An Appeal for Self-supporting Laborers to Enter Unworked Fields

The Experience of Paul and Its Lessons

While Paul was careful to set before his converts the plain teaching of Scripture regarding the proper support of the work of God, and while he claimed for himself, as a minister of the gospel, the power to forbear working” at secular employment as a means of self-support, yet at various times during his ministry in the great centers of civilization, he wrought at a handicraft for his own maintenance.The Acts of the Apostles, 346. PH005 30.2

There were some who objected to Paul's toiling with his hands, declaring that it was inconsistent with the work of a gospel minister. Why should Paul, a minister of the highest rank, thus connect mechanical work with the preaching of the Word? Was not the laborer worthy of his hire? Why should he spend in making tents time that to all appearance could be put to better account? PH005 30.3