PISCATAQUIS CENTRAL SOCIETY, 315 



Does it not censure fashionable folly and selfish indulgence 7 The 

 man who opens his sensuous eyes on this magnificent habitation, in 

 "which he is lord over all and discovers no duties calling on him to 

 be discharged, must be stupid, indeed. The idle man, violating 

 that eternal law of God that demands labor as a recompense for the 

 boon of existence, disqualifies himself for the highest and best 

 enjoyments of his being. The active laborer only knows what real 

 enjoyment is ; and experiences the rest and refreshment — that true 

 repose, that come of harmony with nature and God, 



" Weariness 

 Can snore upon the flint, when restive sloth 

 Finds the down pillow hard." 



I know it is not fashionable in these days to regard labor as an 

 indispensible requisite to all true enjoyment. Those who obtain 

 "wealth by reckless adventure, financial legerdemain, political chi- 

 canery, or the various corrupt and fraudulent measures by which 

 avarice seeks to arise to opulence ; and spend it in riotous living, 

 and selfish extravagance and folly, have introduced new and un- 

 christain ideas in res^ard to labor ; have established a new code of 

 ethics concerning the principles by which man should be controlled 

 in his relations to his fellow man. Justice weeps over the aggres- 

 sions of pampered might and desolation treads hard upon the heels 

 of oppression. God's law, written in the nature and constitution of 

 man, as well as in the sacred code, is, " In the sweat of thy brow 

 shalt thou eat bread," and whoever eats the bread of idleness, extor- 

 tion or oppression, cannot feast his soul upon the bread of life. The 

 shortsighted views of ignorant and perverted man can never change, 

 the eternal truths of God, and every step that mortals take in con- 

 travention of those laws of Divine ordaining, will trench just so far 

 upon their highest welfare, and incur the righteous retributions of 

 heaven. 



Useful labor is the great hymn of praise, continually arising from 

 all creatures and things. It is the great, divine worship ascending 

 up from all the active, useful instrumentalities in the universe. 

 And shall man alone refuse to join in it 7 S^all he alone make a 

 discordant note ? It is by trial, effort and struggle, that man pro- 

 gresses both naturally and spiritually. Bodily labor and mental 

 exercise are the very life of his being — the very steps in the ladder 



