laborers

139:7.7The pres­ence of Mat­thew among the twelve was the means of keep­ing the doors of the king­dom wide open to hosts of down­hearted and out­cast souls who had re­garded them­selves as long since with­out the bounds of re­li­gious con­so­la­tion. Out­cast and de­spair­ing men and women flocked to hear Je­sus, and he never turned one away.

141:3.7The Mas­ter never said, “Come to me all you who are in­do­lent and all who are dream­ers.” But he did many times say, “Come to me all you who la­bor, and I will give you rest—spir­i­tual strength.” The Mas­ter’s yoke is, in­deed, easy, but even so, he never im­poses it; ev­ery in­di­vid­ual must take this yoke of his own free will.

144:8.8“It would ap­pear that the Fa­ther in heaven has hid­den some of these truths from the wise and haughty, while he has re­vealed them to babes. But the Fa­ther does all things well; the Fa­ther re­veals him­self to the uni­verse by the meth­ods of his own choos­ing. Come, there­fore, all you who la­bor and are heavy laden, and you shall find rest for your souls. Take upon you the di­vine yoke, and you will ex­pe­ri­ence the peace of God, which passes all un­der­stand­ing.”

163:6.7“You have en­tered upon this great work of teach­ing mor­tal man that he is a son of God. I have shown you the way; go forth to do your duty and be not weary in well do­ing. To you and to all who shall fol­low in your steps down through the ages, let me say: I al­ways stand near, and my in­vi­ta­tion-call is, and ever shall be, Come to me all you who la­bor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am true and loyal, and you shall find spir­i­tual rest for your souls.”

165:3.8“How long will you tarry in the val­ley of de­ci­sion? Why do you halt be­tween two opin­ions? Why should Jew or gen­tile hes­i­tate to ac­cept the good news that he is a son of the eter­nal God? How long will it take us to per­suade you to en­ter joy­fully into your spir­i­tual in­her­i­tance? I came into this world to re­veal the Fa­ther to you and to lead you to the Fa­ther. The first I have done, but the last I may not do with­out your con­sent; the Fa­ther never com­pels any man to en­ter the king­dom. The in­vi­ta­tion ever has been and al­ways will be: Whoso­ever will, let him come and freely par­take of the wa­ter of life.”

163:3.5“The king­dom of heaven is like a house­holder who was a large em­ployer of men, and who went out early in the morn­ing to hire la­bor­ers to work in his vine­yard. When he had agreed with the la­bor­ers to pay them a denar­ius a day, he sent them into the vine­yard. Then he went out about nine o’clock, and see­ing oth­ers stand­ing in the mar­ket place idle, he said to them: ‘Go you also to work in my vine­yard, and what­so­ever is right I will pay you.’ And they went at once to work. Again he went out about twelve and about three and did like­wise. And go­ing to the mar­ket place about five in the af­ter­noon, he found still oth­ers stand­ing idle, and he in­quired of them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all the day?’ And the men an­swered, ‘Be­cause no­body has hired us.’ Then said the house­holder: ‘Go you also to work in my vine­yard, and what­ever is right I will pay you.’

163:3.6“When evening came, this owner of the vine­yard said to his stew­ard: ‘Call the la­bor­ers and pay them their wages, be­gin­ning with the last hired and end­ing with the first.’ When those who were hired about five o’clock came, they re­ceived a denar­ius each, and so it was with each of the other la­bor­ers. When the men who were hired at the be­gin­ning of the day saw how the later com­ers were paid, they ex­pected to re­ceive more than the amount agreed upon. But like the oth­ers ev­ery man re­ceived only a denar­ius. And when each had re­ceived his pay, they com­plained to the house­holder, say­ing: ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour, and yet you have paid them the same as us who have borne the bur­den of the day in the scorch­ing sun.’

163:3.7“Then an­swered the house­holder: ‘My friends, I do you no wrong. Did not each of you agree to work for a denar­ius a day? Take now that which is yours and go your way, for it is my de­sire to give to those who came last as much as I have given to you. Is it not law­ful for me to do what I will with my own? or do you be­grudge my gen­eros­ity be­cause I de­sire to be good and to show mercy?’”

163:4.101. Con­se­crated de­vo­tion. To pray al­ways for more la­bor­ers to be sent forth into the gospel har­vest. He ex­plained that, when one so prays, he will the more likely say, “Here am I; send me.” He ad­mon­ished them to ne­glect not their daily wor­ship.

140:9.3Je­sus ad­vised them to take nei­ther money nor ex­tra cloth­ing, say­ing, “The la­borer is wor­thy of his hire.” And fi­nally he said: “Be­hold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be you there­fore as wise as ser­pents and as harm­less as doves. But take heed, for your en­e­mies will bring you up be­fore their coun­cils, while in their syn­a­gogues they will cas­ti­gate you. Be­fore gov­er­nors and rulers you will be brought be­cause you be­lieve this gospel, and your very tes­ti­mony shall be a wit­ness for me to them. And when they lead you to judg­ment, be not anx­ious about what you shall say, for the spirit of my Fa­ther in­dwells you and will at such a time speak through you. Some of you will be put to death, and be­fore you es­tab­lish the king­dom on earth, you will be hated by many peo­ples be­cause of this gospel; but fear not; I will be with you, and my spirit shall go be­fore you into all the world. And my Fa­ther’s pres­ence will abide with you while you go first to the Jews, then to the gen­tiles.”

163:1.3Be­fore Je­sus laid his hands upon the heads of the sev­enty to set them apart as gospel mes­sen­gers, ad­dress­ing them, he said: “The har­vest is in­deed plen­teous, but the la­bor­ers are few; there­fore I ex­hort all of you to pray that the Lord of the har­vest will send still other la­bor­ers into his har­vest. I am about to set you apart as mes­sen­gers of the king­dom; I am about to send you to Jew and gen­tile as lambs among wolves. As you go your ways, two and two, I in­struct you to carry nei­ther purse nor ex­tra cloth­ing, for you go forth on this first mis­sion for only a short sea­son. Salute no man by the way, at­tend only to your work. When­ever you go to stay at a home, first say: Peace be to this house­hold. If those who love peace live therein, you shall abide there; if not, then shall you de­part. And hav­ing se­lected this home, re­main there for your stay in that city, eat­ing and drink­ing what­ever is set be­fore you. And you do this be­cause the la­borer is wor­thy of his sus­te­nance. Move not from house to house be­cause a bet­ter lodg­ing may be of­fered. Re­mem­ber, as you go forth pro­claim­ing peace on earth and good will among men, you must con­tend with bit­ter and self-de­ceived en­e­mies; there­fore be as wise as ser­pents while you are also as harm­less as doves.