Service

“ I could conceive an Emigration Service, a Teaching Service, considerable varieties of United and Separate Services, of the due thousands strong, all effective as this Fighting Service is; all doing their work, like it;— which work, much more than fighting, is henceforth the necessity of these New Ages we are got into! Much lies among us, convulsively, nigh desperately struggling to be born. ”

“ In the work of these marvelous centers of superuniverse administration, control, ministry, and executive judgment, the intelligences of every sphere of universal life are mingled in effective service, wise administration, loving ministry, and just judgment. ”

“ 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. ”

“ How can we educate the public up to an appreciation of the necessity for trained and expert service in every branch of the Government? How can we order our public service so that it will attract the ablest men and women and guarantee progressive careers to those who prove loyal and efficient? ”

“ Underlying all superficial characteristics, and reinforcing an amazing dialectical quickness, ingenuity, and grasp of detail, there was a solid core of large and simple devotion to ideals of public service, which compelled respect and commanded devoted friendship and service. ”

“ We cannot delegate it to Congress or legislatures, to benevolence or charity, to managers or superintendents, to the “man who has time” or to the agitator. The call is to national service for every one of us, and the only answer should be, where can we serve best and how soon shall we begin? ”

“ With regard to any particular service or concern, I would ask, Is it more convenient, more likely to lead to economy and efficiency, to let this service rest in the hands of some single person or group of persons who may offer to do the service or administer the concern, and whom we will call the owners, or to place it in the hands of some single person or group of persons, elected or chosen by lot, whom we will call the official or group of officials? ”

“ The leading words of the title limit each other; it is a history of the civil service from the standpoint of the patronage, and of the patronage with regard solely to the public offices. The aim has been to give fully the development of policy and practice as to the relation of these two elements of our public life, from the foundation of the government to the present day. ”

“ What is the test, what is the measure? A subjective feeling, somebody's opinion. Tell a man in time of peace that he ought to serve his country and you have uttered a pious platitude, Tell him in time of war, and the word service has a meaning; it is a number of concrete acts, enlistment, or buying bonds, or saving food, or working for a dollar a year, and each one of these services he sees definitely as part of a concrete purpose to put at the front an army larger and better armed, than the enemy's. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And so, brethren, take this sharp test and apply it honestly to your own lives, day by day, in all their minutiae as well as in their great things. 'If any man serve Me,' how miserably that Christian 'service' has been evacuated of its deepest meaning, and superficialised and narrowed! 'Service'—that means people getting into a building and singing and praying. ”

“ The question how to improve the present condition of domestic service is, however, not a hopeless one, but the answer to it must be based on an examination of the historical and economic principles underlying the subject. ”

“ I am satisfied that both in and out of the classified service great benefit would accrue from the adoption of some system by which the officer would receive the distinction and benefit that in all private employments comes from exceptional faithfulness and efficiency in the performance of duty. ”

“ William Adams Brown, "a service that is directed to the satisfaction of needs already in existence, and there is a service that is itself the creator of new needs which enlarge the capacity of the man to whom it would minister. ”

“ Although not directly stated in my text, there is implied in it another thought, namely, that whilst power obliges to service, service brings power. He that uses his influence, his authority, his capacities, his possessions, not for himself, but for his brothers, will find that by the service he has garnered in a harvest of authority, and power of command which nothing else can ever give. ”

“ You will, however, in general avail yourself of the services of any Persons, whether Fugitives from Labor or not, who may offer them to the National Government; you will employ such Persons in such services as they may be fitted for, either as ordinary employees, or, if special circumstances seem to require it, in any other capacity with such organization, in squads, companies, or otherwise, as you deem most beneficial to the service. ”

“ The service is a military service, and the command of a military nature; and in such cases, every delay, and every obstacle to an efficient and immediate compliance, necessarily tend to jeopard the public interests. ”

“ Whatever may have been the amount of service due to the master at the time of his departure,—whether the whole life and energy of a slave, or a limited quantity of work from a servant,—that service was his property, and he desired to turn it to the best account. ”

“ That which is needful for any faithful discharge of any servant's duty is most of all needful for the discharge of the highest duty and the noblest service to the Master who has the right to command all our service. ”

“ These men come into his service from various walks of life: some are peasants, some merchants, and some laymen. But this service they owe the king before all his other subjects, namely, that wherever the king’s officials come at his command to present the king’s causes or business, and these housecarles of whom we are speaking are present, they must join the retinue of these officials and render such assistance as they can in all the king’s business. ”

“ And Rank for her meant Duty, various,
Yet equal in its worth, done worthily.
Command was service; humblest service done
By willing and discerning souls was glory. ”

“ I think the economy, purity, and efficiency of the public service would be greatly promoted by their systematic introduction, wherever practicable, throughout the entire civil service of the Government, together with ample provision for their general supervision in order to secure consistency and uniform justice. ”

“ The faithful servant enters into the joy of the Lord; the faithful administrator of his Lord's talents enters on the rule over cities in number the same as the talents. Capacity for service is the result of stewardship rightly administered here, and new opportunities yonder are sure to be provided for new capacities. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The work would be so national, and the request made to you proceeding from the Government, your position would ensure the respect and consideration of every one, especially in a service where official rank carries so much weight. ”

“ Public service offers better rewards in the opportunity for service than ever before in our history—not great salaries, but enough to live on. In the building of this service there are coming to us men and women with ability and courage from every part of the Union. ”

“ We feel that a general Agency of this description to be really useful must embrace every variety of service, and that acute attention should be paid to the smallest trifle, often regulating the comfort and convenience of those by whom we are employed. ”

“ Indeed this obedience varies according to the various kinds of service wherein servants are connected with their masters. The sorts of servants most common among us are, 1. Labourers, or workmen, with whom we agree by the day, to do such work at such a price, and who accordingly serve us during that time: 2. ”

“ Government service, moreover, in this country, is not held to be a badge of honor, as it is in Germany and France, and, to a degree, in England; it will never form the basis of a bourgeois aristocracy, and hence will attract of the steady-going only those who have no better financial opportunities. ”

“ We are determined to return the benefits we have received from the country by doing a service to those amongst whom we have lived.
“We feel that we shall succeed, to some extent, at any rate. As long as we have that task before us we shall know no despair. ”

“ No one knows better than I the capabilities of a system of domestic service at its best. I have seen children who were spiritual sons and daughters of their masters, girls who were friends of their mistresses, and old servants honored and revered. ”

“ We either want good, faithful, and intelligent service or we do not. If we do, then we must also want the means to the desired end; and an important part of the means will be a secure tenure of office for capable and faithful public servants. ”

“ In either service a good and honourable career is open to you—for you have everything found for you, food, housing, clothing, and hospital, with good pay and the certainty of promotion and pension for the rest of your life if you make up your mind to serve loyally, steadily, and well. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But God makes no mistakes; according to their service He divides the help, and those who are called to the holiest service are those who can have least assistance. ”

“ You will do good service at least in teaching any of these who will listen to you, that if they can once make up their minds to a fixed state of life, and a fixed income, and a fixed expenditure—if they can by any means get their servants to stay long enough with them to fit into their places and know the run of the furrows—then something like service and mastership, and fulfilment of understood and reciprocal duty, may become possible ”

“ In your application at any time for a new service, express yourself with frankness and sincerity on every point of enquiry—Avoid the error of requiring too high wages—many good situations have been lost through it. Do not undertake a service to which you are not competent. It is no disgrace not to know every thing ”

“ One is to recognize and endeavour to perfect the system of domestic service which has been for centuries in use; the other is to develop and establish a new system which lies as a possibility in the minds of many people and has been sporadically tried. ”

“ I have a right, I think, to insist that those who volunteer or are invited to give advice as to appointments shall exercise consideration and fidelity. A high sense of duty and an ambition to improve the service should characterize all public officers. ”

“ There were fewer servants and they were of a lower social status than before. They were often sons of merchants, clergymen, and army officers. Gentlemen no longer advanced by service to a great man, but instead through grammar school and university education, commerce, the law, or the armed services. ”

“ The government service is open to all men, under a system of competitive examinations, and promotion does not go by family or favour, [pg 188] but is in almost all cases a recognition of ability exhibited in minor offices. ”

“ 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. ”