The Carpenter
The carpenter is a worker in wood. He makes chairs, tables, wooden beds, and almirahs for the house, and ploughs and carts for the farmers. Builders have to employ carpenters to make doors, window frames, floors, and beams for the roof when they are building houses.
A carpenter must have a lot of tools. He wants saws for sawing the wood into pieces, sharp chisels, and axes to cut it, a plane to make it smooth, a “lathe” or turning table to make it round in shape, and hammers and nails to fasten pieces of wood together.
The work of a carpenter is skilled labour. It takes a long time to learn to do the work properly. A carpenter has to use his tools; he has to have a good eye for correct measurement, and he has to think about his work. Before he can make even a chair he must have the plan of the chair in his mind, and the skill to make it according to his plan. In India, where the caste system holds, the art of doing carpenter’s work is taught to the sons by the fathers; for the son of a carpenter generally becomes a carpenter in his turn.
It is a great thing to take pride in the work one has to do. And an honest, clever and hard-working carpenter can take honest pride in making good, solid, and beautiful things. It is not enough to make a table; the carpenter who takes a pride in his work will want to make a strong, solid, shapely table that will be useful for many years and that will look good and sound.
There has been one very famous carpenter in history. This was Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity. Before he went out to preach his gospel, he was the carpenter of Nazareth, a little town in northern Palestine. It is said he used to make ploughs and yokes for the farmers. A yoke is a wooden collar that is put over the necks of the bullocks to keep them together and fasten them to the plough. When Jesus taught the people about God and religion, he sometimes used the language of carpenters. Once he said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me…….. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. By “taking his yoke” he meant accepting his teaching
