-09-17
FELLOWSHIP in WORK.

count. but which is OF great import
auce from many points of view. Men
who work together have not only the
same interests, but are likely to de-
velop a kinship of thought and feel
ings. Their association extends be-
yond working hours and includes their
higher and wider interests. There
seems TO be something in the putting
forth of effort upon the same mate
rial or for the same end which binds
men together with ties which are not
wholly the result of proximity. Those
who have given no thought to the
educational side of work ard who are
ignorant that it has such a side. are
nevertheless brought within the uni
flying influence of process which,
using mainly the hands and the feet,
is lnsensibly the whole nature.
There is 4 deeper unity in the work
of the world than has been clearly
understood as yet: there is that vital
unity which binds together those who
4 { not only engaged in common
task. but who are also involved in a
common spiritual process. The very
necessity of work carries with it the
implication of an incomplete world
and an imperfectly developed society.
The earth was not finished when it
was made ready for the appearance
of man; il will not be finished until
man has done with t. In the making
of the world man has his part: here,
as elsewhere. he meets God and CO.
operates with Him; the divine and
human combining to perfect the pro-
cess of unfolding and evolution. Until
the work of man has developed it the
earth is raw material. 1t is full of
power, but that power is not con-
served and directed; it is full of the
potentialities of fertility, but there
are no harvests: all manner of posi-
bilities both of material and spiritual
uses are in it-food. ore, force, beauty
but these possibilities must await
the skill of man before they can be
turned into wealth, comfort, art,
civilization: God gives the earth as
mine. and man must work it: as a
field, and man must till it; as a reser-
voir of force, and man must make
connection with it: a. a rough mate
rial out OF which order. symmetry.
utility. beauty, culture may be
Wrought, and men must unfold these
higher uses by intelligence, skill, toll
and character. At some time every
particle of the civilized world has
been ike the old frontier on this con-
tinent, and men have reclaimed
either the desert or the wilderness by
their heroic sacrifices and labors. ItI
Is a misuse of language. therefore. to
say that the world II made; it is not
made because it is being made cen
fury 5T century through the toll of
successful generations.
Now. this creative process, in which
God and men unite, is what we cali
work. 1t g., not a process introduced
among men as an afterthought or As
d form IF punishment; it was involved
I'm the initial creative act. The con-
ceptiou of a process of development
carries with it the idea. not of
finished. but of an unfinished world:it
interuret- history not a. record of
persons and event, separate from the
stage apon which they appear. like
actors Oh the boards. but a. the story
of the influence Of an unfinished
world upon an undeveioped race and
Of the mar~elous unfolding through
which the hidden powers aad qualities
of the material and the worker are
brought into play. Work becomes.
therefore. not only a continuation Of
the divine activity in the world. but
process wrought into the very con-
stituton Of that world Growth is
the div.ne,t element In life. and work
is one of the chief factors in growth.
The earth is, therefore, in if. full
unfolding and i-- Anal form, the Joint
product of the love and power Of God
and the toll aad sacrifice of men: the
creative purpose j. not accomplished
in a single act; It is being wrought
out throughalong progression Of acts;
and an This continuous process cod
and men are brought together i'm
way which makes the labor Of the
hand the work also of the spirit. If
one rejects on all that this intimate
cooperation of the divine and the
human in the fields the factories ana
the shop means. the nobility of work
and its possibilities Of spiritual edu-
cation become imprcssiyely GEAR In
this fellowship men are trained in
ways Of which they are insensibIe;
spiritual results are accomplished
within them of which they are uncon-
scious. The infinite is nowhere more
benefccntiy present than in the