A Seattle Sermon Asks Capital and Labor to Read Scripture Together

The prevailing discontent and friction in the relations of employer and workmen was the burden of Rev. D. C. Garrett's sermon at St. Mark's church yesterday morning, and he took opportunity to show how much of the evils spoken of was due to disregard of the principles of Christianity. “Walking Worthy of One's Vocation” was what he sought to impress on his hearers, who were numerous for a summer Sunday, and his text was Ephesians iv:1. In substance he said:

“It is true that a man should make as much out of his life as possible. There is a discontent that says I must not stop short in the race of life, must not be satisfied with any stage of progress. But it is also true that there is difference in the capacity of different persons. All are not endowed alike or capable of the same achievements, nor will all fare alike in the material acquisitions. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to ‘walk worthy of the vocation,’ not only in the sense of the Christian calling but in the wider meaning of the vocation of life as imbued with the spirit of Christian contentment. Here itself are the two sides at once of a life: on the one hand the conviction that we must advance; on the other, the truth equally important that we must walk worthy of our vocation with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, etc. I emphasize this side of the question today, for this is that men now need most to dwell upon.

“While one may make the most of life he can, he must not forget that if in the attempted advance either his motive or his method is wrong he forfeits the privileges of his future course. While one may yearn for any position or condition in life, I am not ashamed to admit that this is the sphere God has called me. He must be certain that the sphere he is trying to get into is the one for which by talent and character he is fitted. Love of praise and love of power are the two dangers that most beset lives.

“...men boldly confess how personal gain is the one idea, even to the detriment of the community or nation. If, in place of love of praise or love of power, we could substitute love of service for others as a motive for advancement in politics, in business and even in the church, what a regeneration for the world.

“The exhortation of Paul contains the philosophy that will cure many individual and social troubles. Much mischief has resulted from the doctrine so widely taught that every man who is worse off than any other man socially or in any other way than is any other man is made to or kept so by some injustice that ought to be done away with; that the reason for every lesser degree of prosperity is to be found in the restrictions falsely imposed by society or trade. Thus there is a widespread discontent that simply chafes and frets at one's condition, even when fairly good. It pervades all ranks. The man with moderate income is unhappy because he hasn't as much as his neighbor across the way, and the woman with a comfortable home, who ought to be happy with husband and children, is miserable because she cannot wear as fine gowns as some other woman, who in turn thinks life not worth living because she must forego diamonds or opportunity for travel; and so on till the man with a million is positively poverty-stricken in the face of the man worth from fifty to a hundred million. See how the apostle puts it: ‘With lowliness and meekness.’ That means humility, a virtue we need to cultivate in the face of so much unreasonable dissatisfaction and unnecessary complaints. ‘Long suffering.’ There is a violent protest against suffering, and all unnecessary pain ought to be wiped out, but, make life as comfortable as we can, there will still be trouble enough. Don't throw life away as worthless because you have trouble; it is God's method for purifying the heart.

“‘Forbearing one another in love!’ Think of this applied to life's difficulties. Imagine some rich employer and the leader of the grievance committee sitting down and reading over this passage together. What a tremendous loss, often of property and life, would be averted. Then ‘the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace’—the only way unity can ever be kept. Take it in church, state, home; what Paul says is all true. Would there not be fewer frictions, less incompatibilities, if these characteristics of the worthy walk were strung along together in the home life? What we all need more and more to remember is that any honest sort of work may be ennobled by doing it well, and that happiness is never to be found apart from the right condition of the heart. What possibilities for real satisfaction and quiet contentment in the old answer the world has so sadly forgotten: ‘Not to covet or desire other men's goods, but to learn and labor truly to get mine own living and to do my duty in that state of life into which it shall please God to call me.’”