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 LECTURE TO THE YOUNG, 
 
 — :) DELIVER Kl) HY THE {:- 
 
 REV. ROBERT CHRISTIE, 
 
 OF LKXlN(;'iON, KKNm KY. 
 
 JANUARY, 18 79. 
 
 H A M 1 L T O N i— 
 
 A. La7(.'son ^ Co., Printi'rs, 12 &* 14 Main-St^ East. 
 
 ■i' -* 
 
 I** 
 
 1879. 
 
DIGNITY OF LABOR. 
 
 LECTURE TO THE YOUNG, 
 
 — IJY THE — 
 
 OF LKXINC.TON, KENTUCKY. 
 
 This Lecture, which was received with unusual 
 favor by those to whom it was originally delivered, 
 having been incidentally forwarded to intimate 
 friends of its gifted author, in this city, they have 
 taken this method of circulating it, that others may 
 have the privilege of perusing what is so admira- 
 bly adapted to the demands of these times. 
 
 Hamihon, February 1S7.). 
 
 Text. — "Work with your own hands. — ist Thess. iv. ii. 
 
 : 
 
 REV. ROBERT CHRISTIE, | 
 
 Although Paul was moved by the greatest reli- 
 gious enthusiasm, he was one of the most practical 
 of men. Intently occupied with spiritual things, he 
 never lost sight of man's earthly relations and his 
 bodily necessities. Dr. Chalmers has pointed out as | 
 a proof of Newton's greatness, that he never indul- j 
 ged in mere speculations about the condition of ■ 
 things on the other planets. He didn't lend the in- ■ 
 fluence of his great name to the conjectures of small ■ 
 philosophers, who were trying to prove that the S 
 other worlds were inhabited, and to show what I 
 
9 
 
 must be the peculiarities cand institutions of the 
 people. He studied and described the laws of the 
 universe, and left others to build up their fanciful 
 systems. There are similar proofs of Paul's great- 
 ness. He was moving great masses of men every- 
 where. He was the herald of truths that were to 
 change the whole face of society ; but you never find 
 hira setting on foot Utopian schemes, which ])rom- 
 ised deliverance from the .hardships and labors of 
 life. He does not establish commun^.ies that are 
 to have their own laws, where the family relation 
 is to be broken up for the common good, and where 
 they are to have all things in common. Henexer 
 tampers with the rights of property, nor does he 
 brand all governmen; as tyraniiy. He presents no 
 ideal state of society in which there will be no need 
 for hard bodily toil, where all shall be engaged in 
 the pleasures of study. He has left no "Brook 
 Farm" or '^Harmony Hall " as monuments of his 
 folly. 
 
 He does not call upon men to leave their farms, 
 their workshops, and their merchandise, that they 
 may give themselves wholly to the cultivation of 
 their intellects and the salvation of their souls. 
 j He never speaks of the drudgery or degradation of 
 I manual labor. Nor is freedom from bodily toil ever 
 5 spok*en of as something either to be hoped for or 
 ■ aimed at. The hard hand and muscular arm, the 
 I moisture on the brow of toil and the begrimed face 
 • of tjbe mechanic are not pointed to as seals of de- 
 
 ! gradation. Paul's deep interest in the souls of men 
 , never blinded him to the claims of their bodies 
 i which must be fed and clothed by the fruits of la- 
 
3 I 
 
 hor. Religion could never supply these necessities. ■ 
 Hence those who embraced the new doctrines were j 
 not called upon t(3 leave their old employments but ■ 
 were exhorted rather to prosecute them with new J 
 diligence, that they might be models of industry j 
 and honesty to the heathen around them. 
 Nay, he declared that the man who did not " provide 
 for his own and especially those of his own house- 
 hold, was worse than an infidel." He commanded | 
 them " to work with thei*' own hands, that they ■ 
 may walk honestly towards them that are without, J 
 and that they may lac-k for nothing." This com- S 
 mand imi^lies — | 
 
 1. lluit work is a Pr if nary duty. It is personal ! 
 also-—" \Vork with your (nvn hand. " It cannot | 
 be denied there is a wide spread impression in this 
 democratic country where differences of rank are 
 not supposed to exist, that there is something de- 
 grading in manual labor. It is regarded as a bar 
 to good social standing. The man who strips his 
 coat to earn a living is esteemed a grade below the 
 genteel loafer. That impression exists in \\m^ minds 
 of multitudes and is nowhere more prevalent than 
 among the children of workingmen. They have 
 come to think that the way to social position is to i 
 wear fine clothes, no matter how procured, and 
 to avoid the drudgery of labor. Hence, the great 
 number of young men who have no visible means 
 of support, who are leeches on a father's industry 
 and mother's self-denial ; henc;e, the growing throng [ 
 of applicants for such agencies a.s promise a liveli- ■ 
 hood without the necessity of laboring with the [ 
 hands. The manager of a large machine manufacto- J 
 8 
 
 I 
 
ry told me not long ago that it was the rarest thing 
 to find what he called an American boy learning a 
 trade in their establishment. They had to look to 
 the sons of foreign-born citizens for a supply of 
 apprentices. And I saw a striking confirm- 
 ation of this statement not long ago in one of our 
 illustrated papers On one page was a cut repre- 
 senting a large and magnificent building. In the 
 window was an advertisement for a clerk. It was 
 early morning and the store was not yet open, but 
 there were about fifty young men congregated and 
 jostling each other that they might make a])plication. 
 On the opposite page was a blacksmith's shop with 
 an advertisement for a hand. There sat on the 
 doorstep a solitary applicant, whose Celtic features 
 betrayed his nationality. It is not my purpose to 
 attempt to trace the causes that have produced 
 this state of things. I shall content myself with 
 pointing to a few self-evident truths, that prove that 
 it is wrong, and leads to the niost pernicious 
 consequences. 
 
 A great man has said : " There are only three 
 ways of getting a living — by working, by begging, 
 or by stealing. " Those who do not work, disguise 
 it in whatever pretty language we please, are doing 
 one of the other two. If there be anything that can 
 be conceded without argument, it is that all the 
 food supplies must come from the soil and the sea; 
 and to procure these, men must plow the furrow 
 and the wave. These })roducts come only througli 
 labor and the man who is to enjoy them, must 
 either put forth that labor, or give, in some form, 
 an equivalent that represents labor. To be an 
 
honest consumer, one must be an lionest ,)roducer. 
 riie body has no claim to sustenance, save on the 
 condition that it give back an equivalant in the 
 shape of honest industry. The Apostle states the 
 principle In these words: "He that will not work, 
 neither should he eat. " It is another form of sta- 
 ting the words uttered at the gates of Kden '*ln 
 the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. " The 
 conditions of life have not changed since then. 
 The material wants of the body 're as numerous 
 and imperious as ever, and the world has not ac- 
 cumulated a sin-plus of l)read, to be given away 
 to those who refuse to earn it. You often hear the 
 idler flippantly announce that the world owes him 
 a living. It would be interesting to know by what 
 course of meritorious conduct he has laid the world 
 under this great ob^iga^ion. I can understand how 
 the weed claims that the earth owes it its nourish- 
 ment, for it helps to keep the atmosphere i)ure 
 and sweet — but I am unable to see how the idler 
 benefits society. You might as well tell me that 
 the body owes the cancer its sustenance, as that 
 the world owes the loafer his living. I'hey are both 
 alike — cankers preying upon the life of the bodies 
 upon which they have fastened. 
 
 The youth who starts out with the resolve to avoid 
 honest toil, either with hand or brain, is violating 
 the very first law of duty. Ask yourselves for what 
 the hand, that wonderful piece of mechanism, was 
 created. Was it created to wear fine kids all the 
 year round ? Is it simply a convenient receptacle for 
 the gifts of others ? Is it something to be hidden 
 away in the pockets from morning till night ? No. 
 
6 
 
 It was created to do, as well as to direct; to give, as well 
 as to receive. It was created to hold the plow, to 
 swing the hammer, to tlirow the shuttle, to drive the 
 ])lane, and the pen. Jt was given to suIkUic the 
 earth to man's nses; to cause the wilderness to bud 
 and blossom as the rose; it was given to sow and 
 reap, to build, and do deeds of ministration. 
 
 Our ancestors in old JCngland, widi all their fiuilts, 
 were not ignorant of the conditions of life. They 
 recognized the need of body aiid soul. And every 
 thoughtful f^ither tried to put his child in the way 
 of supplying both. Hence he taught him the Ten 
 Con"imandments, and l)ound him an apprentice, to 
 learn some handicraft. And with the fear of (iod 
 and the ability to earn his bread, he went fortli 
 thoroughly furnished for the great batde of life. 
 These humble accomplishments laid the foundations 
 of England's greatness. 'J1iey created those busy 
 hives of industry, Manchester, Sheffield, and Cxlas- 
 gow, that send their jn'oducis into all the markets of 
 the world, and in return wealth in ten thousand 
 streams flows back into hei- coffers, making her 
 the richest country in the world. 
 
 "And the original necessities remain unchanged- 
 The Ten Commandments areas obligatory as ever, 
 and the practical ability, the being able to do some- 
 thing, must still be the backbone of the education 
 of every boy not born to fortune. " And the youth 
 who assumes that the world owe-: him a living, 
 will find difficulty in collecting the claim. He will;, 
 in the first place, lose the respect of all right think- 
 ing people; then self-respect will soon follow ; and 
 when these are gone, it needs no gift of prophecy 
 
 I 
 
to predict the future. T'le more industry, the few- 
 er temptations; the more leisure, the more contliets. 
 Says one, "Action is man's salvation, [physical, 
 mental and s[)iritual. " 
 
 U. Work is the path of indcpaiifcncc. ll is not 
 meant by independence that it wih lift a man in 
 every case into a position where he will be above 
 labor, but it will preserve him from beconn'ng a 
 l)ensioner on the bouiity or charity of t)thers. It 
 will plant him fninly on his own feet. Me will 
 cease to be a parasite, ora vine, that trusts toothers 
 for supi)ort. lie will live by right, and not l)y suff 
 ranee. A distinguished Jewish Rabbi, who. lived 
 about the time of our Saviour, declared : ''He tliat 
 teaches not his son a trade does the same as if he 
 taught him to be a thief. " And (iamaliel, the 
 teacher of Paul, said: '^ He that hath a trade in his 
 hand, to what is he like ? He is like a viiieyard 
 that is fenced. " He is fortified against want, 
 temptations, and adversity. Paul was noble w'len 
 he lifted uidiis chained hands before Kings andCiov 
 ernors while i>leading the cause of Christ ; but he 
 was equally so when he lifted them ui) before the 
 elders of Kphestis, and, in ihe si)irit of a noble in- 
 dependence, declaied, ''these hands have ministered 
 to niy necessities. " He was no vag'ant who had 
 taken to preaching as a trade, he was no pensioner 
 on the bounty of his brethren, no idler seeking to 
 avoid labor, but lie proved the absence of self in- 
 terest by refusing to become burdensome to any. 
 " I seek not yours but you, " are his words. They 
 could not stop him from preaching by withholding 
 their gifts ; there was no need to trim his instruc- 
 
8 
 
 tion to suit his rich hearers. He who could address 
 an audience of philosophers on Mar's Hill, or preach 
 in the market place during the day, and ply his 
 needle at tent-making at night, was not at the mercy 
 ol any man's caprice. He could speak the wholetruth 
 without fear or favor, and eat his own bread with glad 
 ness. What an advantage it gave him in the prose- 
 cution of his grand mission. Wherever he went he 
 could earn his bread with his own hands. While he 
 was teaching the world he would be"burdensome to 
 no man. " Ah ! says one, I want to win my bread 
 with the products of my brain. To such I say, 
 mere scholarship) will never give a man the inde- 
 pendence of which I speak. De Quincy, at the 
 age of seventeen, was one of the best Greek schol- 
 ars in England, and yet he would have died of 
 hunger on a door-step, in the city of London, had 
 not a poor woman taken him in and given him 
 bread. Froude, the historian, addressing the stu- 
 dents of St. Andrews, said, "It hurts no intellect to 
 be able to make a boat, or a house, or a pair of shoes, 
 or a suit of clothes, or hammer a horse-shoe, and 
 if you can do either of these you have nothing to 
 fear from fortune." He continued, "If a son of 
 mine told me that he wished to devote himself to 
 mtellectual ])ursuits, I would act as I should act if he 
 wished to make an imprudent marriage. I would abso- 
 lutely forbid him for a time, till the firmness of his 
 pur})ose had been tried. If he stood the test and 
 showed real talent, I would insist that he should, 
 in some way, make himself independent of the 
 produ( ts of intellectual work for subsi::tence."* 
 He had noted the numerous failures on the part 
 
9 
 
 of those who had tried to win bread and distinction 
 by the pen, and having seen the misery that follow- 
 ed such failures, would guard every one against 
 the risk. 
 
 And in this land of commercial fluctuations what 
 assurance has the youth who seems born to^^wealth, 
 that he will not sooner or later be cast upon his 
 own exertions ? Ten thousand who had the 
 promise of a rich inheritance five years ago, are 
 penniless to-day. If they have attained to man- 
 hood, they begin the world at an immense disad- 
 vantage. Many of them are pitiably helpless, 
 l.ike the man in the parable, they can not dig, and 
 to beg they are ashamed. But let a youth be train- 
 ed to some useful occupation and it matters not how 
 fortunes wheel may turn, he will always land on 
 his feet. I know a gentleman in New York whose 
 cheque for a million would be honored on 
 change. His prospective heir is a son. He sent 
 him to a carpenter's shop and had him master the 
 trade, and then sent him to a foreign university. 
 A commercial crash may sweep away that youth's 
 prospective inheritance, but can never leave him 
 helpless, for that man can always stand firm who 
 can, by his own exertions, earn a livelihood in some 
 permanent branch of industry. 
 
 " Ah, " says the timid soul'that has heard there ■ 
 
 is something degrading in manual labor, ^' we shall ; 
 
 lose caste if we join the ranks of the working man; S 
 
 we shall be ait by our old school fellows and the j 
 
 children oi our wealthy neighbors. " | 
 
. 
 
 10 
 
 8 What matters it, let me ask, about the opinion of 
 
 ■ the unthinking, if you have your own approval 
 
 ■ and your own self-respect ? Men might just as 
 I well *' snub the sun " as to attempt to snub the 
 
 man who consumes his own and asks no favors. 
 
 Think of a dapper dandy making up his mind '' to 
 
 snub. " St. Paul because he made tents, or Spinosa 
 I because he polished lenses, or Burns because he 
 
 foUowed the plow. The s])arks that flash from the 
 • forge are just as valuable to civilization as the 
 J brightest scintillations of genius. I'he sounds that 
 I ring out from the anvil beneath the blows of honest 
 S industry, are as much the voice of true manhood 
 
 I as those that are heard pleading the cause of justice, 
 commanding armies, or that shake the Senate. The 
 
 ■ man who by daily practice preaches honest labor, 
 
 ■ does a work as noble and honorable as tlie man 
 \ who preaches righteousness. You may have little 
 I fear of that kind of degradation that comes from 
 ! standing in the same ranks with the cai^^enter of 
 j Nazareth, the fishers of Galilee, the tent-maker of 
 I Tarsus, the stone-mason of Cromarty, and the plow- 
 j man bard of Ayrshire. 
 
 J 3. Work is the path to promotion. The great 
 I mass born into the world inherit nothing beyond 
 the possibilities of their humanity and the favoring 
 elements of civilization in the place where their lot 
 may be casj. Their parents have not the means to 
 j set them up in business, give them a college educa- 
 j tion, or leave them a fortiuie. They bring nothing 
 
 ■ to the race of life save their own energy. Doubt- 
 
 Iless the great majority bring with them" also a desire 
 to rise to some position of influence. This thirst is 
 
 I. 
 
I 
 
 11 1 
 
 natural and iioble. The bosom that has it not lacks j 
 one of the greatest incentives to action. It often ■ 
 gives ''a sweet, painful pleasure, " but it a'lone j 
 
 ** Is fitted to impart i 
 
 An hour's importance to a poor mans heart." ! 
 
 To the great mass who stand at the opening of life 
 with this longing, but without the inherited aids to j 
 gratify it, the question arises, How shall we shape ! 
 our course so as to gain inlluence and distinction ? j 
 I answer, the youth who makes himself master ■ 
 of some useful branch of industry, plants his foot J 
 firmly on the first round of the ladder of advance- j 
 ment. Having gained the first, the second is easy, j 
 I care not how humble the branch of business may 
 be, there is not a trade or branch of labor that 
 some man has not made the stepping stone to wealth 
 to influence, to greatness. Andrew Johnson went 
 from the tailor's board to the Presidential chair; 
 Eurnside rose from the same level ; Hen::y Wilson 
 went to the President's chair from the shoemaker's 
 bench, and MacKenzie, late Premier of Canada, was 
 once a stone-mason. Therefore, if you would ad- 
 vance, get a trade, no matter what, for you will 
 leap further from the lowest branch than from a 
 dead level. Don't wait for a change of outward 
 circumstances. Don't waste your time lamenting 
 your humble lot or blaming your sad fate. That 
 old Roman spoke the truth who said, *' The fault , 
 dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, 
 that we are underlings. " Archimedes said, " Give 
 me a standing place and I will move the world. " 
 And a great many young men are content to 
 
12 
 
 echo thr- wish of the philosopher. They say, "Give 
 me a place suitable to my ability, and 1 will exert 
 an influence." Goethe says to all such, "Make good 
 thy standing place and move the world. " You 
 must be rooted firmly in your own strength before 
 you move or influence anybody. Only a weakling 
 has to be lifted into any position. The youth 
 who is industrious, intelligent, temperate, and perse- 
 vering, holds the keys to all positions. He it is- 
 
 *' Who makes by force his merit known, 
 And lives to clutch the goklen keys, 
 
 To mould a mighty State's decrees, 
 And shape the whispers of the Throne. 
 
 And moving up from high to higher, 
 Becomes on fortunes' frowning slope, 
 
 The Pillar of a people's hope, 
 The centre of a world's desire." 
 
 Who is it that " shapes the whispers" of the 
 English throne at the present day ? Is it not Ben- 
 jamin Disraeli ? Well, at the age when young men 
 of fortune are sent to college, he was apprenticed 
 to a Solicitor, to fit him for a government clerk- 
 ship. In due time he won reputation by his joen, 
 and at thirty-two, a seat in the House of Commons. 
 The first time he spoke he excited so much laugh- 
 ter by an otitre manner and extravagant gestures, 
 that he became disconcerted and abruptly sat down, 
 but not before he had uttered the remarkable 
 prophecy, "I have begun many things seven times, 
 and have succeeded at last. I shall sit down now, 
 but the time will come when you will hear me." 
 He knew the power was in him and he resolved 
 to make it fell. And the other day, after dictating 
 
13 
 
 I 
 
 the Treaty of Berlin, his sword and coronet were 
 hung up in the Royal Chapel at Windsor beside 
 those of the proudest nobility of England. The 
 name of that once humble Jew will go down to fu- 
 ture generations by the side of Pitt, Peel and Pal- 
 merston. But there are many who think if they 
 have to labor ten hours a day with their hands 
 there will be no time for mental improvement. But 
 is it so ? Was it not while Hugh Miller was earn- 
 ing his bread as a stonemason that be fitted him 
 self to become the leading geologist of his time, 
 and the writer of as pure English as has been 
 written in any time ? Was it not while earn- 
 ning his bread by book-binding that Faraday edu- 
 cated himself to win all the honors that are offer- 
 ed for scientific discovery? Whoever has stood 
 on Prince'^ street, Edinburgh, has oazed on Wal- 
 ter Scott's monument which is a perfect poem 
 in stone. It is one of the greatest products of 
 art of this or any other century. The design 
 for that '• thing of beauty " was furnished by 
 George Kemp, who at the time was working at 
 the carpenter's bench in Ayrshire. It did not 
 come to him by inspiration ; it was not revealed 
 to him in a dream. It represents intense labor. 
 He had, while a mere youth, walked on foot, 
 working as he went, into England, to study all 
 the finest specimens of Gothic architecture, and 
 that '' miracle in stone" is the fruit of that 
 humble labor. It will bear favorable comparison 
 with the celebrated tower of Giotto, proudly 
 called "the Lile of Florence." Within the last eigh- 
 teen months a young mechanic in Louisville has 
 
 .} 
 
14 
 
 taken high rank in scientific authorship by pub- 
 lishing a book on " The Ferns of Kentucky." 
 The plates by which it is illustrated were made 
 by his own hands. 
 
 J.et these well-known examples refute the no- 
 tion that manual labor is necessarily a l.ar to intellec- 
 tual culture. It is the wise use of leisure hours 
 and holidays that i)laces distance between one man 
 and another. I spent a short time last summei 
 at the Glen House in the White Mountains. 
 The tables of that hotel were all served by thir- 
 ty-five young men, who were students from the 
 various colleges of New England. I was ;old 
 by one of thejn that there were a hundred and 
 thirty-five students acting in the same capacity 
 in the various hotels in the mountains. Were 
 those young men degraded because they had 
 donned the white apron that they might win a 
 diploma ? In a few^ years from now the same 
 hands that where placing "side dishes" before 
 the guests in that summer resort will be writing 
 briefs, prescriptions, and sermons, handing di- 
 plomas to students of colleges over which they 
 preside, or as Presidents of the United States, 
 distributing pationage to an army of office seek- 
 ers. 1 know whereof I speak when I affirm 
 that any young man in this land, of .average ca- 
 pacity, self-denial, and perseverance, who has a 
 trade at eighteen, may, by his own unaided ef- 
 forts, have a college education at twenty-six. 
 There are at least six hours out of every twenty- 
 four at a workingman's disposal, to be wasted 
 on trifies or put to good use. And the young 
 
I 
 
 mechanic or laborer who is seeking to elevate 8 
 
 himself, must use that portion of precious time J 
 
 as the lever. 'I'hese hours may be wrought into ■ 
 
 crystal steps by which to ascend into intelligence S 
 
 and honor. S 
 
 Let me say, in conclusion, we have heard a • 
 good deal of late about hard times, and we shall • 
 hear far more in the future, unless the youth \ 
 of this community learn these two simple truths, ■ 
 namely, that manual labor is not degrading, J 
 and economy is not meanness. Then, if you would ! 
 be found in the path of duty, Work; if you would 
 tread the path of Independence, Work I Work 
 if you would climb to a position of honor. For, 
 varying the language of the poet, — 
 
 "The soul that can 
 Render an honest and industrious man 
 
 Commands all influence, all fate : 
 Nothing, to him, falls early, or too late ; 
 
 Our acts, our angels are, or good or ill, 
 Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 
 
A. LAWSON 6^ Co., Steam Printers, Main Street. 
 
 
 ...— »i-i,. 
 
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