The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1905-09-07
THE GOSPEL OF LABOR
The Religious Meaning OF Labor Dis
cussed by Rev. Harvey Dee Brown

Inc Religious meaning Ol9 AdDOI LIS
cussed by Rev. Harvey Dee Brown
An interested congregation listened
to the sermon at the Peoples service
at the Baptist church Sunday night.
1t was a Labor Day service. After
stating. what Labor Day stands for
and giving a sketch of labor systems
in the past, DR.. Brown declared that
the working class of today is differ
ent both in size and character from
that Of any other time in history. He
stated that accordingto the last CEN
sus more than fifty per cent of Amer
ica's population over ten years of age
are engaged in gainfu1 occupations,
and that over two-thirds of these
about 100000 ARE true wage-work-
ers Of this number more than one
fourth gare women and girls, These
proportions are steadily on the in
crease land indicate that there are
in thes,neighborhood of fifty million
men, women and children in our pop
u1ation who belong to the working
class either actively or in interest
and sympathies through family re1a-
tons.
In general the working people differ
from others in the matter of feeling.
They feel more deeply and significant
1y than others and it is in this center
of feeling generated by the industrial
and labor processes that the religious
significance of labor is found. For
the feelings wrought into the person
atty by labor are of distinct quality
due to the nature of work itself and
of collective industry with the aid of
machinery.
Analysing the kind Of feeling pro-
duced by labor the speaker found it
to contain three elements: sense of
se1f-giving or se1f-sacrifce, a sense Of
unity between the workers, and a
sense of se1f-reliance, of poise or
movement out from ones own life as a
center. These form the spiritual pre-
cipitate which falls from labor into
the souls of those who toll.
DR.. Brown showed that all real la Dor
was a supplying of the race with food,
clothing, shelter, tools, means of as
ISOLATION, works, of art, etc., and that
the true goal of labor has always been
the supplying of human desires and
needs and not the making of wages
or profits and dividends. Those who
have either labored or conducted
large industry without knowing this
human and social goal have missed
the divinest meaning and reward of
their efforts.
Working people who have the inner
feelings of self-giving, brotherhood,
and truth to their own lives gained
in the service of human needs and de-
sires, have shat which was deepest in
the soul of their Brother the Carpen-
ter of Nazareth. The spirit of Jesus
lies at the heart of the 1aboring life
waiting to be recognized and made
the dynamic of the whole life. A man
isn't Christian man just because he
is working man, but the raw materi-
ais are in his soul for the making of a
Christian and he becomes one when
this highest spiritual product of his
labor is made the ruling spirit of his
life.
DR.. Brown spoke briefly of the OBJ
stac1es which were in the way of the
highest forms of labor and of the
economic struggle between capital
and labor which is going on beneath
the surface of social life and stated
that the need for thought and large
study on the part of working people
who were conscious of the divine sig
nifcance of their work, would be a
potent means of bringing to pass bet
ter conditions.
The sermon concluded with the story
of Felix as told by Henry Van Dyke
the speaker reciting the closing YER
ses of that great poem of Labor which
pictures Jesus in the midst of the life
of toll declaring:
"This is the Gospel of Labor-ring it ye bells
from the kirk
The Lord of Love came down from above to
live with those who work.