When our ministers are visiting in a family, let them seek to make the hour of worship a great blessing, and let them when at the meal table, seek to make the conversation a source of spiritual refreshing. Let them talk on Bible subjects, and relate their experiences in holding meetings and in visiting among the people. The parents will be benefited, the children will be impressed, and as the warmth and grace of Christ are felt, the spiritual pulse will be quickened. (VSS 236.1) MC VC

Often a minister is obliged to speak in a crowded, overheated room. The listeners become drowsy, their senses are half paralyzed, and it is almost impossible for them to grasp the subjects presented. If instead of preaching to them, the speaker would try to teach them, asking them questions, and speaking in a conversational tone, their minds would be aroused to activity, and they would be able more clearly to comprehend the truths opened before them. Their understanding would take hold of the living reality of the truths necessary for the quickening of the perception and for growth in knowledge. As he goes over his discourse, point by point, allowing his hearers to ask questions and make suggestions, he will himself obtain a better idea of his subject. Unless the great truths of God’s Word are clearly opened before the understanding, they cannot be comprehended by the mind, or put into practice in the life.—Manuscript 41, 1903. (VSS 236.2) MC VC