Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-21
AGE OF oIscoNTENT.
A Timely Sermon BY Rev. Or. ounnison al
the First UnWersaIist Church.

Rev. DR.. Gunnison began his sermon
on THE age of discomfort" Sunday
morning, by brief summary of the
conditions which made the people Of
this country the most prosperous on
earth, and went on to say:
What then is the cause of the preva-
lent restlessness, which makes our age
one of discomfort?
| Primarily believe it comes from
envy OF the rich. Great fortunes have
| been made with startling rapidity, un-
der the great opportunities Of our
favored land, and a swiftly made pros
perity is always ostentatious in the dis
| play of wealth. Great houses, palatial
In extent have risen; gorgeous equipages
| the vulgar display of new riches have
dazzled those who have beheld them,
and made them discontented with their
| slower processes of industry and eco
nomy. Ignorant men and women, by
some lucky turning of the wheel of for
tune, have been made suddenly rich, and
because their wealth has brought with it
neither wisdom nor modesty, they have
haunted their newly made prosperity in
the eyes of their less favored neighbors.
And there has been respect and honor,
fulsome adulation paid to wealth, as
though it were a virtue, and the Win
ming of 1t some sign of grace or merit.
The god of fortune has received the
servile adulations of the multitude,
and the god which men have been
taught to worship is the golden one of
Mammon-and so there has been an
envy OF the rich, and a restless search
for the subtle alchemy of fortune which
should turn the baser metals of daily
toll into gold, a search for the philo-
sophers' stone which could transmute. by
m acrir l,st -,
they have failed in fields where other
men have succeeded, there has come a
sullen discomfort not at their own les
ser talents or opportunities-but at the
conditions of modern life, which so in
equitably distribute the favors of for
tune
And this discomfort manifests itself
in every species of wild political and So
cial theories, and in policies of ad-
ministration and readjustment, which
vary ali the way from humane and
not wholly impracticable socialism to
the wild class of laWless anarchy.
And secondarily-The discomfort is
based on certain real though not easily
definable grievances. Men see the
rapid growth of great enterprises, which
have been made by great industrial abb
lity, aided by a vast aggregation of
human toll. The land Is belted With
railways, great cities have risen, inn
mense industrial plants have been made,
vast harveSts are gathered from the
fields with sweat and Drawn, but the
captains of industry obtain the larger
share of the profits, capital controls
every enterprise and takes the lions
share of the gains. At the beginning of
the present century the prize money
won in English battles was distributed
in this proportion, when the common
sailor received f5 the captain received
$1,000 and the admiral fS000 when it was
the common sailor who fired the guns and
took the largest risks. Such inequalities
are believed by the masses to prevail in
our present industrial system and there
is justly a discomfort, when the grain
which is raised with toll and at small
rewards by the farmer, by unjust and
iniquitous speculation enriches those
who have added no labor to it, who in
deed have never seen a wheat field.
The mines of the earth belong to the
nation, the nation belongs to the people,
the great railways ought not to enrich
those who have contributed nothing to
their creation while great industries
which have been based on public fran
chises, should not be permitted to inor-
| dinately enrich those who by cunning or
craft, by every device save that of legi-
innate industry, have secured their con-
| troll. It is not wonderful when the poor
sailor sees the small returns that he
obtains from his scanty hoardingS in the
| savings bank, and contrasts it with the
| fabulous gains which come to the
! gamblers in the stock market, or when
/ he sees the palace of the man who sat
with him on the same bench in school,
and contrasts it with his humble rented
| home, that he has a great discomfort.
He has no desire to pillage, but he feels,
and he justly feels, that in some way the
opportunities of life ought to be more
equitably divided, and that at least
| legislation should not give to the cum
| ming and unscrupulous few, that which
belongs to the masses. What is the
remedy for this restlessness and what
shall cure the prevalent discomfort, do
! not know. If any one could know and
make his knowledge operative, he would
solve the riddle of the ages. But this
know, that the first condition
| of curing any disease, is to re-
| cognlze the disease and its sources.
| We need first to take away from men
| the sense of injustice which comes from
real wrongs and to see to it that no
! legislation shall give to the few the pri
| vilege to oppress the many. We cannot
reduce all men to the same cubit mea-
sure, but we can see to it, that ambi-
| tious men are not raised above their
fellows by standing either on their
1
or on ladders of law or legislation or
! preventable monopoly or privilege which
enables them to appropriate to them
/ selves, because they have brains to
think and devise, that which belongs to
| those who have only hands to toll.
Brain and hand are in partnership of
toll, and to each should come equitable
rewards. And, while we are not to
take away from men, or to discourage
| all unreasonable ambition, and while
we are to recognize that reasonable
discomfort with existing conditions is
one of the avenues and Instruments of
progress, we are to teach men as we
! teach ourselves, that happiness does not
| consist in the abundance or variety or
the splendor Of our material possessions,
that we are put into the world to make
| character-that we are rich as we are
wise, we are prosperous in proportion
as we are contented and that if there
| is inward poverty we are indeed poor,
| though we are luxuriously housed and
fed and have the ostentation of outward
| riches.
A DISTINGUISHED ARRIVAL