{"product_id":"2940013670884","title":"The Story of a Working Man's Life","description":"It was the outspoken pledge of an English nobleman, who, as a statesman\u003cbr\u003eand political reformer, inscribed his name on the history of his nation,\u003cbr\u003ethat, in case of social convulsion, much as he favored general freedom\u003cbr\u003efor all classes, he should \"stand by his own order.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe words of Earl Grey would, we doubt not, be adopted by the writer of\u003cbr\u003ethe present volume; and with a frankness and a tenacity equalling the\u003cbr\u003elike traits in the British Peer, this \"WORKING MAN,\" the son of a sturdy\u003cbr\u003eEnglish Radical, would account it his duty and glory to \"stand by HIS OWN\u003cbr\u003eORDER,\" the stalwart and the hardy, who contribute so largely to the\u003cbr\u003enational prosperity, bear much of the nation's burdens and perils, and\u003cbr\u003edeserve their full share of its consideration. Never forgetting, much\u003cbr\u003eless disowning, the peasant and artizan class, from which he springs, and\u003cbr\u003ewith a kindly, earnest word for the wronged and much enduring sailor, his\u003cbr\u003ereligion has yet taught him that, duly understood, the interests of all\u003cbr\u003ethe orders and classes in a nation are coincident and inseparable. As a\u003cbr\u003eservant of Christ in the field of Foreign Missions, he has laboriously\u003cbr\u003eshown, that the needs of a remote and alien race are held by him to have\u003cbr\u003ea just claim for the best years of his life, and for the putting forth of\u003cbr\u003ehis best powers of body and of soul. Apart from caste and from\u003cbr\u003edistinctions of race, of hue, and of language, he has consecrated\u003cbr\u003ehimself, like the great Apostle of the Gentiles, as \"debtor to all,\" to\u003cbr\u003ebecome \"the servant of all.\" Yet even Paul, we may presume, would of all\u003cbr\u003eHebrews greet a man of the tribe of Benjamin with special cordiality; and\u003cbr\u003eshould an inquirer of the school of the Pharisees approach him, Paul\u003cbr\u003ewould meet that disciple with an intimate and eager sympathy, derived\u003cbr\u003efrom the vivid reminiscences of his own youth spent at the feet of\u003cbr\u003eGamaliel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe life of Francis Mason has been drawn through varied scenes and many\u003cbr\u003elands. Neither a cloistered student, nor a thoughtless, frivolous\u003cbr\u003erambler, his acquaintance with books has been supplemented by free\u003cbr\u003ecollision with men. And to his free intercourse with mankind in various\u003cbr\u003estages of culture and of barbarism, he has brought the mind stored with\u003cbr\u003ereflection, and the eye taught duly to observe and wisely to discriminate\u003cbr\u003eand to appreciate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA native of England, an emigrant in early manhood to America, it was here\u003cbr\u003ethat he became a convert, received his training for the ministry, and\u003cbr\u003ehence was sent by American Baptists to their missions in Burmah to labor\u003cbr\u003eamong the people of that empire and among the Karens, an aboriginal race\u003cbr\u003efound largely in the Burman territory, but more migratory than the\u003cbr\u003eBurmans, and with a distinct language, some peculiar traits, and many\u003cbr\u003eremarkable traditions. There he has been brought into friendly and\u003cbr\u003eintimate relations with British officers, administering the affairs of\u003cbr\u003etheir government in the outlying provinces of their great Indian Empire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith a simplicity and directness that remind one of our own Benjamin\u003cbr\u003eFranklin, he has told the tale of his own eventful career. And in doing\u003cbr\u003ethis he has afforded us some striking glimpses of what the United States\u003cbr\u003ewere when he first reached our shores; whilst the main thread of his\u003cbr\u003enarrative bears us to philosophies, faiths, and races which were old and\u003cbr\u003ewell settled far back as the days of Daniel, and before Greece had, under\u003cbr\u003ethe conduct of Alexander, hurled herself upon India.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs travel becomes more frequent and more rapid, the various countries of\u003cbr\u003eour earth would appear to be compressed inevitably into closer proximity;\u003cbr\u003eand they must also become percolated with a fuller, prompter sympathy. To\u003cbr\u003eone who spends much of his time in journeying, the modern facilities of\u003cbr\u003elocomotion are almost equivalent to a prolongation and expansion of life;\u003cbr\u003efor distances that once could be traversed by him only in weeks, may now\u003cbr\u003ebe surmounted in hours. And lands and continents, in other times so\u003cbr\u003eremote as to be beyond the range of any travellers who had not both\u003cbr\u003eadventurousness and opulence, and large leisure, seem in our own days, by\u003cbr\u003esteam and steel, by the railroad and the wheeled vessel, to be gathered\u003cbr\u003eup--and if the image may be allowed--they are puckered into narrower\u003cbr\u003edimensions. They have become accessible to the holiday jaunt of the\u003cbr\u003ewayfarer whose leisure is scanty and whose funds are but stinted. The\u003cbr\u003every surface of our globe is, in the phrase of the milliner's dainty art,\u003cbr\u003etucked and plaited into smaller compass. Man, by his Creator set as the\u003cbr\u003emaster of Earth, finds his domain shrivelled into more manageable\u003cbr\u003edimensions, and finds himself endowed with new powers of survey and\u003cbr\u003esubjugation.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079647871216,"sku":"2940013670884","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013670884_p0.jpg?v=1763583738","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013670884","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}