Gospel Workers (1915 ed.)

Repaying Hospitality

Young ministers should make themselves useful wherever they are. When visiting people in their homes, they should not be idle, making no effort to help those whose hospitality they share. Obligations are mutual; if the minister shares the hospitality of his friends, it is his duty to respond to their kindness by thoughtfulness and consideration in his conduct toward them. The entertainer may be a man of care and hard labor. By manifesting a disposition, not only to wait upon himself, but to render timely assistance to others, the minister may often find access to the heart, and open the way for the reception of truth. GW 106.1

The love of ease, and, I may say, physical laziness, unfits a man to be a minister. Those who are preparing to enter the ministry should train themselves to do hard physical work; then they will be better able to do hard thinking. GW 106.2

Let young men set up well-defined landmarks, by which they may be governed in emergencies. When a crisis comes that demands active, well-developed physical powers and a clear, strong, practical mind; when difficult work is to be done, where every stroke must tell; when perplexities arise which can be met only by wisdom from on high, then the youth who have learned to overcome difficulties by earnest labor can respond to the call for workers. GW 106.3

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