"The City Slums In the great cities are multitudes who receive less care and consideration than are given to dumb animals. Think of the families herded together in miserable tenements, many of them dark basements, reeking with dampness and filth. In these wretched places children are born and grow up and die. They see nothing of the beauty of natural things that God has created to delight the senses and uplift the soul. Ragged and half-starved, they live amid vice and depravity, molded in character by the wretchedness and sin that surround them. Children hear the name of God only in profanity. Foul speech, imprecations, and revilings fill their ears. The fumes of liquor and tobacco, sickening stenches, moral degradation, pervert their senses. Thus multitudes are trained to become criminals, foes to society that has abandoned them to misery and degradation. MH 189"
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
The description of the suffering in city slums and the lack of care for the poor parallels the idea of ministering to the 'least of these' as ministering to Christ.
"The tilling of the soil, the employment that God appointed to man in Eden, opens a field in which there is opportunity for multitudes to gain a subsistence. MH 189.1"
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
The EGW passage directly refers to the 'tilling of the soil' as an employment appointed by God, which is a clear reference to the consequences of the fall in Genesis 3:19, where man is to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. While Genesis 3:19 is a consequence of sin, EGW frames it as an opportunity.
"“Trust in the Lord, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” Psalm 37:3 . MH 189.2"
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed."
Ellen White directly references Psalms 37:3 in this passage.
"Thousands and tens of thousands might be working upon the soil who are crowded into the cities, watching for a chance to earn a trifle. In many cases this trifle is not spent for bread, but is put into the till of the liquor seller, to obtain that which destroys soul and body. MH 189.3"
"Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine."
The passage describes the destructive effects of alcohol consumption, mirroring the warnings against it in Proverbs 23:29-30.
"Many look upon labor as drudgery, and they try to obtain a livelihood by scheming rather than by honest toil. This desire to get a living without work opens the door to wretchedness and vice and crime almost without limit. MH 189.4"
"For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat."
The passage condemns idleness and the desire to live without honest work, aligning with the principle in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that those who do not work should not eat.