FIRST BIBLE LESSON: EPHESIANS 4:28
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
SECOND BIBLE LESSON: 2ND THESSALONIANS 3:8
Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.
GOLDEN TEXT: MATTHEW 17:27
Notwithstanding, lest we should offend, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
Brethren, today's gospel concerns labouring with one's hands for livelihood. Whatever we do in Brotherhood is backed by the scriptures. Is it not Our Lord Jesus Christ who says, "go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou open his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee."
This shows that they all laboured for their livelihood, and were no burdens to any person. Our Lord Jesus Christ was an expert carpenter. Fishing was Peter's profession. These, they do till today.
God has given us hands, legs, eyes, and ears. He gives us the forest and everything that we need. You should therefore labour with your hands for your food. In the earth crust is found all types of minerals: gold, silver, copper, zinc, limestone and other kinds of mineral resources. On the earth surface is found fruit trees, like oranges, pineapples, mangoes, bananas, apples, pears, avocado pears, pawpaw, grapes and other fruit bearing trees which are edible.
Our food production has not yet reached the stage of mechanization, introducing the various types of agricultural machineries, the use of chemicals, the involvement of economics in agricultural and keeping accounts.
Many of you are trained accountants but you do not find the money to count. You are Book-keepers, some are shorthand typists, others are trained in other white collar jobs. But when you go to Rome, you must do like a Roman. Why not try your hands first on the minerals, forest and other natural resources which are common in our immediate environment? Are those resources not lying untapped?
All species of snail, periwinkle, cockle oysters and shrimp provide food for man the sea. There are a lot of edible vegetables growing wild in the forest: afang, atama, editan, odusa, spinach, cabbage and others. They can be exploited for personal food and for others sake.
People complain as if money were like leaves in the bush. Can leaves in the bush not be converted into money? Are the leaves not easily convertible into money. Some say, if money were like sand. What about that? Is sand not money? If you gather sand by the road side, you can easily convert sand to cash by selling it to builders. In that case is sand not money? Can you now realise that everything is easy money.
The refuse thrown away is money because it can serve as manure. People are looking for refuse to buy to enrich their soil. When refuse is bought, that money can by your food. Similarly, feaces passed by people can be used as manure. People are looking for refuse to buy to enrich their soil. If you can make it available in a good quantity, a farmer will buy from you to fertilize his soil. From that transaction, you can have money to buy food.
Brethren, a look at you invokes great pity. Though I preach always, the Brotherhood Pulpit carries gospels preached once in a week on Sundays. That is to say fifty two Sundays in a year. What happens to other the preachings? These are lost to the all the inhabitants of the world, except to a negligible few who are here.
God has given us hands, and the Almighty God himself works with His hand. Others, from Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Our Lord Jesus Christ worked with their hand. What do you derive from your own theoretical book knowledge? Where do you derive your own gospel which provides that you should sit with arms folded and issue orders? Where do you derive such doctrine from?
Have you not heard Paul saying we are not chargeable to any person but wrought with labor and travail. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not constitute a burden to any person. He laboured with His hands. It is this same practical lesson that He has imparted to mankind that all hands should be on deck.
Whatever you can do, whether crop farming or piggery, or poultery or any other type of farming that you can do with your hands is good enough. Drawing water for people, cutting people's hair, washing of clothes, are some of the jobs you can safely do for your livelihood. Tell me if these cannot fetch you money for your needs? But you are all very lazy.
There is no more famine till doomsday. If you plant cassava stems, they will yield a lot of cassava for your food. Yams and other food crops are made by God for food. God has made different kinds of food for man. There are fruits and seeds. But because of our refusal to work with our hands, we suffer untold hardships.
There are many things that can fetch us food. The palm fruits in many places are not exploited but are allowed to waste away. The price of palm oil is now very high. Notice that large plantations of palm trees lie unattended to while people who should process them go about stealing, studying accountancy, salesmansip, typing and shorthand. I wonder with the austerity where you are going to practise your trade. The immediate natural environment provides you enough to do but you go to learn that which is alien and abstract.
Brethren, realise the situation. Right now each of us keeps washer men. What are you doing yourself? Can you not wash or iron your dress? You want a barber when you have two hands. Personally, I am an expert barber. It is a thing you do with ease. You hire cooks, stewards, and drivers whom you pay. Can you not drive the car? If you have enough money to buy the car, can you not learn to drive? if you have food, can you not cook?
If you go to the market now to purchase some items, you will hire a carrier to carry your load to your destination. Probably the little yam tubers you bought for two nairas will cost five naira to convey to your destination. Another carrier will be around to carry your umbrella for one naira. Are you not a dead man? I am saying this to your shame. To go to a distance as from here to Mbukpa Road, you will wait for a taxi cab for three hours, yet this distance can be covered conveniently and briskly to and fro on foot in only ten minutes.
THE MOST GRIEVOUS SICKNESS IS LAZINESS. ALL OF YOU ARE VICTIMS OF THIS SICKNESS. You are always lying on your backs, playing draught and pleasing yourselves in your idleness, forgetting that stealing is no occupation. If you learn to steal, you have no occupation. POOLS STAKING is no occupation. PEOPLE DEMAND THAT WHEN YOU PRODUCE TWENTY NAIRA THEY WILL DOUBLE IT FOR YOU. MONEY DOUBLING IS NO OCCUPATION. IT IS SWINDLING. Necromancing is no trade. What can he tell you? Any person who is alive, hardworking and industrious will not visit a necromancer. THE NECROMANCER IS A TRICKSTER.
In the past when a person was sick of any serious illness, he was simply instructed to collect and concoct certain leaves to heal himself and thereafter go to his farm. In our contemporary society, thirty thousand naira will be demanded for the slightest illness. Is it the leaves that demand thirty thousand from you? Is it the leaves which demand a goat?
God's programme takes on an evolutionary process. When Job suffered from botch and God wanted to heal him, He showed him what leaf to apply. When Job did as was instructed, he was healed without a charge. The same thing happened to king Hezekiah when he also suffered from botch.
The Holy Spirit can direct you to apply a certain herb as an ointment on your pain, and when you do, you will be healed. However, that practice was good enough for that time. BUT NOW THAT HE HAS COME IN PERSON, WHEN YOU ARE AFFLICTED, JUST KNEEL DOWN, KNOCK YOUR HEAD ON THE GROUND AND SAY LET THANKS AND PRAISES BE TO GOD, AND EVERYTHING WILL LET GO. IN THIS CIRCUMSTANCE WHAT IS THE USE OF GOING BACK TO THE USE OF HERBS?
The issue of labouring with your hands does not mean you have to seek first the services of people of various professions. You need not call in a surveyor to survey the land before you start planting.
Come to think of it, you do not have up to ten naira yet you want to employ the services of a surveyor at one thousand naira just because you want to farm. Go and farm the traditional way our forefathers used to farm. Plant your crops like plantain, bananas, oranges, yams, cassava, and other crops and God will bless the yield.
Cocoa, rubber, coconut, palm oil are economic crops but no person wants to engage in the cultivation of any of these crops. You are all engaged in the study of sciences which are abstract and not applicable in the real life situations. Are you waiting till you die of hunger?
Imagine the extensive forests reserve in this country. If there is no forest in your place, you can still find some in neighbouring areas for exploitation. Nature has provided plenty of resources for man, free of charge. Water is always at man's disposal for fishing. Anything you can do with your little hands to earn a living and live in peace is what God wants. Brethren, I am only scratching the periphery. If I should delve into it, we may not even do justice to the topic in ten years. Let our First Bible Lesson be read.
First Bible Lesson: Ephesians 4:28
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."
Does it refer to me or to you? To whom does it refer? It refers to me, to you and to all the inhabitants of the world. Right now, you are crying of hunger. Why do you go to live in a strange land without being gainfully employed? Everyday you will pocket your hands and parade the city yet you complain that God does not love you. Do you mean that God does not love you whereas you have two hands. Are you not responsible for your fate? Is it not laziness that ruins you? Is it not laziness that leads you to steal, to spy, to backbite, to tell lies, to play tricks, to stake pools every week? Since you started your pools staking, have you won? Do you not know that it is all tricks?
Concoction does not enrich anyone. No charm induces your husband or wife to love you. Your only salvation is to engage in profitable ventures. If you did not know why God created us and gave us hands, legs and wisdom, we were meant to use these members to labor for our food. Unfortunately, all the inhabitants of the world have forgotten this word of God that I am now going to give to you. The concerns Psalm 127:1 "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
The land you cultivate, is it cultivated by God? The commercial activities you want to engage yourself in, have you invited the presence of God, before starting? The house you are building, have you involved God? It is said, Thou shalt have no other God before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them."
Have you not buried some charm in the ground, purporting that your farm should yield bountifully? Is that the source of good harvest? You prepare charms against thunder and witchcraft. You refer to some as inducement for God's protection for the land. That is the situation you plunge yourselves into. This is the source of your poverty.
When you want to trade, charm is prepared for you. You rub or smear your body with concoction, hang a talisman on your neck and inject black powder into your body. When you rub anything on your body, you have failed. You will sustain losses in your commercial ventures.
However, let me not delve into the issue of concoction today, because today is not the day for it. I am only dropping a hint in case you engage in trading and complain that you have difficulties and financial problems. If you are trading, have you not introduced diabology? Did you surrender your merchandise to Our Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you remember when Moses went to the Mount to receive the tablet of commandments FROM THE HANDS OF THE ANGEL? When the Israelites could no longer bear his long stay, they demanded that his brother Aaron should make unto them a "god" to go before them. They assembled their earrings, necklaces, trinkets, bangles, and he made for them a golden calf. Immediately, God departed from them and as a result many of them died.
People complain about the activities of Brotherhood. Can you see what Brotherhood has come to do? I have told you Brotherhood has not yet started its work in its correct perspective. Right now you have gone to marry a wife whom you expect should help you in cooking, laundry, and other domestic chores. But the wife protests that she is human being and advises you to hire a maid because she will not be able to perform the domestic duties. What is she doing in the house?
You will sometimes find up to twenty children in the family but because they are your children, you choose to hire servants to serve in the house while your children go to school. They are treated as children of very important persons. Food is served them while they only attend to their studies. They neither fetch water nor clean the house. Who has given you such teaching?
Brethren, that is the situation. But the scripture advises us not to eat a man's food for nought and not to give food to the lazy. No person should remain idle. Children should also labour with their hands. While some should split wood, others should keep the house clean while some still do the laundry work. We should help ourselves. We are labourers together with God.
Now that you claim to be a government worker, what do you mean by government work? You refuse to do the work of God but you claim to do government work. You will notice that some of those who profess to be civil servants do not engage in the white collar jobs; they are night soil men, cleaners and refuse collectors, security guards, road labourers, others do some odd jobs like cutting grass, clearing the bush, washing clothes, cooking and serving food. Others are carpenters, fishermen, farmers, surveyors, navigators, and other types of jobs. If they can do these for the government, why can they not do these same jobs for themselves to earn a living.
Many of those who are millionaires in Europe and America are mostly farmers. In your own case, you claim you will not want to engage in farming but you prefer to be awarded government contract.
If the contract relates to farming which demands bush clearing, you go to the site and clear your own bush after knocking your head in obedience to God, praying Him to give you what to eat, and at the end, are you reaping the yield for yourself or for another person?
If you find a person who cannot help his brother or relation or friend or townsman but prefers to help those outside, realise that he is looking for a conducive atmosphere to receive bribe from those he is not in any way related to. He knows that he cannot safely receive bribe from his kith and kin but he will collect from others.
Similarly, when somebody professes to be a civil servant is going there to lazy about, for he sits in the office all day only to append signatures on pieces of paper and at the end of the month, he collects his salary. That is what you find. They do not do any work.
If you should use your hands for what God has created you, it will be well. You only have to knock your head on the ground and pray that He has directed that we should labor for our food, then surrender everything to him, brethren, none of us would have any problems. God would bless the earth for us.
Many people complain that there is unemployment. Why am I overworked? Why is it that for twenty-four hours of the day I have no rest yet you are complaining that there is no work? Are you sure there is no work for you to do? Do you not find work abundant in the world to do? Is it not laziness that ruins you? I work for twenty four hours each day throughout the 365 days in a year. There is much work to do in the world.
The body and spirit are one. The body cannot work if the spirit is not there. The spirit cannot do any work without the body. Without the body, the spirit will depart. Without the spirit the body collapses. From my observation of the present state of affairs in the world, how much can one be paid per month to be sufficient for one's food? You are charged fees for virtually every service. What do you do for yourself? What are you? Are you God? Even God Himself does not sit idle.
You go about with money looking for somebody to be your carrier, yet you are looking for work to do. Your little load costs fifty kobo while you are also looking for work. Everything requires money, yet you are looking for work. The time has come for each and every one of us in this New Kingdom of God to labor with our hands for our food.
IN THE FACE OF THIS WE DO NOT REQUIRE THE POURING OF LIBATION BUT WE WANT GOD TO BE ALL THINGS FOR US. WHEN WE INVITE GOD INTO OUR ENDEAVORS, EVEN IF WE INVEST ONE KOBO AND WE ASK GOD TO TAKE OVER FOR US, HE WILL MULTIPLY AND PROVIDE ENOUGH FOR US AND OUR HOUSEHOLD.
You all know the cost of one orange, and one banana, and mango, and pepper, and snails and other things. These things abound on your land of birth. But there is no person who is prepared to exploit these resources. You will argue that you want to be trained as an engineer or an accountant. If you have so been trained, can you manufacture and prefabricate your engine?
Cain was a farmer. Abel was a shepherd. Buy a hen and a cock and start a poultry farm. Plant yams and cassava. These could be prepared in many ways as food. The time to idle about has passed. PLACE YOUR WORK BEFORE GOD AND HE WILL HELP YOU TO GROW. HE WILL GIVE YOU GOOD HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND EVERY GOOD THING. HE WILL PROTECT YOU.
What I have seen in the world is incredible. The fraud that is in the world is even worst than armed robbery. How can a full fledged and healthy man tell you that he has no money and that you should give him money to buy his needs? The person you are asking for money, where do you expect him to get the money from? Is your type of robbery not worse than armed robbery?
A man can come into your house quite unprepared to pick a broom and sweep the floor, he is not prepared to fetch water, he is not prepared to go to the market, he is not prepared to do anything at all, but he professes to be doing the work of God. What does he mean by the work of God? Is it going about receiving money from others? Or is it sitting with arms folded?
I do not want such attitude to work in this kingdom. You always complain that you are an orphan, a widow, what happens to your hands? Can you not split wood? Can you not clean the house? Can you not do any menial work which could earn you a little income? I do not admit laziness here, because we must learn and put into practise the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let our Second Bible Lesson be read unto you.
SECOND BIBLE LESSON: 2ND THESSALONIANS 3:8
"Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you."
Have you heard that? People complain that Brotherhood does not do the work of God but engages in commercial activities. I accept that I trade and farm. I am a contractor. I clean houses for people, I fish and do all kinds of lucrative work. It is what I have seen Our Lord Jesus Christ do. I do not want to be chargeable to any person, let no man be chargeable to me. That should be the attitude of other people.
ALL HANDS SHOULD BE ON DECK. THAT IS THE WAY GOD WANTS MAN TO LIVE. HE DOES NOT ADVISE ANY PERSON TO GO ABOUT BEGGING IN THE NAME OF DOING THE WORK OF GOD, TELLING PEOPLE THAT YOU ARE PRAYING FOR THEIR SOULS, THAT THEIR SOULS ARE IN YOUR HANDS, WHILE YOU DUPE AND DEFRAUD THEM. IS THAT NOT A BLATANT LIE?
Right now contributions are made in church denominations. Members are indebted to the church. Who do you owe? What did you buy? Does the work of God admit idleness? What happens to your hands? What of your legs and eyes? Can you not use them to serve God? You have to follow the life pattern of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
When you call yourself a Brotherhood member what do you expect to be paid for? Employ your hands gainfully. There are many things to do. There is also money here. But it is expected of us to use our hands. Even a child has the right to employ his hands gainfully. There are many things to do. There is also money here. But it is expected of us to use our hands. Even a child has the right to employ his hands. All your children should labor with their hands. There is nothing like seniority. When your wife works, do some laundry instead of paying a washman to wash your clothes, learn to drive and to repair your cars. Learn to type and do many other things.
BRETHREN GOD HAS GIVEN US THIS SPECIAL PRIVILEGE BECAUSE WE ARE THE LIKENESS OF GOD. WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO EVERYTHING, FOR GOD HAS GIVEN US THE WHEREWITHAL. BLESSINGS COME FROM WHATEVER YOU USE YOUR HANDS TO DO. OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST WHO INSTRUCTS US ON THIS ISSUE DOES HIS THING ALONE. THAT IS WHY HE SAID MY FATHER WORKETH HITHERTO I WORK." WE TOO HAVE TO WORK. WE HAVE TO EMULATE THOSE BEFORE US.
DO NOT DO THINGS ON YOUR OWN VOLITION SINCE THIS BRINGS ABOUT PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD. LAZINESS AND EATING A MAN'S FOOD FOR NOUGHT BRINGS ABOUT PROBLEMS APART FROM YOU CONSTITUTING YOURSELF INTO A BURDEN FOR OTHERS. IF YOUR FATHER IS RICH AND YOU BOAST AND COLLECT MONEY FROM HIM ALWAYS, YOU ARE A THIEF AND A WRETCHED MAN.
The salt you borrow will not be enough to season your food. If you keep receiving money from people, and you do not work for your own income, such money will not last with you but it will return to its source. In that case, peace will be illusive.
I am preaching about myself. I am not preaching about anyone else. I do not remember any day in my life that I decided to rest. What is good with me that I should rest? what about the amount of work accumulating for me. Split wood, cut people's hairs and fetch water. Who will do them? Do you think people will bolt from the blues to do the work? It is for you and me to do.
You know me as a dealer in clothes only. It is not so. I am also a fisherman, tailor, barber, farmer, washman and cook. I am everything. There is nothing that I am not. Brethren, when you come to see the Father, you think he is only concerned with preaching, I cover other areas as well.
Do not be a burden to your wife. She has her work. We all have to join together and contribute our quota. Without that, we are going to be faced with hunger. You have your duty, I have my duty, and all others have their duties. We have to join together and do the work so that we may have peace and what to eat and good health.
The human body can be likened to a machine such as a motor car or bicycle, or a sewing machine. If you abandon a machine for a long time, it will develop some faults and can run to a state of disrepair. The reason why people lived longer in the past was that they engaged themselves in activities that exercised their bodies. But now you all want to sit at one place, cross your legs, thinking it is the best thing to do. By so doing, the blood in you will clot and you become old, and useless.
Do you think that if to board a vehicle from here to 26 Mbukpa were to be very very good thing, I would not be in an aeroplane everyday? It is a heinous sin. What I do is best. I walk the distance to and fro, and I thereby exercise my body. By that, I warm the operative engine of my body system.
I am teaching you what I possess. I walk on foot for 9 Kilometers and more. I walk from here to Akpabuyo. I walk on foot while you ride your bicycle. But before you get to your destination, I would have arrived there, because I am used to it and I take pleasure in doing so. In your own case, you are lazy and aged. It is the result of your craftiness.
If you know the distance between Biakpan and Umuahia, you will be surprised that I covered the distance on foot. Apart from walking to and fro on foot, I also carry a very big load. I am a carrier. The load that I can carry on my head can be carried by three persons.
Let our Golden Text be read.
GOLDEN TEXT: MATTHEW 17:27
"Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to sea, and cast a hook and take up the fish that first cometh up: and when thou has opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take and give unto them for me and thee."
I have never been a burden to any person. I have been a burden to neither a woman nor to a man, nor to a child nor to an adult. I carry my own burden, everyday throughout the twenty-four hours of a day. That is what we do in my place.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has taught you that it should be done on earth as it is done in heaven. What you are taught now is what is done in heaven. If I come to your house now, I have to sweep the floor, fetch water, split wood. When I come, I come with my food. I do not come to cross my legs and expect a fair treatment. I am not a visitor. Right from now, do not be a stranger to any person.
Where was Peter seen when Our Lord Jesus Christ caught him? Was he not a fisherman? What has he told him today? Go thou to sea, and cast a hook, and take up a fish-the first that cometh up and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and thee. Where have you learnt your own doctrine?
Paul was a net maker and mender. He worked day and night and he was not chargeable to any person. You ask your father to pay you. Who has paid your father? You ask your husband to pay you, who has paid your husband? You do not render any service.
All of us want wealth while others are impoverished. This explains why we accuse people of being bad and useless. We cause confusion and steal and struggle to be heirs of other people's inheritance. This results from laziness. Lazy people receive no blessing from God but they continue to lack.
Our Lord Jesus Christ had told us, "Take heed beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." You who pray for the death of a person so that you may inherit his property, will you abide here forever? You who struggle for somebody's property, what did you bring to this world and with what will you return? You who seek help from another, did you come together? Do you know when he came and when he will return? Is it not because of this that when something happens to a person, you weep profusely, because to you your bank is lost.
If you should follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, have your hope in him, and use your hands to work, without being a burden to either your father or any other person, you would have no problems.
To be trained in tailoring is good. Accounting is good. Engineering, medicine, and all other professions are good where and only where it is easily and readily applied. But if you study these subjects where there is no effective demand for them, what is your profit?
The situation can be likened to somebody offering to give a lady to a young man free of charge. When you give the lady free to the man, have you provided him with money for the lady's feeding? Have you given her clothing? Tell me if a person giving you a lady free of charge has done any good thing for you? Is that not an invitation to trouble?
To study an abstract subject or to study what is readily applied in your natural environment, which is preferable? Before the coming of the whites, we cultivated traditionally, our land, engaged in our petty farming. When our fathers lived and planted their crops and they had enormous yields, was their farming merchanized?
Laziness is the greatest enemy of mankind today. This is so because 99 percent of the able bodied inhabitants of the world are not gainfully employed. God does not rest. Why do you rest? WHY DOES GOD EXALT OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ABOVE EVERY OTHER PERSON?
IT IS BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH HE WAS THE SAME WITH GOD, HE DID NOT MAKE HIMSELF EQUAL TO GOD. HE LABORED FOR HIS FOOD. FOR THIS REASON HE TOLD PETER TO CAST HIS HOOK INTO THE SEA. HE WAS NOT A BURDEN TO ANY PERSON. THAT WAS WHY GOD EXALTED HIM ABOVE EVERY OTHER PERSON.
Do not treat your wife as a servant. Do not regard your child as a servant. What are you doing yourself? Who are you? Let us not constitute ourselves into burdens unto others. Before you arrange to buy a suitcase, if you do not have clothes for the box, what is the use of buying the box. If you have clothes and you cannot wash them, why do you purchase them at all? Who will do the washing for you?
God has ordained that each person should bear his own burden. Do you not find me sweeping the floor? I do any kind of work. Why should I not? Am I not a human being? It is my responsibility. It is the basis of my teachings.
IF THERE IS ANY SIN THAT IS THE GREATEST IT IS LAZINESS. When you sit down and shout at Okon to give you your slippers; Grace to open the gates, what is it that you are doing? Who are you? Even if you are a Governor, or President, or Prime Minister, or whatever you think you are, you have to work with your hands. All hands must be on deck. Do not be a burden to any person. Otherwise you should put yourself into fervent prayer.
If all the inhabitants of this world should now ponder over this gospel, and begin to practise it gradually, according to their ability, giving thanks to the Father and asking Him for the ability to use our hands, brethren, within a short time, their troubles would be over.
When you hear that the Chinese are advanced, or that the Japanese and the Russians are developed, they are very resourceful and industrious. They engage in farming and other activities. It is only here that we are too dependent on theoretical acquisition of knowledge. We spend time speaking big and bombastic grammar and we parade ourselves as professors and doctors. These glorious titles avail us nothing at all.
Whoever advises you not to labor with your hands but to rejoice in whatever you find does not love you; he has killed you.
Before the advent of the whites, whoever did not work was not given any girl to marry. Such a person was regarded as a wicked man, a murderer and a thief. But if you are hardworking and industrious, a girl was gladly given to you for marriage, while others were denied such privileges. You are very lucky in this age. If it had been in those days, many of you would never taste of marriage.
Brethren, I want governments and all citizens to rise up to action, and put the gospel into practice. You have heard of the rate of armed robbery in Bendel State of Nigeria. Laziness brings about stealing and robbery. It brings about sickness and death. It is the source of craftiness and malice. But if you have what to do and tax your brain for it, you will have the peace of God and receive His blessing.
This is why we have the Education, Labor and Welfare Board. It is the Board's duty to make sure that everybody throughout the Brotherhood world is gainfully employed, labouring with their hands Farming, baby sitting, laundry, driving, singing and any other lucrative business is worth doing. All hands must be on deck.
A stroke of the cane is sufficient unto the wise. I do not intend to be tedious unto you. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. May God bless His Holy Words. AMEN
Thank you Father.