thee. Whether thou art squire or labourer, rich or poor; whether thy
duty is to see after thy children, or to mind thy shop, do thy duty.
For that is thy vocation and calling; that is the ministry in which
thou canst serve God, by serving thy fellow-creatures for whom Christ
died.

This day the grand prayer has gone up throughout Christ's Church--and
thou hast joined in it--for all estates of men in his holy Church;
for all estates, from kings and statesmen governing the nations, down
to labouring men tilling in the field, and poor women washing and
dressing their children at home, that each and all of them may do
their work well, whatever it is, and thereby serve the Living God.
For now their work, however humble, is God's work; Christ has bought
it and redeemed it with his blood. When he redeemed human nature, he
redeemed all that human nature can and ought to do, save sin. All
human duties and occupations are purified by the blood of Christ's
cross; and if we do our duty well, we do it to the Lord, and not to
man; and the Lord blesses us therein, and will help us to fulfil our
work like Christian men, by the help of his Holy Spirit.

And for those who know not Christ? For them, too, we can pray. For,
for them too Christ died. They, too, belong to Christ, for he has
bought them with his most precious blood. What will happen to them
we know not: but this we know, that they are his sheep, lost sheep
though they may be; and that we are bound to pray, that he would
bring them home to his flock.

But how will he bring them back? That, again, we know not. But why
need we know? If Christ knows how to do it, surely we need not. Let
us trust him to do his own work in his own way.