p. 14 | Labor: Its Blessings by Miss May Bessette

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 3, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 23.

Labor: Its Blessings.

By Miss May Bessette

Nature's Teaching.

[Prepared for and Read at the Mutual Edification Club by Miss May Bessette.]

WHEN Christ was fulfilling His ministry upon earth, He loved to teach from the works of nature; and so let us turn to the things around us and see if we can not learn some lesson on the question of labor.

After the garden has been plowed in the spring, the ground looks fresh and clean; but wait a few days, and you will see thousands of little green plants coming up. O, they are nothing but weeds, you say; but let us study them a little. Each one of those weeds came from a tiny seed that found a home in the earth. Softened by the moisture and warmed by the sun, it sprang into life, and ever since has been pushing its stalk upward into the air, and its roots downward into the ground, expanding its trunk and spreading its branches, that it may become a full-grown plant. The gardener cuts it down, but inherent in its very existence there seems to be a determination to do something; so in the place of one stalk there grow three or four from the stump, and they blossom, and the blossoms mature into seeds.

Look at the bed of pansies. The snow came in the fall and covered them up, but it had hardly melted away before their bright faces were seen again. The more you pick them, the more they blossom, and they seem to vie with each other as to which plant shall produce the most flowers.

The Saviour recognized this principle of plant life when He saw the fig-tree in the middle of summer without fruit, and pronounced the curse upon it.

Look in the animal world. See the bee as he goes from flower to flower, humming his busy, cheerful song, ever industrious. Did you ever see a more definite purpose than seems to possess this little creature? If you doubt his determination, just get in his way and see how quickly he will let you know about it. He seems to know just which flowers have the honey, and whether they be thistles or clover, nettles or morning-glories, they are all the same to him. This is his means of getting a living, and he pursues it assiduously, gathering a store for winter.

Notice those troublesome ants that have such a habit of foraging your mother's pantry. If you follow them, you will find that

they have a house in the sand, and are doing their best to lay in a supply of food.

Every living thing in God's great universe, from the moss that grows on the rocks to the sturdy oak in the forest; from the smallest insect to man, the crowning work of creation, has a definite place and a work to perform. Some day the pebble which is lying useless on the roadside will be made into mortar and form a place in the wall of a building. Sometime the water that is quietly rippling in the brook will be taken up by the sun into the clouds and be made to water the trees.

One of the greatest blessings that have been bestowed upon man is the blessing of labor. Without it his life would be purposeless and meaningless. There is something elevating and ennobling in true, honest labor. It has lifted men from the lowest walks of life to the highest. Without exercise the muscles grow thin and flabby. Without light the eye loses its power of sight. Fishes in caverns where the light can not penetrate have no eyes at all. From a lack of practise the fingers that were once nimble and quick become clumsy and awkward. The more you study over a problem in mathematics, the better calculator you become. The Bible says, "He that hath, to him shall be given; but he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath." This seems almost like a paradox, but in the law of labor it is true nevertheless.

It is the work that men perform that gives them a place in the world. What would we know about Columbus if he had not discovered the new world? Would we ever have heard of Lincoln if he had not worked out the problem of slavery? Would the American people love the name of Washington as they do, if it were not for the work he performed as a soldier and a statesman? And, friends, would we ever have known the embodiment of the divine law if our Saviour, Jesus Christ, had not come to this world and lived for us?

Jesus says, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," and indeed we realize this more and more. If you study astronomy, you will learn of the millions of planets, each circling in its own course, and so exact are their movements that their orbits can be clearly defined. Think of the great God whose work it is to hold these worlds in their places. If you study botany, your mind will be directed to the thousands of different species of vegetable life, of all shapes and kinds, the work of the Creator on this earth. If you study chemistry, you will see the wonderful phenomena that are being performed by the action of the different elements on each other. These are all works of God, but His greatest work is man. And to man He has given a work which is above every other pursuit in the world,—work for his fellow man.

We may work upon marble, some day it will crumble; we may build cities, some day they will fall; we may found great nations, they will have their day; but the work we do on human character is a lasting one. If we are instrumental in winning a soul to Christ, that soul will live thru all eternity.