Notes of a sermon preached by Kev. ©. E. Darwent in Usion Church, Tientsin, Sunday evening October 10. Text:—Ecclesiastes IN. 9. "What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he Jaboureth In a recent sermon I dealt with the modern cursing of work; our dislike of work' not of badly-paid work, or exhausting, or unhealthy work, It is quite proper we kick against work coming under these categories; but or work per se, work in itself, or work as such; even work in pleasant surroundings and circumstances, and well-paid og is tnat of most of you. The appalling thing is that, that What Wade classes of people are kicking against to-day. Choy draw sharp distinction between work and pleasure. Work is a thing to be abousned. There 13 a looxingforward to happy Utopiain when Work will be reduced to micros-copie proportions, and one of the "eights" will be a man working hurd, 'A. lady of Bolshevik views, once told me, that two hours' work a Gey ought to enable everybody to live luxe a king, and provide tree theatres and art-galleries in every town, however small, That is the idea. You see it in the rush for distractions. Uf course it 18 right to want some relaxation; we all reed it and take it. But there is a rush for it. Hotels used to be places where the wayfaring man could find rest and quiet in his journeyings; now, the entrance-hall of most hotels has been turned into a dancing-hall, where what used to be called ''a sixpenny hop" is held every afternoon and the wayfaring man, however, tired, has to find' his way to the stair-case through a maze of jazzing couples. He can hardly get away from the everlasting saaaping of catgut.
There are many reasons why this detestation of work is dreadfully. and fatally wrong. It is against the very structure and architecture of ihe universe, for one thing. The world is a divine work. wyverything we have and enjoy is the fruit of work. The very hotels where they jazz; their tiles, their settees on which the dancers sit out, the columns of the hall, the music, the drinks, the fiddles for the music are all the fruit of much brain-sweating. The commonest articles that we use are the result of work.
I have a book on Roman Britain.
has pictures of Roman locks. What clumsy things they are! One of our cracksman could pick them standing on his head asleep. What work the locks of a@ modern safe represent! it isr therefore, clear that this set against work is a rebellion against the very conditions of human existence. It is c1 satisfaction to do a thing that matters, rather than one that doesn't. jza impugnment of the very order lof the world, for God has not put us into a world where we find all we want ready to hand, but into! one in which we can have what we want in reason, if we only work for it like men.
It is particularly important that we consider this subject to-day for we are assured on all hands by political and economic experts of all nations that hard work is the only thing that is going to save the world after the ghastly im-Foverishment of the war. We are short of the commonest necessaries. In some countries a woman cannot make a bit of toffee for her children, because there is so little sugar. We may well complain of H. C. L. when men squab-hour. 2 ble over working an extra half
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.