Editorial August 11, 1917 Issue

Why We Should Work

Annie M. Knott

We have often heard a great deal said about the dignity of labor, but the present world stress is bringing mere opinion to the proof and making a demand upon all alike, whether rich or poor, for what St. Paul has named "reasonable service." In the Old Testament we find many warnings against slothfulness, and in Ezekiel we read that the iniquity of Sodom was "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness,"—a fair characterization of many nations of the present day before the great world struggle came to arouse them from their sleep. True it is that the foundations of this great country were never laid in slothfulness, but in strenuous and purposeful toil and with the thought of God never lost sight of. It can hardly be claimed, however, that the high ideals of the earlier day have been maintained as material riches have multiplied in the land.

While the world's thinkers have contended for the dignity of labor, few have been willing to prove their consistency by themselves doing whatever they were called upon to do toward the betterment of human conditions, and perhaps we none of us appreciate rightly the true significance of work until we ponder deeply the words of Christ Jesus, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." To the Christian Scientist this would mean that the divine Mind is unceasingly active, and that all of Mind's ideas must share in this life-giving activity. On the human plane many toil on almost hopelessly, because they have not yet learned what it means to work with the Father and for the establishment of His kingdom on earth. When they really know what this means their work becomes a positive joy, bringing with it its own reward; and when efficiency and humility go hand in hand, there can be no question as to the steady advance of the worker.

The scholar who does his best in working through the primary rules of arithmetic cannot be held back; and in the ratio of his ability he must rise in the ranks of mathematicians and possibly find a high place in one of the professions. Christian Science shows that when we work from the standpoint of Principle, or divine intelligence, and trust Truth absolutely, we are taken care of and our work is never in vain. We all need, however, to get rid of the mortal elements which tend to mar character and to neutralize even honest effort. If one's thought of success is material and is narrowed down to self, results will always be disappointing; but if we learn what it means to work spiritually, as did Christ Jesus, and because the Father worketh, no effort can ever seem toilsome, much less disappointing.

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