Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1912-09-12
Weekly Sermon,
WORK GLoRIFiED.

There was a time when the worlds
workers We're not thinking primarily
of wages and hours. Work was essen
TALLY Won ship: a mans job was his
means of praising Cod In those
days artisans were wont to hang the
implements of their crafts on the walls
of cathedrajs. I.aborers performed
their tasks under rhe stimulus of re-
ligious motives.
The art school Of certain university
contains some carved confessionalS
taken from AN old monastery in Bel
GUM. The dark. rich oak Is carved into
wonderful shapes OF angel faces, run
ming vines and clusters of fruit. The
monks spent many months on the
exquisite work and did 1t as so much
worship 10 God To toll with the
chisel was accounted no less an act
of devotion than to say prayers at
the altar. The last thing they thought
of was pay for their labor The sole
desire Was to turn out a noble prod
uct.
There was IL splendid power in this
old medieval motive that our modern
world of industry lacks. The men OF
the middle ages who built the great
cathedrals and copied bibles in illumi-
mated script got smaller wage than
present day !nasons or printers. but
there are Indications that they found
more JOY il, their toll. for they worked
OF us would work with better heart IL
we could feel the touch of am idealism
like this
Let no one assume for Il minute that
such lofty impulses have wholly ceased
to operate in our modern life Only
crude synicism will assert that naught
but hope of gain aniinatcs 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 a secondary considerations
How many generations of doctors, 10
name but one class. have worked on
some invention or discovery, designed
to advance human welfare. but which
the etiquet of their profession forbade
them To patent or monopolize,
l wish II were i'm my power To raise
the pay of every honest workman in
the land. But sometimes think a
boon equally great would be To raise
III. zest and interest each one feels
In his particular bit of labor. 1t is as
true now as centuries ago 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 very sordid
concern; but it changes character at
once when we sense ii as ones own
chance of contributing something of
hood to which we all belong
The daily task cam hardly be per-
formed happily and Well without " hat
is at bottom Il sort of religious UNI
seltishness. We are privileged to see
our work in it's 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 whose activity the race
would PERISH. He who does anything
useful with pick or pen, behind a
loom or II counter, Is partner with the
Eternal.
For so years man worked in q
dusty back shop of crcmOna on violins
that are worth their weight in gold.
His care was less what the world
should pay him than that he should
produce perfect Instruments
II my hand Stacked
should rob God since he is fullest
good
Leaving blank instead of violns.
Fis God gives skill
But not without mems hands. He could
not make
Antonio Stradivari's violns without
Antonio
1T is not on record that the old mas
ter, under the spell of am impulse like
this. found his labor irksome. And
whatever the labor union may have
thought of him. he certainly earned
the gratitude of posterity.
The parson