Not many people who profess the Christian faith today have ever heard of William Law or his book, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. The title alone is enough to scare one off. The content is even more threatening, demanding and frustrating. Law was born in 1686 in England. At the age of twenty-eight he made a decision that seemed to him to be a matter of honor. When Queen Anne died and George I ascended to the English throne, all holders of academic and ecclesiastical offices were required to swear allegiance to the new monarch. William Law refused to do so, because people “swearing the direct contrary to what they believe,” in his thinking was wrong. His decision deprived him of his expected career, but it opened the way for him to give his life to writing. His writings of the 18th century influenced people like John Wesley and Samuel Johnson—and in the twentieth century his writing had a profound influence on me, an influence that has continued even into this twenty-first century.
William Law is visiting me this morning. We’ve just discussed the “wrongness” of swearing allegiance to someone or something that is contrary to one’s deepest belief and commitment. A Christian, Law reminds me again, is a person who has heard One Voice above all others. There is but One Voice to which he or she gives full allegiance and commitment—that Voice is Jesus Christ.
He reminds me, too, that I, along with all others in the Christian fellowship, often confuse my own voice (thoughts, positions, ideas and opinions) for the Voice of Jesus. He tells me through words he wrote over 300 years ago that I ought to at least make an honest effort to live up to what I profess to believe. “Never allow yourselves to despise those who do not follow your rules of life, but force your hearts to love and pray for them.”
Law reminds me, too, that I (and my brothers and sisters who take on the name of Christian) must continually examine my life (my religion). “If my religion is only a formal compliance with (that) which is in fashion where I live; if it costs me no pain or trouble; if it puts me under no rules and restraints; if I have no careful thoughts and sober reflections about it—is it not foolish to think that I am striving to enter in at the strait gate? How can it be said that I am working out my salvation with fear and trembling.”
Finally, he tells me to be careful of being puffed up: “Now in order to begin in the practice of humility you must take it for granted that you are proud…For there is no one vice that is more deeply rooted in our nature or that receives such constant nourishment for almost everything we think or do…For you can have no greater sign of a confirmed pride than when you think that you are humble enough…So! He who thinks he has humility enough shows that he is not so much as a beginner in the practice of true humility.” Yes, William Law, shouts out a serious call.
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