A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

Written by William Law in 1728, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life was a powerful work of its time, greatly influencing radical religious leaders including Charles Wesley, a leader of the Methodists, and Henry Venn, a founder of the evangelical Clapham Sect of Anglicans. In A Serious Call, Law argues that devotion must be an omnipresent fixture in every Christian's life. One cannot affect devotion during times of prayer and then forget about it during times of common activity. In essence, he suggests that all aspects of one's life become a kind of prayer, undertaken with the serious attention and regard for God that is often saved only for church attendance. Anyone interested in improving his or her relationship with God will find this an informative and supportive read. English clergyman WILLIAM LAW (1686-1761) was ordained at Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1711 and wrote a number of books, including The Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Regeneration (1731), The Way to Divine Knowledge (1752), and Appeal to all that Doubt and Disbelieve the Truths of Revelation (1740).