Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-08-22

clan, and the carpenter Is as serviceable
in his place as the minister OF the g0s-
pei. All worthy labour should be hon
CURED. Jesus spent ten times as many
years in the carpenters shop as he gave
to His public ministry; and He has by
His life of toll dignified and ennobled
all worthy labour forever. Any work
that serves a useful end is worthy OF
man, however humble the task may be.
But there are forms of labour that no
skill can lift into worthiness. To be
the best baseball player in the land
is to be infinitely below the level of
creditable manhood. To be the cham
pion prize-fighter is to be dishonoured
to the utmost extent of the aria of
such an infamous reputation. And there
are many other things which are just as
truly unworthy of human endeavour.
To all such we may not without guilt
contribute to appoint any Of our fellow
men. To draw men into such engage
ments is to help them waste that most
precious of all earthly things, TO help
them waste human life.
If at one of the paganish entertain
ments of the modish heather Of our
land, the scenes in the kitchen and the
parlor could be brought together, there
would be disclosed a most shocking
waste of life at both points. as well as
a most painful contrast In the kitchen
perspiring. toil-worn servants labouring
till late at night to prepare worse than
useless viands. and III the drawing-room
languishing idlers devouring the lives OF
their dependents as really as II they
drank their blood from the wine-cupsl
But what startling spectacle
would be disclosed II there could be
ushered into the drawing room all the
human beings upon whose backs rests
the burdens necessary to bring to pass
such a Junction. Pale-faced sewing
women, bloated distillers and brewers.
tired cooks and wearied walters. s1iver-
ing drivers and chilled chauffers land
hundreds Of others in fields and factories
without whose labour no such riotous In
diligence could be possible. And the toll
Of all this multiture for many days and
months is wasted on an entertainment
of a few hours! 1t can not be that God
approves such waste, or that H0 will
hold guiltless those who make It. Yet
they who indulge themselves thus say.
I'VE are making work for poor peo-
Pile" Most truly And what work.
Another view of this subject. which
should not be overlooked. is that work
is not all that poor people need to have
made for them. From even worthy work
they need rest betimes. Would IL not
better to make more rest for people and
less work? The cost of one of these
inane functions, if II were not above
even $500 would give a days rest to
FIVE hundred sewing women. If the sum
thus wasted on folly were expended on
giving some OF the weary rest. both the
benefactors and the bene1ciaries would
get vastly more genuine JOY out Of the
expenditure. Few functions" ever add
to the sum of human happiness or vir-
tue: but no benevolence ever falls TO
yield joy and blessedness.
To some all this will appear the
veriest Puritan nonsense So be 1t.
Let II be said for the Puritansi that
they never corrupted a church or de-
filed nation. Let it be remarked alsoA
that no nation ever persisted from being
too puritanic, and that no commonwealth
ever ran to ruin along any other path
than that OF luxury and riotous living.
Many seem to have more dread Of
falling into Puritanism than they have
of lapsing into sin. But the remotest
peril of our age is Puritanism. The
banqueters at Belshazzar's feast might
have feared that they would fall into
excessive sobriety as reasonably as we
may fear that we are about to drop into
Puritanism.