Chapter 22—Financial Assistance in Worker Qualification
Help Promising Young Men
It should be made a part of gospel labor to help forward promising young men who give evidence that the love of truth and righteousness has a constraining influence upon them, leading them to dedicate themselves to the work of God, as medical missionaries, as canvassers, as evangelists. Let a fund be established to carry this work forward. Then let those who have received help go forth to minister to the sick and suffering. This work will surely open the way for the balm of Gilead to be applied to sin-sick souls.—Manuscript 35, 1901.
(2SM 208.1)
Assistance Given Our First Medical Students
My husband and myself united in taking three promising young men from their humble labors, and placing in the hands of each one thousand dollars to obtain an education in medical lines. This had been the selection that the Lord put into the mind of my husband. The Lord had given light and preference to these three youth, and they were to give themselves to the work of physicians.—Letter 322, 1905.
(2SM 208.2)
Qualifying Executives and Evangelists
There must be a reaching higher, not seeking to excel in the outlay of large buildings and in display, but in the powers, the capabilities, the capacity that they may know how to manage these large interests. Provisions should be made, means invested; a fund secured to educate men and women of other nations and in our own country to be fitted to reach the higher classes. We have too little working talent in the different branches of the cause.—Letter 44, 1887.
(2SM 209.1)
Loans Better Than Gifts
All these things are to be done, as you propose, to help students to obtain an education, but I ask you, “Shall we not all act in this matter unselfishly, and create a fund, and keep it to draw upon on such occasions?” When you see a young man or a young woman who is a promising subject, advance or loan the sum needed, with the idea that it is a loan, not a gift. It would be better to have it thus. Then when it is returned, it can be used to educate others. But this money is not to be taken from the tithe, but from a separate fund secured for that purpose. This would exert a healthy uprightness and charity and patriotism among our people. There must be thoughtful consideration and a skillful adjustment of the work in the cause of God in all its departments. But let there be no meager, stingy plans, in using the consecrated portion for the sustaining of the ministry; for then the treasury would soon be empty.—Letter 40, 1897.
(2SM 209.2)