| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 1 |
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There is an impression that the calling of a minister is more sacred than that of the carpenter, the shoemaker, or the merchant. But the old man was right when he said that his calling was as honourable as his pastor’s. They do not have an ordination service for the painter or the grocer; but why should the not have? There really is a splendour, a radiancy, in each one’s peculiar occupation, however plain it may seem. St. Paul said to the Corinthians, “Let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God.” The slave was to continue in his trade, with God. We should not feel humiliated by our earthly condition – we should glorify it. The angels, as they go about, do not recognize rank in people’s occupations – some graded low, some high. We are ranked by the degree of diligence or faithfulness that we put into our tasks. The bright, cheery, good hearted bootblack, who “shines ‘em up,” is far above the useless, way up millionaire who never thinks of God or man. You can live a noble, divine life anywhere with God. Your thorn bush burns with fire.
One whose life seems lowly writes: “Some of my friends pity me for having to work in a factory, but I feel honoured that God should call me to work at something like my Master’s earthly calling, and I do not feel that polishing and packing watch crystals is my real mission there more than carpentering was his.” The thorn bush burns with fire.
We go to far off lands to see the splendours there. Italy is glorious. Switzerland is glorious. But there is glory also in every common blade of grass, in every tiny flower, in every bud, in ever leaf, in every butterfly. You read biographies of great men and are charmed by what they did, by the noble qualities you find in their character. That is well. But just where you are there are glories too. In your own life there are divine possibilities. You have not yet begun to find them all or realize them.
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