This bad habit of fault-finding, criticising and complaining is a tool that grows keener by constant use, and there is grave danger that he who at first is only a moderate kicker may develop into a chronic knocker, and the knife he has sharpened will sever his head.

Hooker got his promotion even in spite of his many failings; but the chances are that your employer does not have the love that Lincoln had—­the love that suffereth long and is kind.  But even Lincoln could not protect Hooker forever.  Hooker failed to do the work, and Lincoln had to try some one else.  So there came a time when Hooker was superseded by a Silent Man, who criticised no one, railed at nobody—­not even the enemy.

And this Silent Man, who could rule his own spirit, took the cities.  He minded his own business, and did the work that no man can ever do unless he constantly gives absolute loyalty, perfect confidence, unswerving fidelity and untiring devotion.  Let us mind our own business, and allow others to mind theirs, thus working for self by working for the good of all.

The Week-Day, Keep it Holy

Did it ever strike you that it is a most absurd and semi-barbaric thing to set one day apart as “holy?”

If you are a writer and a beautiful thought comes to you, you never hesitate because it is Sunday, but you write it down.

If you are a painter, and the picture appears before you, vivid and clear, you make haste to materialize it ere the vision fades.

If you are a musician, you sing a song, or play it on the piano, that it may be etched upon your memory—­and for the joy of it.

But if you are a cabinet-maker, you may make a design, but you will have to halt before you make the table, if the day happens to be the “Lord’s Day”; and if you are a blacksmith, you will not dare to lift a hammer, for fear of conscience or the police.  All of which is an admission that we regard manual labor as a sort of necessary evil, and must be done only at certain times and places.

The orthodox reason for abstinence from all manual labor on Sunday is that “God made the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh He rested,” therefore, man, created in the image of his Maker, should hold this day sacred.  How it can be possible for a supreme, omnipotent and all-powerful being without “body, parts or passions” to become wearied thru physical exertion is a question that is as yet unanswered.

The idea of serving God on Sunday and then forgetting Him all the week is a fallacy that is fostered by the Reverend Doctor Sayles and his coadjutor, Deacon Buffum, who passes the Panama for the benefit of those who would buy absolution.  Or, if you prefer, salvation being free, what we place in the Panama is an honorarium for Deity or his agent, just as our noted authors never speak at banquets for pay, but accept the honorarium that in some occult and mysterious manner is left on the mantel.  Sunday, with its immunity from work, was devised for slaves who got out of all the work they could during the week.