The Penn's Grove record., 1904-03-04

6@H%@ N@
equations of His trade during so many
years, He exalts industry into a divine
virtue and brands sloth as a deadly sin.
lie has no favor for an ambition that longs
for absolute ease. 1t may not be necessary
for any one to be occupied with the bur
dens of business, but we are all bound 70
keep in personal touch with the life Of hui
manity. There are other spheres Of use
fitness than the field and the shop, the
Office or the counting room. The church
asks for thousands who are willing to fol-
low the example of splendid heroes who
withdrawn from the haunts Of trade
and from the hope of gain in order to de-
vote themselves exclusively to the ministry
of Christian laymen. Everywhere are char
tiles calling loudly for encouragement and
service. Politics presents a wide range for
the activities of patriotism and of the very
highest religion. There is something for
everybody to do, and no one is justified in
living for himself In a sequestered and at
~tractive nook way from the demands that
sound from every quarter. Each individ-
ual should have some occupation, a place
IN the worlds vast factories, a work Of
some sort which shall tell for the happiness
of others.
The Lord has a strong word for labor.
He Is the fellow and the champion Of all
tollers. He has a meaning for all those
who work with their brain or with their
hands, for all such are workingmen. He
has forever consecrated the everydayness
Of life. He adopts the workaday world.
The Light of Asia" which states beauti-
fully certain features of the Buddhist reli-
glon, represents the mcarnate Buddha as q
wandering beggar, asking food. Jesus
Christ was no beggar. The mendicant, any
more than the pauper, receives not the APP
proval OF His own practice, by which He
sanctihed labor until the end Of the world.
The Gallilean Carpenter was no less the
incarnate Son of God during the years
which He spent at Nazareth than He was
on the mountain of the TRANSPORTATION or
on the first Easter Day. There are many
reasons why work is honorable, but it re-
ceives its browning glory from the exper-
fence of the divine Christ during the long
period of which we know nothing save that
He was a mechanic. He has endured all
occupations with dignity that nothing short
OF our Owl disloyalty can possibly take
away 1t matters not what ones daily
tolls are, they are worthy Of fidelity and
energy. and they arc as much a part OF
Gods service as the saying of prayers and
the receiving of religious rites. The I'M
peror and his humblest subject, the prime
minister and the street sweeper, the mil
lionaire and his valet, all are included in
the spirit of industry and devotion which
Jesus manifested at the bench which stood
in a shop or, perhaps, at times under a
huge tree at Nazareth. He has hallowed
all vocations by the conservation of His
personal industry, and they should be in
terpreted and accepted as a sacred part Of
the life which now is.
The Nazareth Carpenter teaches that
worldly place of itself is nothing worth. A
man may be a man wherever he is, and
labor is honorable whatever it may be.
Station or the lack of it does not make
the man or his life. The people Of lowly
degree may likewise learn precious lessons
of the Galilean artisan. They become dis
couraged because they fancy themselves to
be of no account, and they too often cher
ish an unhappy contempt for their daily
tolls. They despise the factory or the
Office as necessary evils. Jesus has a lesson
for them which He pronounces from the
Nazareth shop. Long years He spent IN
obscurlty. No murmurs escape Him, no
signs of impotence, no evidences Of a
restless longing to be otherwise, no vulgar
and goddess disposition to try to improve
upon the plans of divine providence. Quiet
ly day after day He was concerned with
the unimpressive and uninteresting mat
tiers of His business, and His only aim was
to be true to the state where He was des-
tined to live until the time came for BE-
ginning the public ministry. Wherever the
Heavenly Father has placed us we, the
sons of men, can be the sons of God. The
real things of life are not earthly and tenn
poral, and the true estimate of ourselves is
not the place-be 1t lofty or ~lowly-which
we hold among men. The divine Carpen-
ter is a comfort and an inspiration to all.
Amid the employment of His trade did
Jesus prepare Himself for His public life.
There He was made ready, at least in part,
to exercise all those t~ranseendently great
qualities of mind and heart which marked
His ministry. For three years He gave
Himself up to His work as the worlds Re
deemer, but for fifteen years and more, az
was probably the case, He was only a ear
penter. Surely He did not spend all His
time and energy upon His daily tolls. Of
ten did He devote Himself to cody exer'
cises of prayer and contemplation, without
which no one can develop the traits Of
highest character. But He was no reeluse.
He settled the truth once for all that the
place for strong-minded, stout-hearted folk
to serve God is in the world; the arena for
doing the Fathers will is right here: where
we have abundant opportunities for the
culture Of holy graces and the practice OF
holy living. We need the benefits OF occa'
sional solitude, but we are bound to think
SO seriously of life and of Gods cause a.
to give no place to the mawkish sentiment
talism which adores perpetual seclusio1
and calls it the noblest type OF religion.
The divine Carpenter hesitated not to
spend the years upon which His future
work was founded amid the activities incF
dent to the daily interests of mankind. he
was a bread-winner, a wage-earner.
Work is Gods ordinance. II it was q
curse in the beginning, it is a blessing now
It is one Of the best tonics. 1t Is scarcely
less than a sacrament. 1t may be debasedi
even as may the sacrament of the altar IN
which one may eat and drink damnation
to his soul, but it is something of a saera'
ment which is intended, if used Alright, &c
strengthen and uplE, and to further the
divine plans. It is a sacred duty. 1t Is the
privilege and the prerogative of taking
part in the vast activities Of humanity. II
Is an invitation to the market place TO DIS
pense comforts, to have a share IN II
worlds progress and the making OF his
tory. 1t proclaims independence, it dlscf
pines character, it schools the affections
We are only holy ground and are doing
holy things when we go with Christs spirit
to the daily round and the common task.
The founder of Christianity, the incarnate
Son of God, the universal Man, was a VII
lage carpenter.