XXXIV
President Brown of the Western City Labor Council arose to perform
his next duty as chairman. Said he:
"The next speaker is a stranger to most of you, and he is also a
stranger to me. I do not know what his doctrine is, and I assume no
responsibility for it. But he is a man who has proven his friendship
for labor, not by words, but by very unusual deeds. He is a man of
remarkable personality, and we have asked him to make what
suggestions he can as to our problems. I have pleasure in
introducing Mr. Carpenter."
Whereupon the prophet fresh from God arose from his chair, and come
slowly to the front of the platform. There was no applause, but a
silence made part of curiosity and part of amazement. His figure,
standing thus apart, was majestic; and I noted a curious thing--a
shining as of light about his head. It was so clear and so beautiful
that I whispered to Old Joe: "Do you see that halo?"
"Go on, Billy!" said the ex-centre-rush. "You're getting nutty!"
"But it's plain as day, man!"
I felt some one touch my arm, and saw the little lady of the
anti-vivisection tracts peering past me. "Do you see his aura?" she
whispered, excitedly.
"Is that what it is?"
"Yes. It's purple. That denotes spirituality."
I thought to myself, "Good Lord, am I getting to be that sort?"
Carpenter began to speak, quietly, in his grave, measured voice. "My
brothers!" He waited for some time, as if that were enough; as if
all the problems of life would be solved, if only men would
understand those two words. "My brothers: I am, as your chairman
says, a stranger to this world of yours. I do not understand your
vast machines and your complex arts. But I know the souls of men and
women; when I meet greed, and pride, and cruelty, the enslavements
of the flesh, they cannot lie to me. And I have walked about the
streets of your city, and I know myself in the presence of a people
wandering in a wilderness. My children!--broken-hearted, desolate,
and betrayed--poorest when you are rich, loneliest when you throng
together, proudest when you are most ignorant--my people, I call you
into the way of salvation!"
He stretched out his arms to them, and on his face and in his whole
look was such anguish, that I think there was no man in that whole
great throng so rooted in self-esteem that he was not shaken with
sudden awe. The prophet raised his hands in invocation: "Let us
pray!" He bowed his head, and many in the audience did the same.
Others stared at him in bewilderment, having long ago forgotten how
to pray. Here and there some one snickered.
"Oh, God, Our Father, we, Thy lost children, return to Thee, the
Giver of Life. We bring our follies and our greeds, and cast them at
Thy feet. We do not like the life we have lived. We wish to be those
things which for long ages we have dreamed in vain. Wilt Thou show
the way?"
His hands sank to his sides, and he raised his head. "Such is the
prayer. What is the answer? It has been made known: Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.--These
are ancient words, by many forgotten. What do they mean? They mean
that we are children of our Father, and not slaves of earthly
masters. Would a man make a slave of his own child? And shall man be
more righteous than his Creator?
"My brothers: You are hungry, and in need, and your children cry for
bread; do I bid you feed them upon words? Not so; but the life of
men is made by the will of men, and that which exists in steel and
stone existed first in thought. If your thought is mean and base,
your world is a place of torment; if your thought is true and
generous, your world is free.
"There was once a man who owned much land, and upon it he built
great factories, and many thousand men toiled for him, and he grew
fat upon the product of their labor, and his heart was high. And it
came to pass that his workers rebelled; and he hired others, and
they shot down the workers, so that the rest returned to their
labor. And the master said: The world is mine, and none can oppose
me. But one day there arose among the workers a man who laughed. And
his laughter spread, until all the thousands were laughing; they
said, We are laughing at the thought that we should work and you
take the fruit of our labor. He ordered his troops to shoot them,
but his troops were also laughing, and he could not withstand the
laughter of so many men; he laughed also, and said, let us end this
foolish thing.
"Is there a man among you who can say, I am worthy of freedom? That
man shall save the world. And I say to you: Make ready your hearts
for brotherhood; for the hour draws near, and it is a shameful thing
when man is not worthy of his destiny. A man may serve with his
body, and yet be free, but he that is a slave in his soul admires
the symbols of mastery, and lusts after its fruits.
"What are the fruits of mastery? They are pride and pomp, they are
luxury and wantoness and the shows of power. And who is there among
you that can say to himself, these things have no roots in my heart?
That man is great, and the deliverance of the world is the act of
his will."
