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self, from whom can it spring? Nature acknowledges no ownership or control in man save as the result of exertion. In no other way can her treasures be drawn forth, her powers directed, or her forces utilized or controlled. She makes no discriminations among men, but is to all absolutely impartial. She knows no distinction between master and slave, king and subject, saint and sinner. All men to her stand upon an equal footing and have equal rights. She recognizes no claim but that of labor, and recognizes that without respect to the claimant. If a pirate spread his sails, the wind will fill them as well as it will fill those of a peaceful merchantman or missionary bark; if a king and a common man be thrown overboard, neither can keep his head above water except by swimming: birds will not come to be shot by the proprietor of the soil any quicker than they will come to be shot by the poacher; fish will bite or will not bite at the hook in utter disregard as to whether it is offered by a good little boy who goes to Sunday-school or a bad little boy who plays truant; grain will grow only as the ground is prepared and the seed is sown; it is only at the call of labor that ore can be raised from the mine; the sun shines and the rain falls alike upon just and unjust. The laws of nature are the decrees of the Creator. There is written in them no recognition of any right save that of labor; and in them is written broadly and clearly the equal right of all men to the use and enjoyment of nature; to apply to her by their exertions, and to receive and possess her reward. Hence, as nature gives only to labor, the exertion of labor in production is the only title to exclusive possession.

2d. This right of ownership that springs from labor excludes the possibility of any other right of ownership. If a man be rightfully entitled to the produce of his labor, then no one can be rightfully entitled to the ownership of anything which is not the produce of his labor, or the labor of some one else from whom the right has passed to him. If production give to the producer the right to the exclusive possession and enjoyment, there can rightfully be no exclusive possession and enjoyment of anything not the production of labor, and the

recognition of private property in land is wrong. For the right to the produce of labor cannot be enjoyed without the right to the free use of the opportunities offered by nature, and to admit the right of property in these is to deny the right of property in the produce of labor. When non-producers can claim as rent a portion of the wealth created by producers, the right of the producers to the fruits of their labor is to that extent denied.

There is no escape from this position. To affirm that a man can rightfully claim exclusive ownership in his own labor, when embodied in material things, is to deny that any one can rightfully claim exclusive ownership in land. To affirm the rightfulness of property in land is to affirm a claim which has no warrant in nature, as against a claim founded in the organization of man and the laws of the material universe.- Progress and Poverty.

PROPERTY IN LAND.

The hard times, the lower wages, the increasing poverty perceptible in the United States are but results of the natural laws we have traced laws as universal and as irresistible as that of gravitation. We did not establish the republic when in the face of principalities and powers we flung the declaration of the inalienable rights of man; we shall never establish the republic until we carry out that declaration by securing to the poorest child born among us an equal right to his native soil! We did not abolish slavery when we ratified the Fourteenth Amendment; to abolish slavery we must abolish private property in land! Unless we come back to first principles, unless we recognize natural perceptions of equity, unless we acknowledge the equal rights of all to land, our free institutions will be in vain, our common schools will be in vain; our discoveries and inventions will but add to the force that presses the masses down! — Progress and Poverty.

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ERHARDT, PAUL, a German poet; born at Graefenhainichen, near Wittenberg, Saxony, March 12, 1607; died at Lübben, Prussia, June 7, 1676. Little is known of his early life. He studied for the ministry, taught in the family of an advocate of Berlin, whose daughter he afterward married, and in 1651 received his first appointment at Mittelwald. In 1657 he became diaconus to the Nicolaikirche of Berlin, of which he was deprived in 1666, on account of his refusal to comply with the Elector Frederick William's edict of 1664, commanding him to refrain from preaching the doctrine of Luther as against that of Calvin. In the following year he was restored to office, but soon resigned it, being unwilling to appear to accept tacitly what he disapproved. In 1668 he was appointed Archdeacon of Lübben, and held the office until his death. He is one of the most esteemed of German hymnists. His first church hymns were published in 1648, and in 1667 the first complete edition of one hundred and twenty hymns appeared.

Gerhardt ranks, next to Luther, as the most gifted and popular hymn-writer of the Lutheran Church. A very large proportion of his hymns are among the most cherished and most widely used among Germanspeaking Christians. "Like the old poets of the people," wrote Gervinus, the well-known historian of German literature, "he is sincerely and unconstrainedly pious, naïve, and hearty; the blissfulness of his faith makes him benign and amiable; and in his way of writing he is as attractive, simple, and pleasing as in his way of thinking." It has been noted, with refer

ence to the transition to the modern subjective tone of religious poetry, as seen in Gerhardt's verses, that no less than sixteen of his hymns begin with the first person singular "I."

THE DYING SAVIOUR.

O sacred Head, now wounded,

With grief and shame weighed down,

Now scornfully surrounded

With thorns, Thy only crown.

O sacred Head, what glory,
What bliss, till now was Thine
Yet though despised and gory,
I joy to call Thee mine.

O noblest brow and dearest,
In other days the world
All feared when Thou appearedst;
What shame on Thee is hurled!

How art Thou pale with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
Which once was bright as morn!

What language shall I borrow,
To thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this dying sorrow
Thy pity without end?

O, make me Thine forever,
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never,
Outlive my love to Thee.

If I, a wretch, should leave Thee,
O Jesus, leave not me!
In faith may I receive Thee,

When death shall set me free.

When strength and comfort languish
And I must hence depart,
Release me then from anguish,
By Thine own wounded heart.

Be near when I am dying,

O, show Thy cross to me!
And for my succor flying

Come, Lord, to set me free.

These eyes new faith receiving,
From Jesus shall not move;
For he who dies believing
Dies safely through Thy love.

-Translation of JOHN WESLEY.

LOVE DIVINE.

O Love, how cheering is Thy ray
All pain before Thy presence flies;
Care, anguish, sorrow, melt away,
Where'er Thy healing beams arise;
O Father, nothing may I see,

Nothing desire or seek but Thee.

Still let Thy love point out my way;

How wondrous things Thy love hath wrought, Still lead me, lest I go astray,

Direct my work, inspire my thought:

And, if I fall, soon may I hear

Thy voice, and know that Love is near.

- Translation of JOHN WESLEY.

COMMIT THOU ALL THY GRIEFS.

Commit thou all thy griefs,
And ways unto His hands,

To His sure truth and tender care,
Who earth and Heaven commands;

Who points the clouds their course,
Whom winds and seas obey;

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