A Special Work for Women by EDITH M. GRAHAM

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 7, 1915

A Special Work for Women

By EDITH M. GRAHAM

EDITH M. GRAHAM

WHEN the work of taking the gospel to heathen lands became well established, it was found that it went very slowly. A man might acknowledge the truth of the new religion, but he was for some reason strangely slow to accept it. After some time it was found that the wife and mother stood in the way. Though in most cases the women were little better than slaves, they had an influence that hindered the men from accepting the gospel message. It was found necessary to enter the homes, and lead the wives and mothers to conversion in order to establish the Christian religion.

This is just as true of so-called Christian countries as it is of heathen lands. What the wives and mothers believe and live will have a great influence upon the lives and beliefs of the husbands and children. Therefore it is important that this message of present truth be taken into the homes. This is a work which women can do better than men. Wives and mothers can get nearer to the hearts of other wives and mothers than any one else can.

The first thing, then, for Seventh-day Adventist women to do is to live the truth in their own homes. They should make their homes as near like heaven as possible in a land where sin still remains. It will not need fine houses or elegant furniture to do this, but it will need the daily expression of the love of Jesus in every word and act of the wife and mother. It will mean a patience that never fails. It will require a constant dependence on the Lord for overcoming grace.

The next thing is to reach other homes and help them to become places of influence for good on the lives of all connected with them. Many desire to do this work, but do not know how to begin. Would it not be well for the wives and mothers to gather together for a short time each week to study how they can accomplish their special work? They could begin by studying all that has been said by the spirit of prophecy on the subject of the special work of women.

"The work that has been begun in helping our sisters feel their individual responsibility to God is a good and necessary work. Long has it been neglected. The Lord would have us ever urge the worth of the human soul upon those who do not understand its value. And when this work is laid out in clear, simple, definite lines, we may expect that the home duties, instead of being neglected, will be done much more intelligently.

"If we can arrange to have regular, organized companies instructed intelligently in regard to the part they should act as servants of the Master, our churches will have a vitality that they have long needed. The excellence of the soul that Christ died to save will be appreciated. Our sisters generally have a hard time with their increasing families and their unappreciated trials. I have so longed for women who could be educated to help our sisters rise from their discouragement and feel that they could do a work for the Lord. This will bring rays of sunshine into their own lives, which will be reflected into the lives of others. God will bless all who unite in this grand work."—"Testimonies for the Church," Vol. VI, page 114.

We are living in the days of the finishing of God's work, and to complete it calls for the cooperation of every woman as well as of every man and child. Women worked loyally with Jesus when he was on earth. It was to a woman that he first spoke after his resurrection. May we not, therefore, expect our women to rally unitedly to his work now, when it is so nearly finished? Many are doing so, but all are needed.

"They [women] can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their labor is needed."—"Id., page 118."