Personal service

“ Personal Work.—In winning persons to the new life there is an admitted need of a work of the individual for the individual, but it is a task from which many draw back. Yet it is right here that the most effective service may be accomplished. Every man who receives Christ becomes in a certain sense a trustee to enlist others in His service and to give to them the light of life. ”

“ It needed not his long experience to warn him that men, crowded together in so small a space, could only be kept in their social and professional stations, by the most rigid observance of forms and decorum, and he had observed a due attention to these great requisites, in prescribing the manner in which his own personal service should be attended to, and his personal dignity supported. ”

“ Every man of us may be in his life, in the great unconscious influence of his presence, a clearly lettered signpost pointing men to the Master. All true service begins in personal contact with Jesus. One cannot know Him personally without catching the warm contagion of His spirit for others. And there is a fine fragrance, a gentle, soft warmth, about the service that grows out of being with Him. ”

“ An answer to the question may be of help in deciding whether the difficulties that are found in the present system of domestic service arise in every case necessarily from the personal relations which exist between employer and employee, or are largely due to economic conditions over which the individual employer has no control. ”

“ A second advantage is that the occupation is conducive to good health, including as it does regularity and variety of work, and involving no personal inconvenience or discomfort. [245] In one third of the families considered men servants are employed in some capacity, and this means that much of the hard work is done by them. ”

“ After all, it is only through unselfish service in the world of men that this broadening can come.
There is no lack of opportunity for service. Perhaps the simplest and most‌ available form of service is charity,—the big, professional kind, of course, —and beyond that the greater field of intimate and personal charity. I know a girl of talent and ability—herself a nervous invalid—sick and helpless for the lack of a little money which would give her a chance to get well. ”

“ But even in Germany, where obedience is man’s first law, as order is heaven’s first law in other parts of the world, it is impossible to obtain service books that do not need to be supplemented by personal inquiries. The service book is of value in weeding out the most inefficient employees, but it can do little more. As in any other form of recommendation, the employer wishes to say the best possible thing for a servant that he may not injure his prospects of obtaining another place. ”

“ Personal Care.—All betterment of the home must begin with the individual and every individual has a chance to exercise this care as his lot is cast in some family. Thought, time, money, all need to be employed in working out in a practical way the ideal of the true home. ”

“ If you are a gentleman, do not, we beg you, permit the lack of an introduction to prevent you from promptly offering your services to any unattended lady who may need them. Take off your hat and politely beg the honor of protecting, escorting, or assisting her, and when the service has been accomplished, bow and retire. ”

“ I think that much of the trouble felt by persons in your situation of life, would be very much lessened, if a right view were taken of the respectability, usefulness, and advantages of the station you occupy. I do not think you are aware either of the good you can do to others, or of the benefits you may receive yourselves, in your employment. ”

“ It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service. ”

“ Therefore the servants who read these sentences, and the women who have servants in their households, should interpret the word in the spirit it is written—that of true American courtesy and respect.
Domestic service requires a certain character lacking in most other professions. As a servant, you care for the things of others and it should be done with as much attention and regard as if they were your own. ”

“ There are occasions in life in which such knowledge as I possess of the world and its ways may be of great service. Now, without for an instant obtruding myself on your confidence, or inquiring into affairs which are strictly your own, I wish to say that my advice and counsel, if you need either, are completely at your service. ”

“ They throw us back upon our conscience, and force us to examine the motives with which we call others to service or answer the call ourselves. Is service truly a rescue or a profession? Do we hope to cure our neighbor's misfortune or to live by it? Nothing could be more reasonable than that service should be judged by its value to the served, yet too often we practise this unselfishness as it were for our own good; we obey the call to service as an invitation to a salutary exercise of the soul. ”

“ If, then, I can show that domestics have great power to do good given them, and that they really use this power in doing good, I shall prove that the station of a domestic is an honourable and respectable one. And if I can show that domestics have more power, and actually do more good, than many who think themselves above them, I shall prove, too, that they have the more honourable and respectable station. I will therefore point out the power of doing good which is given to domestics. ”

“ Before domestic service is freed from all the difficulties that attend it there must be a more widespread recognition of the responsibility of the individual employer to those outside his own household. ”

“ Yet service perfects manners and dignity, from the highest to the lowest, and the manners of perfect servants either public or private are models of dignity and fitness. The manners of the best servants often put to shame those of their employers, for their self-possession and complete knowledge of what they are and ought to be raises them above the unquietness of those who have a suspicion that they are not quite what might be expected of them. ”

“ There grew up a regular profession of doing things for people, which gave an outlet for a laudable desire for service, but which contributed nothing whatever to the self-reliance of the people nor to the correction of the conditions out of which the supposed need for such service grew. ”

“ It is a matter, then, that equally interests all classes in society to inquire, How shall the station and employment of a domestic be raised in public estimation, so as to be regarded honourable and respectable, as much so as it deserves to be?
Now this can be accomplished only by [82] having both sides try to bring it about. On the side of employers, pains must be taken to render the situation of domestics agreeable and comfortable, and to secure for them time and means to gain a good education and a comfortable support. And many intelligent persons are now feeling the importance of this. ”

“ For a reform in domestic service a moral revolution is everywhere needed, bringing with it to every person an appreciation of his responsibility to all connected with the employment, whether employer or employee. ”

“ Endeavour to serve with such good will, readiness of mind, and attention to the lawful interest and convenience of your employers, as to render your services almost necessary to them; that they may know and feel that they are blessed, above many of their neighbours, in having gotten a good servant, one who serves, not with eye-service as a man-pleaser, but in simplicity of heart as a Christian. ”

“ We must all of us know some old employees, old servants who have been and are some of the best friends we have ever had. The writer has, in the course of his own experience, often had to appeal to employers of labour to help an old servant in time of trouble, and he has almost always found that the sense of obligation—when the service has been good service—has been freely recognised. ”

“ Now if you ever have a family yourself, and have persons to help you, would you not think it right and proper that they should do your work as you wished it done?—and would you not feel that it was proper that your children should treat you with respect, and that your domestics should set them a proper example in this particular? No doubt you would, and therefore do unto your employers as you would that others should do unto you, if your circumstances are changed and you become employer instead of domestic. ”

“ By following this advice about your manners, dress and language, and by faithfully endeavouring to perform all your duties to God and your fellow creatures, you will find, that every day, you will gain in the esteem and good will of all around you, and that few will be found with that silly pride which will make them shun your society because you are a domestic. On the contrary, your employers and their children, will love and respect you, and be pleased to procure for you all the comforts and advantages they can secure, consistently with the convenience and prosperity of the family. ”

“ Great care should be exercised, in the selection of these agents or commission merchants, that they be of a genial, conciliatory disposition, steady habits, and gentlemanly address, never in a hurry, and give attention to dress and personal appearance. ”

“ When I have attempted to join myself to others by services, it proved an intellectual trick, — no more. They eat your service like apples, and leave you out. But love them, and they feel you, and delight in you all the time. ”

“ With what pleasure and satisfaction have I been permitted to serve with the members of this society! What willingness to perform the duties suggested has ever characterized the assistance that has been rendered by the membership of this society! It has been an exceedingly rare thing for any member to offer an objection to undertaking any service asked of him, and with such support as this so readily and heartily given, and often at large expense to the member, what can be expected other than such success as has come to our society. ”

“ I look upon it as a favour that you take my service kindly. You pay so great an acknowledgment to me for so small a kindness, as though I did not owe you much greater. He serves him self that serves his friend. He that serves a friend does not give away his service, but puts it out to interest. If you approve of my service, pray make frequent use of it; then I shall think my service is acceptable, if as often as you have occasion for it you would not request but command it. ”

“ Always accept voluntary service with the slight acknowledgment that suffices to indicate your consciousness of it, nor deem it unworthy of one pilgrim upon the great highway of life to cheer another upon whom the toil and burden falls heaviest, by a smile or a word of encouragement. ”

“ As they are so truly our benefactors and furnish us with so much genuine enjoyment and absorbing interest, we are under obligation to repay their services to us by some form of service to them, which will minister also to the well-being of our communities. ”

“ She also has regular daily business, and is obliged to be industrious—and a habit of industry is one of the truest sources of contentment and happiness.
Besides this, a domestic is brought into contact with a great variety of tempers, and learns to accommodate, and to govern her temper and tongue as she never could do without this kind of trial.
[75] A domestic, too, is in a situation in which she is, all the time, called on to give up her own ease and time to promote the comfort of others, and this tends to make the duty of self-denying benevolence, more easy to learn. ”

“ A person, then, who goes into a family and agrees, for a suitable compensation, to do the work, under the direction of those who hire, is in a state of constant training, which has a most beneficial tendency in preparing for future life, both here and in another world. ”

“ No doubt, too, most of my occupation with myself—in sleep, food, exercise, study—is a necessary preparation for social service. All I am urging is that social service cannot stand alone. It requires a large individualistic background. ”

“ The connexion of teachers and scholars which has subsisted for so many years between yourselves and my family, is about to be dissolved forever. But this circumstance has greatly augmented my solicitude to render the last admonitions I shall ever give you in my character of adviser, of some permanent service to you. They will relate to such endowments of mind and qualities of heart as you will most frequently have occasion to exercise in future life. These are, self-control, gentleness and benevolence of disposition, purity and rectitude of conduct, courtesy and politeness of manner. ”

“ This afternoon I had pledged myself to a new service—a service of self-renunciation and patient labour, undertaken—yes, I dare to say it—for the welfare of the large sisterhood of waiting and working women. A servant? ”

“ Now if I only could find domestics who are intelligent, well-bred, neat in dress and person, and who so understand the proprieties of their station as to set a good example to my children, I should not have the least objection to their sitting in my parlour, or at my table, whenever it was convenient, nor to treating them in all respects as the friends and companions of my children. ”

“ But the domestic, who in her humblest employments, goes about trying to do every thing in the best manner, aiming thus to serve God, by promoting the comfort of his creatures—she is the one who receives his approving smile—she is the one who, whatever she does, is doing all “for the glory of God.” ”