Religious concepts and metaphors suffused the words and ideas of
many late nineteenth-century American workers. The New and Old
Testaments provided not only personal succor to many working
people but also a set of allusions and parables they applied
directly to their lives and struggles in industrial America.
Working-class ideas and writing often were cast in stark
millenarian terms, with prophesies of imminent doom predicted
for capitalists who worshipped at Mammon’s temple and imminent
redemption for hard-working, long-suffering, and God-fearing
laboring men and women. Christ was uniformly depicted in
workers' writing as a poor workingman put on Earth to teach the
simple principles of brotherhood and unionism. In this 1897
essay in the Railway Times, titled “Christ,” Murphy O’Hea
suggested that Jesus Christ’s early career as a “poor humble
carpenter” proved "that the cause of Labor is holy." Bethlehem.
A stable. Royalty. A savior. A carpenter. Reformer. What
memories hallowed by a thousand sunny recollectio