In honor of Labor Day, a holiday which celebrates the contributions that American workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country, I share with you the words of U.S. author and moralist, Congregationalist and, later, Unitarian clergyman, William Ellery Channing (1789-1842). During his day, Channing was renowned for his passionate sermons and speeches. He was a champion of the laboring classes but was always outspoken in his defense of the valor and value that emanates from hard work.
I have faith in labor, and I see the goodness of God in placing us in a world where labor alone can keep us alive. I would not change, if I could, our subjection to physical laws, our exposure to hunger and cold, and the necessity of constant conflicts with the material world. I would not, if I could, so temper the elements that they should infuse into us only grateful sensations, that they should make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate every want, and the minerals so ductile as to offer no resistance to our strength and skill. Such a world would make a contemptible race. Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, which we call effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make robust minds, does not give men a consciousness of their powers, does not train them to endurance, to perseverance, to steady force of will, that force without which all other acquisitions avail nothing. Manual labor is a school in which men are placed to get energy of purpose and character. They are placed, indeed, under hard masters, physical sufferings, and wants, the power of fearful elements, and the vicissitudes of all human things; but these stern teachers do a work which no compassionate, indulgent friend could do for us; and true wisdom will bless Providence for their sharp ministry.
I have great faith in hard work. The material world does much for the mind by its beauty and order; but it does more for our minds by the pain it inflicts; by its obstinate resistance, which nothing but patient toil can overcome; by its vast forces, which nothing but unremitting skill and effort can turn to our use; by its perils, which demand continual vigilance; and by its tendencies to decay. I believe that difficulties are more important to the human mind than what we call assistances. Work we all must, if we mean to bring out and perfect our nature.
Even if we do not work with the hands, we must undergo equivalent toil in some other direction. No business or study which does not present obstacles, tasking to the full the intellect and the will, is worthy of man.
You will see that to me labor has great dignity. It is not merely the grand instrument by which the earth is overspread with fruitfulness and beauty, and the ocean subdued, and matter wrought into innumerable forms of comfort and ornament. It has a far higher function, which is to give force to the will, efficiency, courage, the capacity of endurance, and of preserving devotion to far-reaching plans.
Alas, for the man who has not learned to work! He is a poor creature. He does not know himself. He depends on others, with no capacity of making returns for the support they give; and let him not fancy that he has a monopoly of enjoyment. Ease, rest, owes its deliciousness to toil; and no toil is so burdensome as the rest of him who has nothing to task and quicken his powers.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Have an AWE-full Labor Day weekend!