Women's work for Jesus

Front matter

I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J

WOMEN'S WORK FOR JESUS.

BY

Preface

THIS book is published to meet a felt want in the Church, and is addressed especially to Christian Women.

Much has been said and written, of late, on the home duties of women, their social disabilities, and their claims to political preferment, but very little in regard to Women's Work in the Church.

The writer of these simple pages has left the home duties of women, so long and ably discussed, on the one hand, and the question of their social and political privileges on the other, and entered the broad, uncultivated field lying between the two.

More than two-thirds of the members of the Church are women ; and it is time the Church would ask herself the question : What can they

do for Christ and humanity? And it seems b PREFACE.

eminently proper that women should discuss and answer this question, and suggest plans for their own employment.

Chapter III., written for this book by Rev. I. W. Wiley, D.D., Editor of the "Ladies' Repository," is an able and well-written article, and will be read with great interest and profit.

Aside from this, no literary merit is claimed for the book. Plain, practical questions are dealt with, in a plain, matter of fact way ; not so much to please the fancy, as to stir the heart.

Some of the facts may be ugly — some of the

truths unwelcome; but the writer has not felt

at liberty to lower the Christian standard, or

temper her words to please worldly professors

of religion. And although not indifferent to

criticism, she will have, in the event of success

or failure, the glorious consciousness that " she

hath done what she could."

The Author.

Philadelphia,

August 30th, 1871.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER !.

A View of the Home Field.

The Masses do not attend Church 14

CHAPTER II. How can the Masses be reached and evangelized

Ministers cannot do all the Work 37

Men do not perform this Service. 38

Two-thirds of the Church, Women 41

A Christian Woman and a Drunkard 43

Women mould Society 47

The Mourner comforted 49

A talented Minister 50

ANvicked Woman visited 51

Religion is Love 54

Plans of Work 55

There must be Organization 58

Dr. Fowler on Woman's Work 60

Visiting from House to House 62

A Demand for the whole Force 65

CHAPTER III. Adaptation of Woman to Home Missionary

Work.

By Rev. I. W. Wiley, D.D., Editor of the "Ladies

Repository." 66

CHAPTER IV. A Plea for Christian Women's Work

A Lesson for the Church 92

Sisters of Charity 93

Thousands of Children proselyted 94

Protestant Women in the War 95

A Rain of Fire and Lead 97

Worldliness in the Church 100

Work of the Women of the World 101

Theatres managed by Women 102

Circuses managed by Women 103

Woman's Power and Weapons 107

Women at the Cross. 110

Bishop Thomson's Views 112

Chapter V

The Follies and Excuses of unfaithful Professors of Religion, discussed.

A Woman's first Duty is at Home 115

Dress and ornamental Work 118

15,000 Stitches on a Flounce 120

Martyrs to Fashion 124

A young Girl sacrificed 125

Diamonds to build a Church. 127

Baptism of a fashionable Lady 128

Elaborate Head-gear 129

Moral Perjury 131

Dress of Children 132

Doors closed against poor Children 133

Dr. J. W. Alexander's Views 136

Ear-Rings 137

Women of uncircumcized Ears 140

Lady Washington and her Visitors 144

Washington's Mother 148

Franklin's Daughter 149

An Inventory of Woman's Wants 151

CHAPTER VI. Time anx> Ability for Christ's Work

The sick Soldier 155

Jesus the Sinner's Friend 157

Healed Soul and Body 159

Salvation through a Wall 162

Susannah Wesley 164

Peculiarly constituted 165

Dumb as the Dead 166

The unfaithful Mother 167

An idler for thirty Years 169

The Guide-Board 172

The heavenly Ladder 174

The constraining Love of Christ 175

CHAPTER VII. Cross-bearing and Christian Privilege

The true Cross 178

Sham Crosses 179

The young Disciple 180

The Infidel Parents 181

The abundant Harvest 184

Barbary Heck 185

"There may be a Spark left." 188

The Treasures we are to lay up 189

A young Girl redeemed 190

A Welcome at Heaven's Gate 191

After the Battle 193

The 'wounded Soldier 194

" I have the Comforter." 195

The Divine Stamp on Clay 198

A priceless Heritage 199

Are we^not Daughters of a King ? 200

Chapter VIII

Tract Distribution — Women's Work in Heathen Lands — Drunkenness among Women.

Personal Effort with Tracts 202

The Cause brought into Contempt 204

Women's Work in Heathen Lands 205

Degradation of Heathen Women 206

The Women of ancient Britain 207

A Welcome to Christian Women 209

Consecration of Money 210

Drunkenness among Women 211

Places of Resort where Women drink 212

Patent Medicines 214

Duty of Christian Women 216

60,000 Drunkards on a dead March 217

Save the Women and Children 218

Go forth to labor 219

CHAPTER IX. Thoughts and Suggestions for Christian Workers 221

WOMEN'S WORK FOR JESUS.

Chapter I. A View Of The Home Field

TTTE look over this broad land with * * its teeming millions, to find that the religious demands of our populous and rapidly growing country are not being met; that the activities of the Church are' not keeping pace with the activities of the world ; and that the Gospel of Christ is not being preached to the masses.

Nor do we mean by the masses the degraded and criminal, the drunken and licentious, who live in garrets and cellars,

and crowd the lanes of our populous cities. 2 13

14 THE MASSES DO NOT ATTEND CHURCH.

The non-church going multitudes represent all classes, from the lordly millionaire who lives in a palace and fares sumptuously every day, to the humble rag-picker who gathers a scanty living from the gutter.

From careful calculations, based upon facts and statistics from every quarter, we are forced to conclude, taking in the whole extent of our country, that one-half of our people absent themselves from the house of God. And of those who do attend public worship, thousands sustain false and idolatrous systems of religion, so that a still larger proportion are without Christian teaching.

It has been estimated that " not more than one-sixth of the people of the United States ordinarily attend public Christian worship!'

And the American Sunday School

CHILDREN OUT OF SABBATH SCHOOL. 15

Union for 1865, — and there has been very little change since, — report that, " In no one of our Eastern States are one-half of the children in the Sunday schools, and in some of our Western States three-fourths of the children and youth are not only ungathered into the Sabbath school, but large numbers are beyond the reach of any established church."

A deep, undefined feeling of scepticism prevails, which, added to the consciousness of being uncared for, breeds discontent and hatred toward the Church. For these multitudes are living all around us, many of them within sight of our churches ; but our Sabbath bells come to them with no voice of invitation ; their hearts have not been touched ; their sympathies have not been stirred ; the hand of Christian love has not been reached out to them ; and many of them are saying, and

16 LEANING AGAINST A CHURCH.

saying bitterly " There are none who care for my soul"

They have a sense of being uncared for, neglected, not wanted by the Church.

Not long ago, I saw a drunkard stagger along the street till he came to a church. He stopped and leaned against it till I approached. I found him intelligent and penitent, and full of good desires, but too weak to cope with the adversary alone.

He lived next door to the church — under the very shadow of the stately temple — but not one of the 300 members who statedly worshipped there had visited him, or expressed any interest in his salvation, although with his little family he had lived there for months.

Thus neglected, thousands abandon themselves to evil courses, and live unrestrained lives of sin.

THE TIDE OF EMIGRATION. 17

And infidelity, and scepticism, and Sabbath desecration, and revelry, and drunkenness, and debauchery prevail on every hand.

Men set their traps openly for the feet of the innocent, and barter in human flesh, and make themselves drunk on the blood of souls.

And this irreligious element ^ in our midst is being largely augmented by accessions from abroad.

A tide of emigration has set in upon us, from all lands, bringing to our shores thousands of pagans, infidels and false religionists.

Our great city centres, which are the chief receptacle of this influx, are already feeling the corrupting, demoralizing influence of these anti-christian elements ; while, on our Western borders, thousands of pagans are gathering, and

18 MORAL CONTEST BEFORE US.

building their altars and setting up their idols in our very midst.

When political economists and statesmen, looking out upon these storm-clouds, openly express their fears and tremble for the safety of their country, it is time for the Church to arouse herself, put on her strength, and go forth to her God-given mission.

A great moral contest is before us. The doctrines of Christ are to be confronted by the teachings of Confucius; our simple forms of worship that we love so well, by the ritualistic mummeries of Romanism ; our spiritual religion, by materialism and German rationalism; our churches, by play-houses, and beer-gardens and pagodas.

"We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an age, on ages telling— To be living is sublime. "

WE MUST CONQUER, OR BE CONQUERED. 19

Sublime, if we rise to the glorious possibilities before us.

This land is the great missionary field of the whole world.

The Lord is sending his benighted children from all lands, to our very doors, to be taught of us the lessons of saving truth.

The people of every kindred, nation and tongue, under the skies, are coming to be one with us, in all things.

And we are to lift them up to our Christian civilization, or they are to drag us down towards their barbarisms.

There is power enough in Christianity to hold us, and keep us steadily moving forward on the ascending plain of progress we now occupy ; and power enough to lift all these coming millions to our level, and lift us all to a higher plain of Christian civilization.

20 GLORIOUS POSSIBILITIES.

But this power must be applied. These masses must be brought in contact with the refining, elevating influences of the Gospel.

A glorious opportunity is before the Church. This land may be made the joy of the whole earth — the radiating centre of Gospel light and influence — a heavenly gateway for all nations.

And upon the fidelity of the Christian Church, in this last quarter of the nineteenth century, will in a large measure depend the future welfare of our own land, and the early enlightenment and Christianization of the world.

If a general view of the Home Field reveals a mission of such extent and magnitude, what shall we say, when we carefully look over the details of the work to be accomplished ?

In addition to the wide-spread preva-

HORRIBLE CONDITION OF THOUSANDS. 21

lence of immorality and scepticism, we will find schools of rank infidelity ; blatant teachers of false doctrines ; political combinations for personal aggrandizement, endangering public peace and safety ; whiskey rings ; gambling hells ; nests of vice that breed contagion of the most virulent character; social cancers that feed on the vitals of our moral life ; and sinks of iniquity where the degraded and wrecked and ruined of every class gravitate and fester and rot, till the moral atmosphere around us is reeking with social miasma.

The moral condition of thousands in our large cities is simply horrible.

None but those who have made themselves familiar with these haunts of vice and poverty, can form a conception of the degradation and wretchedness of the abandoned classes.

22 PLAGUE SPOTS WORSE THAN SODOM.

In the lower wards of New York, where nearly a quarter of a million of souls find a home, the moral destitution' is almost incredible.

Huddled together in garrets and cellars, or congregated by hundreds in tenement buildings, which are little else than pest-houses, their spiritual and physical condition is truly appalling.

They seem crowded down, and " hedged in" to lives of sin and shame.

And New York, the gateway of the nation, the receiving depot for a large part of the migrating population of the world, is only a very little worse than the other large cities of our land.

Whole streets, and in some cases wards, are abandoned to the degraded and criminal classes, and become plague spots worse than Sodom, where sin and crime run riot.

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST CAN PURIFY. 23

Multitudes crowded into these loathsome localities, morally diseased, and spreading disease, with the malignity of demons, crowd each other down the steeps of death.

No power of legislation, no system of benevolence can reach their desperate case.

Nothing but Christianity can go down to the depths of their degradation, and lift them up, and undo their heavy burdens, and break their galling chains, and lead them forth to lives of purity and peace.

There is power in the Gospel to purify and sweeten all this putrid mass of humanity.

The followers of Christ are the salt of the earth, and if the salt has not lost its savor, these perishing millions for whom he died may be reached and saved.

24 THE CHILDREN OF DEGRADED POOR.

But there is an important class, in these homes of sin and wretchedness, demanding special attention :

THE CHILDREN OF THE DEGRADED POOR.

There are thousands of children in t*iese training schools of vice, who know xio other teaching, and over whose suffering condition angels might well weep.

In their innocence and helplessness they find themselves, without any choice of their own, in narrow, filthy quarters ; nursed by drunken mothers ; abused and cursed by brutal, besotted fathers ; neglected and forsaken ; struggling with the first gasp of life for life itself ; breathing a polluted atmosphere; and overcome in their first contests with evil.

Children, who have a life without a childhood; a soul without a window to let in the light of heaven; who are driven

STRUGGLE FOR LIFE AND BREAD. 25

on through the blackness of despair, by the scorpions, hunger, want, and cold, to madness and to crime.

This is no fancy sketch — no overdrawn picture.

Thousands are in the midst of this fearful struggle.

Few have the strength to pass safely through the perils of such a childhood ; and it is well. For every generous impulse is trampled down, every aspiration crushed out, and all the powers of their being are brought into one long, fierce, agonizing struggle for life and for bread.

The abodes of sin and shame are red with the blood of murdered innocents.

Would God I could portray the fearful scenes of suffering I have witnessed. Scenes of agony too deep for human words, the remembrance of which brings tears as I write.

26 THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH.

My sisters, who are wasting their sympathies on novels, and shedding their ready tears over imaginary heroes, would do well to look about them for the real heroes and martyrs writhing under the foot of humanity near their own doors.

This important class is beyond the ordinary range of Church and Sabbath school efforts, and can only be reached by an earnest outgoing spirit of Christianity.

In their helplessness and wretchedness they have a right to look to the Church for sympathy and help. The Gospel of Christ demands their salvation, by every consideration that can move to Christian effort.

They are more accessible and teachable than older sinners; their young hearts yearn for sympathy and love,

DEMAND UPON THE WEALTHY. 27

and there is much to inspire hope in their behalf.

The strong arm of the Church should be reached out to them ; she should become the nursing mother of these straying lambs of the flock, and shelter them in her fold of love.

Thousands might be saved, who if left to drift on in the corrupt channels in which they find themselves, will live and die in the slums of vice.

The Protestant Church in the past has left this great work for the most part to the Church of Rome, or to the enterprise and generosity of a few individuals.

Every denomination should have its homes and schools for poor neglected children.

And many of the wealthy men and women of the Church have reason to

28 god's fiery judgments.

blush with shame, that they have given so much to fine churches, and fine houses, and extravagant living, and so little to save these helpless, perishing ones.

God is writing his fiery judgments in many a professedly Christian household, who have thus squandered the Lord's substance. The sword has entered their own flesh, and their sons and their daughters are treading the ways of death.

But we turn from these sickening scenes to the literature of the country.

It has been said, that " of the making of books there is no end," but none save those who have carefully investigated the matter can form anything like a just estimate of the vast amount of trashy, sensational reading in circulation in our midst.

YILE LITERATURE.

The whole country is flooded with overdrawn stories of love, adventures robbery and murder.

Public taste largely demands this style, and sensational writers find readiestmarket for their wares.

But this is not all. A surprisingly large contraband trade is being carried on in obscene books and papers.

The printing presses of the land that can be prostituted to this work find abundant employment, and are driven night and day.

And agents are employed in almost every city and town, to spy out young men and young women who may be approached, and into whose hands these vile things may be thrust.

When this is not ventured, the mail is freely used, so that no place is secure.

Like the frogs of Egypt, these vile cor-

30 WHY YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN FALL.

rupting books and papers find their way into the very bed-chambers of the pure.

The Dead-Letter Office, which receives but a tithe of these streams of moral corruption, has become a cesspool for much, both written and printed, that is indecent and devilish.

We often wonder that so many young men and women go out from respectable homes to live lives of sin and shame. But if we could lift the veil we would find that fictitious and corrupt literature had been doing their work for years.

Nothing but Christianity can purify these streams of death, and sweeten these bitter fountains.

The sickly, diluted, sentimental stories that crowd our Sabbath school libraries will not cure this evil.

The Church has a great work before

THE STAGE. 61

her in this direction, and the importance of furnishing a pure, cheap, attractive literature to the masses cannot be overestimated.

Nor may we look with indifference upon the public amusements of the age.

The stage is one of the most formidable powers that antagonize the Christian Church.

The more formidable, because it assumes an air of respectability and claims to be a teacher of public morals.

Thus disguised, it is making fearful inroads upon the Church and Sabbath school, by fostering and disseminating pride, worldliness, and the love of dress and display.

Great efforts have been put forth from time to time to check the downward tendencies of the stage, and free it from the well-grounded objections that are

32 THE LOWEST PLAYS PATRONIZED.

constantly being urged against it. But if we may credit those who have labored most faithfully to effect reforms, the plays were never so low, and the tendencies are still downward.

The two lowest plays that have ever found place on the American stage have been best patronized.

As money making, and not moral improvement, is the main object of those who control the amusements of the age, it is to their interest to introduce " plays that will draw," and to cry out " great is Diana of the Ephesians" when any one speaks bold and truthful words against this evil.

Multitudes from all classes gather nightly into these play-houses of the land.

PLAY-HOUSES OF A VERY LOW ORDER. 33

all the passions of the unregenerated heart, are personified by living actors.

" Like begets like." The plays shape the character ; false notions of life obtain ; the passions are inflamed ; a love for adventure and fictitious reading is encouraged, and thousands go back to the hard every-day work of life dissatisfied and unfit for its stern duties.

But places of resort of a very low order abound, where the plays and costumes are vulgar and indecent, and men smoke and drink during the nightly performances ; and the fumes of whiskey and tobacco fill all the place.

Would a mother send her child to a drinking saloon, or a brothel, to learn lessons of temperance and virtue ? Certainly not.

Nor may we send our children to witness the exhibitions of tempers and pas-

34 THE CHURCH MUST LIFT A STANDARD.

sions that we would not have them follow in their every-day life.

If the Church would maintain her purity and spirituality, she must lift up a standard against the enemy, no matter in what garb, or with what pretensions he comes.

Better, a thousand times, let the worldly professor go out, than to bring the theatre, or the spirit of the stage, into the Church, or in any way have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.

The Church must bring her whole force into the conflict, and consecrate her abundant means to the Master's work, if she would successfully meet and overcome the gigantic evils that confront her.

The world is employing her entire force, and pouring out her wealth like

THE HARVEST TRULY IS GREAT. 35

water. There must be equal earnestness and zeal on the part of the Church.

" The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his vineyard"

Chapter II. How Can The Masses Be Reached And Evangelized

ri iHE great moral contest of the pres- -*- ent age must be fought in the homes of the people.

The masses do not come to the Church — the Church must go to them — the Gospel must be carried to their houses.

WHO CAN DO THIS WORK?

We have been depending mainly upon the pulpit.

Can ministers of the Gospel reach these multitudes by pulpit or personal efforts ?

I believe that ministers can, and are

doing a great work ; that they are doing 36

MINISTERS CANNOT DO ALL THE WORK. 37

their work, but that they cannot, and it never was designed, that they should do all.

They can only hope to reach those who come to the Church, or who are brought within the circle of their personal influence.

The great out-lying masses are beyond their reach.

The limits of time and human strength forbid that they should go out to these multitudes, and preach the Gospel to them individually and separately in their respective places of abode.

Pulpit preparations and Sabbath and week-day services, and the pastoral care of the flock of Christ committed to them, must needs take all their time and strength.

They are the leaders of the people ; it

is for them to plan and direct, instruct

and stimulate, and lead on the hosts of 4

38 LITTLE DEPENDENCE UPON MEN.

God to victory; but there will be no great victory if they are left to fight the battle alone.

We may not, therefore, expect them unaided to accomplish this great and important work.

Nor may we depend entirely, or chiefly on the men of the Church.

I believe that they might do more than they are doing. That they might carry their religion into the daily business of life — into their stores, and shops, and offices, and make its living power felt in all the channels of trade; that they might talk more about Jesus, and less about some other things, and their own hearts would be the richer and the world the better for the effort

But this work must be done in the homes of the people, and during the hours of the day, when the men of the

HIRED MISSIONARIES, 39

Church are engaged in business — business that they may not leave.

Our theories may be perfect, but the great fact stands out before us — The men of the Church have not in the past, and are not now doing any large part of this work, and we may not rely upon them entirely for its accomplishment in the future.

Great reliance has of late been placed on hired missionaries.

Hundreds have been employed, and thousands of dollars have been expended. But these workers in the past have been mostly men, and they have gone into the homes of the people, to find the men absent at their work, and the women and the children alone.

Under these circumstances, frequent visits have not been deemed advisable, and they have gone on to other localities

40 PERSONAL EFFORT.

equally destitute, so that the moral force of their visits has in large part been lost, and they have done little more than explore the field and reveal its utter destitution.

In mission churches and market-places, where they have been able to gather the people together and teach them publicly, the fruits of their labor have been more abundant and manifest. But only a few of the perishing multitudes, who throng the ways of death, can be reached in this way.

Something more than preaching is needed to meet the demands of the times.

A thorough system of personal religious effort in the homes of the people must be secured and maintained, to reach the masses.

To accomplish this work under a paid

TWO-THIRDS OF THE CHURCH WOMEN. 41

system, would require thousands of workers, and millions of dollars. A force and an amount the Church is not likely soor to have at her command.

All the instrumentalities we have considered have an important place and part in the great mission before vis, and may not be dispensed with, or in the least depreciated.

But I would introduce a new agency, with special claims and qualifications for this particular department of the Master's work, viz. :

The systematic, voluntary labors of Christian Women, under the direction of the regular pastorate.

More than two-thirds of the entire membership of the Church are women.

That they have a place and a work in the Church is not doubted , and that they possess qualifications of a pecu-

42 SYMPATHY AND LOVE OF WOMEN.

liarly valuable character for religious effort in the homes of the people, is freely admitted; but the Church has given them no specific work.

It seems strange, that in the stir end effort of society for its own renovation, and the movements of the Church for the evangelization of the masses, that they should have been so long overlooked and unemployed.

The world needs just such a presentment of religion as the women of the Church can make.

Not teaching nor argument, but the presence of a simple, positive faith ; words of Christian testimony and experience; a spirit of sympathy and love.

Before such a presence, doubt and scepticism would give way, passion and prejudice yield, and human hearts soften to receive the truth of Christ.

CHRISTIAN LADY, AND THE DRUNKARD. 43

Multitudes are perishing all around our costliest churches for lack of just such words of sympathy and love as the women of the Church can and ought to speak.

Men are not reached through their heads, but through their hearts, and women know the most direct channels to the human heart; and their ready tact prepares them to make the most of unexpected opportunities to work for the Master.

A few months ago, a Christian lady passing down one of the streets of Camden, N. J., met a drunken man.

The Spirit suggested, "You might speak to that man." But the cross was heavy and the duty unusual, and she allowed him to pass without a word.

Her heart condemned her, and she remembered that God was greater than her

44 I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU.

heart, and he would condemn her also ; and she resolved, that if ever she should have such another opportunity she would speak.

She had not walked one square till she met a young man, and he was intoxicated.

As he came staggering toward her, she said, " Young man, I want to speak with you."

He stopped and straightened himself up before her.

" Oh, I am so sorry to see that you have been drinking," she continued.

But he answered, "I don't drink much."

Men never do drink much till they get down into the gutter, and can't get up again.

"I am sorry you drink at all, can't you give this up?" And before the

A DRUNKARD SAVED. 45

interview closed, it was arranged that she should visit him the next afternoon at his own house.

She found him awaiting her coming the next day, and he was sober now, and an intelligent listener.

Before the visit was over he had promised to abstain from drink, and to go with her that very evening to the church.

At the appointed hour he accompanied her to the church, and before the services had closed he was kneeling at the altar, and she was kneeling beside him pointing him to the Saviour of sinners.

Shortly afterwards he was brought to the knowledge of the truth in Christ, and his name was registered on the church book.