"Forgetting The Man At Bethesda"

By Rev. Dr. CHARLES JEFFERSON of New York

WITH THE WORLD THUNDERING ON AT ITS PRESENT RATE WE ARE IN DANGER OF FORGETTING THE MAN AT BETHESDA

We have forgotten him many times already. We forgot him a hundred years ago. We forgot him fifty years ago, and because we did forget him it was necessary that every drop of blood shed by the lash should be paid for by blood by the sword.

WE FORGOT HIM ONLY THE OTHER DAY. HE WAS IN A MINE, AND WE COULD NOT SEE HIM, AND SO WE HURRIED ON AND BUILT OUR CIVILIZATION ON THE PRODUCT CF THAT MAN'S LABOR, NEVER THINKING OF HIM OR HIS WIFE OR HIS CHILDREN, EVEN THOUGH EVERY ONE OF THEM IS A CHILD OF GOD.

The other day that man quit working, but we paid no attention to his action. He was only a Slav, and his bad humor, we thought, would quickly subside. But to our surprise he persisted in his refusal to work, and, LITTLE BY LITTLE, THE PILLARS OF THE REPUBLIC BEGAN TO TREMBLE. The wheels in the factories and mills ceased to turn. The hands of that Slav were on them. Schoolhouses began to close. That Slav had kept them open. Sick people in many a humble home began to feel the pinch of cold. The Slav had been ministering unto them. The poor in great cities began to moan, and the chief magistrate of the republic confessed, "The situation is intolerable."

That unnoticed foreigner, hundreds of feet underground, had by his labor made life comfortable and pleasant to millions who had never seen him. He has called for help repeatedly for many years, but no one went to his assistance. By refusing to work he compelled the world to look at him.

Men today are computing the cost of the strike. They say it has cost the nation $180,000,000. How much it has cost in suffering no one knows, but this is certain - THE STRIKE WAS WORTH ALL IT HAS COST IF IT FIXES THE EYES OF THE NATION OX THE MEN WHO SPEND THEIR LIVES IN THE MINES. They are our brethren. Christ died for them. They toil for us. If they are foreigners and ignorant and depraved and dangerous, then their claim upon us is all the greater. If the miner is at the rear end of the procession, our Lord is by his side.