It is beyond all doubt that women have a service to fulfill in connection with evangelism. Romans 16 bears witness to this, by naming the busy sisters Phebe, Priscilla, and Mary, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis, the mother of Rufus and Tertius, Julia, and the sister of Nereus. They stood high in the service of the church and had done much work in the Lord. The apostle designates them as "my helpers in Christ Jesus." These words are a valuable admission by the lone apostle to his co-workers who led a wife about with them (1 Cor. 9:5) who was concerned with more than the physical well-being of her husband.
The minister's wife carries a great responsibility. There are times when her husband is weighed down under the burden of souls in and out of the church; then she smoothes the wrinkles of his soul. From the power of God she helps him to the refreshment that gives him each day anew the necessary motivation for his work. If he is the priest of the family, then she is the assistant who interests herself with all her soul's intensity in the education and discipline of her own children. A good preacher, he slips in many a friendly recognition of her work. His wife stands behind him, perhaps covered and hidden, and is happy for him. Everywhere in the church she is found where there is something to be done. Therefore Ellen G. White could write, not only from spiritual inspiration, but also from the practice of her own life:
"In former years the wives of ministers endured want and persecution. . . . Their lives were in constant peril. To save souls was their great object, and for this they could suffer cheerfully. . . .
"With meekness and humility, yet with a noble self-reliance, she should have a leading influence upon minds around her, and should act her part and bear her cross and burden in meeting, and around the family altar, and in conversation at the fireside. The people expect this, and they have a right to expect it. If these expectations are not realized, the husband's influence is more than half destroyed.
"The wife of a minister can do much if she will. If she possesses the spirit of self-sacrifice, and has a love for souls, she can with him do almost an equal amount of good. A sister-laborer in the cause of truth can understand and reach some cases, especially among the sisters, that the minister cannot. . . .
"The husband . . . may receive the honor of men, while the home toiler may receive no earthly credit for her labor; but if she works for the best interests of her family, seeking to fashion their characters after the divine Model, the recording angel writes her name as one of the greatest missionaries in the world."—Gospel Workers, pp. 201203.
In the course of more than thirty years of evangelistic work I have had many industrious and competent co-workers helping me. But when I came to an especially difficult place, or began work in a public hall, then my wife would stand at the literature table that was as a rule set up. While the visitors thought only to buy or receive a piece of literature, later my wife would press some addresses into my hand. If there was a very special "case," I would send my wife ahead, if it concerned a woman. When finally "her" soul was baptized, I put it down on "my" report. But the most precious fact of all is that our children, now already grown, were converted to the Lord. To God be thanks for that.
Let me, to the praise of every genuine minister's wife, close with the words of the apostle John in his second epistle:
-Unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. . . I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another" (2 John 1-5).
