Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/328

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sterling coins of the realm, an entrance into heaven.

Cease to lament, O troubled heart,
What do you gain when you complain?
For work and prayer we know impart
The best relief to earthly grief.

LVII. Work and wages

1.Social questions are very prominently brought forward in the present day.

In regard to this subject, the foreground is occupied by complaints concerning the unfortunate relations between capital and labor, between work and wages. Lamentations are rife on the one hand, where it is asserted that the workman may toil and wear himself out, and yet receive a pittance which scarcely suffices to keep the wolf from the door, and which renders it almost impossible to procure the necessaries of life, considering the present high price of provisions.

On the other side the lamentations are just as loud. Workmen can never be satisfied; they demand shorter hours and higher wages, and on account of the excess of production and eager competition it becomes necessary to dispose of goods at a merely nominal price.

2. And who is in the right? No one can seriously assert that our present social conditions are particularly favorable. But the fundamental cause of all these complaints lies in the fact that human society is, in the present day, no longer permeated by a truly Christian spirit.

If in our modern times we had made as much progress in this spirit as we have in discoveries of every kind, there would not be all