to have no use for some of its citizens. They are "unemployed." The state has nothing for them to do. They are unwanted. They form for the time an unnecessary surplus, about which the state seems to care not at all. In such circumstances it is impossible for a man to believe that the state has a vocation for him to fulfil. For the time being, his work and his life are obviously worthless to the state.
But if his sense of vocation is based on religion, he may still believe that he is of value. He may still be upheld by the conviction that even though society seems to have no use for him, he is of infinite worth in the sight of God. Christianity has always insisted on the value of the individual soul. Every man, however humble, is called of God to some vocation which he, and he alone, can fulfil. And this is not a mere doctrine. It has been a support and encouragement to thousands whose lives would otherwise have been barren of interest and purpose, or oppressed by anxiety and failure. Their lives have been literally inspired by a sense of vocation.[1]
§ 5. Training for Vocation. It is obvious that the child must be trained for his vocation. But it is
- ↑ To any reader who may chance to be familiar with philosophical discussion, it will be clear that a Metaphysic of Ethics is implied in the last two or three pages. The argument of these pages might equally well have been couched in metaphysical terms. A system of Ethics necessarily drives us on to ask ultimate questions which we cannot attempt to answer without some theory of the Whole. Such a metaphysical theory underlies these pages, and also, I hope, the general argument of the book. But for the purposes of this book I have thought it well to keep Metaphysics as much as possible in the background. It is impossible, in a book of this kind, to discuss ultimate metaphysical problems in any detail; and merely to raise them without trying to thrash them out has seemed undesirable.
