A spade! a rake! a hoe! A pickaxe, or a bill! A hook to reap, or a scythe to mow, A flail, or what ye will Whatever the tool to ply, Here is a willing drudge, With muscle and limb-and wo to him Who does their pay begrudge. Who every weekly score Docks labor's little mite, Bestows on the poor at the temple-door, But robbed them over-night. The very shilling he hoped to save, As health and morals fail, Shall visit me in the New Bastile, The spital or the gaol! JESUS CHRIST. The opponents of the reform movements of the present day, frequently quote Jesus Christ as being opposed to all violent agitations. They deny that he was an agitator, and commend to us his meek and gentle spirit. In this way they defend the quietness of religious professors and preachers in view of our dreadful national sins. The common people are everywhere made to believe Jesus Christ was opposed to these great moral excitements, and, therefore, that such men as Garrison, and Rogers, and Phillips, and Douglass, and Remond, in exposing with an unsparing hand the corruptions of church and state, are going in direct opposition to the example of the Saviour. It is strange enough, when we consider the facts in the case, that this view should have obtained so widely. My attention was called to it, just now, by the following extract from a lecture recently delivered in New York, by Major Noah, on the "Restoration of the Jews": "The Jews were amazed, perplexed and bewildered at all they saw and heard. They knew Jesus from his birth: he was their neighbor, they knew his father Joseph, and Mary his mother, his brothers, James and Judas; he was in constant intercourse with his brethren in their domestic relations, and surrounded by their household gods; they remembered him a boy, disputing, as was the custom, most learnedly with the doctors in the temple : as a man, pursuing, to the age of thirty, the modest and laborious calling of his profession; and yet he proclaimed himself the Son of God, and performed most wonderful miracles, was surrounded by a number of disciples, poor, but extraordinarily gifted men, who sustained his doctrines, and had an abiding faith in his mission; he gathered strength and followers as he progressed; he denounced the whole nation, and prophecied its destruction with their altars and temples; he preached against whole cities and proscribed their leaders with a force, which even at this day would shake our social systems. The Jews became alarmed at his increasing power and influence, and the Sanhedrim resolved to become his accuser, and bring him to trial under the law as laid down in the 13th of Deuteronomy." Who does not perceive and appreciate the literal truthfulness of this extract? Who does not know that in point of fact, Jesus Christ was the greatest agitator the world has ever seen? He was constantly uttering the most unpalatable sentiments, and administering the most unwelcome rebukes. He attacked the "peculiar institutions" of the Jews-especially their church and clergy, which was never half so corrupt as ours-with a pertinacity and a power which nearly drove them mad. The church and clergy, from his advent to his crucifixion, pursued him with the most relentless persecutions, and used all their immense influence over the people to excite them to the murderous deed which at last they committed. The politicians were equally infuriated, and determined from the first that that vile infidel, Jesus Christ, who was attacking their God-ordained institutions, should seal his wickedness with his blood. And their vile threats were put in execution. Yet, in face and eyes of these facts, it is constantly contended by our church and clergy, and by our laity in many instances, that Jesus was a quiet sort of a person, whose gentle nature would not allow him to disturb any of the existing institutions by which he was surrounded! And it is contended, furthermore, that if he were upon the earth now, he would not find it in his soul to bear witness against the political institutions of this country, though they hold in abject slavery over three millions of those whom he died to save! Nay, more. It is openly taught by a large majority of those who blasphemously call themselves his ministers, that if Jesus were here, he would not object to our joining, hand in hand and heart in heart, in political fellowship with men who declare that even he would be property, if our laws declared him so! 26 THE TOILERS. ANONYMOUS. "I saw a widow who was yet young-perhaps forty-but whose form, once fresh and healthful, had become exactly the reverse. It was now nothing but skin, sinews, bones, and no flesh. She had three sons to work in the mills, and although they toiled incessantly, they could scarcely earn enough to keep the fiends of famine from the door."-ENGLISH FACTORY REPORT. Hark! 'tis the early bell Awake, my children, awake! Morn brightens in the east, Again the bell rings out Upon the morning breeze- Is often wrung from human hearts Up, up, my sons, the lark Is soaring to the sky- Then whistle on your way- Away, away they speed, To watch with faultless eye To watch within yon upper grave From dawn till welcome night, Grave for the bud and bloom of youth, For all that makes life bright. How rosy once was I! How smooth my girlish brow! Health gushed and glowed in every vein ; Alas, what am I now? Kind fortune failed, and then Death took our prop away Oh! what a fearful blow was that! Five years I toiled with them, And often cheered them on, Rallied them when about to fall, And smiled love's benison; But now the faded cheek The cough-the ceaseless pain I feel that life is ebbing fast, And yet I ne'er complain. Oh no, to HIM alone Whose quick ear from on high Bends down to catch the widow's moan, And hear the orphan's cry, My silent prayer I pour, My sorrow I reveal, While God forgive me for the wrong-- From them I all conceal. They know not of the worm That eats my life away They dream not that their mother Is dying day by day. I would not vainly darken A lot already drear, And pour despair upon their hopes Ere life's green leaves are sere. Oh God! is it their doom, From year to year the same, |