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HOSPITALITY

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 23, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 43.

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HOSPITALITY

By Mrs. Geo. A. Irwin

MRS. GEO. A. IRWIN.
The meaning of the word “hospitality” signifies love to strangers, expressed in entertaining and using them kindly. We are commanded to “use hospitality one to another without grudging.” We have many examples of hospitality exercised by the patriarchs, some of whom have entertained angels unawares; and we are admonished not to be unmindful to entertain strangers.
“The primitive Christians made one principal part of their duty to consist in the exercise of hospitality, and they were so exact in the discharge of it that the very heathen admired them for it. They were hospitable to all strangers, but chiefly to those that were of the same faith and communion. Believers scarce ever went without letters of communion, which testified the purity of their faith. This was sufficient to procure them reception in all those places where the name of Jesus Christ was known.”
As a people we are becoming somewhat negligent of our duty in this respect, compared with the spirit manifested in the early days of the message. I know that many doors stand wide open to brethren and sisters, and to all in need, and such homes are seldom without a guest. But this work and its blessed results should be more evenly divided.
It is difficult for those settled in pleasant, quiet homes to realize what such a life as that of many of our ministers, our Bible workers, and our canvassers means. It is truly woman’s gospel work to make a home for these laborers when they come within reach. Let it be known that your home is open to them, and that you will make them welcome while they work to spread the truth in your locality. During this time let your home be a little training school, in which you can get information and experience to carry on the work when they are obliged to go to other fields. If you are an isolated Sabbath-keeper, correspond with the canvassing agent in your State, and I am sure he will gladly arrange, if possible, to have some of the canvassers spend some time with you.
In the sacred record we read of one noble woman who said to her husband, “Behold, now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick; and it shall be when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.”
If you are not familiar with the incident, read it, in the fourth chapter of 2 Kings, and see the blessing that came to this household for this act. Would that there were many more humble chambers consecrated to the Lord in this way. The Saviour said to his disciples, “He that receiveth you receiveth me;” and surely any home is blessed with such a guest.