Jason Elmer Hammond

“ Venerable to me is the hard hand, crooked, coarse; venerable, too, is the rugged face all weather-tanned, bespoiled, with its rude intelligence, for it is the face of a man living man-like. A second man I honor, and still more highly; him who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable, not daily bread, but the bread of life. ”

“ I say that, whereas God Almighty has given every man one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands adapted to furnish food for that mouth, if anything can be proved to be the will of Heaven, it is proved by this fact, that that mouth is to be fed by those hands, without being interfered with by any other man who has also his mouth to feed and his hands to labor with. I hold, if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands ”

“ This series of talks had its inspiration in some informal conversations with toilers in various places in our city and some of the topics are framed in response to direct request. These talks are not given on the supposition that the toilers are in some imaginary class below the average. They are not talks to, but talks with, the toilers. They are talks with all those who in shop or store, home or schoolroom, office or field, are working for bread.
I. All toil is noble. We need to revise our notions. The brain and the hand work on an equality, and the honest handling of pen or spade is noble. ”

“ And yet there are intelligence, prosperity, dignity, independence, and self-respect marking the laboring classes of our population, which lifts us far above all envy of the grandeur and glory of European display. ”

“ Men would have the power of a Demosthenes, but few would toil with a sword suspended above the naked shoulder that a cruel cut might correct each awkward shrug. Men would be Miltons, but few would dictate Paradise Lost in a world they could not see, sell it for £15 and hear a learned London critic say, “The blind schoolmaster has written a tedious poem on ‘The Fall of Man’ and, unless length has merit, it has none!” Christ did not say, “Come unto Me all ye that are lazy and indolent, shiftless and thriftless,” but “Come all ye that labor.” ”

“ Note.—As Labor Day falls upon the first Monday in September when the schools are either beginning or not yet opened, we would suggest holding the exercises upon some day later so that all the schools may take part. Let parents assist by being present. Our schools should teach that all labor is ennobling and idleness a disgrace. ”

“ Hurrah! hurrah! the hard time’s nearly by!
’Mid truest peace we gladly see prosperity is nigh,
Work and reward for the millions.
For industry has always been America’s true pride,
Where idle none need ever be, with work on ev’ry side;
We’ll have it so again, my friends, turn on the prosp’rous tide.
Fill all the workers’ hands with gain.
The dudes and noodles, cads and snobs, had better move away,
This busy land can’t spare the room for lazies, such as they.
To foreign climate let them go and there forever stay.
Ours is a land for busy workers.
SERMON—THE TOILERS. ”

“ Toil is noble because of its Heaven-born origin and exemplification. The Bible history begins with the work of creation and ends with the work of salvation. Christianity has ever been identified with the toiler. ”