Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/119

Rh we cannot hide bread away; it must be eaten at once.

That deserves reflection.

139. Now you of the upper classes, who have placed yourselves among the clouds, consider that you have imprisoned yourselves in the bonds of impiety, and that you have not the strength to break your chains.

Behold yourselves plunged in a profound abyss, whence you cannot come forth till God casts out of you the tyrant Idleness and his twin-brother Luxury.

We pray you, then, to surrender to us the treasure that God has created especially for our use, and which is the fundamental law of humanity; in other words, promulgate it everywhere. Then we will enrich you, and heap up gold for you, because, hoping henceforth for safety, not only labor for bread, but all other kinds of labor, will seem to us easy.

140. The most weak-minded men, and even children, would comprehend, in hearing this law proclaimed, that it is the first that God gave to the first man, and that it is more important than all other virtues or commandments put together. They will at once say to themselves: "I must labor more than ever; but I will pass my life willingly in the fields, to merit happiness in the next world."

Surrender to us, then, O ye rich, the treasure that you, or rather your ancestors, have stolen and concealed from us; give up to us the