Precept and Practice – SEPTEMBER 29 – Vocation

The word ‘vocation’ in the minds of some of those among whom it is mostly used has come to be generally connected with two particular kinds religious life – with the priesthood among men, and the religious life among, women.   But this is an unwarrantable restriction of its meaning.   Every kind of life, if it is the following of God’s will, is the life of vocation.

(The Reverend G. Longridge)

But Christ knew the world as well as we know it.   He knew quite well that the work of government, of knowledge, of commerce, of literature, of manual labour had to be done;  and the only persons He ever asked to leave them aside were those who wished to set themselves apart for the special work of apostles and ministers of the Gospel.   To them He said:  ‘Leave all, and be fishers of men,’ but to the mass of men. He said: ‘Go back to your home and your daily life, but do your work in love, in harmony with the character of God.’  Done in that fashion, in a spirit of Christ’s love, truth, honesty, purity, pity, and justice it is the work of God, of Him that sent us into the world of men to do His work.   We owe this foolish objection to the division orthodox folk in the past have made between what they call ‘sacred work and profane work,’ and the last thing that Christ would have conceived would have been such a division.

All the honest, unselfish work of the world is God’s work.   God’s business on this earth is the free development of Human Nature;  therefore every work which strengthens and ennobles the body, the soul, the intellect, and the spirit of man is His work.

(Brooke – The Gospel of Joy)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW