Page:Labour - The Divine Command, 1890.djvu/98

94 a future for God, but all is to him as the present, that he has not comprehended that if man must always eat, he must also always labor? If he inflicted on you a penance for your sins, and said, Take a stone of a hundred pounds weight and carry it, you would reply: I cannot do it, Lord, for you have not given me strength sufficient. Or if he said, Fly in the air like a bird, you would answer: You have not given me wings, and it is impossible to obey your command. Such excuses would be legitimate.

But why can you not labor for bread? In truth, you will reply, it is because of my condition in life. I have white and delicate hands, and the ears of corn will scratch my skin.

94. Again, you will evade labor for bread because you say that in occupying yourself in any work, you obey the commandment, "In the sweat of thy face shaft thou knead bread."

One will say: "I have written, to-day, nine hundred and ninety-one lines; thus I have eaten my bread in the sweat of my face." Another says: "I have, to-day, given my orders to my people, I have seen that they labored well for me; thus have I eaten my bread in the sweat of my face." A third says: "I have, to-day, been driven about the city in a rich carriage; I have thus eaten my bread in the sweat of my face." A fourth says: "I have, to-day, sold damaged merchandise for good, and I have defrauded