Labor Is Not a Curse.—There would not be so much trouble to us, unfaithful workers, if work were regarded as the blessing which God designed it to be. But many look upon labor as a curse. Ella Wheeler Wilcox voices the sentiment in one of her verses thus:—
The time has come, aye, even now it is,
To rank that parable in Genesis,
Of God's great curse of labor placed on man,
With other fairy tales.
Labor is a curse only to him who makes it so; but there is no curse of labor in Genesis, or any other book of the Bible. Idleness is a curse; labor is a blessing. God said, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." Its strength would be perverted. It would not yield its sustenance alone to useful plant and fruit. It would bring forth both weeds and thorns. Why?—So that man would not, could not, lead a life of idleness. It would cost more labor to till the ground; and in the added labor would be the added blessing. The curse was upon the ground; it was for man's sake, for man's good; and the overcoming of the evil in the ground by the means of labor is a blessing.
"Labor is glory; the flying cloud lightens;
Only the waving wing changes and brightens;
Idle hearts only the dark future frightens;
Play the sweet keys would'st thou keep them in tune."