The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-04-15

a par with the thriftless sluggard who dc.
serves 30 feel the pinch of want. No eff.
fort of ostu can fathom the depths Of His
humiliation who, being the Son OF God, be-
came the Son of Mary and a carpenter;
who, though He was rich yet for our sakes
He BECAME poor, that we through His pow
erty might be rich, but He knew no indi-
gence. We see this divine Being in Naza-
reth on self-supporting basis; making
living by mending plows and yokes, re-
pairing houses and doing all the jobs which
fall to a village carpenter; we see Him
working with His hands for bread and
learning by day that way of labor which
must be trodden by all bread-winners. He
belonged to the grand army OF self-respect'
ing workingmen. Not from a palace nor
yet from a howell but from the workshop
of an artisan does Jesus of Nazareth make
common cause with all the people OF the
passing generations.
How surely our Lord condemns the sim
fulness of Incidence, and how sublimely
does His example urge the employment OF
our energies. He might have maintained
Himself without work, but to have done SO
would have been to set the seal of His
sanction upon the very spirit that prompts
the average individual to get through this
world with as little effort as possible-the
spirit that is plainly the spirit of the devil,
and that is the prolific cause of crime and
woe. He who fed the crowds from few
loaves and fishes might have wrought a
daily miracle for Himself. but never once
was His omnfpotence exerted in HIS own
behalf. He accepted the very situation
which confronts us. Engaged with the oc-
equations of His trade during so many
years, He exalts industry into a divine
virtue and brands sloth as deadly sin.
He has no favor for an ambition that longs
for absolute ease. 1t may not be necessary
fam - h I'd L, h.
dens of business, but we are all bound to
keep in personal touch with the life of hui
manity. There are other spheres of USE
fulness 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
have withdrawn from the haunts of trade
and from the hope of gain in order to de-
vote themselves exclusively to the ministry
flies cafrfng loudly for encouragement and
service. Politics presents 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 away 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
of others.
The Lord has strong word for labor.
He is the fellow and the champion of all
toilers. 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-
g1on, represents the fncarnate Buddha as
wandering beggar, asking food. Jesus
Christ was no beggar. The mendicant, any
more than the pauper, receives not the APP
prevail OF His own practice, by which He
sanctifed 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 own disloyalty can possibly take
away. 1t matters not what ones daily
tolls are, they are worthy of fidelity and
energy. and they ara as much a part of
Gods service es The saying OF prayers and
the receiving of religious rites. The en-
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 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 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. Qhe people OF lowly
degree may, likewise learn precious lessons
of the Gslilean 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
obscurity. No murmurs escape Him, no
signs Of impotence, no evidences Of
restless longing to be otherwise, no vulgar
and goddess disposition to try to improve
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 it lofty or lowly--which
we hold among men. The divine Carpen-
ter is 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 transcendently great
qualities of mind and heart which marked