The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-28
International
S,1ndayScKoolLesson
Jesus and the Labor Question.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

For Nov. 80 is, Jesus Teaches Peter
True Greatness. John 1916.
Jesus and the Labor Question.
= Tie International committee which
selects the Sunday school lessons did
its work on the present series several
years ago; yet here comes today's
lesson as oppertunely as tho planned
last week. 1t lays a finger of wisdom
upon the sensitive center of the labor
question. Revealing the existence in
apostolic times of q class spirit such
as bIights our own day;<it shows Jesus
as pointing the : aS- out of this old,
old perpleXity.
First for the lesson story itself, as
I'VE ehaFe IL in the Weymouth version:
'sNow just before the Feast of the
Passover this incident took place.
Jesus knew that the time had come
for Him to leave this world and go to
the Father: and having loved His
own who were in the world, He loved
them to the end. While supper was
proceeding, the Devil having by this
time suggested to Judas Iscariot, the
son of Simon. the thought of betray
ing Him, Jesus, altho He knew that
the Father had put everything into
His hands. and that He had come
forth from God and was now going to
God,- rose from table, threw off His
upper garments and took a towel and
tied it roupd Him. Then He poured
water into'a basin, and proceeded to
wash the feet of the disciples and to
wipe them with the towel which He
had put around Him. When He came
to Simon Peter Peter objected.
Master. he said, are you going to
wash my feet?
What 1 am doing answered Je-
sus. for the present you do not know,
but afterwards you shall know
Never. while the world lasts
said Peter shall you wash my feet
If / do not wash you, replied Je-
sus, you have no share with me.
Master said Peter, wash not
only my feet, but also r-y hands and
my head
ANY one who had lately bathed,'
said Jesus, does not need to wash
more than his feet, but is clean all
over, And you my disciples are clean,
and yet this is not true of all of you
For He knew who was betraying
Him, and ttat was why He said.
GU are not all of you clean
so after He had washed their feet,
put on His garments again, and re
turned to the table, He said to them.
Do you understand what 1 have
done to you? You call me The Rab-
BIZ and The Master and rightly so,
for such l am. If I then, your Mas
ter and Rabbi. have washed your feet,
it is also your duty to wash one an
others feet. For I hive set you an
example in order that you lEay do
what L have done to you. In most
solemn truth 1 tell you that a servant
is not superior II his Matter. nor is a
messenger superior to him who sent
him.
Who viii Do Manual Work?
Most of the conditions of today's
labor troubles were there present.
The group OF fishermen friends of
Jesus felt themselves superior to
manual labor of a menial sort. They
had been quarrelling among them
selves as to which was the greater,
and about their own rights and privf-
leges. That phase of the setting of
the incident is told by Luke (22:
24-27). These plain men had become
proud and self -centened. They were
jealous for their personal and class
sensitive" that no one of them had
offered to fulfill the hospitable office
of pouring water on the dusty feet of
the others. Nobody, in sort, wanted
to do a Slaves work.
Therefore Jesus did it himself. The
Carpenter had no trade scruples
about entering domestic service He
was not above any task, however
menial. Not his to insist upon his
rights and his superiority; he
proved his greatness by STOPPING to
the lowliest labor On all sides we
hear it said that our need of needs
is for everybody to work harder, and
at the nearest task. The servant
problem in homes is apparently only
going to be solved by a return to the
old fashioned method of women do
ing their own work
AS matter OF everyday observation
too many of us are. like the apostles,
standing -on our dignity, and hiring
work done by others which we should
do ourselves. Half the recruits to the
overcrowded classes of underpaid
clerks are impelled primarily by a de-
sire to wear white collars; or. con-
versely, by an aversion to oVeralls and
soiled hands.
One day in France I was talking
with Gsoup of young officers about
the oountry's after-the-wat problems,
especially as affecting immigration
and labor. Up spoke one man. This
war has taken the stigma from manual
labor. The men have dug countless
miles of trenches. and have grown.
strt at it. They will not object to
digging trenches at home, if properly
paid. Hard work is healthful, and
most of US would rather be busy out
of doors than cooped up in offices
War taught youth the dignity of hard
work. 1t made them servants un-
| abashed. They learned that
'Honor and shame from no condition rise /:
Act well thy part; there all the honor
The Big Split.
Seen from the angle of the upper
room. the present baneful division into
working class and "capitalistic
class is not only wrong, but incredibly
stupid. All of us who have any rights
at all are workers in some gIfise or
| other; the real idlers in this new west
ern world are so few as to be negligi
| BILE, The first test OF mans worth
to- the world is what he contributes to
I the common well-being.F by brain or
Drawn. The person who looks down
Observation-Disclosures
S.The George N