Puritan advice for the unemployed - Amy Henry in WSJ Online

From a piece by Amy Henry in WSJ Online:

Much like modern work is separated into white and blue collar, 17th-century tradition held that sacred occupations (like priest or monk) trumped secular ones (like farming or blacksmithing). 

The Puritans, however, rejected such a distinction. Holding to "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10), the Puritans sanctified the common, believing that all work, however lowly, if done for the glory of God, was good. ... 

 The farmer's plow became his altar, his tilling an act of service to God every bit as holy and valuable as the priest's, reminding the unemployed that temporarily taking a step down in pay or status does not equate to failure.

Amy Henry, Idle Hands: Some Puritan Advice for the Unemployed, Wall Street Journal Online, Nov. 19, 2009 (extra paragraphing added).