EMPLOY.
Synonyms:
| call, | engage, | engross, | hire, | make use of, | use, | use up. |
In general terms it may be said that to employ is to devote to one's purpose, to use is to render subservient to one's purpose; what is used is viewed as more absolutely an instrument than what is employed; a merchant employs a clerk; he uses pen and paper; as a rule, use is not said of persons, except in a degrading sense; as, the conspirators used him as a go-between. Hence the expression common in some religious circles "that God would use me" is not to be commended; it has also the fault of representing the human worker as absolutely a passive and helpless instrument; the phrase is altogether unscriptural; the Scripture says, "We are laborers together with (co-workers with) God." That which is used is often consumed in the using, or in familiar phrase used up; as, we used twenty tons of coal last winter; in such cases we could not substitute employ. A person may be employed in his own work or in that of another; in the latter case the service is always understood to be for pay. In this connection employ is a word of more dignity than hire; a general is employed in his country's service; a mercenary adventurer is hired to fight a tyrant's battles. It is unsuitable, according to present usage, to speak of hiring a pastor; the Scripture, indeed, says of the preacher, "The laborer is worthy of his hire;" but this sense is archaic, and hire now implies that the one hired works directly and primarily for the pay, as expressed in the noun "hireling;" a Pastor is properly said to be called, or when the business side[148] of the transaction is referred to, engaged, or possibly employed, at a certain salary.
Prepositions:
Employ in, on, upon, or about a work, business, etc.; for a purpose; at a stipulated salary.
END, v.
Synonyms:
| break off, | close, | conclude, | expire, | quit, | terminate, |
| cease, | complete, | desist, | finish, | stop, | wind up. |