Advices and Queries for February 2007
The Advices
The Advices have served Friends for many generations in their
search for a life centered in the Spirit. Arising from the
experience and aspirations of successive generations of Friends, the
Advices are illustrations of how to carry faith into all aspects of
life. They first appeared in the form of epistles sent among
Friends to encourage and strengthen each other in their faith.
Friends find their essential unity in the profound and exhilarating
belief in the pervasive presence of God and in the continuing
responsibility of each person and worshipping group to seek the leading
of the Spirit in all things. The Advices serve to help shape our
daily lives and their reading is intended to remind us that all aspects
of our lives are under divine guidance.
Vocations
In our relations with others in our daily work, let us manifest
the spirit of justice and understanding and thus give a living witness
to the Truth. While trying to make provision for ourselves and
our families, let us not be anxious, but in quietness of spirit trust
in the goodness of God. When we suffer from unemployment, let us
seek the support and encouragement of our meetings. When we have
a choice of employment, let us think first of the service that we may
render. Let us be ready to limit our engagements, to withdraw for
a time, or even to retire from a business that we may be free for new
service as God appoints it.
The Queries
Friends have developed the Queries to assist us to consider
prayerfully the true source of spiritual strength and the extent to
which the conduct of our lives gives witness to our faith. To
these ends, the Queries should be read frequently.
Meetings should be aware that our standards of conduct do not derive
from an outward set of rules but rather from the teachings, and the
examples offered by the spiritual experiences and lives of those who
have preceded us and from our own encounters with that inward
revelation through which “the way, the truth, and the life”
seek expression today.
Vocations
Do you respect the value of all useful work, whether paid or
unpaid, whether physical or intellectual, whether performed in the home
or in the larger community? Does your daily work use means and
serve goals which are consistent with the spirit? Are you honest
and trustworthy in all business transactions, prompt and just in
payment of debts? By counsel and example, do you encourage young
people to enter vocations which will serve society?