The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-23
LIFE HAS A MEANING

One great underlying cause of our indus
 trial unrest is the magnitude of industrial
 operations. Even small railroad moves it's
 millions of passengers and it's millions of
 tons of freight each year. The automobile
 manufacturer builds car minute. A shoe
 factory turns out it's millions of shoes each
 year. The tonnage of one steel mill is
 almost unbelievable. Such program inevi-
 tably results in extreme specialization. One
 man stands at a machine cutting screws of
 a certain shape and size. He does nothing
 else, year in and year out. Another walks
 a railroad track looking for loose spikes
 and broken joints. He does that one thing
 continually. Another punches uneounted
 millions of little holes in the tops of leather
 shoes, and does that same thing over and
 over until his brain reels. We quarrel with
 the working man because he is not inter
 ested in his work, but we must remember
 that it is difficult to become interested in
 such petty and mofotonous tasks as these. It
 was not so in earlier days. The shoemaker
 made pair of shoes; the stage coach driver
 did the whole business of transportation;
 the wagon builder built his wagon from the
 ground up. Men were interested in their
 work then, because they knew the joy of
 creative effort. Their every effort had it's
 visible place in the finished whole. There
 was a meaning to their labor which today
 is lacking, and it is this lack of meaning
 which makes labor hard.
 While this is a modern development in the field of labor, it is an eternal problem in the field of life. Just as it is hard for the k1 1,,. sx kha great plans of modern industry, So Is it
 hard for us to realize ours in the broad fields of Gods divine economy. We have such homely tasks; the same old familiar eternal grind; ard it never seems to get us anywhere. We buy and sell, and suffer and sacrifice and strive, and the days roll on and God is silent, and the man is | less than human wh, never looks up at | the vacant heaven and asks, What is the | use?" There comes then the inevitable | temptation to shirk; to leave undone the task which lies before us. It has no mean | ing, and it is lack of this which makes life l hard.
 If were workman would try to vis- | ualize the completed whole into which my | labor went I would think of the happy | families out in the woods on holidays as
 cut my screws for the making of car. l would think of the midnight express trains | and their precious freight of human life as
 I walked the tracks in the glare of monday sun. Some day, would buy little car of my own, or take trip on the very railroad I helped to make perfect. While I worked, | I would know that others were toying in | the fruit of my toll, and that if were faith | ful, some day I would gather the fruit for myself So I would be useful, and through usefulness come to happiness.
 But I am a workman. l toll in the work | shop of life. Then let me joy in whatever | task it is that is given unto me to do. God never ordained the universe, nor led man up through the ages from dust to thrilling life, nor planted in his heart the sense of eter- nal things, nor taught him to pray, without some worthy divine far-off end. have not seen the whole plan into which my little | labor goes. I could not understand it if l did. But shall see it and understand it increasingly as am faithful, and when the | Kingdom of God has come on earth, I shall say, q helped to bring it in.'
 MIDDLETON s. BARNWELL.