The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-15


the tireless Carpenter-for we pos
tulate the thought that the worlds
Redeemer was a Worktngnlan. He
who summoned weary humanity to
Himself with the words. MY yoke is
easy had made many a smooth
fitting joke for toiling oxen. II Jesus
of Nazareth has any special class SYM
pathies they are with His fellow la
borers at manual tasks. What an ex-
ample of industry and efficiency and
of fearless maintenance of right He
would set today!
The urge of His task was ever upon
the Master. A modern poem breathes
His spirit:
Thine worketh; let me work, too.
Time undoeth; let me do.
Busy as time, my work ply
Till rest In the rest of eternity.
Sin worketh :; let me work, too.
Sin undoeth; let me do.
Busy as sin, my work l ply
Till 1 rest in the rest OF eternity.
Death worketh let me work, too.
Death undoeth; Jet me do.
Busy as death, my work | ply
Til L rest in the rest of eternity.
God worketh; let me work, too.
God doeth; let me do.
Busy for God my work ply
Till L rest in the life of eternity"
A Stern Word.
Because it assumes that honest la
Dor is the saving salt of society, the
Bible takes position as stern as the
utterance of any modern reformer
with respect to idleness- While the
teaching that is freeing toilers from
industrial oppression, and from soul
| deadening, cattle-driven overwork, is
the teaching of Holy Writ, there is
Lpevertheless no place in the revealed
program of God for the idler and the
parasite. BY the sweat of his brow
man is to sustain his body, and also
to maintain the dignity of his soul.
1dleness, as everybody with eyes for
real life KNOWS, begetS profHgacy and
| self Indulgence and weakening of
moral fiber and distortion of all of
| lifeS real values. Both pitiabIe and
dangerous is the person who does not
work. A considerable share of the
moral collapse that has of late been so
| Haunted in the great cities is due to
the simple fact that girls and women,
as well as young men, have spurned
| the homely tasks of housekeeping and
cooking and dreSsmaking, and have
given all their thought to self adorn-
ment and self. indulgence. Home
making and home maintaining young
people are never a problem to society.
With the ruthlessness of truth, the
Bible declares that IF any would not
work, neither should he eat We all
! know that the non-contributing MEM
| berS of Society-like the Russian arts
tocrats, for instance-have been, a
/ burden and a complication to the
world IN the remaking. In the bitter
ness of incredible need, the refugee
Russians of the upper classes are suf-
fering because this divine law is now
working out: because they have not
worked, they now cannot eat De-
mocracy will never be full success
until We again approximate the an
e1ent Jewish ideal wherein every boy
learned a trade, and every woman was
a real worker in a home
Our own days thinkers and poets
all extol the dignity and glory OF
work: it is deemed a disgrace to fail
| to bear fair share of the worlds
load. Angela Morgan has sung stir
ringly poem of labor:
Work!
Thank God for the swing of it,
For the clamoring, hammering ring of it
| Passion of labor daily hurled
| On the mighty anvils of the world
| Oh, what is so fierce as the flame of it.
And what is so huge as the aim of it,
numbering on thru dearth and doubt,
V Wdrll tb the r,P1d plan of the Maker out;
| swapping the earth to a glorious end;
Draining the swamps and blasting the
Doing whatever the spirit wills,
Rending 4 continent apart
10 answer the dream OF the Master heari
Thank God for a word where none may
Thank God for the splendor of workr'
Pulling Our Weight.
He pulled his weight in the race
of life" is a better epitaph than many
OF the high-sounding phrases thai
adorn tombstones. Whether on farm
or in home or in school, in office OF
FACTORY. in I,ax
done a full share, to haye~played 6
mans part in helping the on-going OF
the world, is real success. just as life
| is for work, so also work is for life
We labor in order to live; but, quite
as truly, we live in order to labor Ey-
erybody's work is the highest express
sion of his personality his best con-
tribution to the world. Whether by
making horseshoes or by repairing
automobiles, by raising grain or weav.
ing cloth, by cooking food or building
houses, each of US is thereby doing
our share towards the success of civ
ilization. Good workers are the very
foundation of the state. The Stacker
at the days task is quite as reprehen.
sibIe as the Stacker in war Poor
workers are not true disciples of the
Carpenter who doubtless never turned
out skimped job from His Nazareth
shop.
81 must work. is a more Scripture
motto than many of the sentimental
notices popular with pious folk. L
one cannot say, ct must work" as
true expression of his life purpose nj
matter what his spiritual eestacies ht
is no sincere follower of tie tireles,
Christ. Real Christians are, like Paul
the akerSself-respecting and self
supporting servants of God and man
By their worship, and by their dali!
tasks. they DO honor to the Lord Wh'