The rights of labor.
The threshing in the East is done by oxen in many cases still, though horses, where procurable, are found more serviceable. While the animals were engaged in their weary round, they were never muzzled, but allowed to eat of the corn they were treading out. £ It would appear, indeed, that it was the straw simply that they were to receive, and the corn was to be reserved for the men, their masters. £ But the idea manifestly was the right of the patient animal to a share of the corn he was helping to thresh. It suggests the large subject of the rights of labor. Into this, of course, we cannot enter at any length. But we may observe—
I. THAT CO-OPERATION IN WORK HAS A RIGHT TO A SHARE IN ITS WAGES. This is recognized in the Mosaic Law regarding the lower animals, and the argument is cumulative with regard to man. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," said our Lord. "The workman is worthy of his meat" (Luke 10:7; Matthew 10:10).
II. THE SHARE SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT TO SUSTAIN LIFE. The ox was expected to pick up on his rounds as much as would keep up his strength for labor. And in the same way, the wages of a laborer should be sufficient to sustain him in the position he occupies in society. The economic laws about the "wages' fund" are not so inexorable as to prevent such a plain principle being evermore kept in view. There is a heartlessness attributed to the laws of wealth that belongs to the capitalists themselves.
III. THERE SHOULD BE SYMPATHY BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED. The very oxen occupy a position where sympathy must obtain between them and their keepers, if the work is to be properly performed. How much more must this obtain when the workers are our fellow-men! The late Sir Arthur Helps, in one of his early and anonymous volumes entitled, 'The Claims of Labor,' refers frequently to this. "You must not be surprised," he says to the employer, "at the ingratitude of those to whom you have given nothing but money." "Fortunately," he says in another place, "the proneness of men to regard with favor those put in authority over them is very strong; and I have little fear of finding any large body of thoughtful and kind masters suffering from permanent indifference or ingratitude on the part of their dependents." Sympathy between masters and men is more important even than adequate wages.
IV. BOTH JESUS AND PAUL APPLY THE PRINCIPLE TO MINISTERIAL SUPPORT. In the passage already noticed our Lord does so (Matthew 10:9-11; Luke 10:7). Paul also, in 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Timothy 5:18, makes use of it, referring both to the passage before us in Deuteronomy and also to our Lord's deliverance. In placing the ministry upon the same ground as other workers, it is clear that it is to be no exception to the rule of proportional reward. Of course, it is not supported as other and meaner occupations are. Every other occupation is beneath it in dignity, but every other almost is above it in reward. Its rights must be advocated; its claims are valid, and men deny them at their peril.—R.M.E.