Editorial September 2, 1911 Issue

THE PRIVILEGE OF WORK

Annie M. Knott

As Labor day comes round it has a lesson for each one of us, inasmuch as this is the age of workers, not of idlers. It is rightly considered disgraceful to be an idler, and the question is no longer so much as to the kind of work we do as to its quality, for any work well done dignifies, indeed glorifies, the lowliest worker. It is useless to deny that most people, if not all, work at first from a sense of sheer necessity; then, as this is sure to become oppressive and disappointing, a truer and nobler outlook is sought. When one comes to think of what he may do to help others, his thought expands and he becomes conscious of latent powers and possibilities which had been unrecognized while he was a mere toiler, his thought narrowed down by the everrecurring question, "What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?"

Christ Jesus lived among the toilers, doubtless toiled with them at one time, and so knew the very heart of their problem, saw why the sky was darkened for them with the heavy clouds of doubt and fear, fear not so much for the evil of today, as for the dreaded evil of tomorrow. He told them that their mistake was the attempt to serve two masters, that this was the explanation of the long and weary struggle for material things. He who had neither lands nor houses, who had not even a place whereon to lay his head, but who was never unprovided for,—he told them to look up and see the birds, free denizens of the air, to look around them at the lilies clothed in splendor, to look down upon the grass and remember that "the meek shall inherit the earth," if they would find evidence of a loving Father, who cares and who provides!

The great Teacher did not forget to say, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," and in Christian Science nothing is of greater importance to each of us than to realize the ceaseless activity of infinite Mind. As we come to understand that in the truest sense Mind is the only worker, that its energy is tireless and forever intelligent, we begin to appreciate the possibility and privilege of being "workers together with him." Then work ceases to be toil, much less drudgery or enforced servitude. We work because life must be expressed in action, and because the joy of pressing on to perfection in all things gives zest to the performance of every task, and in this mood our unfolding capabilities make us smile at our former sense of burdensome efforts and poor results. Paul said, "When I was a child . . . I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." So with the spiritual outlook we no longer think or work as we once did, but with faith, hope, and understanding we press on to perfection, knowing that neither matter nor money is our master, but Mind.

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