Womanly Ministries in the Church.
By Sol.
The mission of the church is not only to publish the gospel of salvation and the righteousness of God, but, like Jesus himself, it is to be known as a divine friend in the locality where it is planted, having a care for the poor, and sick, and homeless, and lost. From it, as from the body of Christ, a healing virtue is to be felt to flow, and by remedial healing influences it is to uplift and purify the whole society of men in its neighborhood. Now, in such a view of the church’s ministry among men, it is plain there are specific duties which personal service and sisterly, motherly sympathies alone can discharge, and which I think constitute woman’s work in the church. I look more closely at these duties, and divide them into two classes, as they are to be fulfilled in the homes of the people, or in connection with institutions founded by the church. In the first class or category there is every kind of sympathetic, tender help which can be given by loving hearts to those who need our succor and which may mirror to them the greater love of our Lord in whose name it is done. How often our Lord exalts the honor and reiterates the importance of this service! The cup of cold water to the thirsty, the visit of consolation to the sick—these to the poorest, the least worthy, are great if done in his name; and great is the reward! We inevitably think of help in times of suffering, when we contemplate such Christian ministries as these; and I know of no preaching to the poor like that which steals into their hearts from the grace of women, who, inspired by love of Christ, visit the sick home to make it clean and pure, to assist in nursing, to cool the fevered head, or wet the white, burning lips. But that is, in fact, only one out of countless modes in which this kind of service to Christ may be tendered. There are blind, to whom an hour’s kindly chat or pleasant reading—aged poor, to whom a daughter’s visit to tidy their hearth and gladden their dim days—lonely women, to whom a sisterly word saving them from sin—gutter children, to whom a mother’s smile—may be a priceless boon, a glimpse of the heavenly love. Wherever and however kindness may be shown, and will be blessed, there let the church’s heart, the heart of its Lord, be shown. I would that in every neighborhood, instinctively, in trouble and suffering, men looked to the church, as Christ’s very presence among them, for such relief as he can blessedly give. We know how the Romish church has gained in every land, and is gaining in ours, an immense influence among the poor. And by what means? Not by their preaching—there is little of that with them—but by the sedulous, beautiful, gentle charities, the womanly service, of their sisters of charity. Their visits, shedding a tender grace in the homes they enter, give the poor a vision of the reality of the divine mercy, and win them to the faith of a church that inspires such ministries. Why should not all the redeemed women of every church—godly women who follow Christ—be sisters of mercy, doing such work for Christ? Why is not the church itself a sisterhood of mercy? And why is not the entrance of Christian women into the church to be accepted as their vow to consecrate some time and energy to unselfish, loving service to Christ and mankind?—Sol.