The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-19
in THE CITY'S PULPITS
REV. j. w. PARKER's SERMON AT
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN.
He breaches on @The Gospel of work
REV. G. c. ROwIison's Sermon
other Services.

L. Haines preached yesterday morning on
THE Gospel Of Work" Text, Mark vi. 3
us not this the Carpenter" He said:
ITO my mind there are few more precious
words in our English tongue than the word
carpenter And why? Because Jesus was
a carpenter. / have often felt like taking
off my hat to the man who follows the
trade that Jesus followed-the carpenter.
/ believe with Adam Bede' that there is re-
ligion in good carpentry.
For the greater part of his earthly
life Jesus Christ worked with His hands
TO earn His daily bread and this brings
Him very near the people that work. There
is an old tradition that his father, Joseph,
died while Jesus was a boy, and that 1t fell
TO Him 10 support by His own labor the
little family at Nazareth. Whether the
legend be true or not, we have before US
this great lesson, that Jesus was a man
who worked. He who spake and ii was
done, who gave to the stars their places
and TO the sea its limits, it was He. Jesus,
the son OF God, who bent His back over
the bench in NaZareth's carpenter shop.
The villagers who passed by could look
In and see Him at His work. as with the
tools around Him and the shavings at His
feet, He made vol es and tables that he
might earn his daily bread.
rs IL not beautiful picture, o men and
women who work-you men who come here
to-day from your office, from your store,
your shops, your trades, your farms weary
and worn with the six days of toil-you
women who feel the stress and strain OF
home cares and household tasks-is there
not for you strength and comfort in the
thought that Jesus, whose name is the
sweetest name on mortal tongue was not
a king on His throne but one who of
choice was born to life of labor and toll
who by the word and example preached
the gospel of work. Ours is an age and
a world of work. To read the newspapers
by which we keep pace with the progress
of the times, is to be amazed at the
mighty and marvellous streams of activity
that are flowing through all the channels
of human life. The whole universe is
keyed TO the song of work. We are born
to work. 1t is Gods divine decree that
a man shall go cOatless and hatless and
houseless and knowledgeless and charac-
terless, unless he works. God has locked
up the treasures of this world and the next,
has locked up temporal blessings and
spiritual blessings. in a steelbound safe,
whose doors open only by a combination
of four letters work And the man
who does not know will not this
combination, will get little or nothing.
COLUMBUS'S TASK
There is no excellence without hard
labor Columbus labored for years on his
problem of the rotundity Of the earth, and
braved the Atlantics storms and pillows to
solve it. After months and years of weary
toll Lord Herschel produced his scheme of
the heaven. which called for another planet
as yet unknown. He pointed his telescope at
the sky, and to reward his search discov-
cred the planet Uranus. Michael Angeles
great painting. The Last Supper was the
product of eight years of toll on the part of
that brainiest of painters Richard Carvel,'
the new novel now so widely read, Is said
10 be the result of four years of its au-
thor's hardest work. The Redemption of
David Corson' was written and rewritten
seven times before it reached it's present
printed form.
I'VE are often amazed at some wonderful
invention, some brilliant Grafton, some mar
Vicious victory like that of Dewey at Ma
Mia, and we wonder how these men can
do these things. But we often forget that
back of these successes that the world sees,
are years of preparation, hardest work and
grinding toll The men of the past and pres
ent-yes, and the women, too, whose names
are honored because of some signal service
to the world, have been the men and the
women who work, who lived what Pres-
dent Roosevelt in his Chicago speech so
aptly called the strenuous life The cross
of the Legion of Honor belongs not merely
TO those who have given conspicuous proof
OF physical courage the worlds great
Legion of Honor embraces the worlds toll
ers, the men and the women who work
THE worlds first law and its lifelong
call is to work; and idleness is sin in such
world as this. No man has a right to be-
lieve that because he is poor and has to
work he has been Disseminated against by
providence and is to be ptied. No man has
a right TO count II a misfortune that he is
called to share the fate of Jesus Christ the
worlds truest gentleman. in being a worker
for his daily bread For whether with hands
or with brains, work is a badge of the high
est nobility. Why? Because Jesus worked
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of
the carpenter of Nazareth. And because of
Him, honor and not shame attaches to every
form OF honest work. Ashamed of Work?
The only thing to be ashamed of is not
to work. Ashamed of the hands that bear
the marks of toll? Look wonder into
Nazareth's carpenter shop and forever be
done with such a thought or feeling.
Rather be proud that you, with Him, are
classed one of the worlds workers
Yes, the hands of my Lord were the
hands of workman. 1t was the workman's
hands that blessed little children. that
opened the eyes of the blind, that dealt out
bread TO the hungry. 1t was a workman's
hands that were nailed to Calvary's cross
And work, honest toll, the sweat of manual
labor. the WEAKNESS of mental effort, the
drudgery OF daily duty, have been forever
sanctifed and glorifed by the life and
teaching OF the Carpenter of Nazareth who
lived and preached the gospel of work
why was Jesus carpenter? Why must
this great, sanity soul be bound down TO
daily toll and labor? Why could He not AT
once face the conflict with sin, win the vic
tory, and hasten back to heaven? All for
two reasons. First, TO show by a life of
work that Gods world is a work-a-dav
world, that If God in the person of His Son
His example.
ALL A MISTAKE.
THE idea that to be a king or a oueen
with nothing to do but to enjoy ones self.
that to be so rich that one does not need
to work, that this is the highest ideal of
life, the pinnacle of human happiness. is all
a mistake. The idle rich and the idle poor
are both to be pitied. Both are paupers;
both are drones in the hive of life; both
are barnacles on the ship of state. 1t is
noble 10 be idle. is the worlds gospel II
is noble 10 be busy, is Christs gospel
And Jesus was also a carpenter to show
that every life needs the discipline of hard
work and daily duty. Even as for eighteen
years of His legal manhood Jesus endured
the discipline of daily work temptation
and duty, and thus was fitted for His final
triumph at Gethsemane and Calvary so
every life needs the discipline of work and
duty. The man who does nothing Is worth
nothing, for a man only really possesses
what his own efforts of hand and brain
have acquired Work is the condition of
progress. the secret of happiness; il is the
law of nature and of God. Truly Blessed
is the man who has found his work Jesus
was a carpenter; and therefore our life
is TO be one Of duty, discipline. toll and
service. And 10 you of this church YOU
men and women, younger and older. /
bring to-day this picture OF Jesus the
carpenter. And l wish that any of MS
whose lives, perchance, are hanging idle
with time and talent wasted, with oppor-
tunity unimporved. while the right is bat
thing with the wrong l wish that all of
us might catch so much Of His devoted
spirit that our lives might be set TO ouiv-
ering and resounding with the trumpet call
OF a mighty purpose 10 make our lives