word, "Providence;" gladdened by
God's mercy, man added ideas of forgiveness and love. Slowly the word
grew. In the olden time people entering the Acropolis cast their gifts
of gold and silver into some vase. Last of all came the prince to
empty in jewels and flashing gems and make the vase to overflow. Not
otherwise Christ emptied vast wealth of meaning into those words called
"conscience," "law," "love," "vicarious suffering," "immortality,"
"God." Beautiful, indeed, the simplicity of Christ. With long
patience, man waited for the unveiling of the face of divine love.
To all patriots and Christian men who seek to use occupation and
profession so as to promote the world's upward growth comes the
reflection that henceforth society's progress must be slow, because its
institutions are high and complex. To-day many look into the future
with shaded eyes of terror. In the social unrest and discontent of our
times timid men see the brewing of a social and industrial storm. In
their alarm, amateur reformers bring in social panaceas, conceived in
haste and born in fear. But God cannot be hurried. His century plants
cannot be forced to blossom in a night. No reformer can be too zealous
for man's progress, though he can be too impatient. In these days,
when civilization has become complex and the fruitage high, those who
work must also wait and with patience endure.
Multitudes are abroad trying to settle the labor problem. The labor
problem will never be settled until the last man lies in the graveyard.
Each new inventor reopens the labor problem. Men were contented with
their wages until Gutenberg invented his type and made books possible;
then straightway every laborer asked an increased wage, that though he
died ignorant his children might be intelligent. When society had
readjusted things and man had obtained the larger wage, Arkwright came,
inventing his new loom, Goodyear came with the use of rubber, and
straightway men asked a new wage to advantage themselves of woolen
garments and rubber goods for miners and sailors. On the morrow
15,000,000 children will enter the schoolroom; before noon the teacher
has given them a new outlook upon some book, some picture, some
convenience, some custom. Each child registers the purpose to go home
immediately and cry to his parent for that book or picture; that tool
or comfort. When the parents return that night the labor question has
been reopened in millions of
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