would have been led to the conclusion, that she was a member of some one, not merely by profession, but also in truth. It is the principle which underlies the religion of Christ, and enables those deeply impressed with it, to obey their employers "not with eye service, as men pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; " doing heartily, whatsoever they do, "as to the Lord, and not unto men." There are many servants who profess religion, but it is of a sickly, sentimental nature, which gives them no idea of responsibility; which makes them haughty, unfaithful to their employers, and disobedient to God. They are servants merely to have homes and for their wages, and not to be useful, economical, and cleanly. Most that are governed by the principle of such a religion, are extravagant in the extreme; the interest of their em, loyers is not taken into consideration. The heart governed by that religion, which is pure and undefiled before God, has an idea of responsibility, of just and right, and acts upon the principle of making another man's things its own in responsibility. Hence the faithfulness of the Doctor's "Hannah." The servant with such a sense of duty, will be economical, knowing that he or she is their master's keeper. They will also be cleanly, for it is the nature of religion to be so, whilst the nature of sin, is to be foul and filthy. They will also be honest, and hence they can be trusted any where and with any thing. They will be faithful in the discharge of every duty, and to the best interests of those who have employed them. They labor "not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God." They will have a place for every thing, and every thing in its place, that there may be no unnecessary trouble or time lost in getting what's wanted. They will be obedient to every rule and regulation of the house. They will thus by example and precept leave a salutary impression upon the children growing up; and also cause the children to love and obey them. This principle is then the antidote to the universal cry, “It's hard to get a good girl." This, and this alone, must renovate the hearts of servants, be their guiding star, and give them an idea of responsibility, and make them faithful and obedient to their trusts. As long as they will not do their duty towards God, they will not towards man. Reader, art thou a domestic servant from choice? Seek then to be deeply possessed of the religion of Jesus Christ. Let your heart be engaged in every duty, from a sense of responsibility, that impresses you. Seek to please God and you will have no difficulty in pleasing man. Yours will be the profit, the honor of a good name, as well as the recomendation of a good and faithful servant. Let such a name be envied by you; and seek to obtain it-"Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord's Christ" in your vocation. Employers, looking over the whole subjects of servants, we should consider their ignorance, and pity and bear with them; treat them courteously; keep them at a respectful distance; require system and punetuality in all things. Let them feel that your will is law, that no injunetion is to be given beyond the second time, and that their whole duty to you will be exacted by you, as much as the last cent of their wages is exacted by them. Patiently instruct them, and always speak kindly, or if in reproof, even that may be mildly done." By such a course, they will be brought to "know their place," and do honestly and justly by you. 1857.] The Merciful Ministry of Woman. 307 THE MERCIFUL MINISTRY OF WOMAN. BY THE EDITOR. IN most of christian congregations in the present day, you find associations of pious females, united in some good work for themselves and for others. This is a fact which calls up to the devout and thoughtful many pleasant and sacred memories in the past of christianity; and has also much in it to cheer the present, and render hopeful the future. has been well and truly said that women are half the world, and greatly more than half the church. We would add, and by far the largest part of heaven, beyond a doubt. It In nothing is the religion which has its origin from heaven more distinguished from all religions that spring from earth, than in the view it takes of woman, and the sphere it assigns to her. There is scarcely more difference between a human being and a brute, than between a christian and a pagan woman. What a poor, degraded and jaded slave she is there. What an elevated and elevating angel of love and mercy here! It is not, on the one hand, a slander of woman to say that in her degradation are the seeds and sources of general social degradation; nor, on the other hand, is it flattery to say, that in her elevation is the sure pledge of the intellectual, moral and religious elevation of the entire social circle. Paradise and Bethlehem verify this remark. Through woman came sin-through woman came the Saviour. Of Paradise and Bethlehem-of Eve and the blessed Virgin Mary, we may truly say as Paul did of Hagar and Sarah, they are an allegory, or type; the one a bond woman unto sin and sorrow, the other free unto promise and hope. The tenderest and most impressible, heaven and hell alike seem to seek access into the race, and into the world, through her. Satan and Christ, sin and piety, find in her their first, most fitting and most prominent instruments. Paganism, as the kingdom of Satan, holds power in the world through the degradation of woman. Christianity, as the kingdom of Christ, triumphs in and through her elevation. Her power is earliest active, and is applied where the advantage is greatest. Men may guard the orchards and gather in the ripened fruit; but hers are the nurseries, and to her is committed the shaping of the infant plants. She is the priestess of the inner circle, ministering in that secluded holy of holies, where the most important meetings between God and man take place-where all holiness begins and centers. No Nor is her influence confined to this inner circle to end there. no more than streams end in their fountains, or the history of plants in the nursery. As in the dreams of ancient fable, the tiny drops which the nymphs in the quiet nooks of the mountains gathered into streams and rivers for the ocean, those the naiads of the sea re-formed and sent back as dew upon the mountains; so the silent influences which go forth from the inner circle of christian homes, return again in blessings upon their source. And oh who shall tell their blessed history meanwhile through all the ranks and ranges of social life. What, compared with their quiet, blessed influence, is that of the stillest streams that water fairest meadows "Or of the rills that slip Through the cleft rock, and chiming as they fall While christianity thus shows to women the true power of their home influence, and their glorious mission in the inner sphere of society, it is also the only system that brings them out properly into their public position, and employs their powerful and blessed ministry in the open world of sinning, suffering, and sorrowing human life. Christianity does not regard women as jewels that are to shine only in caskets, or lights that are to be put under a bushel. False systems may cant about woman's right to go forth as men, christianity, as beautifully as truly, grants them the privilege to go forth as women-a right which no paganism ever conferred-a privilege which no modern reformatory socialistic systems have grace to bestow. They claim for them the right, and, by a most unwomanly culture, prepare them to go forth with the sternness of men to be hated; but christianity alone gives them the right and the grace to go forth with the mien and bent of a modest augel in whose presence rough hearts shall be silent, and broken spirits bloom with new hope. If it were necessary to show how christianity calls out the ministry of woman, we might speak of Miriam, and Deborah, and the prophetesses -of Anna, the Marys, Martha, Salome, and the "many women" which ministered with aud to our Saviour while he lived, and stood in silent love and sorrow around the cross when he died-of Dorcas, Priscilla, Phoebe, Stachys, Triphina and Triphosa, and the beloved Persis, which were the Apostle-helpers in Christ Jesus. Nothing better shows the need which christianity has of female help than the practice in the apostolic and primitive church of employing such help even in a formal way. There existed in the early church the office or order of Deaconesses. The ministry of the word was one office -that of Elder another, whose duties were purely spiritual in the way of ruling; then was the office of Deacon, whose ministry was to the body, to the temporal wants of the poor, and through attentions to their bodily wants, also to lead their spirits to Christ, even as in Christ's ministry the wretched were drawn to him by his relieving their bodily wants. The Deaconesses, or female deacons, had this ministry in charge among their own sex. This office is distinctly mentioned in the New Testament Phoebe was a Diakonon of the church at Cenchrea. Rom. xvi: 1. The word is translated "a servant," by which the office is a little hidden; but it is well known and acknowledged by all commentators, that the word designates the office of Deaconess, the existence of which office no one disputes. The office of Deaconess existed from the apostles down to the 10th century in the Latin church, and to the 12th in the Greek. The Latin church first began to suppress it in the 5th and 6th century— 1857.] The Merciful Ministry of Woman. 309 441 to 553 It was not one of the least of the corruptions of that church to set aside the Deaconesses, to give way to droves of idle monks, who cost more and did less. As Deaconesses the church always selected females of superior piety, intelligence, and address. Sometimes young females noted for piety; but this not often. Generally women from forty to sixty years of age were chosen, who were either unmarried ladies or widows. Devout widows were preferred, who had trained up children; because it was supposed that they had not only the necessary patience and experience for the office, but had learned to be tender and compassionate in their affections, and so able to sympathise with destitute females, and neglected or forsaken children. The Deaconesses were regularly ordained to the office by the laying on of hands in the same way as other sacred officers of the church were inducted. The beautiful prayer used at such solemnities is still extant. It runs thus: "Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of man and woman; Thou who didst fill with Thy Spirit Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, and Huldah; Thou who didst, in the tabernacle and in the temple, place female keepers of Thy holy gates; look down now also upon this Thy handmaid, and bestow on her the Holy Ghost, that she may worthily perform the work committed to her, to Thy honor, and to the glory of Christ. Amen."* The duties of the Deaconesses, as already hinted, was the same as that of the Deacons, only their ministrations were confined to the women and children of the poor and wretched. They acted as catechists, preparing ignorant females for baptism, privately instructing them and their children in religion. Their path of mercy lay among sick and afflicted poor women; and also among the dark places of sin and shame to which only they could have access without scandal. To carry words of hope and hands of help to the frail and fallen. Like a ray from the sun of heaven that can shine into the vilest carcass without being itself polluted, these pure Deaconesses could move among the lowest and vilest of their sex, to lift them up without a whisper of scandal against their fair fame. Many a Magdalene did they bring to the cross of Him whose blood can cleanse from sin those who, in the eyes of the world, and even in the sense of their own shame and fears, "dare not seek repentance." What a power has the church lost in losing the office of Deaconesses! What a pity that the Reformation did not restore it. An effort has been made of late years, in Europe, to restore it, chiefly through the influence and zeal of the pious Rev. Mr. Fliedner, a divine of the Evangelical church. Though the movement has not been very extensive, yet it has been crowned with marked success; and its good fruits have strongly recommended it to many earnest and pious minds. Whether ever we shall have the office restored in form, the future must decide. But may we not have it meanwhile in fact and in spirit? Every approach to it ought to fill our hearts with joy and hope; and wherever we see pious women banded together in a good work for the church, and for the souls of the destitute, we ought to feel that the *Neander's History of the Church. Vo'. iii. pp. 222. words of Paul are addressed to us: "I entreat thee help those women which labor with us, whose names are in the book of life." We may have this venerable office in spirit; yea, in a certain way, and to a certain extent, we have it now. We can have it with still greater power for good, by encouraging and aiding those who have the heart, and the piety, and the self-denial to perform its duties. There are in all our congregations noble women, who have the intelligence, the matronly dignity, the christian prudence, the holy wisdom, the deep-toned piety, and the steady every-day zeal to be Dorcases and Phobes. We may add, that there are such also who with the qualifications, have also the necessary leisure to fulfil these duties. Let them go forth in the name of Jesus, in missions of daily mercy to the poor, the neglected sick, the degraded by sin; and let the church, let christians give them encouragement, and place in their hands the means of extending relief-means to clothe poor children, to afford some trifling comfort to struggling mothers, to bear the Tract and the Bible, as instruments of good, and at the same time as sacred memorials of their merciful visits. What a field for this kind of work lies around us! What scores of subjects which can only be reached, and be taught to hope, by such a merciful ministry. Take one example as a representation of many. There is a family. You enter it at any hour of the day, and what do you see? On all sides are the cheerless aspects of a home in poverty. That worn and weary looking woman is the mother of half-dozen of children, the care of which breaks down her strength, and would break down her heart, if it were not a mother's heart! The husband is a worthless drunkard-or if not that, he has no christian feelings-a mere droning boarder in the house. His leisure hours, his evenings, and his Sabbaths, are spent with others of his like. She is alone-alone in her cares, responsibilities, and her sorrows! She cannot go to church-she is bound down as a slave to her prison, the only light of which is her children. She has no time, perhaps not the ability, perhaps even no more the disposition to instruct her children. She cannot clothe them for Sabbath-school. As they grow up they pass beyond her power, and are disciplined on the street; and while some bear heavily upon her weary arms others are beginning to tread, in a way still more painful, upon her heart! This is only one picture of many. Do such need no sympathy, no counsel, no aid in their wearisome and heart-broken way Who can meet their wants? No pastor, no elder, no deacon; none but one of their own sex-one who can approach them with such words as they can feel and return,-one to whom they can open their hearts in full confidence, and to whom they can and will tell all the details of their troubles, anxieties, and wants. We cannot dwell on the endless variety of cases which call for the ministry of woman, and which cannot be reached by any other instrumentality. O there are scores of poor ignorant, and even degraded females, around us, who could be nursed into life, love, and hope, if approached and befriended by the visits of Christ in the persons of pious ones of their own sex. Oh, the church needs more-let us thank God for those we have-but |