Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/31

Rh religious, social, and domestic laws that are imposed upon us; we have invented so many commandments in announcing, as Isaiah says, "line upon line, precept upon precept," one rule for this, another for that, that we have lost all clear perception of good and evil. One says mass, another recruits for the army, or collects taxes, a third is a judge, a fourth is a student, a fifth cures disorders, a sixth teaches; all, in fine, by these or similar pretexts evade the law of labor, leaving it for others, and forgetting that there are around them men who are dying with hunger and fatigue. But before giving the people priests, soldiers, judges, doctors, and professors, we should know that they are not perishing with hunger. Not only do we forget that many duties may present themselves for fulfilment, but also that there is a first and a last duty, and that we cannot undertake the last till the first is fulfilled, any more than we can harrow the ground before it has been ploughed.

It is to accomplish the duty which is the first in practical order that Bondareff's doctrine is given.

Bondareff shows that the accomplishment of this duty does not interfere with any other occupation, presents no difficulties, and saves man from poverty, want, and temptation.

It destroys above all the odious division of man into two classes who hate each other and hide under a veil of humility their mutual dislike.