Connecticut western news., 1904-09-08
Calnnage Sermon
By Rev. Frank De Witt Talmase, D. D.

! Los Angeles, Cal, Sept. An this
 sermon, which Is specially appropriate
 to the Sunday before Labor day, the
 preacher expresses his sympathy with
 the hard lot of the workingman and
 points out some of the conditions which
 increase his difficulties. The text Is
 Exodus f. 12, "The more they afflicted
 them the more they multiplied and
 grew"
 Some virtues" wrote Joseph Addi-
 son, "are seen only In affliction." But
 from the Egyptian standpoint it would
 take a very long and very useless
 investigation to find any virtue iR the
 national catastrophe which, as the text
 would indicate, was about to over
 whelm the Egyptian kingdom. The
 mightiest foreign foe ever assembled
 upon the borderland drained by the arteries of the gigantic Nile was not to be feared as much as was the host of enslaved Hebrews who were living among them. It was only a few hun dred years before that little handful
 of Hebrews, with their fiocks and herds, had migrated to and settled in the land of Goshen during the pre- miership of Joseph, the famous states
 man. But since that time the de- scendants of old Jacob had multiplied counted literally by the hundreds of thousands. Not only in numbers were they to be feared, but in mental power also. With the proverbial acquisitive- ness of the Hebrew, these people were absorbing much of the wealth of the Kingdom. Moreover, the signs of the times'' declared they would soon be- come rulers of the nation. By silent revolution they threatened to take possession of the Egyptian govern ment, as long afterward the descend ants of the old Aztecs, whose fathers had been conquered by Cortes, bided their time and finally worked out their own governmental salvation by elect ing practically full blooded Indian to the throne of the Montezumas-Por firio Diaz, president of the Mexican republic.
 What shall we do? What shall we do" was the one question that was upon almost every Egyptian lip. Shall we allow the Hebrew people to become the dominant factors upon the banks of the Nile and to sit upon the throne of the pharaohsf" This ques- tion was not only asked In the street, Ivy In 10 kings palace. Tonight we see the lights blazing in the prlvy council room. As we enter the council cham Der we see the king sitting at the end of the long room, surrounded by his best and strongest ministers. After the question has been talked over long and earnestly I see the king rise. He looks straight at his councillors of state as he says: "Gentlemen, we are facing a condition, not a theory. We dare not and cannot deport the Hebrews from our realm. They are now essen tial to our national welfare and pros perity as laborers, clerks and servants. But we can debar them from holding property. We can forbid them study
 
 them and make them the chattels of our people. We can degrade them by Ignorance and overwork. Thus saith the king. I here and now decree the Hebrew men and women and children from henceforth to be In perpetual bondage They shall be compelled to make bricks without straw. My min l1 ,J fs, ried out When the king speaks the kings will becomes the law. Gentle men of the privy chamber, the council Is dismissed"
 Disfran oh isement of Hebrews.
 This royal behest was carried out to the letter. The Hebrew people living in Egypt were disfranchised. Not only were they deprived of the rights of but they were degraded to the most abject and humiliating servi- tude. Their property was taken away from them, and they oould not even. claim their wives and children as their own. Yet, strange to say, and yet not strange after all, the more the Hebrews were cursed and struck and
  tians the more their numbers grew, and the more of menace they became to the Egyptian government, The. la- Dor question, on account of the bru- talities practiced under the shadow of Pharaoh's throne in 1573 B. O., be- came as imminent and dangerous as Is the labor question In the United States of America In 1904, A. D., under the shadow of the statue of the Goddess of Liberty which stands in New York harbor, and with uplifted arm declares that all men in this land are free and equal.
 This is the first Sunday in Septem- Der. Tomorrow Is Labor day. Many preachers this Sabbath morning will be talking to the mechanics, the clerks and the farm hands, to the masons, the and plumbers, and to all those who work with their hands. It is not Inappropriate that this morning I should present some of the conditions that are afflicting American labor. If in this talk I should speak frankly con cerning capital, shall speak with equal candor concerning labor, for I firmly believe, as dear friend of mine said to me few days ago, that ''the greatest curse labor has to bear today does not come from capital, but from labor itself" One sided or biased tfeatment of the labor question will never help to solve the labor problem.
 'The more the Egyptian master af- hicted the Hebrew slaves" says our text, "the more they multiplied and grew, and the Egyptians grfeved be- cause of the children of Israel" La bor's afflictions! We first find them in the American laborer being com pelled to compete for work in a home market that Is glutted with foreign We find them In the great army of invaders which each. year dis embarks at Ellis island, New York's Castle Garden of the present day. We fpd them in the impoverished Italians aild the Bohemians and the Portuguese and in the human offscourings of