The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-08-26

the prayer Of Agur-"Give me neither
! poverty nor riches lest / be full.
and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord
or lest ! be poor, and steal, and take the
name OF my God in vain" proverbs
/ need hardly remind you that the great
CHARACTER dominating every page of the
new Testament was a poor man, without
mouse or home. His attitude toward labor
on the one hand and capital on the other
may be imagined 1t is well put by Or.
Henry j. Van Dyke:
'Never in a costly palace did / rest on
golden bed,
Never in a hermit's cavern have l eaten
idle bread
Born within lowly stable, where the cat
tie round Me stood,
Trained a carpenter in Nazareth, [ have
toiled and found it good.
They who tread the path of labor follow
where My feet have trod
They who work without complaining do
the holy will of God.
Where the many toll together, there am
among My own;
| Where the tired workman s,eepeth, there
am with him alone.
l, the peace that passeth knowledge, dwell
amid the daily strife.
I, the bread of heaven, am broken in the
sacrament of life"
;, While there is never any bitterness in
| the Masters utterance regarding wealth,
His views may be readily gathered from
such parallels as that of Dives and Lazarus
| luke Xvi:l9).
Again, we have the same attitude in the
| passage on the camel and the needles eye
! Matthew xix:23).
Not only YVES the Lord poor, but His
apostles were all poor men, who placed no
/ va I'M IN o4nnE 6
apostolic preachers, supported himself by
manual labor, and taught 'They that will
be rich fall into temptation and snare,
and into many foolish and hurtfu lusts,
which drown men in destruction and per-
dltion. For the love of money is the root
Of all eviP' Il. Timothy vi:9-l0). On the
whole, the attitude of tie New Testament
is one of warning against the seductions of
wealth.
| The evangelical churches stand upon the
word of Scripture, and so In sympathy
with labor. In .act, of some 100000 of
male members in the evangelical churches
of our land, not less than 100000 are
wage earners or manual laborers. So that
the claim that the modern church has de-
parted from the position occupied by the
apostolic church is not well founded.
What, then, from the letter and spirit Of
the Bible in connection with the teachings
of experience is to be suggested as a means
OF curing the quarrel between labor and
capital?
First, let there be closer personal rela-
tions between the rich and the poor. Let
chem meet together in the fellowship of
Gods house and the Divine Fatherhood.
Out of mutual acquaintance will come mu-
tual respect, and recognition of a COM
mon humanity.
You may remember Emerson's story of
the quarrel between the mountain and the
squirrel, where he says
'The mountain and the squirrel
Had quarrel,
And the former called the latter Little
prlg.'
Bun replied
You are doubtless very big,
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
10 make up year
And a sphere
And think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
II m not as large as you,
You are not SO small as l;
And not half so spry.
III not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track.
Talents differ, all is well and wisely put;
If | cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack nut"
Then there should be deeper interest
taken by capital in the financial well-being
of labor. Such devices as profit sharing,
old age pensions and the like will give the
/ workman sense of greater security and
of partnership with capital.
Interest taken in the proper housing of
labor, although not always appreciated, is
in the right line. So, too, the introduction
of the social secretary as an intermediary
between the corporation and the employe.
Another thing needed, not SO much in
the interests of labor or capital, but in the
interests of the innocent non-combatants.
is compulsory arbitration, applied at least
where the public suffers intolerable incon-
venicnco, as in the case of rail- Dad, tele
graph or coal strike. Compulsory arbitra-
tion may not always be satisfactory to the
combatants, but it is essential to the peace
and comfort of those not involved in the
controversy. This remedy, or military COLI
troll, as In the recent railway strikes in
Holland and Austria, should be used to
protect the public.
The sovereign remedy, however, must be
not by recourse to legal means, but by the
application OF the royal law. James (ii:S),
after speaking OF the relations between the
rich and the poor, says: IF We fulfill the
royal law according to the Scripture, thou
shalt love tny neighbor as thyself, we do
well" This is the aqua regia, the royal
solvent, in which we may solve all the hard
asperities of conflicting interests.
Only as men come to know God through
Christ, whom He has sent, and SO come to
love their fellow men, will it be possible to
solve these questions of controversy in
way that will insure the permanent pro-
gress of our civilization.
What we need after all, is not measures,
but men.
"The world wants men-large hearted,
manly men;
Men who shall join in chorus and prolong
The psalm Of labor and of love
The age wants heroes-heroe, who shall
dare