Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-09-12
Weekly Sermon
WORK oLoRIFlEp.

There was Il time when the worlds
workers were not thinking primarily
of wages and hours. Work was essen
TALLY wOl ship: a mans job was his
means OF praising God. In those
days artisans were wont to hang the
implements of their crafts on the walls
of cathedrals. Laborers performed
their tasks under the stimulus of re-
ligious motives.
The art school of a certain university
taken from an old monastery In Bel
GUM. The dark. rich a is carved into
wonderful shapes of angel faces, rum
ming vines n clusters OF fruit. The
MONKS spent many months on the
exquisite work and did 1t as SO much
worship to God. To toll with the
chisel was accounted no less an act
of devotion thar to say prayers at
the altar. The last thing they thought
of was pay for their labor. The sole
desire was to turn out u noble prod
uct.
There was q splendid power in this
old medieval motive that our modern
world of industry lacks. The men Of
the middle ages who built the great
c%athedrals and copied bibles in illumi-
mated script got a smaller wage than
present day masons or printers. but
there are indications that they found
more joy In their toll. for they worked
CONSCIOUSLY lOI tuC kIOIy OI IOU. MOSI
OF us would work with better ear II
we could feel the touch OF al idealism
like this.
Let no n assume for II minute that
such lofty impulses W. wholly ceased
to operate in our modern life. Only a
crude synicism will assert that naught
blu hope OF gain animates the work.
ers of our time. There are teachers and
preachers and scientists and inventors
and medical men and hosts OF others
with whom the wage they are paid
forms but q secondary consideration.
How many generations of doctors. to
name but n class, have worked on
some invention OF discovery. designed
to advance ana Welfare. but which
the etiquet of their profession orbade
them to patent or monopolize!
i wish 1t were I'm my power to raise
the pay of every honest workman in
the land. But l sometimes think a
boon equally great would be to raise
the zest and interest ZACH one feels
in his particular bit Of labor. 1t is as
true now as centuries & in Palestine
that Man does not live by bread
alone" The pay envelope is not the
sole criterion of success. A job which
represents merely an eternal scramble
for dollars may become Il very sordid
concern: but it changes character at
once when we sense 1t as ones own
chance of contributing something OF
Nalu" To that great human brother
hood to which we all belong.
The daily task can hardly be per-
formed happily and we'll without what
is at bottom a sort of religious un-
selfishness. We are privileged to see
our work In its relation to the welfare
of the world. God Himself. who brings
the night and the day. alternates seed
time and harvest, and rolls the planets
in their mighty courses, is the great
worker without yVhuSt, Drfivifv tho raco
would perish. He who does anything
useful with pick or pen. behind a
loom or Il counter, is partner with the
Eternal.
For so years a man orke in Il
dusty back shop of Cremona on violins
that are worth their weight In gold.
His care was less THAT the world
should pay him than that he should
produce perfect instruments.
If my hand SACKED
l should rob God-since he is fullest
Leaving a blank instead of %violins.
Ills God gives skill.
But not without mems hands. He could
not make
Antonio Stradivari's violins without
1t is not on record that the old mas
ter. under tho spell OF an impulse like
this. found his labor irksoine. And
thought of him. he certainly earned
the gratitude of posterity.
The PEARSON.