Page:Sermon by the Bishop of Rochester 1901.djvu/9

 to be it is part of the world's work; it comes under the great law of service. He may, and ought to, get his living by it; he may hope to distinguish himself and shine in it; but if he thinks truly he will see that neither the profit nor the reputation are the bottom reasons for its being done. This is to be found in some service or usefulness to human life of the work itself. You will see how much this is forgotten in common thought—perhaps specially in a time of strong competition like ours. Yet it is a simple moral truth, given back to us when we try to think of things in God's light. I leave it to you to think how much it does to ennoble drudgery and routine, and to help us in feeling that very common work here may be indeed a school for greater work beyond.

This truth gives dignity to all work; but it also gives a standard by which different kinds of work may be compared. Different forms of work happily suit different men, and all are honourable. But we cannot help regarding some as higher than others, and I would venture to say that the real test of higher and lower is this, which has in it most of service, and of difficult or needed service, to human life. The great callings of the Christian Ministry, of Education, of Medicine, gain each their special honour by this test. And that of Law, rightly regarded, and in its higher aspects, is not far behind. I commend this thought to those of you who have still the choice of a profession to make.

But a man's life is wider than his professional duty, and he is a poor citizen and a poor Christian who thinks of his time and thoughts and interest as divided between necessary business and leisure. These are not the men to whom the best life of a country owes most, but such as feel that they owe duties of a wider kind to the service of God and man. It is a duty for all, e.g., to help make a healthy, clear, vigorous, benevolent public opinion. It is a duty for a man, wherever he is placed in life, to be felt as one of those sturdy servants of good