Certain fundamentals must be considered in choosing a vocation, among them our qualifications and capability, adaptability, education, training, family influence and responsibility, appeal, world need, and, greatest of all, divine Providence. We shall consider only a few of these in detail.
          Individual capacity must come in for proper consideration in choosing a career. Human inclinations and desires should be considered, whether these inclinations be inherited or acquired. Capacity is limited when we stop its enlargement and when life is considered sufficient without further aspirations. Millions of people with capacity for doing great things pass through their existence without energizing a fraction of their capacity. Parents have aspirations for their children which are beyond their reach, while other parents minimize the capabilities of their children to such an extent that they cripple them beyond repair. And to kow one's capacity need not breed conceit. Whatever talents we have are God-given, not of our own making, and God should have the glory in their use. But we should all work as nearly as possible to our capacity.
          One young man sells cold drinks over the counter when he should have got a college education and used that education in teaching and leading others. Another sells dry-goods over the counter as a clerk when he has inherent capabilities that would have made him a leader in commerce. No vocation should be considered acceptable when it is possible to follow another in which we can render a larger and more perfect service.
          If our education and training have been neglected we have to choose vocations wherein we can work to the best advantage with the education and training we have, provided always that we be occupied only in such work as pleases God.
          Charles Steinmetz, the electrical genius, when asked as to the secret of his ability to work long hours with little fatigue said: "If your so-called work is the thing that interests you more than anything else in the world, you do it because it gives you greater pleasure than other things. The man who is doing something which is a constant appeal to his interest and imagination is not working; he is enjoying himself." Marden says: "Follow your bent." Carlyle says: "Blessed is the man who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness." A girl teaches school when she is not interested in it; another drudges away her life at a typewriter when her heart is not in the thing she is doing. A man because of supposed social standing tries to be a lawyer, and is a poor one, when he could have been a good farmer. So it goes all along the path of life--there are misfits.
          The best advice I can find in books and from experience says to get a Christian experience, get an education--or as much education as we reasonably can get, find the work that is best adapted to us, that will bring the most glory to God, and that has the strongest appeal to us, and be the very best workman that we can be in that position.
          "What and where is the greatest need in the world?" We should ask ourselves that question in deciding on a vocation, then try our very best to supply that need by doing all the good we can, to as many people as we can, in as many ways as we can.
          Three stone-cutters were at work on a stone. A stranger asked one of them what he was doing. "I'm working for $7.50 a day," he replied. Another said, "I'm cutting this stone." The third said, "I'm helping to build a cathedral." We must have vision.
          But what about the call to be a minister? Every minister is divinely called. But the young man or woman need not wait for a special call, for every Christian is called to service. We know of no better advice than that given by Chas. M. Schwab to the young many who inquired about the road to success. "Begin where you are with what you have," replied Mr. Schwab. If the young person will start right in the day when converted, doing with his might what his hands find to do, it will not be long until he will recognize the divine call to a special work; or if not called to some special, "separated" service, he is always called to do his best in whatever place he may be found.
          We make a great mistake when we take the attitude that only through special, "separated" service can we work for God. There is sacredness in every honoroable secular service, if we give a fair proportion of the fruits of that service to God and humanity. One man cannot preach or sing, but he can work and give of his earnings. One has no call to the foreign-mission field, but there are needy souls all around him in the homeland. One is not gifted in speech, but he can hand out a tract, a magazine; and he can give of his earnings to send the missionary, the preacher, and to purchase the literature. The builder, the farmer, the miner, the laborer, the musician, the teacher, and every honorable trade or profession offers avenues through which the Christian may serve God and his fellowmen.
          There are vocations which serve only as stepping-stones to better things. For example stenography, unless one expects to qualify as an expert stenographer, is only a stepping-stone to a higher position. The bank messenger should be the best messenger he can be, but he must aspire to be a bookkeeper, a teller, a cashier, a president, else the bank does not want him. They want young men and women who will do their best in whatever position they are placed and at the same time prepare for the first vacancy above their present position. The same is true in spiritual things. We must do our best wherever we are placed, and as sure as the sun shines we shall be called to higher and more responsible work. All young men and women should aspire to be all that they can be by way of service and accomplishment. Never mind about reputation; reputation will take care of itself. But let us develop character.

          The church, as a saving, uplifting agency, works through many channels--the ministry, education, publications, social service, and many other lines. Each of these departments has many sub-divisions, which we shall touch farther on. Then there are legitimate vocations altogether outside of direct church service.
          Labor is the law of life. We are compelled to produce or starve. Idleness has never given us a producer or a thinker. Labor is a boon; the right vocation is a gold-mine. Pity the man who does not have to work! Even tho all our needs are supplied, we should still work as long as we are able, for there are others who need. Work turns the wheels of progress. Productivity feeds, shelters, and clothes the world. Our entire economic order rests on the united effort of brain and muscle of one and all. The social fabric is woven in the loom of human endeavor. No one has the right to be a "loafer." In the symphony of labor no part can be missing. Everyone must select his instrument and play in tune, watching all the while the director, who represents the need of the world.
          Every ambitious young many or woman is naturally inquiring and casting about to find the vocation that best suits them. Some are looking for the job that is a "snap," but this is a wrong standard of choosing. The question of a right vocation is a natural one, and it is fundamental. Few mistakes have more tragic consequences, none are more difficult of correction, than the mistake of entering upon the wrong vocation.
          Quite often a vocation is determined upon by chance or accident. Sometimes we are compelled to take the first thing we find as our vocation; but this should be temporary to the extent that we should keep investigating while in that temporary vocation until we have found our place. Economic necessity has determined the career of thousands; and there are many derelicts upon the sea of life because of this. But we are writing to young men and women who for the most part have not yet chosen a permanent vocation; and we can write only briefly at that.
          Too many choose the line of least resistance. "Dad succeeded in this line, and he'll help me out." The job that requires little effort and little brain-power, or little muscular effort, appeals to many. Men of ambition, talent, and capacity fight against choosing the lines of least resistance. Your share in the world's work is not to be determined from the standpoint of ease of operation or from inheritance. Your share of the world's work should be determined at least in part by the need of the world which your trained and developed powers can best supply.
          In choosing a vocation we cannot emphasize too strongly the spiritual. God must be first if we are to succeed. There are greater values than those found in merely material things. There are by-products other than those which have a purely commercial value. Then, whether your work be in pulpit, schoolroom, law, mechanics, or labor, or in some other line, place God first, and let him have a fair share of the product of your labor. God gives us our talent, our health, opportunity; and we owe to him the best that is in us, even tho we choose any one of a hundred from the legitimate vocations.

          It might seem to some at first thought that we should not deal in this book with secular vocations, but we think it well for our young people to consider all honorable vocations, whether they be religious or secular. Not nearly all of our young people will be "full-time" religious workers. Every saved young person should find his place in the church and fill it, even thos his work be done gratis. But he must have a means of livelihood, and this must be sufficient to enable him to help support the church work by financing those who do give full-time service to the church.
          There is honorable, honest occupation for every one of us. Opportunity, heritage, environment, training, industry, aptitude, and other like qualities determine to a large degree service capacities. L. W. Crawford says: "There is wastage when ten-horse-power service capacity is harnessed up to one-horse-power opportunity." Young men and women with their whole lives before them should be specially interested in finding the right vocation. And whatever your vocation, do your work well--the best you know, and strive to do it better and better if possible.
          The dignity of labor is in the spirit of the laborer. The quality of service is in the motive actuating you, and the preparation back of your service. And every young person should have sufficient ambition in taking up secular employment to keep looking up. The man above you is going to quit or drop out some day, and a successor will be needed. Can you qualify? Be ready for your opportunity, for opportunity is certain to knock at your door. Pay no attention to knockers; stick to your job; do your best, and tomorrow do better than your best today. If you enter the business as door-opener be a first-class door-opener, but keep looking up toward the managership. Do not expect to reach it by a "pull," or undermining the fellow above you; but work your way up honorably. And even if you do not reach the top rung, get as near to it as possible.

"It is pleasant to dream of the azure sky
Stretching away so far,
Like a tranquil ocean of choicest hue,
With never a cloud to mar,
Where you sail along to a phantom ship,
With never a care to sting;
But to battle bravely the storms of life,
Is quite a different thing."

          A mere casual glance over the field reveals unlimited vocations for spiritual service. This service requires able, Spirit-filled, enthusiastic, energetic, efficient young people. Never in the world's history has opportunity been so great for you.
          Africa, China, India, Japan, the Philippine Islands, Latin America, and other countries look to America for help, and we have a responsibility to them that we cannot evade. They need preachers, teachers, leaders, nurses, social and industrial workers, workers who will learn the language and customs and work with them for their general evangelization and uplifting.
          The call to service in the foreign-mission fields should inspire us. It will mean hardship, isolation, the breaking of home ties, and a lifetime of toil. But the reward is great; the demand is unlimited and will be ever-increasing. But this branch of the work, as well as all other brances, demands young men and women of sound health, good sense, trained intelligence, social sympathy, and genuine character. They must have a foundation of genuine Christianity. They should examine and reexamine themselves to know what they stand for, to know that they are standing for the right things fundamentally, so that when they go to the foreign field they will be able to stand there.
          The late Theodore Roosevelt said, "Small, narrow, one-sided men, no matter how earnest, cannot supply leadership for moral and religious forces which alone can redeem nations. The strongest men are needed--men of marked personality, who to tenderness add force and grasp, who show capacity for friendship, and who, to a fine character, unite intense moral and spiritual enthusiasm."
          Look out upon the fields of the homeland and you will see opportunity for an unlimited number of young people who will throw themselves wholeheartedly into service to humanity. Indifferent, inefficient, half-hearted workers are finding themselves out of work. This is making place for those who can deliver service. Here are some of the avenues for service at home:
          Sunday Schools. More and more attention is being given to Sunday-school work. This makes a demand for able, efficient, trained organizers, superintendents, promoters, and executives. The young person who has qualifications for this work is in a fair way to pleasant and useful employment.
          Religious Education. Religious education generally is calling loudly for able, bright, intelligent, spiritual young men and women. Leaders are needed; young people who can inspire to a higher life. Not the fashion-plate, artificial kind of so-called leaders, but real men and women who are in sympathy with their fellow-beings and who are in touch with the crowd.
          The present outlook is for a great forward movement in this line of educational endeavor. And the task is inviting. But there must be preparation for such service. The religious as well as the business world is willing to pay for high-class service; it will not pay for any other kind. Do not think that you can dilly-dally, neglect your opportunities, keep late hours, have irregular habits, and qualify for this class of work. You cannot. It means business.
          Home Missions. Here is an unlimited field. Whole counties, cities, and communities are without adequate religious services. America is calling for preachers, singers, and gospel workers who have a message. None other need apply. Home-mission headquarters have been opened or are being opened in every neglected field of America. And this will create a demand for efficient workers. What can you do? "Wall-flowers" cannot do this work. Are you afraid of hard work? Are you looking for an "easy thing"? Are you a shirker? A leaner? A time-killer? You will not do. Can you preach the gospel? Can you tell the story interestingly and convincingly of Jesus and his love? Can you sing, play, lead, organize, plan, work? If so America is calling you. Better get ready for this work now.