Women as Soulwinners
79
protest. I will feel it in my duty to create a fund from my tithe money,
to pay these women who are accomplishing just as essential work as
the ministers are doing, and this tithe I will reserve for work in the
same line as that of the ministers, hunting for souls, fishing for souls.
I know that the faithful women should be paid wages proportionate
to the pay received by ministers. They carry the burden of souls, and
should not be treated unjustly. These sisters are giving their time to
educating those newly come to the faith, and hire their own work done,
and pay those who work for them. All these things must be adjusted
and set in order, and justice be done to all. Proof-readers in the office
receive their wages, two dollars and a half and three dollars a week.
This I have had to pay, and others have to pay. But ministers’ wives,
who carry a tremendous responsibility, devoting their entire time, have
nothing for their labor.—
Manuscript Releases 12:160, 161
.
In not paying qualified spouses, we have sometimes done an
injustice to them—Injustice has sometimes been done to women who
labor just as devotedly as their husbands, and who are recognized
[78]
by God as being necessary to the work of the ministry. The method
of paying men-laborers, and not paying their wives who share their
labors with them, is a plan not according to the Lord’s order, and if
carried out in our conferences, is liable to discourage our sisters from
qualifying themselves for the work they should engage in. God is a
God of justice, and if the ministers receive a salary for their work,
their wives, who devote themselves just as disinterestedly to the work,
should be paid in addition to the wages their husbands receive, even
though they may not ask for this.—
Gospel Workers, 452, 453
.
Women’s wages proportionate to time they give the work—
Injustice has been done to women who labor just as devotedly as
their husbands, and who are recognized by God as being necessary
to the work of ministry as their husbands. The method of paying
men-laborers and not their wives, is a plan not after the Lord’s order.
Injustice is thus done. A mistake made. The Lord does not favor this
plan. This arrangement, if carried out in our conferences, is liable to
discourage our sisters from qualifying themselves for the work they
should engage in.
A mistake is made when the burden of the work is left entirely
upon the ministers. This plan was certainly arranged without the
mind of God. Some women are now teaching young women to work