"...Devotion
signifies a life given, or devoted, to God." So begins William Law's Serious
Call to a Devout and Holy Life.
William Law
was a priest at the Church of England in the 18th century. Law's book A Serious
Call to a Devout and Holy Life is considered a classic that all Christians
should read. In the book Law suggests practices which will lead to good
Christian living through prayer and devotion.
Originally
published in 1729, Law's book stands as a powerful challenge to Christians. Law
teaches that if God is "our greatest good," then the wisest way to
live is to please God through a life of worship, adoration, and devotion.
Since many
fail to live this way, Law diagnoses why and suggests certain concrete
practices as a remedy. Thus, no one interested in becoming more devout can
ignore this dynamic book. Law's call has encouraged several generations, and
does not fail to encourage believers even today with a serious call to a devout
and holy life.
Life of William Law
William Law
was born on 1686. He was a son of a prosperous businessman. Law had received an
excellent education at Cambridge and had a solid future as a scholar or
clergyman ahead of him.
As a young
adult preparing for university studies, Law had written a list of 18 rules to
guide his living. They included the commitment to the will of God, the primacy
of Scripture, the value of time, a distrust of the world, temperance in all
things, humility and charity, prayer, and constant self-examination.
From a
professional perspective, William Law's life seemed to be over when he was 28
years old. Then Queen Anne died without an heir. On the ascension of the German
George I to the English throne, Law refused to swear an oath of allegiance.
As a
"nonjuror," Law was forced to give up his fellowship and was denied
further advancement in the Church of England or in any academic institution.
Clearly Law
was not a product of his age. Catholic, Anglican, and Puritan factions warred
within the English church. Morality and piety were correct in form but devoid
of spiritual passion in many quarters. Many found "philosophical
religion"—deism or rationalism—more to their liking.
Law would have
none of it. Regarding "philosophical religion," for example, he said,
"There can be no such thing. Religion is the most plain, simple thing in
the world. It is only, 'We love him, because he first loved us.' So far as you
add philosophy to religion, just so far you spoil it."
The outer
structure of his life to his death 47 years later is easily told. For many
years, he served as tutor to Edward Gibbons, father of the renowned historian.
When Edward
left home, Law retired to his family home where he devoted his life to writing.
Celibate, rigorous, and solitary, Law honed his writing skills.
Law's writings
aimed at uncovering shallow devotion and stirring up readers to renewed moral
vigor and holiness. Some writings were responses to published works; others
were more broadly addressed, such as The Absolute Unlawfulness of Stage
Entertainment. But most of his works were in the area of Christian
spirituality, which he refused to relegate to a comfortable corner of life.
William Law's
most widely known book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, pulls
together many of his thoughts in a lucid work addressed to the
"average" Christian. It challenged Christians to wake up from their
spiritual stupor and apply all their energy to the holy life.
In his later
years, Law, influenced by German mysticism, produced The Spirit of Prayer and
The Spirit of Love, which emphasized the indwelling of Christ in the soul.
(This, however, alienated some, like John Wesley, who had up to this time
eagerly followed his work.)
The day before
he died, he said, "Oh what hast thou done? Thou has awakened such a spark
of divine love that quite devours me. Who would have thought that all my life
should end in my dying a martyr to love!"
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
The
eighteenth-century and Enlightenment was a time when rationalist criticism of
religious belief was perhaps at its peak.
William Law's A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life succeeded in
inspiring the most cynical men of the age with its arguments in favor of a
spiritual life.
The book is
much more than simply articulating a set of rules to live by. Law's book
examines what it means to lead a Christian life and criticizes the perversion
of Christian tenets by the Establishment—whether secular or spiritual—whose
real aim is temporal power.
Devotion, as
William Law defined it, should involve all of life—living according to God’s
will and not for one’s own selfish desires. If religion covers all of life,
then it follows that Christians must observe rules that govern all their
actions and not merely times of worship.
Scripture does
not contain a single instruction regarding worship, but almost every verse
gives something on the ordinary actions of life. If we do not practice
humility, self-denial, renunciation of the world, poverty of spirit, and
heavenly affection, therefore, we do not live as Christians.
Why do we
Christians fail to live devout lives? Law asks. We can plead neither ignorance
nor inability, for we have the same knowledge and the same Spirit early
Christians did.
What prevents
us, rather, is a lack of intention. Failure of intention puts us in real
spiritual danger. Although we have ample assurance of God’s mercy when we sin
unavoidably, we cannot count on that mercy when we sin through a lack of
intention, as many Scriptures prove.
Scriptures
show that “our salvation depends upon the sincerity and perfection of our endeavors
to obtain it.”
Law’s main
contention is that we can please God only by intending and devoting all of life
to God’s glory and honor. God takes no more delight in one station or position
than another. His concern, rather, is that we offer reasonable service in
whatever place we occupy in singleness of heart and thus live lives of reason
and piety.
From the beginning,
Law writes, there have been two orders of Christians: those who feared and
served God in secular vocations and those who devoted themselves to voluntary
poverty, virginity, devotion, and withdrawal so they might live wholly for God.
Nevertheless, all orders of Christians are obliged to devote themselves to God
in all things; to do otherwise is contrary...
A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life is a book that can still speak to our time.
