| 679 TIMES AND SEASONS.
CITY OF NAUVOO,
OCTOBER 15, 1844.
LABOR.
Labor is the manufacturer of wealth. It was ordained of God, as the medium to be used by man to obtain his living: hence it is the universal condition of this great bond to live. But says one, I do not like the condition, because two thirds of mankind live without work; or in other words, one third of the world carries the balance on their backs. Well, admit the position, does that destroy the principle that labor is the only way appointed of God to obtain an honest living? No! it only goes to show that some men, through craft, cunning, deception, and corruption, are lording it over God's heritage. To use the language of a writer on the subject:-
"And who can wonder that it is so when such incentives are held out to idleness? Labor is degraded. In one half of our Union it is a disgrace for a white man to work. To get an honest living he must place himself on a par with the despised slave. And the same influence is crushing down the working man here and every where. He is not considered so respectable as the Vampyre [Vampire] who sponges his living from the fruits of unrequited toil. The embrowned face and hard hands of labor do not enter the parlors of the idle rich, unless in the capacity of serfs.
Labor is also shunned, because it is falsely organized, if indeed it be organized at all. It is made monotonous. People work forever at one thing-making the head of a pin perhaps. No change, no variety. Labor is also unsocial [unsociable]. A life-time is spent in solitary toil or in the company of those for whom we have no fellow feeling. The law of the group is not respected. A majority of laborers are hired. They feel no interest in their work. It is half their object to kill time and save their strength.-The industrious minority likewise toil three times as long as nature will bear. They are dying of overwork. The business of life is not adapted to the taste or capacity of the operator. Half the world never finds out what they are best able to do. Circumstances determine the occupation. In Lowell girls choose to stand fourteen hours in a factory, because they can find nothing else to do. In Boston they may stitch, stitch, stitch eternally, upon slop-work in a garret, or like a nun withdrawn from society to enjoy the solitude of an under-ground kitchen. The most brilliant minds, the richest affections, nature's nobles, poets, and artists, are buried alive. Fulton is measuring off tape in your shops. Reuben is grinding clay in your brickyards. Michael Angelo is the scavenger of your streets, while Dogberry is your dispenser of justice, and Sancho Panza your chief magistrate. The world is out of joint. There is no adaptation of industry to genius. No wonder that labor is repugnant, and that all avoid it who can."
So far so good, or so evil, as you please to feel on the subject: but this is not all: God never meant to bemean his creation, especially his own image because they had to labor:-no; never; God himself according to the good old book labored on this world, six days; and when Adam was animated from clay to life, by his spirit's making use of him for a dwelling, we read that God put him into the garden to dress it:-Therefore, in connection with the samples of all holy men, we are bound to honor the laboring man: and despise the idler.
The old proverb, that "he that will not work, shall not eat," is a just one; and although the "rich," who "govern the world too much," are esteemed as the front rank of the world, in point of fashion, fame, honor, honesty and talent, yet, the day is coming and now is, when they must be weighed in the balance and found wanting. Soloman, the wise man said:-
'There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease."
The great fault is, "riches" curse the man who has them, unless he makes them a blessing to others. No matter how much a man enjoys life, if he makes others as happy in proportion as he is.
The rich, the learned, the wise and the noble, in the true parlance of the world now, have laid heavy burthens [burdens] upon the shoulders of the poor; and truly one third of the world of mankind, has to carry the rest upon their backs and be spurred and whipped at that. But there is a great change at hand for the saints: let them labor like men, prepare for that august hour; when Babylon and all her worldly wisdom; her various delicacies; and delusive fashions, shall fall with her to rise and trouble the earth no more! What a glorious prospect, to think that drunken Babylon, the great city of sin, will soon cease, and the kingdom of God rise in holy splendor, upon her ashes, and the people serve God in a perpetual union! The
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