{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20747/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20747","id":"gutenberg_20747","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20747","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: History - European","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Deaconesses"],"text":"Produced by Barbara Tozier, David Wilson, Bill Tozier and\nthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n DEACONESSES IN EUROPE\n\n AND\n\n THEIR LESSONS FOR AMERICA\n\n\n\n BY\n\n JANE M. BANCROFT, Ph.D\n\n\n\n WITH AN INTRODUCTION\n\n BY\n\n EDWARD G. ANDREWS, D.D., LL.D.\n\n _Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church_\n\n\n \"No life\n Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife,\n And all life not be purer and stronger thereby.\"\n\n\n _NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON_\n _CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & STOWE_\n 1890\n\n\n\n\n IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION,\n\n TO\n\n THE EARNEST AND DEVOTED WOMEN WHO,\n\n AS MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEACONESS WORK\n\n OF\n\n THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY,\n\n HAVE AIDED IN EXTENDING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIACONATE\n OF WOMEN,\n\n THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY\n\n Dedicated\n\n BY THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nAUTHOR'S NOTE.\n\n\nThe Author has aimed to present an accurate and concise statement of the\ndeaconess cause as it exists at the present time.\n\nIn all cases where it was possible, original sources of information have\nbeen consulted.\n\nMany friends, both in Europe and America, have given invaluable aid, for\nwhich words of thanks are an inadequate recognition.\n\nThe excellent Index at the close of the volume was kindly prepared by\nthe Rev. J. C. Thomas.\n\nAcknowledgments are also due to Mr. Gillett, Librarian of the Union\nTheological Seminary, and to Mr. C. H. A. Bjerregaard, of the Astor\nLibrary, for putting not only the facilities of the library, but their\npersonal assistance, at the service of the writer.\n\n JANE M. BANCROFT.\n NEW YORK CITY, _June 5, 1889_.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS.\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n THE DIACONATE.\n\n Compassion a Christian virtue--Brotherhood of all men in\n Christ--Foreign Missions--Home Missions--Service of\n ministering compassion gives rise to the diaconate--Diaconate\n of women--Its qualities--Field of labor Page 9\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n DEACONESSES IN THE EARLY CHURCH.\n\n Little knowledge of early Church--Pliny's letter--Apostolic\n Constitutions--Deaconesses, widows, and virgins--Duties of the\n deaconess--Chrysostom, Olympias--Deaconesses in Western\n Church--Decline in importance--Extinction--Influences that led\n to decay 18\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n DEACONESSES FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURIES.\n\n Beguines--Characteristics--Duties--Gerhard Groot--Sisters of\n the Common Life--Obligations--Duties--Waldenses--Bohemian\n Brethren--Luther--Calvin--Reformed Church at Wesel--\n Deaconesses in Amsterdam--Damsels of Charity--Mennonites and\n Moravians 34\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n FLIEDNER, THE RESTORER OF THE OFFICE OF DEACONESS.\n\n Efforts for the restoration of the office of deaconess made by\n Kloenne--Amalie Sieveking--Von Stein--Count von der Recke--\n Fliedner--His childhood--Youth--Student life--Pastorate and\n travels--Marriage--First prison society--Founding of refuge--\n Need of training schools--Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess\n Society 46\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n THE INSTITUTIONS AT KAISERSWERTH.\n\n Opening of hospital training-school--Gertrude Reichardt--The\n Home-life--Normal school--Fliedner's wife--Publishing house--\n Orphan asylum--Insane asylum--Dispensary--Farm--\"Salem\"--House\n of Evening Rest--Extension of work--Berlin--Foreign lands\n Jerusalem--Beirut--Smyrna--Bucharest--Florence--Rome 61\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n THE REGULATIONS AT KAISERSWERTH AND THE DUTIES AND SERVICES\n OF THE DEACONESSES.\n\n Two classes of deaconesses--Nurses--Teachers--Qualifications--\n Probationers--Duties--Service of consecration--Conferences--\n Table of results--Instances of work--Duisburg--\n Schleswig-Holstein war--Austrian war--Franco Prussian war 79\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS ON THE CONTINENT.\n\n House at Strasburg--Muelhausen--Marthashof at Berlin--\n Neudettelsau--St. Loup--Riehen--Zuerich--Gallneukirchen--\n Characteristics of institutions--Countries where they exist 93\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n DEACONESSES IN GERMAN METHODISM.\n\n Origin of Bethany Society--House at Frankfort--Hamburg--\n Berlin--St. Gall--Zuerich--Sister Myrtha--House of Rest--\"God's\n Fidelity\"--House regulations--Training--Results 110\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n DEACONESSES IN PARIS.\n\n Deaconess Home on Rue de Reuilly--Situation--School--\n Hospital--House of Correction--Preparatory school--\n Instruction--Prison mission--Mademoiselle Dumas--Expenses of\n house--Its founders--Deaconess house on Rue Bridaine--\n Character of work--Duties of the Sisters--Their consecration--\n Importance of parish deaconesses 120\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n DEACONESSES IN ENGLAND.\n\n Early beginnings--The Puritans--Cambridge Platform--Southey's\n complaint--Mrs. Fry--Fliedner--Florence Nightingale--Agnes\n Jones--Distinction between \"sister\" and \"deaconess\"--\n Institutions in Church of England--Garb--Ceremonies--\n Self-denying lives--Dr. Laseron's institutions and others--\n Prison mission of Mrs. Meredith--The Sisters of the People 142\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n MILDMAY INSTITUTIONS.\n\n Rev. W. Pennefather--Sketch of his life--Building of hall and\n deaconess home at Mildmay--Conference hall--Nursing hall--\n Mission and hospital at Bethnal Green--The deaconesses--Their\n training--Expense--Expenses of institution 166\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n DEACONESSES IN SCOTLAND.\n\n Church of Scotland--Organization of woman's work--Report of\n committees--Scheme--Adoption--Women's Guild--Women-workers'\n Guild--Deaconesses--Training--Syllabus of lectures--\n Presbyterian Church of England and Ireland Page 189\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n THE DEACONESS CAUSE IN AMERICA.\n\n German Lutherans--Fliedner visits America--Philadelphia--\n Mother-house of Deaconesses--Deaconesses in the Episcopal\n Church--Among the Presbyterians--The Methodist Episcopal\n Church--Deaconess-home in Chicago--Action of General\n Conference--Fields of work 204\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n THE MEANS OF TRAINING AND THE FIELD OF WORK FOR DEACONESSES\n IN AMERICA.\n\n Advantages of the Home and Training-school--Field of work--In\n hospitals--Insane asylums--Infant-schools--Teachers--The\n Home-mission deaconess--Her work in London--Similar work\n needed in cities of the United States 228\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n OBJECTIONS MET AND SUGGESTIONS OFFERED.\n\n Objection that deaconesses resemble Catholic nuns--Their\n influence--Numbers in different orders--Order of Charles--\n Objection to garb--Its advantages--Objection to the life\n answered--Opinion of Bryce concerning American women--Women of\n Methodism--Advice to candidates--Associates--The Church\n commended by its deeds 247\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nHow far, and in what form, ought woman's work in the Church to be\norganized? What was the deaconess of St. Paul's epistles? What light on\nthis subject do the primitive and the mediaeval Churches yield us? Can\n\"sisterhoods\" be established without weakening the sense of personal\nresponsibility in those Christian women who are not thus wholly set\napart to charitable and spiritual work? Can they be multiplied without\ndanger of introducing into Protestant communions the evils of the\nconventual life? Are there modern instances of safe and successful\norganizations? What good have they achieved, and what further good do\nthey promise? In what relation should such organizations stand to the\nauthority and fostering care of the Church? What should be their scope,\nspirit, methods? What regulations are fundamental and indispensable?\nWhat perils are real and possibly imminent?\n\nTo answer these, and other questions associated with them, this book is\nwritten. Its authoress is a gifted daughter of the Church, well known in\nliterary and educational circles. During a protracted sojourn in Europe\nshe enjoyed unusual facilities for studying the deaconess work as\ncarried on in many places, and particularly in the institutions founded\nby Pastor Fliedner at Kaiserswerth in Prussia, and in those at Mildmay\nin England. She has also made a thorough and discriminating study of the\nsubject as developed in the early centuries of the Church and in the\nMiddle Ages.\n\nThe book itself will amply reveal these facts, and cannot but contribute\nlargely to the guidance of the newly revived interest of the American\nchurches in the far-reaching question how Christian women may best serve\ntheir Lord in serving the humanity which he has redeemed.\n\nIt appears at an opportune time. The General Conference of the Methodist\nEpiscopal Church, at its session in May, 1888, inserted in the law of\nthe Church a chapter on deaconesses, defining their duties and\nproviding for the appointment and oversight of them through the Annual\nConferences. This action was the natural outcome of a wide and\nincreasing appreciation of the service of Christian women in many\ndepartments of Church work; and it was greatly furthered by the advocacy\nof Dr. J. M. Thoburn, now the devoted and honored missionary bishop of\nIndia and Malaysia. But it had not been the subject of any considerable\nprevious discussion in the periodicals of the Church, and there was not\nin the Church a widely diffused or an accurate knowledge of the history,\nscope, possibilities, or perils of such an organization. The promptness,\nhowever, with which the provision thus made by the General Conference\nhas been seized upon by the Church in several of our large cities,\nindicates that the time was ripe for the movement. But information is\nstill scanty; ideas concerning the aim and place of the deaconess work\nare crude; methods have been very little digested; the foundations of\nlocal homes evidently may come to be very imperfectly laid; and the\nmovement may easily come to naught.\n\nThis book, it is hoped, will do a twofold work. It will awaken a lively\ninterest in a movement already arrived at large proportions in some\nparts of European Protestantism; and it will guide those among us who\nare studying how best to organize, against the sin and suffering of the\nworld, the practically unlimited resources of Christian women. Whenever\nany one shall in some good degree apprehend what helpfulness for the\nlost as yet lies undeveloped in the hearts and hands of the daughters of\nthe Church, and what honor may yet come to Christianity by the rightly\ndirected use of this power, he will welcome a volume which, like the\npresent one, offers such guidance as history, observation, and earnest\nreflection yield on the question at issue.\n\n EDWARD G. ANDREWS.\n NEW YORK, _May 10, 1889_.\n\n\n\n\nDEACONESSES IN EUROPE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE DIACONATE.\n\n\nIn the ruins of the old cities of Greece and Rome we find buildings that\nwere used for public purposes of all kinds--forums, theaters,\namphitheaters, circuses, and temples of worship. Every provision was\nmade for the entertainment of the people, and for their political and\nintellectual needs. But nowhere do we find the ruins of structures,\nbelonging either to the public or to private individuals, indicating\nthat any attempt was ever made to care for the feeble-minded, the\ninsane, the deaf, the blind, the sick, or the aged; those that in every\nnation of modern times are the wards of the State and the definite\nobjects of religious ministrations.\n\nThe ruins cannot be found because such buildings never existed. No\nprovision was made for those suffering from bodily infirmities, because\nso far as the State could control circumstances they were not allowed\nto exist. Children who were defective in any way were put to death. In\nSparta this measure was carried out under government supervision. Even\nPlato in his model republic has all children of wicked men, the\nmisshapen, or the illegitimate put out of existence, that they may not\nbe a burden to the State.[1]\n\nWith the coming of Christ new elements were introduced into the\ncivilization of the world; elements of kindliness, of compassion, of\nsympathy of man toward his fellow-man, that up to this time had not been\nknown. There was a new revelation of the brotherhood of all men in the\nfatherhood of God: \"We are all one in Christ Jesus.\"\n\nThis spirit of compassion and of sympathy has grown with every century\nin the Christian era, and at no time has it been stronger in the history\nof the world than it is to-day. Well has one American historian said:\n\n\"To a generation which knows but two crimes worthy of death, that\nagainst the life of the individual and that against the life of the\nState; which has expended fabulous sums in the erection of\nreformatories, asylums, and penitentiaries, houses of correction,\nhouses of refuge, and houses of detention all over the land; which has\nfurnished every State prison with a library, with a hospital, with\nworkshops, and with schools, the brutal scenes on which our ancestors\nlooked with indifference seem scarcely a reality. Yet it is well to\nrecall them, for we cannot but turn from the contemplation of so much\nmisery and so much suffering with a deep sense of thankfulness that our\nlot has fallen in a pitiful age, when more compassion is felt for a\ngalled horse or a dog run over at a street-crossing than our\ngreat-grandfathers felt for a woman beaten for cursing, or a man\nimprisoned for debt.\"[2]\n\nThe spirit of Christ has penetrated even where his rule is not\nacknowledged, and the humanitarianism of the present day is simply the\nleaven of Christian love working among the masses of men.\n\nIn the Christian world the effort to realize the brotherhood of all men\nin Christ is producing large results. Treasures of money, and infinitely\nmore precious treasures of men, are every year devoted to this one\nobject. The cause of Protestant foreign missions is not yet a century\nold, but the latest available statistics tell us that the following\nsums are being contributed annually for this great work:[3]\n\n 32 American societies contribute $3,011,027\n 28 British \" \" 5,217,385\n 27 Continental \" \" 1,083,170\n -- ----------\n 87 societies contribute $9,311,582\n\nWith this large sum American societies are employing 986 men, and 1,081\nwomen; British societies, 1,811 men, and 745 women; Continental\nsocieties, 777 men, and 447 women. Total, 3,574 men, 2,273 women.\n\nVisible results of faithfulness in work:\n\n Members in American societies 242,733\n \" British \" 340,242\n \" Continental \" 117,532\n -------\n Total membership in foreign lands 700,507\n Children in the Sunday-schools 626,741\n\nThe subject of home missions is to-day attracting greater attention than\never before. \"Die Innere Mission\" of Germany, the various forms the work\nassumes in England, the many societies in the United States occupied by\nthe questions of city evangelization, work among the Mormons, the\ntreatment of the Indians, care for the colored race, and other phases\nof home work show that Christians are fully understanding that it is\nwise to build over against our own house.\n\nCertainly the reproach cannot justly be made that the Church of Christ\nis neglectful of the precept, \"As we have therefore opportunity, let us\ndo good unto all men.\"\n\nThis is genuine service of man to man, and the motive of the service is\nlove to God. Every revelation of God is of ministering love and\ncompassion, and the efforts of his disciples to imitate the divine love\nhave indelibly stamped upon modern civilization the Christian impress.\n\nThe service of ministering compassion is so clearly one of the duties of\nChrist's Church that of necessity there must be ordinances touching the\nexercise of this duty. So in Acts vi, 3, we read of the appointment of\nthe deacons, \"men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of\nwisdom,\" to see that the service of the tables was not neglected.\n\nBut Christian women have ever had special gifts in caring for the poor\nand sick and helpless, and the women of apostolic times must necessarily\nhave had their part in these services of love. In addition to the\ndiaconate appointed by the apostles recorded in the sixth chapter of\nActs, we must look for a female diaconate as an office in the Church.\nThis we do not fail to find. In Rom. xvi, 1, we read: \"I commend unto\nyou Phebe, a deacon of the church which is at Cenchrea.\" Such at least\nwould have been the form of the verse if our translators had rendered\nthe Greek word here translated servant as they rendered the like word in\nthe sixth chapter of Acts, the third of the First Epistle to Timothy,\nand in other passages of the apostolic writings.\n\n\"That ye receive her in the Lord as becometh saints, and that ye assist\nher in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a\nsuccorer of many, and of myself also.\" These words of St. Paul are\nespecially valuable as an apostolic witness for the existence of the\noffice of deaconess at the time when he wrote. They are even more than\nthat. They are an apostolic commendation of the office addressed to the\nChristian Church of all times to accept the deaconess in the Lord, and\nto assist her \"in whatsoever business she hath need of you.\"\n\nWhether Priscilla, spoken of with Aquila as \"my helpers in Christ\nJesus,\" or Tryphena, Tryphosa, and the beloved Persis, who \"labored\nmuch,\" or Julia and Olympas, all mentioned in the same chapter, were or\nwere not deaconesses we have no means of knowing.\n\nOutside of this chapter we do not find other references to the order in\nthe New Testament, unless it be in 1 Tim. iii, 11. In the midst of a\nlengthy description of the qualifications of deacons is interjected the\nexhortation: \"Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober,\nfaithful in all things.\" Now the word _wives_ has no authority from the\nGreek word, which is simply _women_. Bishop Lightfoot remarks, in his\nbook on the authorized version of the New Testament, \"If the theory of\nthe definite article (in the Greek) had been understood our translators\nwould have seen that the reference is to deaconesses, not to wives of\nthe deacons.\"\n\nMany eminent scholars are of the same opinion, among whom are\nChrysostom, Grotius, Bishop Wordsworth, and Dean Alvord. Dean Howson\nadds: \"It should be particularly noticed in connection with this that in\nthe early part of the chapter no such directions are given concerning\nthe wives of the bishops, though they are certainly as important as the\nwives of the deacons; so that it can scarcely be thought otherwise than\nthat the apostle's directions were for the deaconesses, an order which\nwe find in ecclesiastical records for some centuries side by side with\nthat of deacons.\"[4]\n\nThose mentioned in Tit. ii, 3, and in 1 Tim. v, 9, cannot be considered\nas holding the office of a deaconess. They belong distinctively to the\nclass of widows, who held a position of honor in the Church. St. Paul\nhad clear conceptions of the administrative needs of the Church, and it\nis not probable that he would set apart to the service of deaconesses,\nwhich had many difficult duties, those who were already sixty years old.\n\nThe many names of faithful women mentioned in his letters as helpers in\nthe Church are important witnesses for the great apostle's appreciation\nof woman's co-operation in the work of the Church, although his judgment\nwas necessarily limited in some directions by the influence of the times\nin which he lived.\n\nLet us examine the requirements for the diaconate of the early Church.\nThe word diaconate means service; helpful service. We use the word to\ndesignate service for the Church of Christ; service that more\nparticularly concerns itself with administering the charities of the\nChurch and performing its duties of compassion and mercy. The men who\nwere selected for this office were to be men of \"honest report.\" They\nmust have led a blameless life. Those who had repented of wrong-doing\nand reformed their lives were excluded from the office, because they\nhad lost a good report \"of them which are without.\" Pre-eminently they\nmust be men of spiritual experience, proven Christians, \"full of the\nHoly Ghost and of wisdom.\" They were also to have practical gifts that\nwould make them efficient and capable in the duties of every-day life.\n1 Tim. iii, 8.\n\nThese are some of the qualifications spoken of as belonging to the\ndiaconate, and are the same in application to either sex. The woman\ndeacon must, however, besides possessing the above qualities, be\nunmarried or a widow. The married woman has her calling at home, and\ncannot combine with that an official calling in the Church, although she\nmay be a valuable lay helper.\n\nThe field of labor of the women deacons of apostolic times and of the\npresent is essentially the same. The conditions of society and of the\nChurch, however, are totally dissimilar. We must, therefore, look to see\nnew adaptations of the same useful qualities. In other words, we shall\nnot expect to take the female diaconate of the days of the apostles and\ntransport it unchanged, into nineteenth century environments. We shall\nrather expect to see the invariably useful qualities of the diaconate of\nwomen adapted to the needs of the sinful, sorrowing, ignorant, and\nhelpless of the age in which we live.\n\n\n [1] _Heidenthum und Judenthum_, von Doellinger, p. 692. Regensburg,\n 1857.\n [2] MacMaster's _History of the United States_, vol. i, p. 102.\n [3] Statistics from _North American Review_, February, 1889, \"Why am\n I a Missionary?\"\n [4] _Deaconesses_, Rev. J. D. Howson, D.D., p. 236.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nDEACONESSES IN THE EARLY CHURCH.\n\n\nTo understand the position of the deaconess with respect to the modern\nChurch we must know something of the relation in which she stood to the\nearly Church. Concisely as may be we must recall the story of the\nintervening centuries to the present, that we may learn the true\nposition of deaconesses in modern times.\n\nWe have very little knowledge of the early Church. During the first\ncentury and the first half of the second century continued persecution\ncompelled the religious communities of the new faith to live in almost\ncomplete seclusion. For the same reason little has been left on record\nof those years, and it is impossible to form clear conceptions of Church\nhistory during the period. The first trace which we find of the\nexistence of deaconesses after the times of the apostles comes to us\nfrom an entirely outside source--from the official records of the Roman\ngovernment. Shortly after the close of the first century the Emperor\nTrajan sent the younger Pliny as prefect to Bithynia in Asia Minor. At\nthe imperial command he began a persecution of the Christians, but\ninterrupted it for a time to obtain further instructions from the\nemperor. His letter and the reply still exist. In the course of what he\nwrote Pliny says that he had sought to learn from two maids, who were\ncalled \"ministrae\" (\"ex duabus ancillis, quae ministrae dicebantur,\" Book\nx, chap. xcvii), or helpers, the truth of what the Christians had said,\nand had even deemed it necessary to put them to torture, but could\nobtain evidence of nothing save unbounded superstition. Here is\nindependent testimony of singular interest that deaconesses, followers\nof Phebe, were found in Christian communities of Asia Minor at the\nbeginning of the second century, and that they kept the faith, when put\nto cruel martyrdom.\n\nThe clearest conceptions of the characteristics and duties of\ndeaconesses of the early Church we obtain from the _Apostolic\nConstitutions_, a collection of ecclesiastical instructions that\ngradually grew up in the Eastern Church, and were gathered into one work\nin the fourth century. These instructions were of unequal antiquity,\nranging from the earliest usages to the rules and practices last\ndetermined upon. Whether the _Apostolic Constitutions_ have all the\nauthority that some claim for them is a question not here to be\ndecided. If not genuine, they must have been written at a very early\ntime, and from that fact possess a historical value of their own. \"They\nprove beyond a doubt that there was a time in the history of the Church\nwhen a clear idea was held by some writer of the office of the female\ndeacon as essential to the discipline of the Church.\"[5] From them we\nlearn of three distinct types of women connected with the administration\nof the Church--deaconesses, widows, and virgins. Deaconesses and widows\ndate from apostolic times, the Church virgins from a somewhat later\nperiod. The distinction between widows and deaconesses was not at first\nclearly maintained. By some Church fathers widows were called\ndeaconesses, and deaconesses widows. It was only after the lapse of time\nthat we find the classes clearly distinguished, and when that time is\nreached the deaconesses have become exalted in office, being regarded as\nbelonging to the clergy,[6] while the widows have lost somewhat the\nhonorable position first accorded to them. The deaconesses are active\nministering agents, caring for the necessities of others; the widows\nhave passed the period of active service, and having won the respect\nand protection of the Church are supported in old age from a fund set\napart for that purpose. In the _Apostolic Constitutions_ the order of\ndeaconesses stands forth independently, its many official activities are\nmentioned, and the importance of its service emphasized.\n\nBy combining the different references we obtain a tolerably clear\npicture of the deaconess and her duties. She must be a \"pure virgin,\" or\n\"a widow once married, faithful, and worthy\" (Book vi, chap. xvii). Her\nspecial duties were as follows:\n\n(a.) She was a door-keeper at the women's entrance to the church. This\nwas an ancient service, dating back to the oldest times.[7] Ignatius\ndied a martyr's death not long after the beginning of the second\ncentury, and in a letter which bears his name is written, \"I greet the\ndoorkeepers of the holy doors, the deaconesses who are in the Lord.\"\n\nThis guardianship was maintained not only in times of persecution, but\nas a matter of order and discipline in times of peace.\n\n(b.) She showed women their places in the congregation, being especially\nbound to look after the poor and strangers, giving each due attention.\n\n(c.) She instructed the female catechumens. She also visited the\nwomen's apartments, where male deacons could not enter, carried messages\nto the bishops, and acted as a missionary. Teaching was an important\npart of the duties of the early deaconesses.\n\n(d.) The deaconess had certain duties in connection with the baptism of\nwomen that were considered important and indispensable.\n\n(e.) In times of persecution she visited those who were oppressed or in\nprison, and ministered to their bodily and spiritual needs. She seems to\nhave been less endangered in performing these acts than were men. Lucian\nalludes to the service of these devoted women in prisons. She also cared\nfor the sick and sorrowing, being especially \"zealous to serve other\nwomen.\"\n\n(f.) On occasion she was a mediator when there was strife in families,\nor among friends. Both to deacons and deaconesses \"pertain messages,\njourneys to foreign parts, ministrations, services.\" The\never-to-be-remembered journey of Phebe to Rome, when a whole system of\ntheology was committed to her keeping, was quite within the sphere of\nher duties. It has also been said that to them was given the\nsafe-keeping of the holy books in periods of persecution. The\nenumeration of these principal duties implying so many lesser details\nhelps us to understand that \"deaconesses are needed for many purposes\"\n(Book ii, chapter xv). The deaconess was ordained to her work, as is\nattested by a great number of authorities.[8] \"It was because men felt\nstill that the Holy Ghost alone could give power to do any work to God's\nglory that they deemed themselves constrained to ask such power of him,\nin setting a woman to do Church service.\"[9]\n\nThe following beautiful prayer of ordination, attributed to the apostle\nBartholomew, bears within it certain proofs of the very early existence\nof the ceremony, as well as of the order of deaconesses:\n\n\"Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of man and women,\nwho didst fill Miriam and Deborah and Hannah and Huldah with thy Spirit,\nand didst not disdain to suffer thine only-begotten Son to be born of a\nwoman; who also in the tabernacle and temple didst appoint woman-keepers\nof thine holy gates, look down now upon this thine handmaid, who is\ndesignated to the office of deaconess, and cleanse her from all\nfilthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, that she may worthily execute\nthe work intrusted to her to thine honor, and to the praise of thine\nAnointed, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honor and adoration\nforever. Amen.\"\n\nThe allusion to the creation of man and woman, to the women in the Old\nTestament who were called to special service, as well as to Mary, the\nmother of the Lord, while no reference is made to the women of the\napostolic Church who were so highly commended, and held in veneration as\nworthy of all imitation, go to prove that the origin of this prayer was\nso near the time of the apostles as to be almost contemporary with them.\n\nThe office of the deaconess, as described by the _Apostolic\nConstitutions_, fitted into the needs of the Eastern Church and the\nrequirements of Greek life. It was in the East that the diaconate of\nwomen originated, and here that it attained its greatest growth. In the\nWest custom did not demand the careful separation of the sexes as in the\nEast, and church relations were less bound by social usages;\nconsequently we meet with fewer references to deaconesses in the works\nof the Latin fathers, and the diaconate of women is not so deeply rooted\nin the affections of the church communities as we have found it in the\nGreek Church.[10]\n\nThe fourth century was the blossoming period of woman's diaconate, when\nit attained its highest importance. All the leading Greek fathers and\nChurch authorities of the age make mention of it. The office is spoken\nof as worthy of all honor, filled by women of rank from noble families,\nand those of wealth and ability. It found its special advocate and\nprotector in Chrysostom, \"John of the Golden Mouth,\" who was Bishop of\nConstantinople from 397 until 407 A.D. He seems to have had the\nability, rare for that age, of understanding the value of the services\nof Christian women, and through his wise guidance and encouragement had\nover them almost unbounded influence. Forty-six deaconesses were under\nhis direction--forty attached to the mother church at Constantinople,\nand six belonging to a small church in the suburbs. A number of these\nwere closely identified with his history, either as relatives or\nfriends, and through his writings their memory is preserved. Of these\nare Nicarete, of a noble family of Nicomedia. We are told she was of a\nmodest, retiring nature, and would not take places of responsibility\nwhen urged to do so by Chrysostom. We note a strong tendency toward the\nlater celibate life of the nuns when we read that she was extolled for\n\"her perpetual virginity and holy life.\" Sabiniana was the aunt of\nChrysostom. To Amprucla the bishop wrote two letters still extant.[11]\nThey are filled with words of consolation for the religious persecution\nshe has undergone. In one of them he says: \"Greatly did we sympathize\nwith your manliness, your steadfast and adamantine understanding, your\nfreedom of speech and boldness.\" \"Manliness of soul\" seems to have held\na high place in the bishop's favorite qualities. In another place,\nwriting to the same deaconess, he praises \"your steadfast soul, true to\nGod; yea, rather, your noble and most manly soul.\"\n\nPentadia and Procla were closely associated with Olympias. In a letter\nto Pentadia, Chrysostom writes: \"For I know your great and lofty soul,\nwhich can sail as with a fair wind through many tempests, and in the\nmidst of the waves enjoy a white calm.\"[12] Reading such words of\nappreciation, words that in other places approach dangerously near to\nadulation, we better understand the influence Chrysostom exercised over\nthe women of his time, and their steadfast devotion to him. They had the\nconviction that all their efforts met with his sincere and profound\nappreciation and quick responsive acknowledgment.\n\nPre-eminent among the friends of the great bishop was Olympias, of whom\nDean Howson said, \"She is the queenly figure among the deaconesses of\nthe primitive Church.\" To understand her life we must recall the scenes\nby which she was surrounded and the age in which she lived.[13]\n\nIn the great capital of the Eastern Empire, where the luxuriance and\nmagnificence of the Orient combined with the keen, quick intellectual\nlife of the Greeks; in the circle of the imperial court, with its\nintrigues, its fashions, its favoritisms; at a time when outwardly much\nrespect was paid to the forms of religious life, but when the great and\nvital dogmas of the Church were made the sport of witty sophistical\ndisputations; when those who endeavored to lead an earnest Christian\nlife met with nearly as much to oppose them as in periods of active\npersecution; such were her environments. They were little favorable to\nthe strength of mind, the fixedness of purpose, the self-denial and\nChristian devotion that marked this noble deaconess. Born in 368 A.D. of\na heathen family of rank, owing to her parents' early death she was\neducated a Christian. In her seventeenth year she married Nebridius, the\nprefect of the city, but after a married life of twenty months he died,\nleaving her at eighteen years a widow, rich, beautiful, and free to\ndecide her future. The Emperor Theodosius desired her to marry one of\nhis kinsmen, but she refused, saying, \"Had God designed me to lead a\nmarried life he would not have taken my husband; I will remain a widow,\"\nand shortly after she was consecrated a deaconess by Bishop Nectarius.\nThe emperor, angered at her refusal, took from her the use of her large\nfortune, and put it under the care of guardians until she should be\nthirty years old, whereupon she only thanked him for relieving her of\nthe heavy responsibility of administering her estate, and begged him to\nadd to his kindness by dividing it between the poor and the Church.\n\nShamed out of his anger, the emperor soon restored her rights, and when\nChrysostom came to Constantinople her lavish and often unwise generosity\nwas felt in every direction, being compared to \"a stream which flows to\nthe end of the world.\" He reproved her unbounded liberality, and advised\nher to administer alms as a wise steward who must render an account.\nThis counsel guided her into safer paths. Finally, when Chrysostom was\ndriven forth to banishment, by his advice she remained in the city, and\nbecame a support for his followers and those who had been dependent upon\nhim. She met contemptuous treatment and judicial persecutions, but\ncontinued her works of charity, and outlived the man whose mind and\nheart had so influenced hers by eleven years. Chrysostom wrote her many\nletters, of which seventeen are extant.[14] They plainly show the\nestimate he set upon the diaconate of women, and his endeavor to wisely\ncherish it. Unfortunately, they also show exaggeration of compliment and\npraise which detract from his words of sincere and honest admiration.\nToo often, also, he gives undue value to works of mercy, and exalts acts\nof ascetic self-denial.\n\nThe question of the age at which deaconesses could be received is a\nvexed one. The confusion of apprehension touching deaconesses and widows\nled to differing enactments at different times and places. The\nrestriction of age, however, must now have lost its force, as we find\nOlympias a deaconess when not yet twenty years of age, and Makrina, the\nsister of Gregory of Nyssa, was ordained when a young girl. Deaconesses\nretained control of their property. In truth, a law of the State forbade\nthem to enrich churches and institutions at the expense of those having\njust claims on them. Deaconesses also existed in the Church of Asia\nMinor. Ignatius mentions them as at Antioch in Syria. They were in Italy\nand Rome. The Church of St. Pudentiana, in the Eternal City, keeps\nalive the memory of two deaconesses whose house is said to have stood on\nthis site; Praxedes and Pudentiana, the daughters of a Roman senator,\nwho devoted themselves, with all they had, to the service of the Church.\nDeaconesses also penetrated to Ireland, Gaul, and Spain, lingering in\nthe last named country many years after they had passed out of knowledge\nelsewhere.\n\nWe find very little about this order of Christian workers in the Western\nChurch. There is a passage of Origen in a Latin translation which speaks\nof the ministry of women as both existing and necessary, but in the\ngreat Latin fathers, the contemporaries of Chrysostom, scarcely a\nmention occurs. From the last half of the fifth century the diaconate of\nwomen declined in importance.[15] It was deprived of its clerical\ncharacter by the decrees passed by the Gallic councils of the fifth and\nsixth centuries. It was finally entirely abolished as a church order by\nthe Synod of Orleans, 593 A.D., which forbade any woman henceforth to\nreceive the _benedictio diaconalis_, which had been substituted for\n_ordinatio diaconalis_ by a previous council (Synod of Orange, 441). The\nwithdrawing of church sanctions made the deaconess cause a private one.\nBut as such it existed for hundreds of years, often under the patronage\nand protection of those high in authority. About the year 600 A.D. the\npatriarch of Constantinople, godfather of the Emperor Mauritius, built\nfor his sister, who was a deaconess, a church which for centuries was\ncalled the \"Church of the Deaconesses.\" It is still standing and, only\nslightly changed, is now used for a Turkish mosque.[16]\n\nIn the twelfth century there were still deaconesses at Constantinople.\nBalsamon, a distinguished professor of Church law, writing at the time,\nsays that deaconesses were still elected in that city and took charge of\nconferences among women members, but in other places the order had\npassed completely away.\n\nThere was no historian of the diaconate of the early Church. We learn of\nit only from isolated and occasional references in works devoted to\nother subjects. Yet these references are sufficient to enable us to\naffirm that deaconesses were a factor in the life of the Church for from\nnine to twelve centuries, or two thirds of the Christian era.\n\nThe same influences led to its decay that affected the entire life of\nthe Church during these centuries. The superior sanctity attached to\nthe unmarried state, that brought about the celibacy of the priests,\ngradually changed the active beneficent existence of the old-time\ndeaconesses into the cloistral life of nuns. Statutes were passed\nforbidding her to marry. Gradually grew up the dangerous superstition of\nthe marriage of the individual soul with Christ, that made of the nun\nthe Bride of Christ in an especial sense. It was this false conception\nthat led the vow of the nun to be regarded as the vow of marriage, and\nto be guarded from infringement in the same way as the human marriage\ntie, and like it to be lasting for life. The glorious doctrine of\njustification by faith was replaced by ascetic mortifications of the\nflesh based upon the belief in meritorious works. The cell of the monk\nand the nun were esteemed more sacred than the family circle, and in the\ndarkness of mediaeval times that settled down upon the life of the Church\nwe lose sight of the busy, active ministrations of women deacons, who\nhad once been esteemed so needful to her usefulness.\n\nThere are other minor causes that aided in the downfall of the order;\nthe abuses that arose in some cases; the changes in the ceremony of\nbaptism by which the aid of women was not so indispensable, and\nespecially the fact that since the time of Constantine the care of the\nsick and poor was placed under the charge of the State.[17]\n\nThese causes combined removed from the life of the Church a powerful\nagency for good, and for centuries deprived it of the pre-eminent gifts\nof ministration which belong to Christian women.\n\n\n [5] _Woman's Work in the Church_, J. M. Ludlow, p. 21.\n [6] _Die Weibliche Diakonie in ihrem ganzen Umfang_, Theodor Schaefer,\n 3 vols. Stuttgart: D. Gundert, 1887. Vol. i, p. 45.\n [7] _Der Diakonissenberuf nach seiner Vergangenheit und Gegenwart_,\n Emil Wacker. Guetersloh: E. Bertelman, 1888. p. 33.\n [8] Neander, _Hist. of Chr. Religion and Church_, vol. i, p. 188;\n Schaff, _Hist. of Chr. Church_, vol. iii, p. 260; McClintock &\n Strong's _Encyclopaedia_, art. \"Deaconesses.\"\n [9] J. M. Ludlow, _Woman's Work in the Church_, p. 17.\n [10] Neander, _Hist. of Chr. Rel. and Church_, vol. i, p. 188; Schaff,\n _Hist. of Chr. Church_, vol. iii, p. 260.\n [11] _Sancti Johannis Chrysostomi opera om_, t. ii, pp. 659, 662.\n Paris, 1842.\n [12] Chrys., _Op._, vol. ii, p. 658.\n [13] _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, Theodor Schaefer, vol. i, p. 8.\n [14] Chrys., _Op._, vol. ii, p. 600.\n [15] Schaff's _History of Chr. Church_, vol. iii, p. 260.\n [16] _Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier_, J. Disselhoff, Kaiserswerth, 1880,\n p. 5.\n [17] Herzog's _Protestantische Real Enc._, vol. iii, p. 589.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nDEACONESSES FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE NINETEENTH\nCENTURIES.\n\n\nDuring these seven centuries whenever there arose a reviving spirit of\ntrue love to God, whether within the Church of Rome or in any of the\nchurches formed from reforming elements that separated from it, then we\nfind traces of the diaconate of woman assuming some form of devotion to\nChrist and work for him. One of these movements well worth our study\noriginated in Belgium while the last of the Greek deaconesses were still\ndaily walking the arched pathway that led to their church in\nConstantinople. Toward the close of the twelfth century great corruption\nof morals and open abuses prevailed in society, and also in the Church.\nOne of those who protested against the evils of the times was the priest\nLambert le Begue, as he was called, meaning the stutterer. He lived at\nLiege, in Belgium, and just without the city walls owned a large garden.\nHe determined to make use of this to found a retreat for godly women,\nwhere they could lead in common a life of well-doing. Here he built a\nnumber of little houses, and in the center a church, which was dedicated\nto St. Christopher in 1184. Then he presented the whole to some godly\nwomen to be used and owned in common. His earnest words of rebuke\nbrought persecution upon him from those whose consciences he disturbed,\nbut he went to Rome and appealed to the pope, who not only protected him\nfrom his assailants, but made him the patriarch of the order he had\nfounded. Only six months after his return, however, he died, and was\nburied before the high altar of the church he had erected in 1187.\nWhether he was indeed the founder of the Beguine houses has been called\nin question. Be that as it may, fifty years after his death fifteen\nhundred Beguines were living around St. Christopher's Church,[18] and\nBeguine courts were found throughout Belgium, in the Netherlands, south\nalong the Rhine, in eastern France, and in Switzerland. The Crusades\nmade many widows, and both widows and young girls sought shelter in the\ncommunity life of the Beguines. As a rule they lived alone, in separate\nsmall houses built closely together and surrounded by a wall. Each house\nbore on its door the sign of the cross, and with every Beguine court\nthere were invariably two large buildings--a church and a hospital; the\none for the worship of the sisters, the other the field of their\nself-denying ministrations. At first they were in no wise distinguished\nin their dress from other women, but in time they wore a habit which\nvaried in color with each establishment, but was generally blue, gray,\nor brown. The veil was invariably white. The sisters had to earn, or\npartly earn, their own livelihood. In the time remaining they rendered\nessential service in performing acts of charity. They received orphans\nto bring up and educate, taught little children, nursed the sick,\nperformed the last offices for the dead, and bound themselves by good\ndeeds closely with the lives of the people. They were in no sense\nisolated from the world, but lived busy, useful lives in the midst of\nthe world. They could leave the community at any time, and after\nsevering their connection with it were free to marry. They also retained\ncontrol of their own property.\n\nThere were certainly many points of resemblance between these women who\nwere so active in the sphere of Christian charity in the twelfth and\nthirteenth centuries and the deaconesses of Europe to-day. The most\nprosperous period for the Beguines was the first half of the thirteenth\ncentury, when they were numbered by thousands.[19] Gradually persecution\nwas directed against them. The nuns looked upon them with disfavor, and\nthe pope withdrew his protection. In the Netherlands many became\nProtestants at the time of the Reformation, but the Beguines of to-day,\nchanged in many respects from the original type, and now, closely\nresembling the other sisterhoods of Catholicism, are frequently to be\nseen in the cities of Belgium and north-eastern France.\n\nA new current of spiritual life swept over the church in the fourteenth\ncentury, and again we find women living together in community life, and\ndevoting themselves to common service in good deeds, and known as the\nSisters of the Common Life. There was also a Brotherhood of the Common\nLife, as there were Beghards, communities of Christian men corresponding\nto the Beguines. The Brotherhood and the Sisterhood of the Common Life\nhonored as their founder Gerhard Groot, of Deventer, who was born in\n1340. Of a singularly attractive personality, a creative mind, and an\nardent, enthusiastic nature, he was born to influence and command. He\nwas already known as a priest of eloquence and wide learning when, in\n1374, he met with a deep spiritual change, and from that year dated his\nconversion. Henceforth, with every power of a rarely gifted nature, he\nsought to lead those who heard him to lives of purity and holiness.\nGradually there grew up about him a circle of like-minded friends,\noccupied in writing books to spread his ideas, and aiding him as they\ncould. His friend Florentius proposed that they live together and form a\ncommunity. \"A community!\" answered Groot. \"The begging orders will never\npermit that.\" But Florentius, the planner and organizer, persisted,\noffering his own house as a home, and held to the advantages of his plan\nuntil Groot yielded, and said, \"In the name of the Lord begin your\nwork.\"\n\nSuch was the origin of the Brotherhood of the Common Life, and from its\ncircle proceeded that immortal book, the _Imitation of Christ_, by\nThomas a Kempis, keeping alive in the hearts of choice spirits of every\ngeneration the thoughts and sentiments of the men of whom its author was\nthe interpreter. For a community of women of similar aims and purposes\nit needed only that Groot should make a few changes in the house that he\nhad already set apart from his paternal inheritance as a home for\ndestitute women, and the first sister house began. Like the Beguines,\nthe Sisters of the Common Life took no obligations binding them to\nlife-long service, but they differed from them in living more closely\ntogether in one family, and had a common purse. They wore a gray\ncostume, and also worked for their own support. The special virtues they\ninculcated were obedience to those above them in authority, humility\nthat would not shun the meanest task, and friendliness to all. Their\ncharitable duties were much the same as the Beguines; they cared for\nchildren, nursed the sick, and often acted as midwives. In the first\nhalf of the sixteenth century there were at least eighty-seven\nsister-houses, mostly in the Netherlands.[20]\n\nIt will be noticed that these freer communities of religious women, that\nbear so much closer resemblance to the deaconesses of the early Church\nthan to the sisterhoods of nuns contemporary with them, mostly existed\nin the great free cities of Germany and the Netherlands, which were the\ncradles of political and religious liberty, the centers of commerce and\nof civilization at that time.\n\nAmong the Waldenses, the Poor Men of Lyons, who were already prominent\nin the last half of the twelfth century, we find there were\ndeaconesses. We learn of them again, too, among the Bohemian brethren,\nthe followers of Huss. With deep Christian faith they endeavored to form\na Church after the apostolic model, and in 1457 appointed Church\ndeaconesses. \"They were to form a female council of elder women, who\nwere to counsel and care for the married women, widows, and young girls,\nto make peace between quarrelers, to prevent slandering, and to preserve\npurity and good morals,\"[21] aims which keep close to the apostolic\ndefinition of this office.\n\nLuther, the great master-mind of the Reformation, was too clear-sighted\nto fail to appreciate the importance of women for the service of the\nChurch. Speaking of the quality which is an inherent part of the\ndiaconate of women, he says: \"Women who are truly pious are wont to have\nespecial grace in comforting others and lessening their sorrows.\" In his\nexposition of 1 Pet. ii, 5, he uttered truly remarkable words, for the\nage in which he lived, concerning women as members of the holy\npriesthood. He says: \"Now, wilt thou say, Is that true that we are all\npriests, and should preach? Where will that lead us? Shall there be no\ndifference in persons? shall women also be priests? Answer. If thou\ndesirest to behold Christians, so must thou see no differences, and must\nnot say, That is a man or a woman, that is a servant or a lord, old or\nyoung. They are all one, simply Christian people. Therefore are they all\npriests. They may all publish God's word, save that women shall not\nspeak in the church, but shall let men preach. But where there are no\nmen, but women only, as in the nuns' cloisters, there might a woman be\nchosen who should preach to them. This is the true priesthood, in which\nare the three elements of spiritual offerings, prayer, and preaching for\nthe Church. _Whoever does this is a priest. You are all bound to preach\nthe Word, to pray for the Church, and to offer yourself to God._\"[22]\n\nThere is no mention in Luther's writings, however, of the diaconate of\nwomen. It would be more natural that he should have tried to adjust the\nlives of the monks and nuns as he knew of them to the new relations\narising from the Reformation rather than to bring to life an office of\nwhich he had no personal knowledge. This was what he did when he wrote\nto the burghers of Herford in Westphalia. In their new zeal they wanted\nto drive the inmates from the religious houses, although the latter had\nbeen the means of teaching them the reformed doctrines. In his letter\nof January 31, 1532, Luther says: \"If the brothers and sisters who are\nby you truly teach and hold the true word it is my friendly wish that\nyou will not allow them to be disturbed or experience bitterness in this\nmatter. Let them retain their religious dress and their accustomed\nhabits which are not opposed to the Gospel.\"[23]\n\nCertainly Luther would have seen no harm in allowing deaconesses the\nprotection of a special garb.\n\nPassing to another great reformer, Calvin, we find not only references\nto deaconesses as filling a \"most honorable and most holy function in\nthe Church,\" but in the Church ordinances of Geneva, which were drawn up\nby him, there is mention of the diaconate as one of the four ordinances\nindispensable to the organization of the Church.\n\nIn the Netherlands several attempts were made to revive the ancient\noffice. The General Synod of the Reformed Church at Wesel, in 1568,\nfirst considered the question. A later synod, in 1579, expressly\noccupied itself with the work and office of the deaconess, but the\nmeasures taken were not adapted to advance the interests of the cause,\nand it was formally abandoned by the Synod of Middleburg in 1581. In\nthe city of Wesel, however, there continued to be deaconesses attached\nto the city churches until 1610. In Amsterdam local churches preserved\nthe office still later than at Wesel. Already in 1566 we read that in\nthe great reformed Church not only deacons but deaconesses were elected.\nThe terrible days of the Spanish fury swept away all Church organization\nfor a time, but when it was restored in 1578 both classes of Christian\nofficers again resumed their duties. From 1582 lists of deaconesses were\nkept, showing at first three; later, in 1704, twenty-eight, and in 1800\nonly eight. At the present time there are women directors of hospitals\nand orphanages in Amsterdam who are called by the title of deaconesses.\nThe helpless, sick, and neglected children are now gathered in\ninstitutions instead of being cared for individually as was formerly the\ncustom, and women having positions of control in these institutions are\ndesignated by the name formerly applied to those who had the personal\ncare of the same needy classes.\n\nIt is interesting to note that there was one association of women in the\ncentury of the Reformation that bears close resemblance to the Beguines\nand the Sisters of the Common Life. These were the Damsels of Charity,\nestablished by Prince Henry Robert de la Mark, the sovereign prince of\nSedan in the Netherlands. In 1559 he, together with the great majority\nof his subjects, embraced the doctrines of the Reformed Church, and\ninstead of incorporating former church property with his own\npossessions, as did so many princes of the Reformation, he devoted it to\nfounding institutions of learning and of charity. These latter he put\nunder the care of the \"Damsels of Charity,\" an association of women\nwhich he had instituted. The members could live in their own homes or in\nthe establishments, but in either case they devoted themselves to the\nprotection and succor of the poor and sick and the aged. While taking no\nvows, they were chosen from those not bound by the marriage vow, and\nwere subject only to certain rules of living. The Damsels of Charity\nhave been held by some to be the first Protestant association of\ndeaconesses, although not called by the name.[24]\n\nThere are two evangelical societies, small in numbers, but one at least\npowerful in influence, which have retained deaconesses from their origin\nto the present time. These are the Mennonites or Anabaptists, and the\nMoravians. It was among the Mennonites in Holland that Fliedner saw the\ndeaconesses, who so interested him in their duties that he obtained the\nconvictions which in the end led him to devote his life to their\nrestoration in the economy of the Church. Among the Moravians,\ndeaconesses were introduced at the instance of Count Zinzendorf in 1745,\nbut only as a limited form of woman's service, by no means measuring up\nto the place accorded them to day in Germany.\n\nWe have now reached the nineteenth century, and from the early Church to\nthe present time we find successive if sporadic attempts to incorporate\ninto the Church the active diaconate of women. These constantly\nrecurring efforts imply a consciousness, deep, if unexpressed, of the\nneed to utilize better the especial gifts of women in Christian service.\nWe have reached the moment when this consciousness is to take a suitable\nand enduring form; when the Church machinery, long defective in this\nparticular, is to be re-adjusted and made complete.\n\n\n [18] _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. i, p. 67.\n [19] _Woman's Work in the Church_, Ludlow, p. 117, note. \"Matthew\n Paris mentions it as one of the wonders of the age, for the\n year 1250, that in Germany there rose up an innumerable multitude\n of those continent women who wish to be called Beguines, to that\n extent that Cologne was inhabited by more than a thousand of\n them.\"\n [20] _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, Schaefer, vol. i, p. 70.\n [21] _Der Diakonissenberuf_ E. Wacker, p. 82.\n [22] _Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier_, J. Disselhoff, p. 5. Guetersloh,\n 1888.\n [23] _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. i, p. 73.\n [24] _Histoire de la principaute de Sedan_, Pasteur Pegran, vol. ii,\n chaps. i, ii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nFLIEDNER, THE RESTORER OF THE OFFICE OF\nDEACONESS.\n\n\nThe first years of the present century were sad years for Germany. There\nwas a life-and-death struggle with an all-powerful conqueror to preserve\nexistence as a nation. The Germans still call this \"the war for\nfreedom.\" Immediately thereafter followed a period of religious\nawakening, and this proved to be the hour when the diaconate of woman\nrose again to life and power. When the fullness of time arrives for a\ncause or a movement to take its place among the forces of society, many\nhearts become impressed with its importance. So, between the years 1820\nand 1835, there were four several attempts to awaken the Christian\nChurch to an enlightened conscience in this matter, the last of which\nobtained a wide and an enduring success. The first was made by Johann\nAdolph Franz Kloenne, pastor of the church at Bislich, near Wesel.\nStirred to admiration by the activity that the women's societies had\nshown in the Napoleonic wars, he lamented the fact that the\nassociations had dissolved, and complained that they had not taken a\npermanent form, in which the members might have performed the duties for\nthe Church that deaconesses had done in the early years of Christianity.\nIn 1820 he published a pamphlet entitled _The Revival of the Deaconesses\nof the Primitive Church in our Women's Associations_. This he sent to\nmany persons of influence, trying to win their co-operation for the\ncause. He received a great many answers in reply, among them one from\nthe Crown Princess Marianne. But while in a general way his project met\nwith approval, no one could suggest a practical method by which his\nthought could be realized.\n\nA distinguished woman, Amalie Sieveking, attempted the same task of\nutilizing the labor of Christian women as deaconesses in the Church. She\nbelonged to a well-known patrician family in the old free city of\nHamburg, and was well known for her philanthropic views and her generous\ndeeds. \"When I was eighteen years old,\" she relates, \"I first learned\nabout the charitable sisterhoods in Catholic lands, and the knowledge\nseized upon me with almost irresistible power. Like a lightning's flash\ncame the thought, What if you were appointed to found a similar\ninstitution for our Protestant Church?\"[25] The thought stayed by her,\nand disposed her to receive willingly a similar suggestion coming from\nthe great Prussian minister Von Stein, the Bismarck of Germany during\nthe first quarter of this century. He had been favorably impressed by\nwhat he had seen of the Sisters of Mercy in the camp and in hospitals.\nHe consulted with one of his councilors about increasing their number,\nso that they could be employed in all the Hospitals, Insane Asylums, and\nPenitentiaries which had women inmates. To another minister he\ncomplained with warmth that the Protestant Church had no such\nsisterhoods by which the beneficent stream of activities among women\ncould be directed into well-regulated channels. \"The religious life of\nProtestantism suffers from the want of them,\" he said. These words were\nrepeated to Amalie Sieveking and stirred her to make the endeavor to\nfulfill her own long-cherished wishes, which were those of Stein. Just\nat this time, in 1831, the cholera broke out in her native city. She\ntook this as a providential opening, by means of which deaconesses could\nbegin their work, and went at once to one of the cholera hospitals,\noffered her services as a nurse, and at the same time issued an appeal\nfor sister-women to join her. But no one came. The only outcome of her\neffort was a woman's society which she formed to care for the sick and\nthe poor of her native city, and to work for this she devoted the\nremainder of her life. Stein and Amalie Sieveking had in mind an order\nof women closely resembling the Sisters of Charity. That their efforts\nwere not crowned with success seemed to the evangelical Protestant\npromoters of the deaconess cause in later times providential.[26]\n\nShortly after, in 1835, Count von der Recke, already well known as the\nfounder of two charitable institutions, issued the first number of a\nmagazine called _Deaconesses; or, The Life and Labors of Women Workers\nof the Church in Instruction, Education, and the Care of the Sick_. Only\na single number appeared, but his earnest plea for deaconesses, and the\nelaborate plan he devised for an institution and officers, aroused wide\nattention, and brought him a letter of warm commendation from the crown\nprince, afterward King Frederick William IV. Evidently the idea was\nripening, and a near fruition could be anticipated. But neither to\nminister of state, count, nor prince--to no one among the distinguished\nof the earth--was the honor given of reviving the female diaconate. It\nwas to a humble pastor of an obscure village church that this work was\ncommitted.\n\nThe little village of Eppstein lies in a beautiful country, full of high\nmountains and deep-lying valleys, about a dozen miles from Wiesbaden. At\nthe village parsonage of the little hamlet was born, January 21, 1800, a\nson, the fourth of a family that numbered twelve children. The pastor,\nwhose father before him had filled a like office, was a favorite among\nhis people for his pleasant speech, sound advice about every-day\nmatters, and his faithfulness in instructing the children in the Bible\nand the catechism, and caring for the sick and the afflicted.\n\nThe little boy proved to be a strong, healthy child, and as he grew\nolder developed a liking for books. His father taught a class composed\nof his children and some boys in the neighborhood, and when Theodor\nbecame old enough to join it he soon outstripped the rest, giving his\nfather no little pride by his fluent rendering of Homer. Theodor\nFliedner was not quite fourteen years old when the sudden death of the\nfather changed the whole life of the family, and left the mother with\neleven children to maintain and educate. Now began for Fliedner a\nstruggle to complete his education. The simple, kindly hospitality that\nhad been so generously exercised in the village parsonage met its\nreward. Friends came forward to offer help, and at the beginning of the\nNew Year Fliedner and his brother went to the gymnasium at Idstein. Here\nhe was obliged to live sparingly, and earned his bread by teaching, but\nhe was happy and contented, and found in study his great delight. He was\nfond of reading books of travel and the lives of great men, which\nstirred him to emulation. In 1817 he went to the University of Giessen.\nHere he kept aloof from the political agitations among the students.\nNeither was he affected by the rationalistic teachings of the\nprofessors. His shy, retired nature aided him in this course, and his\nleisure hours were passed in reading the writings of the Reformers. The\njubilee festival of the Reformation occurred in 1817, and the lives of\nthe heroes of the faith were brought freshly home to him. Their strength\nof faith shamed him, but he had not yet learned the secret of their\npower. He was yet without a deep, spiritual life. From Giessen he went\nto Goettingen, where he devoted himself to a year's study of history,\nphilosophy, and theology. During the holidays, as is the custom with\nGerman students, he made repeated pedestrian tours. In this way he\nvisited the great free cities of the north, Bremen, Hamburg, and\nLubeck. From Goettingen he and his brother went to the theological\nseminary at Herborn, where the following summer he passed with credit\nhis theological examination. He was now ready to enter God's great\nschool of practical life to be further fitted for the mission he was to\naccomplish. In September he went to Cologne and was employed in the\nhouse of a wealthy merchant as a private tutor. This was a great change\nfor the quiet youth of country habits. He took great pains to\naccommodate himself to his surroundings, and to acquire the truly\nChristian art of becoming all things to all men. In after life, when\nspeaking of this period and its usefulness to him, he wrote: \"It is a\ngreat hinderance to a man, even to his progress in the kingdom of God,\nnot to have been brought up in gentle and refined manners from his\nchildhood.\" Although a faithful and devoted teacher his life-work was\nnot forgotten. He constantly sought to widen his knowledge and\nexperience, was made assistant secretary of the local Bible society, and\nformed friendships which led to his appointment to the pastorate at\nKaiserswerth. This was a Catholic town formerly of some importance. The\nruins of an imperial palatinate are still to be seen there, but in\nFliedner's time it had become a little village of workmen dependent on\na few manufacturers. On January 18, 1822, alone, and on foot, to save\nhis poor society the expense of his journey, Fliedner entered the town\nwhere his life was henceforth to be centered. He was to share the\nparsonage with the widow of a previous pastor, and his sister was to be\nhis housekeeper. His income was one hundred and thirty-five dollars a\nyear. Only a month after his arrival the great firm of velvet\nmanufacturers who provided the work-people with employment failed, and\nthe little church community seemed about to be dispersed. The government\noffered him another and better appointment, but he felt that he must be\na true shepherd, and not a hireling, and would not leave his people. He\ndecided to make a journey to collect money to form a permanent endowment\nfor his church. A journey over sixty years ago, to a young German of\nquiet habits, was a very different matter from a similar trip taken in\nthis day of railroads and steamboats. To Fliedner it seemed a very\nimportant matter; and so it was in its results, which reached far beyond\nthe little congregation he served. With great hesitation he began at\nElberfeld, a town near at hand. A pastor of the city, to encourage him,\naccompanied him to friends, and on parting gave him a friendly\nsuggestion that, in addition to trust in God, such work required\n\"patience, impudence, and a ready tongue.\" Before starting on the longer\njourney to Holland and England he returned to his congregation and\nencouraged them by the sum of nine hundred dollars that he had so far\nsecured. He was now absent for nine months, and during that time\nobtained an amount sufficient to put the little church in a position\nwhere a certain, if modest, annual allowance was assured. The pastor had\nalso, in serving others, greatly strengthened and broadened his own\nfaith. As he says, \"In both these Protestant countries I became\nacquainted with a multitude of charitable institutions for the benefit\nboth of body and soul. I saw schools and other educational\norganizations, alms-houses, orphanages, hospitals, prisons, and\nsocieties for the reformation of prisoners, Bible and missionary\nsocieties, etc., and at the same time I observed that it was a living\nfaith in Christ which had called almost every one of these institutions\nand societies into life, and still preserved them in activity. This\nevidence of the practical power, and fertility of such a principle had a\nmost powerful influence in strengthening my own faith, as yet weak.\" It\nwas while in Holland that he wrote to Kloenne concerning the deaconesses,\nwhose duties he had observed among the Mennonites. After his return he\napplied himself with zeal and success to his pastoral duties. Work was a\ndelight to him, and his energy and force of character were constantly\nseeking new ways by which to make his church services more attractive,\nand to increase his influence over each member of his congregation. \"He\nnever asked himself what he _must_ do, but always what he _might_\ndo.\"[27] But, work as industriously as he would, his small society left\nhim time for other activities. While in London he had been profoundly\nimpressed by the noble labors of Elizabeth Fry in the prisons of\nEngland. It was this woman's hand that pointed out the way for Fliedner\nin Germany. The prisons in his own land had remained untouched by any\nspirit of reform. The convicts were crowded together in small, filthy\ncells, and often in damp cellars without light or air; boys, who had\nthoughtlessly committed some trifling misdemeanor, with gray-headed,\ncorrupt sinners; young girls with the most vicious old women. There was\nno attempt at classification of prisoners. Some of them might be\ninnocent people waiting for trial. Neither was there oversight, save to\nkeep the prisoners from escaping. No work was provided, and as for\nschools, where the larger number of convicts could neither read nor\nwrite, no one thought of such a thing.[28] That such idleness, the\nbeginning of all vice, was here especially pernicious and corrupting can\nbe readily seen. But few knew of this state of things, and those few\nleft it for the government to provide a remedy.\n\nFliedner, however, could not rest in this indifference. He says: \"The\nsmallness of my charge left me more leisure than most of my clerical\nbrethren, and the opportunities I had enjoyed on my travels of at once\ncollecting information and strengthening my faith imposed a more urgent\nobligation on me to try to make up by the help of our God for our long\nneglect.\" He tried to obtain permission to be imprisoned a few weeks in\nthe prison at Duesseldorf, that he might view prison life from within the\nwalls, but his request was refused. He then obtained leave to hold\nservices every other Sunday afternoon in the prison at Duesseldorf. The\nefforts that he put forth succeeded in waking the interest of a great\nmany persons, and at last there was formed by his efforts the first\nsociety in behalf of prisoners in Germany.\n\nIt was while engaged in this work that he met his wife, Frederika\nMuenster, who was occupied in bettering the condition of the prisoners in\nthe penitentiary at Duesselthal. He married her in 1828, and she became\na helpful, inspiring co-worker with him in all his undertakings.\n\nIn 1832 he was commissioned by the government to revisit England, to\nfurnish a report on the various charitable organizations, especially\nthose connected with prisons and alms-houses. This brought him into\ncloser relations with Elizabeth Fry, as well as with many other noble\nmen and women of all ranks who were caring for the poor and neglected of\nEngland. He extended his journey to Scotland, met Dr. Chalmers, and\nfound his heart strangely touched by what he saw. His spiritual\nexperience had deepened with the years, and while here he wrote to some\nfriends, \"The Lord greatly quickens me.\"\n\nHis heart became still more open to works of mercy and love, and he\ngathered rich experiences which were afterward utilized in his work.\n\nFliedner had now attained a certain reputation of his own as a friend to\nprisoners and outcasts. It was not surprising, therefore, that a poor\nfemale convict, discharged from the prison at Werden, should have taken\nthe weary six miles' walk to Kaiserswerth September 17, 1833, to ask the\ngood pastor for help. There stood in the parsonage garden a little\nsummer-house twelve feet square, with an attic. This was offered to the\nconvict Minna as a temporary refuge, and she became the first inmate of\nthe Kaiserswerth institutions. She had arrived at an opportune moment.\nIn the previous spring Count Spee, the President of the Prison Society,\nhad urged the founding of two institutions, one Lutheran and one\nCatholic, to receive discharged female convicts. Fliedner, who had seen\nsuch refuges in England, declared himself ready for the plan, and tried\nto induce the pastors of the larger and wealthier communities in the\nneighborhood to locate the Protestant asylum in some one of these\ncities. No one responded to his appeal. His wife, whose courage was\noften greater than his own, urged him to make a beginning in the little\nvillage where he lived, unpromising as the conditions seemed, and after\na little hesitation, seeing no one was ready to assume any\nresponsibility in a matter that he took so deeply to heart, the good\npastor decided to follow her advice. The old parsonage was for rent, and\nhe secured it on low terms.\n\nFrau Fliedner had a friend of her school-days and early youth, now a\nwoman of experience and ability. She sent for her to come and visit them\nto see if she would become the superintendent of the refuge, but shortly\nafter her arrival she was taken sick, and her friends sent letters of\nexpostulation urging her to return. Just now, when affairs were in\nrather an untoward state, appeared the first inmate. Let Fliedner tell\nthe story:\n\n\"We at first gave her lodging in my summer-house, and the necessity of\nattending to her did more good to the poor, distressed superintendent\nthan all her quinine and mixtures. Countess Spee, the wife of our\npresident, had prophesied that our inmates would never remain with us a\nmonth, they would certainly run away. So when the first month was over I\nmarched over to Heltorf and triumphantly announced, 'Minna is yet\nthere.' Minna was followed by another, and the garden-house became too\nsmall.\"\n\nFinally Fliedner obtained possession of the house he had hired, after\nsome delay on the part of the former tenants, and the asylum was opened.\nThe number of inmates increased, and Fraeulein Goebel soon had more than\nshe could manage. She must have an assistant. The need of trained\nChristian workers, who could care for these poor women, grew daily more\napparent.\n\nFliedner's thoughts constantly dwelt on the subject; they gave him no\nrest. He had discovered with joyful surprise in 1827 the traces of the\napostolic deaconesses among the Mennonites, and two years later he\nwrote:\n\n\"Does not the experience of this our sister Church, do not the women\nsocieties in our last war, does not the holy activity of an Elizabeth\nFry and her helpers in England, and the women's associations of Russia\nand Prussia formed after their model to care for the bodies and souls of\nwomen prisoners--do all these not show what great power God-fearing,\npious women possess for the up-building of Christ's kingdom as soon as\nthey have opportunity to develop it?\"[29]\n\nHis practical experience with the work he had in hand brought him to the\nsame conclusion; namely, that there must be training-schools where\nChristian women, especially set apart for such service, could have\ninstruction and practice in the duties they had undertaken. As a\nconsequence there were drawn up in May, 1836, and signed by Fliedner and\na few friends, the statutes of the Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess\nSociety.\n\nFliedner had now reached the work that was henceforth to be his life\nmission; that is, the restoration of deaconesses to the Christian Church\nof the nineteenth century.\n\n\n [25] _Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier_, J. Disselhoff, Kaiserswerth,\n 1886, p. 8.\n [26] Schaefer, _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. ii, p. 86; _Denkschrift\n zur Jubelfeier_, p. 9.\n [27] T. Fliedner, _Kurzer Abriss seines Lebens_, p. 43.\n [28] T. Fliedner, _Kurzer Abriss seines Lebens_, p. 48.\n [29] _Kurzer Abriss seines Lebens_, p. 60.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE INSTITUTIONS AT KAISERSWERTH.\n\n\nFliedner saw clearly that if the office of deaconess were to be planted\nin the Church there must be soil suitable to nourish it: in other words,\nthere must be an institution founded which could furnish not only\ninstruction, but practice in their duties, and a home for those who\nshould offer their services for this office. \"But,\" he says, \"could our\nlittle Kaiserswerth be the right place for a Protestant deaconess house\nfor the training of Protestant deaconesses--a village of scarcely\neighteen hundred people where the large majority of the population were\nRoman Catholics, where sick people could not be expected in sufficient\nnumbers for training purposes, and so poor that it could not help defray\neven the yearly expenses of such an institution? And were not older,\nmore experienced pastors than I better adapted for this difficult\nundertaking? I went to my clerical brethren in Duesseldorf, Dinsberg,\nMettmann, Elberfeld, and Barmen, and entreated them to start such an\ninstitution in their large societies, of which, indeed, there was\npressing need. But all refused, and urged me to put my hand to the work.\nI had time, with my small congregation, and the quietness of retired\nKaiserswerth was favorable to such a school. The useful experiences I\nhad gained on my journeys had not been given me for naught, and God\ncould send money, sick people, and nurses. So we discerned that it was\nhis will that we should take the burden on our own shoulders, and we\nwillingly stretched them forth to receive it. Quietly we looked around\nfor a house for the hospital. Suddenly, the largest and finest house in\nKaiserswerth was offered for sale. My wife begged me to buy it without\ndelay. It is true it would cost twenty-three hundred thalers, and we had\nno money. Yet I bought it with good courage, April 20, 1836. At\nMartinmas the money must be paid.\"\n\nIt is not possible to give here in detail the occurrences by which loans\nwere made, and the money that was needed obtained at the required time.\nGod gave friends for the cause, and through them provided the means. The\nhouse was furnished with a little second-hand furniture which had been\ngiven him, and October, 1836, was opened as a hospital and training\nschool for Christian women. Services of praise and thanksgiving\nconsecrated this deaconess home yet without deaconesses, this hospital\nwithout patients. Both, however, soon became inmates of the building.\nThe first deaconess was Gertrude Reichardt, the daughter of a physician.\nShe had assisted her father in the care of the sick, and had become\nexperienced in looking after the welfare of the poor and the destitute.\nShe was an invaluable helper in the new enterprise, and shared with the\ndoctor the duty of giving instruction in nursing and hospital duties.\nFliedner's wife was the superintendent. She had the oversight of the\nhouse, gave the deaconesses practical direction in housekeeping, and in\ntheir early visits to the sick and poor accompanied them from house to\nhouse. Fliedner was the director, and took upon himself the religious\ninstruction of the sisters. Every effort was taken to make the house a\nhome in which a cheerful, loving spirit should prevail. Nearly every\nevening Fliedner or his wife would go over to the home, and read to the\nsisters, or tell them interesting facts outside their lives. When he\nwent away on his journeys he would write in full every thing pertaining\nto the interests of the common cause, and the letters would be read\naloud. This was to be a home in every sense of the word, in which the\nmembers were to feel themselves belonging to one great family, bound\ntogether by the common tie of unselfish devotion to others \"for Christ's\nsake.\" The spirit of the founder has permeated the institution even to\nthe present time. Those who know any thing of Kaiserswerth testify to\nthe strong affection for the common home, the \"mother-house,\" as they\nbeautifully term it, felt by all its children. Every pains is taken to\npreserve it. There is correspondence, frequent and regular, from here to\nevery sister. No matter in what distant land she may be, her birthday is\nremembered, and she is taught to look to this as a waiting refuge for\nthe days of trouble, sickness, and old age.\n\nThere was soon arranged a series of house regulations and instructions\nfor work which became the basis for after regulations in nearly all\nexisting institutions.\n\nAlmost contemporary with the mother-house arose the normal school for\ninfant-school teachers. It had first started as a child's school, and\nafterward young women who had taste for the care of children were\nreceived to be taught their duties. Fliedner took great interest in the\ninstruction of children. He devised little games for them, and arranged\nstories to be told. His simplicity and his child-like nature led him to\ndisregard formalities, and to think solely of the end he had in view.\nOn one occasion, when picturing the combat of David and Goliath,\nreaching that point in the narrative when the young shepherd lad slings\nthe stone that brings the giant to the ground, he cast himself headlong,\nto the great delight and amazement of his little audience, who enjoyed\nto the full this object-lesson that made the story so vivid to them.\n\nThen he took special pains that his teachers should learn to tell the\nstories of the Bible so as to make them clear and interesting to the\nyoungest child. Every day a story was told in school, and each evening\nthe teacher whose turn it was to relate the story the following day came\nto Fliedner and rehearsed it to him as though he were a child, afterward\nreceiving his suggestions as to how the narrative could be improved. The\nwork went along quietly, ever growing, ever advancing. \"Among all\nothers, and more than all others, was Fliedner's wife his best help. Her\nkeen glance, made pure and holy by her Christian faith, preserved him\nfrom mistakes. With the household virtues of cleanliness, order,\nsimplicity, and economy she united large-hearted compassion toward those\nneeding help of any kind, yet knowing withal how, with virile sense and\nenergy, to prevent the misuse of ministering love. She became a model\nfor the deaconesses, as well as a mother to them, and her name deserves\nto be mentioned with honor, as one who had an important part in the\nProtestant renewal of the diaconate of women.\"[30]\n\nIn 1842 a new building was erected for the normal school for\ninfant-school teachers. The publishing house of the institution was also\nstarted, which issues religious books and tracts. The first work sent\nforth was a volume of sermons, presented to the new enterprise by the\nlate Professor Lange, which went through several editions.\n\nThe same year the _Kaiserswerth Almanac_ appeared and a large picture\nBible for schools was published. In 1848 the magazine _Der Armen und\nKranken Freund_ was sent forth as an organ for the deaconess cause, not\nonly for Kaiserswerth, but for all the institutions that are represented\nat the triennial Conferences. The publishing house is an important\nsource of income, as the institution has little in the way of endowment\nbeside the produce of the garden land attached to it. At present about\nthree fourths of the expense are met by the sale of publications and the\nfees of patients; the remaining sum is given by friends.\n\nThe financial story of Fliedner's life could form a tale of thrilling\ninterest, if it were separated from other facts and told by itself. He\nconstantly went forward, purchased houses, added lands, and erected new\nhomes when he had no money in reserve, but unfailingly when the time\ncame for payments to be made the sum was obtained in some way or other\nto meet them. \"We have no endowment,\" he once said, \"but the Lord is our\nendowment.\"\n\nThe same year, 1842, the orphan asylum was opened. For a very moderate\nsum this receives children who are both fatherless and motherless, and\nwho belong to the educated middle class, having fathers who were pastors\nor professors, or the like. Fliedner hoped not only to provide a home\nfor these girls befitting their station in life, but to develop among\nthem those who should make a vocation of the care of children and the\nsick, and in this hope he was not disappointed.\n\nIn the midst of these successes the hand of God often lay heavily on\nFliedner's family. Brethren and children passed away, and, sorest\naffliction of all to him, his wife, who had so closely and\nsympathetically shared all his labors, died April 22, 1842. \"She was the\nfirst of the deaconesses to die,\" writes Fliedner. \"As she, their\nmother, had always led the way for her spiritual daughters in life, so\nshe was their leader into the valley of the shadow of death.\"[31] Not\nlong after this a normal school for female teachers in the public\nschools was started, for this practical believer in woman's work was one\nof the first to advocate the introduction of women teachers in the\npublic schools of Germany, against which there then existed a strong\nprejudice. The Board of Education looked favorably on his project, and\nafterward sent a government commissioner to attend the examinations and\naward the certificates at Kaiserswerth. At a later period provision was\nmade for teachers of girls' high schools, as also for those who desired\nto become teachers but were too young to enter the normal school. Over\ntwo thousand teachers have gone forth from these schools, carrying with\nthem a love for the institution which has brought back to it many\nreturns in money and service. Fliedner well called them his \"light\nskirmishing troops.\"\n\nIn 1849 he resigned his pastorate, and henceforth, with singleness of\npurpose, devoted himself to his one calling. From time to time new\nbuildings were added to meet new needs. In 1852 an insane asylum for\nProtestant women was founded, as sisters were often called upon to nurse\npatients of this class. The building set apart for the purpose was\nformerly used as military barracks and was given to Fliedner by King\nFrederick William IV. In 1881 this, as with so many others of the\noriginal buildings at Kaiserswerth, became too small for the increase in\nnumbers, and a new building took its place. It stands on an eminence\njust outside of the village, and is provided with every modern\nappliance. Fliedner's practical good sense and administrative ability\nled him to care for all the minor details that were needed for the\nsuccess of so great an undertaking. He added a dispensary to the\nhospital, where a sister who had passed a regular examination before the\ngovernment medical board made up the medicines required for the\nhospital. Many deaconesses have been trained to the same knowledge,\nwhich has been an especially valuable acquisition in the hospitals\nsituated in Eastern countries. Little by little he secured land for\nfarming operations, until there were one hundred and eighty acres in\ngarden and meadow land, generally lying close about the various\nbuildings, and affording means of recreation as well to the inmates.\nNearly all of the vegetable and dairy products that are needed are so\nprovided. A bakery, bath-houses, homes for laborers and officials, were\nadded, and bakers, shoemakers, carpenters, and blacksmiths formed part\nof the staff of the great establishment.\n\nGradually every variety of institution that could furnish active\npractice to the deaconesses took its place here, and the whole might be\ndenominated a great normal training-school for Christian women. The\nrefuge for discharged female convicts, which was the starting-point of\nthe movement, still continued its good work during all these years. The\nlast report[32] states that nine hundred and nineteen women of different\nages and different degrees of wrong-doing have been its inmates. Parents\nsend insubordinate girls; societies forward those who profess penitence;\nmagistrates sentence degraded creatures often too late for any\nreasonable hope to reform them. The old experience of the refuge is\nrepeated in this last report: one third are saved, one third are\nirredeemable, and the judgment as to the remaining third, doubtful.\nThere were two buildings erected during the later years of Fliedner's\nlife in which he took great interest. One of these was a cottage among\nthe neighboring hills, where deaconesses who had become exhausted by\nlong days in the sick-room, or whose health was suffering from\nover-toil, could retire for a few weeks of mountain air and quiet rest\nduring the summer months. This pleasant retreat was well named Salem.\nSoon afterward was laid the corner-stone of the second building,\nregarded with peculiar favor not only by the good pastor, but by all\nfriends of the institution. This was the \"Feierabend Haus,\" the House of\nEvening Rest, where, somewhat apart from the busy activity of the great\nhousehold, those deaconesses whose best strength had been given to\nfaithful labor in the service could pass the evening hours of life in\nquiet waiting for the last great change, while using the experience they\nhad gathered and the strength still remaining in behalf of the cause\nthey had faithfully served.\n\nSuch are the main features of the great establishment that year by year\ngrew up in this village on the Rhine. But from this as a center had\ngradually branched off manifold lines of service, and many\ndaughter-houses both in Germany and foreign lands. It was only a year\nand a half after the home was opened that the first appointment of\ndeaconesses to work outside of Kaiserswerth was made.\n\nThis was an important victory for the new institution. It took place\nJanuary 21, 1838, on Fliedner's birthday, when he and his wife escorted\ntwo of the sisters to Elberfeld, where they were to act as trained\nnurses in the city hospital. From that time to the present the hospital\nhas continued under the management of the Kaiserswerth deaconesses.\n\nSoon afterward sisters were sent out to nurse in private families, and\nin 1839 two more were sent to superintend the workhouse in Frankfort. As\nthe institution became known there was a constant demand for\nsuperintendents, and matrons for public reformatories, prisons, and\ncharitable establishments. Between 1846 and 1850 more than sixty\ndeaconesses were at work at twenty-five different stations outside of\nthe mother-house. About the same time deaconesses began to work in\nconnection with special churches which called for their services, having\nthe duties which in England are assigned to those called \"parish\ndeaconesses.\"\n\nKing Frederick William IV., from the beginning Fliedner's faithful\nfriend and supporter, had long desired a deaconess home in Berlin. This\nwas finally obtained, and set apart under the name \"Bethanien Haus,\" or\nBethany House, October 10, 1847, at a special dedicatory service, at\nwhich the king, with his court, was present. It was while seeking a\nsuperintendent for this home in Berlin that Fliedner learned to know\nCaroline Bertheau, of Hamburg, a descendant of an old Huguenot family\nthat was driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He\nled her home as his wife in May, 1843, and she became to him a true\nhelpmeet for his children, his home, and his institution. She is still\nliving, having survived her husband over twenty-five years, and in an\nadvanced age still retains a place on the Board of Direction at\nKaiserswerth.\n\nIn one place after another deaconess homes arose, sometimes simply\nthrough Fliedner's advice, more often by his direct co-operation. From\n1849 to 1851 he was chiefly engaged in traveling from one land to\nanother, occupied in kindling the zeal of Christian women to devotion to\nthe sick and sorrowing, and finding fields of service for their\npriceless ministrations. He visited the United States, England, France,\nand Switzerland, as well as various cities of the East, including\nJerusalem and Constantinople.\n\nThe work in our own land was begun at Pittsburg, where Fliedner came\nwith four sisters in the summer of 1849, at the invitation of Pastor\nPassavant, of the German Lutheran Church.\n\nThe deaconesses at once entered upon hospital work, and their care of\nthe sick met with warm appreciation, but their numbers did not increase.\nAn orphanage was afterward started at Rochester, and hospitals under the\nsame auspices exist at Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Ill., and Chicago. Still\nthe work has not grown, and it has proved the least successful of any\ninitiated by Fliedner. Upon his return he aided in opening\nmother-houses in Breslau, Koenigsberg, Dantzic, Stettin, and Carlsruhe.\n\nWe have now come to the period when Kaiserswerth institutions met with a\nnotable extension. Fliedner had long been looking toward Jerusalem,\nhoping to found a deaconess home there. \"Who would not gladly render\nservice on the spot where the feet of the Saviour once brought help and\nhealing to the sick?\" he had said.\n\nNow, through Dr. Gobat, the Bishop of Jerusalem, the opportunity was\ngiven. The king offered two small houses in Jerusalem that were his\nprivate property, and volunteered to pay the expenses of the journey.\nAssociations were formed in all parts of Germany to provide an outfit\nfor the mission. Gifts flowed in rapidly, and March 17, 1851, Fliedner,\naccompanied by four deaconesses, two of them being teachers, set out on\nthis new and peaceful crusade to the holy city. From that beginning has\nresulted a net-work of stations throughout the East.\n\nThere is at Jerusalem a hospital[33] where, during 1887, four hundred\nand ninety-three patients were given medical aid and nursing, and seven\nthousand seven hundred and two patients were treated in the dispensary.\nNo woman in the city is better known or more justly honored than Sister\nCharlotte, the head-deaconess.\n\nThe Mohammedans at first regarded the work of the sisters with fanatical\ndistrust, but a glance at the statistics of the last report will show\nhow completely they have cast aside their prejudices.\n\nOf the 493 patients in 1887, there were 404 Arabians, 43 Armenians, 30\nGermans, 5 Abyssinians, 4 Greeks, 3 Roumanians, 2 Russians, 1 Italian,\nand 1 Hollander. As to religion, there were 235 Mohammedans, 97\nProtestants, 78 Greeks, 23 Roman Catholics, 45 Armenians, 6 Copts, 3\nSyrian Christians, 4 Proselytes, 1 Jew, and 1 Maronite; so that in all\nnine nations and nine religious faiths were represented in the hospital.\n\nThere is also a girls' orphanage, called \"Talitha Cumi,\" just outside\nthe city walls at Jerusalem, where one hundred and fourteen native girls\nwere last year taught by the Kaiserswerth deaconesses. Over a hundred\nmore made application to enter, but there was no room to receive them.\nIn Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, and Pesth there are also\nwell-appointed hospitals, some of them of spacious dimensions, and all\nhaving excellent medical service and nursing that cannot be surpassed.\n\nThe orphanage and school at Beirut had a sad foundation. In 1860 came\nthe terrible news of the massacre of the Maronite Christians by the\nDruses in the Lebanon mountains.\n\nKaiserswerth deaconesses were immediately sent out, and were among the\nfirst to arrive to join the resident Europeans and Americans in caring\nfor the sufferers. Numbers of children were left fatherless and\nmotherless, and the sisters started the orphanage at Beirut to shelter\nthem. When its twenty-fifth anniversary was celebrated in 1885 over\neight hundred girls had received a home and education here, and had gone\nforth to eastern homes, carrying with them the light and knowledge of\nChristian faith into the dark, degraded social life of the Orient.[34]\n\nFrom the two orphanages at Beirut and Jerusalem over forty have gone out\nas teachers in girls' schools in Palestine and Syria. Twelve others have\nbecome deaconesses, and are ministering in this capacity to their own\ncountrymen and to foreigners in eastern hospitals.[35]\n\nIn Smyrna there is also a girls' school, that was opened at the request\nof some wealthy Protestants residing there. The school is not so needed\nas formerly, since the government has started girls' high schools, but\nit is still maintained, and aids in bringing new life into the hopeless\nsociety of the East. There is also an orphanage at Smyrna, where some\ngirls of the poorer classes were gathered after the ravages of the\ncholera had left them without parents or homes.\n\nThe eastern deaconesses have also their Salem. Just above the little\nvillage of Areya, in the Lebanon, on the summit of a hill overlooking\nthe Mediterranean, stands the house of retreat, where, during the summer\nmonths, the more than forty sisters stationed in Beirut, Alexandria,\nCairo, and Jerusalem can take refuge in seasons of overpowering heat.\n\nThe deaconess who superintends the house has a school for the native\nchildren of the village, which is taught by one of the girls educated at\nthe Beirut orphanage.\n\nProsperous girls' schools are also in existence at Bucharest, and at\nFlorence, Italy. The Italian school was started in 1860 with four girls\nin the upper floor of a rented house. It now possesses a beautiful house\nand grounds of its own, and had one hundred and forty-five girls under\nits charge the past year. Most of these were Italians, but different\nforeign residents also availed themselves of the opportunity to send\ntheir children to an excellent Protestant school. There is also a\nmission at Rome maintained by deaconesses during the winter months.\n\nThe large majority of the undertakings outside of Kaiserswerth were\ninitiated personally by Fliedner. When we recall the complex demands of\nthe home field in Germany we marvel at the versatile executive ability\nof this man, who started life as the humble pastor of an obscure village\nchurch. But he loved work. He possessed \"iron industry.\" He was ever\nhopeful, courageous, and indefatigable. Above all, he trusted completely\nin the leadings of Divine Providence, and constantly went forward with\nsure confidence. Then he was a true leader. He knew men. He put the\nright person in the right place, gave him full liberty of action, and\nheld him to a strict responsibility for results. So, while Fliedner\nremained the soul of the great institution, he knew how to make himself\nspared, which was not the least of his qualifications for his calling.\n\n\n [30] _Der Diakonissenberuf_, Emil Wacker, Guetersloh, 1888, p. 116.\n [31] _Life of Pastor Fliedner_, translated by C. Winckworth, London,\n 1867.\n [32] _Ein und fuenfzigster Jahres-Bericht_, p. 30.\n [33] _Achtzehnter Bericht ueber die Diakonissen Stationen im\n Morgenlande_, 1888.\n [34] _Vierzehnten Bericht ueber die Diakonissen Stationen am Libanon._\n [35] _Der Rheinisch Westfaelische Diakonissen Verein_, p. 64,\n J. Disselhoff.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE REGULATIONS AT KAISERSWERTH, AND THE\nDUTIES AND SERVICES OF THE DEACONESSES.\n\n\nThe regulations in daily use at Kaiserswerth are based on those that\nFliedner drew up in the early days of the institution. They have been\nadopted with few alterations by the larger number of deaconess\ninstitutions that have since arisen, so that to understand the spirit\nand usages prevailing in them it is well to give these rules some study.\nThey are contained in a book numbering one hundred and seven pages,[36]\ntreating with great minuteness every question that affects the daily\nlives of the deaconesses. The qualities that the office demands are\nfirst dwelt upon as they are described in Acts vi, 3, and 1 Tim. iii, 8,\n9. The sisters are reminded that their life is one of service; that they\nserve the Lord Jesus; that they serve the poor and the sick and helpless\n\"for Jesus' sake;\" and that they are servants one of another.\n\nSpecial stress is given to the importance of cultivating unity, love,\nand forbearance in the relations of daily life, and the deaconesses are\nenjoined \"to protect and further the honor of other sisters,\" \"to form\none family living unitedly as sisters, through the tie of a heartfelt\nlove for the one great object that brings them to this place.\"\n\nThere are two classes of deaconesses formally recognized, nurses and\nteachers; although there is another, deaconess whose work is year by\nyear becoming more important, and that is the deaconess who is attached\nto a church in the capacity of a home missionary. She is designated by\nthe term \"commune-deaconess,\" or, as the English translate it,\n\"parish-deaconess.\"\n\nThose who desire to become nurse-deaconesses must have the elements of a\ncommon school education, must be in good health, and, as a general rule,\nbe over eighteen and not over forty years of age. Most important of all\nis it that she possess personal knowledge of the salvation of Christ,\nand a living experience of the grace of God. Those who desire to become\nteacher-deaconesses must, in addition, present certain educational\ncertificates, and be able to sing. All must pass some months at the\nmother-house, taking care of children and assisting in housework, so\nthat their fitness for the office can be proven. A great deal of care\nis taken to test the efficiency of the candidates, and only about one\nhalf the probationers finally become deaconesses in full connection. The\nteachers have, further, a seminary course of one year for those who are\nto teach in infant schools, of two years to prepare for the elementary\nschools, and of three years for the girls' high schools.\n\nWhile probationers, they receive, free of charge, board and instruction,\nand the caps, collars, and aprons that are their distinctive badges.\nTheir remaining expenses they provide for themselves. Those who have\ncompleted the full term of probation, and have proved their fitness for\nthe office, must pledge themselves to a service of at least five years.\nAt the end of the time they may renew the engagement or not, as they\nwish. Should a deaconess be needed at home by aged parents, or should\nshe desire to marry, she is free to leave her duties, but is expected to\ngive three months' notice of her intention to do so.\n\nThe deaconess performs her duties gratuitously. This is a main feature\nof the system. She is not even free to accept personal presents, for\nenvy, jealousy, and unworthy motives might then creep into the system.\nShe is truly \"the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.\" All of her wants\nare supplied, and her future needs anticipated, so that, literally\n\"taking no thought for the morrow,\" she can give herself with\nsingle-hearted devotion to the work in hand. The deaconess at\nKaiserswerth receives from the institution her modest wardrobe,\nconsisting of a Sunday suit, a working-dress of dark blue, blue apron,\nwhite caps and collars. A deaconess attired in her garb, with the\nplacid, contented countenance that seems distinctively to belong to her,\nis a pleasant, wholesome sight that is constantly to be seen on the\nstreets of German cities. Her deaconess attire is not only a protection,\nassuring her chivalrous treatment from all classes of men, but it is a\nconvenient identification that insures her certain privileges on the\nState railroads and steamboats, for the German government recognizes the\nsisters as benefactors of society, and treats them accordingly. For her\npersonal expenses the Kaiserswerth deaconess in Germany receives yearly\ntwenty-two dollars and fifty cents; sometimes when in foreign lands she\nis paid a slightly larger sum. When she becomes unfitted for service by\nreason of sickness or old age, and has no means of her own, the Board of\nDirection provides for her maintenance.\n\nThe rules for probationers are full of practical suggestions touching\nthe details of daily life. There is not space to transcribe them here,\nbut those who have charge of training schools will find them valuable\nreading. Every kind of house and hospital service is clearly defined.\nThe deaconesses are instructed what duties are theirs in hospitals for\nwomen and in hospitals for men. In the latter the sister undertakes only\nsuch nursing as is suited to her sex, and for that reason she has a male\nassistant. She must follow strictly the doctor's orders in all matters\npertaining to diet, medicine, and ventilation, and must inform him daily\nof the patient's state. She also assists the clergyman, if desired, in\nministering to spiritual needs. But she must not obtrude her religion,\nwhen it is distasteful to her patients; rather manifest it in her deeds\nand manner of life.\n\nEvery portion of the day has definite duties assigned to it. On reading\nthem over you say, Can much be accomplished when the hours are\nsubdivided into so many portions, and given over to so many objects? But\nthe unvarying testimony is that no nurses accomplish more than the\nGerman deaconesses. No matter how busy they may be, the effort is made\nfor each to have a quiet half hour for meditation and private devotion.\nEvery afternoon the chapel is opened for this purpose, and all the\nsisters who can be spared meet here. A hymn is sung, and afterward each\nspends the time as she will in meditation, reading the Bible or silent\nprayer, the quietness and stillness being unbroken by words. The \"Stille\nhalbe Stunde,\" as it is called, is greatly prized by the sisters, and is\nobserved by them in all their institutions, and in all lands. There are\nBible-classes and prayer-meetings for the deaconesses during the week,\nand the first Sunday of every month there is a special service of prayer\nand thanksgiving for all sisters, all the affiliated houses, and similar\nhomes wherever they exist. Fliedner prepared a book of daily Bible\nreadings for the use of the sisters, and a hymn-book, used in all the\nKaiserswerth institutions at home and abroad. \"We have no vows,\" he\nsaid, \"and I will have no vows, but a bond of union we must have, and\nthe best bond is the word of God, and our second bond is singing.\"[37]\nThe sisters of each house meet together to give their votes for the\nadmission of new deaconesses and the election of the superintendents.\nEach deaconess is expected to obey those who are placed over her, and to\naccept the kind of work assigned her, except in the case of contagious\ndiseases, when her permission is asked. What a tribute it is to these\nwomen that such a refusal has never yet been known! Every effort is made\nto harmonize the right of the individual with the needs of the whole\nbody, a marked characteristic of the Protestant sisters of charity.\n\nWhen a probationer becomes a deaconess she is consecrated to her work by\na service the main features of which it may be well to indicate. They\nare as follows:\n\nSinging. Address commending the deaconesses for acceptance. Address to\nthe deaconesses, recalling the ever-repeated thought, \"You are servants\nin a threefold sense: servants of the Lord Jesus; servants of the needy\nfor Jesus' sake; servants one of another.\" Then, having answered the\nquestion, \"Are you determined to fulfill these duties truly in the fear\nof the Lord, and according to his holy will?\" the candidate kneels and\nreceives the benediction: \"May the Triune God, God the Father, Son, and\nHoly Ghost, bless you; may he give you fidelity unto death, and then the\ncrown of life.\" After this is repeated the prayer of the _Apostolical\nConstitutions_, that beautiful prayer which has been said on similar\noccasions in many lands and in many tongues.[38] The service ends with\nthe communion.\n\nA similar consecration service is used by nearly all the German\ndeaconess houses. The features of those that meet together in the\ntriennial Conferences at Kaiserswerth are strikingly similar; the spirit\nof the original founder pervades them all.\n\nThe first of the Conferences was held in 1861, just twenty-five years\nafter the founding of the first deaconess house at Kaiserswerth. It was\ncelebrated as a Thanksgiving festival for the restoration of the\ndiaconate of women to the Church. The representatives of twenty-seven\ndistinct mother-houses met together to exchange their experiences, and\nto deliberate on matters touching the further usefulness of the order.\n\nSince then the Conferences have been continued at intervals of three and\nfour years. The last General Conference assembled at Fliedner's old home\nin September, 1888.\n\nJust before it convened, as is the custom, statistics were obtained from\nthe different mother-houses represented in the association, and pains\nwere taken to verify their correctness. The results so obtained are\ngiven in the following table:[39]\n\n Mother- Fields of\n Conferences. houses. Sisters. Work.\n 1861 27 1,197 ?\n 1864 30 1,592 386\n 1868 40 2,106 526\n 1872 48 2,657 648\n 1875 50 3,239 866\n 1878 51 3,901 1,093\n 1881 53 4,748 1,436\n 1884 54 5,653 1,742\n 1888 57 7,129 2,263\n\nFive additional houses had made application for entrance at the time the\ntable was made, and were received at the ensuing Conference, among which\nwas the Philadelphia mother-house of deaconesses in connection with the\nMary J. Drexel Home.\n\nOver sixty mother-houses now belong to the association, and\nnotwithstanding the necessary loss of deaconesses from death or removal\nfrom work since the preceding Conference, there are 1,476 more in number\nnow than then. Surely the deaconess cause is striking deep root in the\nreligious life of Protestant Europe. During Fliedner's life-time\noccasions arose which called the deaconesses outside their accustomed\nfields of work, and proved their value in the exceptional emergencies\nthat so often arise. Here is an instance that occurred during the early\ndays of the establishment:[40]\n\n\"An epidemic of nervous fever was raging in two communes of the circle\nof Duisburg, Gartrop, and Gahlen. Its first and most virulent outbreak\ntook place at Gartrop, a small, poor, secluded village of scarcely one\nhundred and thirty souls, without a doctor, without an apothecary in the\nneighborhood, while the clergyman was upon the point of leaving for\nanother parish, and his successor had not yet been appointed. Four\ndeaconesses, including the superior, Pastor Fliedner's wife, and a maid,\nhastened to this scene of wretchedness, and found from twenty to\ntwenty-five fever patients in the most alarming condition, a mother and\nfour children in one hovel, four other patients in another, and so on,\nall lying on foul straw, or on bed-clothes that had not been washed for\nweeks, almost without food, utterly without help. Many had died already;\nthe healthy had fled; the parish doctor lived four German leagues off,\nand could not come every day. The first care of the sisters, who would\nhave found no lodging but for the then vacancy of the parsonage, was to\nintroduce cleanliness and ventilation into the narrow cabins of the\npeasants; they washed and cooked for the sick, they watched every night\nby turns at their bed-side, and tended them with such success that only\nfour died after their arrival, and the rest were only convalescent after\nfour weeks' stay. The same epidemic having broken out in the neighboring\ncommune of Gahlen, in two families, of whom eight members lay ill at\nonce, a single deaconess was able, in three weeks, to restore every\npatient to health, and to prevent the further spread of the disease.\nWhat would not our doctors give for a few dozen of such hard-working,\nzealous, intelligent ministers in the field of sanitary reform?\"\n\nThe Schleswig-Holstein war of 1864 was the first in which Protestant\ndeaconesses were active as nurses. Already in the Crimean war the Greek\nSisters of Charity among the Russians, the Sisters of Mercy among the\nFrench, and Florence Nightingale and Miss Stanley among the English, had\nwakened the liveliest gratitude on the part of the soldiers, and secured\nthe respect and approbation of the surgeons.\n\nIn the Austrian war of 1866 two hundred and eighty-two deaconesses were\nin the hospitals and on the battle-fields, fifty-eight of whom were from\nKaiserswerth. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 was on a greater scale,\nand afforded wider opportunities for the unselfish, priceless labors of\nthese Christian nurses. Neatly eight hundred deaconesses, sent from more\nthan thirty mother-houses, cared for the sick and wounded in the camp\nhospitals or on the field. The willingness of a number of boards of\nadministration to release sisters who were in their service, and the\nvoluntary offers of other women to take their places, enabled\nKaiserswerth to send two hundred and twenty of the number. Their\nexperience in improvising hospitals, in aiding the surgeon in his\namputations, and in ministering to the wounded and dying, throws a\ntender glow of compassionate sympathy over the terrible scenes of\nwar.[41]\n\nThe importance of trained deaconesses in times of war is now well\nunderstood by the military authorities at Berlin. In the winter of 1887,\nwhen war seemed imminent, the directors of the German deaconess houses\nwere summoned by the government to a conference at the German capital to\ntake measures for supplying nurses in case war should be declared.\n\nDeaconesses are now thoroughly incorporated into the religious and\nsocial features of the German national life, as must be admitted by any\none who has weighed the facts that have been given.\n\nThe example of Kaiserswerth has been far-reaching; the mission of\nFliedner, that simple-hearted, true-souled, practical, energetic pastor,\nhas been wonderfully successful.\n\nIn this rapid sketch I have said but little of the hinderances he met,\nnothing of the ridicule which at first attacked him unsparingly. He paid\nno heed to these obstacles, and why should we waste time in detailing\nthem? Steadfastly and undeviatingly he went forward toward the end he\nhad in view; that is, to restore in all its aspects the devoted\ndisciplined services of Christian women to the Church. He passed away\nfrom life October 5, 1864, leaving the great establishment that he had\nwatched over in the charge of his son-in-law, Pastor Disselhoff, and\nother members of his family.\n\nThe institution has become an imposing mass of building, forming an\nalmost absurd contrast to the little garden house, the cradle of the\nwhole establishment, which is still standing in the parsonage garden.\n\nWhen the fiftieth anniversary of the rise of the deaconess cause was\ncelebrated in 1886 the Kaiserswerth sisterhood put their mites together\nand purchased the little house, to hold it in perpetuity as a monument\nof God's providence.\n\nThe symbol of Kaiserswerth is a white dove, carrying an olive branch,\nresting against a blue ground. The blue flag floats from the old\nwindmill tower on the river-bank, attracting the attention of the\ntraveler as he floats up the Rhine.\n\nOther flags bear messages of conquest, of victory, of battles fought and\nwon, of storm and stress and endeavor in the conflict of man against his\nfellow-man. But only peace and good-will, the victory of goodness and of\nlove--these alone are the messages that are waved forth to the wind by\nthe blue flag of Kaiserswerth.\n\n\n [36] _Haus Ordnung und Dienst-Anweisung fuer die Diakonissen und\n Probeschwestern des Diakonissen Mutterhauses zu Kaiserswerth._\n [37] _Deaconesses_, Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D., p. 81.\n [38] Refer back to page 23, chapter ii, where it can be found.\n [39] _Der Armen und Kranken Freund_, August Heft, 1888.\n [40] _Woman's Work in the Church_, p. 273, J. M. Ludlow. A. Strahan,\n London, 1866.\n [41] _Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier_, p. 215.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nOTHER ESTABLISHMENTS ON THE CONTINENT.\n\n\nIn a book of these dimensions no exhaustive historical account can be\ngiven of all the developments of the deaconess movement in the various\ncountries on the Continent. Only a few of the leading houses can be\nspoken of, but through a knowledge of these we can gain an insight into\nthe life and characteristics of the movement as a whole.\n\nThe mother-house at Strasburg is one of the oldest ones, dating from\n1842. It owes its origin to the holy enthusiasm and life experiences of\nPastor Haerter, who exercised a deep religious influence in the city\nwhere he lived. In 1817, when he was a young man of twenty, the great\nStrasburg hospital was re-organized. The six to eight hundred patients\nwere divided according to their religious faith. To the Catholics were\nassigned as nurses Sisters of Charity. For the Protestants there were\npaid women nurses.\n\nThe magistrates appealed to the pastors to find at least two Protestant\nwomen of experience and ability to oversee the nurses, but the most\npersistent search in the various churches of Strasburg failed to procure\nsuitable candidates. Years afterward, when death entered Haerter's family\ncircle, and his life became clouded and darkened, he was called as a\npastor to the largest church in Strasburg. He entered upon his new\npastorate with a heart heavy and sad, and not until after ten months of\nstruggle, in which the depths of his soul were stirred, did he come\nforth strong, confident, and positive as never before that \"Jesus Christ\ncame into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.\" Henceforth\nthere was force to his life, conviction in his words, and never-ceasing\nenergy in good works.\n\nWhen he heard of Fliedner's new undertaking below him on the Rhine he\nremembered the difficulty in finding Protestant nurses for the hospital,\nand declared that Strasburg must have a similar institution. He won the\nsupport of a number of Christian men and women, and the house was opened\nin October, 1842. From its beginning many branches of charitable and\nreligious work were undertaken. Especial attention was at first given to\npreparing Christian teachers, and the schools in connection with the\ndeaconess house were filled with pupils. The success in this particular\naroused apprehension lest the deaconesses should be diverted from their\nlegitimate duties in caring for outside interests, so for a time the\nschools were discontinued. They have been resumed, however, and are\nto-day prosperous as of old.[42] There are also a hospital, a home for\naged women, a servants' training-school and a foundling asylum under the\ncharge of the deaconesses. They are, as a class, of higher social rank\nthan these of Kaiserswerth, the preponderating number of whom are from\nthe lower grade of social life. They are also better educated. This is\npartly a necessity, from the fact that the city is on the border-land\nbetween two great nations and if the deaconesses are to be effective\nthey must be familiar with the spoken and written speech of both\npeoples. Strasburg continues to be a great and powerful center of\ndeaconess activities, having a number of branch houses and various\nfields of work.\n\nThe affiliated house at Muelhausen has obtained an especially good report\nfor its successful use of parish deaconesses. No other house has so\nsystematized their labors or developed their possibilities as has the\ndeaconess house at Muelhausen. All the authorities on deaconess work\nagree that the office of the parish deaconess is the crown and glory of\nthe diaconate, and approaches most nearly the type of the deaconesses of\nthe early Church.\n\nThe parish deaconess has occasion to use every gift which she can\npossibly acquire in the varied training of the deaconess school. She\nmust know how to care for the poor, the weak, the sick, and those\nneeding help for either body or soul, as she finds them in her visits\nfrom house to house. She must be able to pray at the bedside of the rich\nman, and to serve in the kitchen of the poor man; to be motherly to\nchildren, sympathetic with the sorrowing, and silent with the\ncomplaining. She must be an intelligent nurse, having some knowledge of\nmedicine, able to faithfully carry out the instructions of the\nphysician. She must be keen in detecting imposition, and wise in the\nadministration of charity, knowing that \"to deny is often to help, and\nto give is often to corrupt.\" Truly, there is no gift of Christian\nwomanhood which has not here its use.\n\nFor many reasons Muelhausen was well adapted for a field of labor for\nparish deaconesses. It is an old city, dating back to mediaeval times,\nhaving a population of about sixty thousand inhabitants, half of whom\nare workmen. It has long been known for its noble and successful\nendeavors to promote the well-being of the working class. One of the\nfirst building and loan associations was started here to enable the\noperatives to earn their homes by gradual payments. Other organizations\nwhose object is the moral elevation of the employees have united the\ndifferent social circles by strong ties of sympathy. It was an easy\nmatter, therefore, to raise a subscription of two hundred thousand\nfrancs to provide a home for the deaconesses who were invited here from\nStrasburg in 1861. There are now fourteen sisters in the deaconess\nhouse. Half of the number remain at the home to nurse the sick, and\nperform house duties. The remainder are parish deaconesses, who go forth\nearly in the morning, each to her own quarter of the city, where she is\nbusy at her labors during the day. In the evening she returns to the\ncentral home. In each of the seven districts into which the city is\ndivided is located a district house; a pleasant, well-kept place. This\ncontains a waiting-room for the deaconess and a consultation-room for\nthe district physician, who comes at stated hours during the week. The\npoor who are recommended by the sister he treats gratuitously, and, so\nfar as the physician directs, she furnishes food gratuitously. She keeps\non hand a good stock of lint, bandages, and instruments. Each house has\na kitchen and cellar. Every morning a woman comes in and prepares a\nlarge kettle of nourishing soup, and at 11 A. M. this is given out to\nthe sick and poor.\n\nIn the store-room are rice, sugar, coffee, meal, and similar articles of\nfood. From here she sends out at noon such portions as are needed for\nthe most destitute of the district. In winter she also sells from her\nstores to the poor. Then there is a closet amply provided with sewing\nmaterials, and when the deaconess obtains work for seamstresses she\nfurnishes them at a small price the necessary outfit to begin sewing. At\ntwo o'clock the deaconess ends her duties at the district house, and\nspends the remainder of the day in making visits in her quarter. To\nprovide means to support the constant expenditure, there is in each\nquarter of the city a committee of fifteen ladies and three gentlemen,\nbeing in all more than one hundred ladies and twenty gentlemen, who are\nresponsible for the administration of the charity. Each committee has a\nyearly collection in its district, and in this way about forty thousand\nfrancs are gathered annually. In each quarter nine hundred francs (one\nhundred and eighty dollars) is set apart for the maintenance of the\nsister and the rent of the district house. The remaining sum is expended\nby the deaconesses in their several districts in caring for the sick and\ndestitute. Every month each one receives the sum allotted her from the\ntreasurer, and in return reports her expenditure. The ladies on the\ncommittee often give personal assistance to the deaconess, and sometimes\nassume responsibility for individual cases, or for an entire street. The\narrangements are constantly being improved upon as knowledge is gained\nby practice. The experience that has been gathered at Muelhausen is very\npractical, and therefore very valuable. Similar work could be undertaken\nin any of our large American cities, with the anticipation of like\nbeneficent results. For that reason the above detailed description has\nbeen ventured upon, with the hope that the Old World example will find\nimitators in the New.[43] Similar institutions, although not so\ncarefully perfected, are found in Gorlitz and Magdeburg.\n\nIn Berlin are a good many deaconess institutions. Among them is the\nMarthashof, a training-school for servants, and a home for those out of\nemployment.\n\nThe first impulse to care for the girls who come to large cities to\nobtain work, and to provide them a home where they can have respectable\nsurroundings, came from Pastor Vermeil, the founder of the deaconess\nhouse at Paris. When Fliedner visited the Paris house his heart was\ntouched by what he saw. He thought of the thousands of girls coming\nannually to Berlin from the provinces, and of the exposures and\ntemptations to which they were subjected. He knew that many of them in\ntheir ignorance and inexperience were ruined body and soul in the\nlodging-houses to which they resorted, and drifted away on the streets\nof the city, only to find a place eventually in the hopeless wards of\nthe great hospital, La Charite.\n\nHe determined to do what he could to provide a remedy, and, as was his\nwont, \"without money and without noise\" he set to work. In the north of\nBerlin, at quite a distance from the railroad stations, he hired a small\nhouse on a street then called \"The Lost Way\"--a street well named, as it\nwas unlighted and unpaved, and so poorly kept that when the queen came\nto visit the home, shortly after it was opened, her carriage, in spite\nof the strong horses, got stuck in the mud.\n\nBy the aid of some ladies in the city the home was furnished with twelve\nbeds; three deaconesses were put in charge, and after perplexing\ndifficulties the authorization to open a registry for servants was\nobtained. The idea at first met with derision. It was said that such an\ninstitution was rightly located on \"The Lost Way,\" for no one would ever\ncome to it. But they came. In two years the number of beds increased to\ntwenty, and the same year Fliedner purchased the entire court in which\nthe house stood, containing five houses and a fine garden. Queen\nElizabeth of Prussia became the patroness of the institution, and it\ngrew in favor with the people. A training-school was added in which the\ngirls were taught to wash, iron, cook, and sew, and also to work in the\ngarden and to care for cows, the last two branches of domestic service\nbeing required of servant-girls in Germany. Later an infant school was\nadded in which nursery girls were practiced in taking charge of\nchildren, a pleasant, helpful demeanor being made one of the requisites.\nOver two hundred children, mostly coming from the poorest and gloomiest\nhomes, are in daily attendance. About three hundred and fifty more\nattend the girls' school for children of the working classes. In the\nhome and training-school for servants about eight hundred girls are\nreceived annually, and sixteen thousand have been sheltered and taught\nduring the years it has been open. They readily secure situations, over\ntwo thousand applications being annually received for the servants of\nthe Marthashof. They remain in friendly relation to the home, receive\ngood counsel and advice, and are encouraged to spend their free Sundays\nthere.\n\nThe Marthashof has had a beneficent influence over the moral and\nspiritual welfare of servants throughout Germany. In nearly all the\ncities similar homes are now established, while in the larger cities\nSunday associations are formed to provide suitable places of meeting for\nthe entertainment and instruction of those who are free Sunday\nafternoons and evenings. So far as I am aware, no similar work has been\nattempted for servant-girls in the United States. It is true that\ntraining-schools exist, but not with religious supervision, and with the\nmoral and religious instruction of the inmates made a prominent feature.\nThe Marthashof offers us a lesson well worth our learning.\n\nThe deaconess house, \"Bethanien,\" in Berlin, was founded by King\nFrederick William IV., who as the Crown Prince took a warm interest in\nFliedner's undertakings.[44] It still remains under the protection of\nthe emperor, and is one of the most important mother-houses. Over three\nthousand patients are annually admitted to the hospital connected with\nthe house, and five hundred children are treated at a dispensary devoted\nsolely to cases of diphtheria. Outside of the city it has thirty-three\nstations. There are also the Lazarus Hospital and Deaconess Home, the\nPaul Gerhardt Deaconess Home, provided for parish deaconesses, and the\nElizabeth Hospital and Home, which started independently but is now\nallied to Kaiserswerth.\n\nThe deaconess house in Neudettelsau stands in closest union with the\nLutheran Church. The sisters are mostly from the higher ranks of\nsociety, and intellectual training is made prominent. Certain liturgical\nforms are used, and in the main deaconesses are employed in preparing\necclesiastical vestments and embroideries for church adornment.\n\nIn marked contrast to Dettelsau is the deaconess house at Berne. It is\nalmost a private institution, having only slight connection with the\nState Church. It owes its origin to Sophie Wurdemberger, a member of one\nof the old patrician families of Berne. A visit to England made her\nacquainted with Elizabeth Fry, with the usual beneficent result of\nincreased interest and activity in good works. On her return to Berne\nshe gained the support of a society of women, and through their aid\nsecured a hospital and deaconess home. It is now fourth in number among\nthe largest mother-houses, has two hundred and ninety-seven deaconesses,\nfive affiliated houses, and forty-five different fields of work.\n\nThe oldest mother-house in Switzerland is at St. Loup, not far from\nLausanne, standing on one of the beautiful heights of that picturesque\nregion. It was founded by Pastor Germond in 1841, through the direct\ninfluence of the work at Kaiserswerth. There are now seventy-three\ndeaconesses, mostly acting as nurses either in private homes or public\ninstitutions.[45]\n\nThere is also a large institution at Riehen near Basel, which sends out\ntwo hundred deaconesses. The greater number are of the peasant class,\nand are nearly all employed as nurses. The home at Zuerich was at first a\ndaughter-house of Riehen, but is now an independent institution with\ntwenty-seven stations. In Austria there is a mother-house at\nGallneukirchen from which sisters are sent forth, four of them working\nin as many Vienna parishes. The story of deaconess work in Austria is an\ninteresting one, and is told by Miss Williams in a recent number of\n_The Churchman_, from which the following extracts are taken:\n\n\"The Protestants of Gallneukirchen were first formed into an independent\nparish in the year 1872, and it is the only one lying between the Danube\nand the Bohemian frontier. It is very widely extended, but numbers only\nthree hundred and eighteen souls, and is so poor that with the greatest\neffort it can raise only four hundred florins a year (about one hundred\nand sixty dollars) for church and school. With the aid of those\ninterested in the work a parish-house has been secured, where the pastor\nand his wife reside, and in which is the deaconess asylum for the aged,\ninfirm, and insane of all classes. It has not as yet been possible to\nclear off the debt on the purchase. Still the sisters strive in every\nway to enlarge their usefulness, so that they now possess extensive\nbuildings and farms--only partly paid for, it is true--wherein to house\nthe many afflicted who apply to them for aid. In one building, standing\nalone on a hill, they purpose to collect the insane patients, and\nsuitable additions are now being made to insure their safety and\ncomfort. In another village, two hours' drive from here, is their\nschool, where more than sixty boys and girls are taught, fed, and\nclothed, in most cases gratuitously, at worst at a nominal charge.\"\n\n\"The sisters are bright and cheerful, and keep their various dwellings\nso exquisitely neat and clean, with their white-washed walls adorned\nwith Scripture texts and pictures. No work, however menial, is beneath\nthem. I have myself seen one scrubbing the stairs, and in turns they\nsleep on a hard straw bed on the floor, ready to rise in the night as\noften as a bell summons them to the aid of a suffering invalid or a\nrefractory lunatic.\"\n\nThere are a few institutions that exist independently of those\nrepresented at the Kaiserswerth General Conference. They stand alone for\nvarious reasons; perhaps they have not met the conditions required of\nthose which belong to the association. Any house whose administration\nrests exclusively either in the hands of a man or a woman is excluded\nfrom the Conference. In every mother-house there represented the\nadministrative head is twofold, consisting of a gentleman, who, with\nrare exceptions, is a clergyman, and a lady who is a deaconess. The\nKaiserswerth authorities regard this joint management as an\nindispensable condition.\n\nThe rector, as he is usually called, cares for the intellectual and\nspiritual instruction of the probationers, conducts public services in\nthe chapel, and issues the publications and reports of the house.\n\nThe oberin, or house-mother, is the direct head of the sisters. She is\nresponsible for the interior management, regulates the duties of the\nsisters, and gives practical instruction. The two are jointly\nresponsible for the acceptance and dismissal of probationers, for the\nassignment of the sisters to different fields of labor, and the kind of\nlabor required. Every mother-house has its own peculiarities. The\npersonal characteristics of those who conduct it are naturally impressed\nupon the house.\n\nThen, too, the influence of environment is to be reckoned with. The\nhouse may be located in a large city or in a small one; in the country\nor in towns. It may be under the influence of a State Church, as in\nGermany, or of Christians of all Churches, as at Mildmay. It will share\nthe characteristics of the race of people from which come its workers.\nDoubtless in the Methodist Episcopal Church in America the deaconesses\nthat eventually become recognized as set apart to special Christian\nservice, through the training that is provided for them, will be women\nwho are peculiarly adapted to the needs of that Church, with all the\ndistinguishing American traits that will prepare them to understand the\npeople whom they are to serve, and that will give them access to the\nhearts of this people.\n\nIf the deaconess cause should gain favor with us as it has in Europe,\nand should the deaconesses become as established in the social life of\nthe people as they are there, the effective agencies will be largely\nincreased that are to deal with the questions that come to the front\nwhenever, as in great cities, large numbers of people are massed\ntogether.\n\nDeaconess institutions now exist in Switzerland, France, Holland,\nDenmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Austria, England, and Germany, while\nthe countries in which these homes have stations are literally too\nnumerous to mention. Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the countries of\nNorthern Africa, and of Asia Minor, as well as isolated mission stations\nthroughout the entire world are now served by deaconesses.\n\nIf there were ten times the number of sisters, places could be at once\nfound for them. It is instructive on this point to read what Pastor\nDisselhoff says[46] in the account he gives of the various demands made\nupon him, which he has been unable to meet. One of the letters he quotes\nwas from an English missionary on the Cameron River. \"Send us\ndeaconesses for our hospital,\" he says. \"It was built for European\nsailors, especially Germans. We hope and trust to overcome the\nsuperstitions of the natives, and that they too, may come to be healed.\"\nBut there were no sisters to send.\n\nA similar call came from Shanghai, but as it was impossible to return a\nfavorable answer, although the hospital was a Protestant institution,\nthe Sisters of Mercy were invited in, and given control. From 1870 up to\n1886 over two hundred and twenty-seven places at widely remote\ndistances, such as Madras, New Orleans, Port Said, Rio de Janeiro, and\nelsewhere, sent most urgent appeals for Kaiserswerth deaconesses to be\nassigned them, but invariably the same answer must be returned: \"There\nare none to send.\" Disselhoff closes by saying, \"How many open doors has\nGod given! Whose fault is it that they remain closed?\"\n\n\n [42] Schaefer, _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. i, p. 21.\n [43] The details of the deaconess work at Muelhausen are largely\n taken from Schaefer's _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. ii.\n [44] _Life of Pastor Fliedner_, translated by C. Winckworth, London,\n 1867, p. 133. \"The favor of the great, especially the\n condescending kindness of our late Sovereign, he took as a gift\n from the King of kings, who allowed his own work to be thus\n promoted. He strenuously avoided all personal distinction, and\n never wore the order which had been sent him; 'for a servant of\n the Church,' he said, 'there should be but one order--the Cross\n of the Lord.'\"\n [45] _Der Armen und Kranken Freund_, August, 1888.\n [46] _Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier_, pp. 248, 249.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nDEACONESSES IN GERMAN METHODISM.\n\n\nThe good results of the work of deaconesses in the other Protestant\nbodies of Germany doubtless had their influence upon German Methodism.\nAs far back as 1868 in Wurtemberg, and later in Frankfort, some\npreachers introduced parish deaconesses for the care of the sick; but\nwell-directed efforts, and unity in management, were lacking.\n\nThe existing association was started July 8, 1874, under the title of\n\"Bethanienverein,\" or the Bethany Society, through the efforts of\nseveral members of the German Conference, among whom were Rev. G. Weiss,\nwho, with two deaconesses, initiated the work in Bremen, Rev. Frederick\nEilers, the present inspector, and Rev. G. Hausser, who for several\nyears was president of the board of direction, and now resides in\nAmerica.[47] A further number of ministers showed themselves inclined to\nstand by the society, both by their influence and through contributions\ntaken in their churches, so that in 1876 the first trained deaconesses\nwere set at work in the city of Frankfort.\n\nAs has been said,[48] the little institution in its early days had to\npass through a series of critical experiences, as a young child has to\nencounter the series of childhood diseases that assail it; but it\noutlived them all, and is now enjoying a vigorous youth. It was but\nanother illustration of the truth that all beginnings are difficult, and\nthat successful experience has to be bought by overcoming hinderances\nand obstacles.\n\nTo-day there is no branch of German Methodism more successfully and\nsubstantially incorporated into the Church life than the deaconess\nsociety, and none that wins greater favor among those outside of\ndenominational lines.\n\nThe first printed report was issued in October, 1884. In this the\ninspector says: \"Our society is now in three cities, Frankfort, Hamburg,\nand Berlin, and our sisters are not able to meet all the demands upon\nthem for service.\" At that time there were thirteen deaconesses and\ntwenty probationers. The last report, issued in July, 1888, shows an\nincrease in numbers both of deaconesses and their stations. There are\nnow eighty-nine deaconesses, eleven of whom are probationers, and there\nare stations in five places. Besides the ones previously mentioned in\nGermany, two additional stations have been started in Switzerland: one\nin Zuerich, and one in St. Gall.\n\nNearly all the Methodist German deaconesses are engaged in caring for\nthe sick; it is only recently that attempts have been made in some other\ndirections of charitable endeavor. In the last report we are told that\nat Frankfort steps have been taken to reform fallen women. One of the\nsisters seems to be especially endowed with tact and ability for this\ndifficult work. She has already induced twenty-two of these girls to\nenter the asylum at Sachsenhausen. The police authorities and city\nmagistrates have given this same sister access to the women prisoners,\nwhich is a decided favor, coming from German officials. Besides her work\nin this particular, she has devoted her remaining time to the care of\nthe poor and the sick.\n\nMany deaconesses were called upon to go out as nurses in private\nfamilies, and, in order to obtain room to accommodate the added number\nthese services required, it has been necessary to rent an additional\nhouse. There are two clinics in connection with the institution; one for\nthose suffering from nose, throat, or lung diseases, the other for\ndiseases of women. In both, the hours of consultation are free, and\nattract numerous visitors. Two hundred and forty-six people were\nreceived in the hospital last year, and were cared for in four thousand\none hundred and fifty days of nursing. Spiritual results are also\nanticipated from the seed of God's word sown in the hearts of the sick\nthrough daily prayer and Sunday services.\n\nThe house at Frankfort is too small for its increasing needs, and a\npermanent home of more ample dimensions is greatly to be desired.\n\nIn Hamburg the house has been enlarged, and there is now room for\nthirty-five sisters; yet still there are more demands made than can be\nmet. In one month ninety requests were handed in for the aid of the\ndeaconesses. The city authorities offered them a large lot of land at a\nvery moderate sum, which is at present used as a garden, and adds much\nto the enjoyment of the home.\n\nOn the 4th of March, 1888, occurred the anniversary of the founding of\nthe Hamburg house, at which time six sisters were set apart to their\nlife calling by a service of consecration. As in all places where our\ndeaconesses are employed, so also in Hamburg their influence is felt in\nthe increase of religious life among the families they serve.\n\nIn Berlin, again, there is an imperative call for enlarged house\naccommodations, and more sisters are needed to meet the requests for\nhelp that are constantly coming to them. As the report expresses it,\n\"Something must happen!\"[49] After six years of activity in Berlin the\ndeaconesses find themselves well appreciated, and with a broad field of\nlabor. The city authorities gave them permission to take a house\ncollection during the months of February and March. One of the German\nministers said, \"This is an unusual favor, only granted in exceptional\ncases, as when a village is swept away, or there is an inundation, or a\nfailure of harvests.\" This collection was no easy task. In the depth of\nwinter, in rigorous cold and snow the sisters had to climb weary flights\nof stairs, in houses four and five stories high, arranged in flats; to\nknock at many doors, often meeting with but slight success or a positive\nrefusal; yet daily they went with fresh courage to their work,\nencouraged by the thought that they were toiling not for themselves, but\nto serve the needy, \"for Jesus' sake.\" The collection resulted in\nobtaining nearly twenty thousand marks, to which has been added the loan\nof a larger sum at a small rate of interest, so that there is good\nprospect of soon obtaining a permanent home as the property of the\ndeaconess society.\n\nSt. Gall is one of the newer stations, but from the beginning it has\nbeen a work of promise. In this old center of missionary operations,\nwhere Irish missionaries founded one of the most famous monasteries of\nmediaeval times, is now to be erected a hospital under the care of\nMethodist deaconesses, who have already begun to collect means for this\npurpose. In Scheffel's famous story of _Ekkehard_ the only way in which\nthe Duchess Hadwig could enter the monastery of St. Gall (as there was a\nlaw that no woman should set her foot upon the threshold) was by the\ningenious device of a young monk, who lifted her over in his arms. These\npeaceful women of Methodism are finding no obstacle now as did Hadwig of\nold; they do not need even figuratively to be lifted over the entering\nthreshold; they are gladly welcomed, and are introducing a new element\ninto the life of the old city.\n\nIn Zuerich seven deaconesses are at work under the protection, and with\nthe sympathetic co-operation, of the pastor and the church. I saw\nsomething of the deaconesses and their duties in this place. The\ninspector, Rev. Fr. Eilers, came with the first deaconesses and\nintroduced them to their new field when I was a resident of the city. On\nSunday morning he occupied the pulpit, preaching from Rom. xvi, 1,\ncommending the deaconesses to the kindness and helpful aid of the\nmembers of the church. I used often to see Sister Myrtha, who was the\nhead sister, hastening hither and thither on her errands of mercy. In\nher plain black dress and round shoulder-cape to match, and broad white\ncollar and white cap, she was a pleasant and attractive figure. She was\nalways happy and contented, ready to answer the many questions with\nwhich I plied her in my desire to look through the eyes of a deaconess,\nand to obtain her views of the office to which she belonged. She had a\ngreat love for her work, and believed that she was doing service for\nChrist in a true missionary field. Her simple uniform was a\ndistinguishing mark that insured her respect and attention wherever she\nwent, and she regarded it as a garb of honor that marked her as\nbelonging to the daughters of the great King. You could not call such a\nlife an austere or unnatural one. It was too thoroughly filled with\nthoughts of love to others to be either morbid or introspective. I\nobtained my first favorable impressions of the usefulness of deaconesses\nand their importance to the Church from the cheerful, contented labors\nof Sister Myrtha and her associates among the poor and sick of\nZuerich--quiet women, of no particular prominence in the social world,\nand not learned or accomplished; \"_nur einfache Maedchen_\" (only simple\nmaidens, quiet, ordinary women, as we might translate Sister Myrtha's\nown phrase), but living \"not to be ministered unto, but to minister,\"\ncommending their creed by their deeds, and winning sympathy by the\nloving, self-denying spirit that they manifest.\n\nDuring the last year a house of rest has been opened similar to the\nhouse Salem at Kaiserswerth. This is called by the beautiful name\n\"_Gottestreue_,\" or \"God's Fidelity.\" The report says that they have\nnamed it God's Fidelity in recollection of this: \"That the Lord has so\nfaithfully led us and has cared for us in all storms which, especially\nat the beginning of the work, threatened to overwhelm it, has watched\nover us and upheld us, and has so richly blessed us.\" The acquisition of\nthis house came through the work of the sisters. One of them was caring\nfor an aged widow, whose sympathies were so won that she offered to give\nher property, amounting to about ten thousand marks, to the deaconess\nsociety, asking only that she be cared for for the remainder of her\nlife. This sum enabled the house to be built, and last summer it was\nopened for use. It lies upon a mountain, has a pleasant outlook to the\nsouth, and a beautiful view over the valley of the Main and off to the\ndistant forests. Near at hand is a grove of chestnut trees, and farther\nremoved are extensive pine forests with pleasant walks. The house is in\nthe charge of one of the older sisters.\n\nThe regulations touching the training and duties of the sisters are\nsimilar to those of Kaiserswerth. Two years of probation are required,\npart of which is devoted to practical work under the superintendence of\nan older deaconess. The rules of daily life are much the same; a quiet\nhalf hour of prayer and meditation is strongly urged, and the same\nfreedom in control of personal property and withdrawal from the office\nexists. It is pleasant to record that our deaconesses have secured to\nthemselves such good report for their usefulness that the city officials\nin Germany accord to them the free use of steamboats and street-cars;\nand the Prussian government does the same for roads that are under State\ncontrol.\n\nThe Bethany Society of the German Methodists is self-supporting and is\nindependent of the Conference, save only that the board of direction is\ncomposed of Methodist preachers chosen by the Conference. Each of the\nhomes at the five stations has also its board of control, made up of the\ninspector, the pastor in charge, and the head sister. The inspector is a\nmember of the Conference, but has no appointment, as his whole time is\ndevoted to the duty of superintendence. Last year the society took the\nfurther step of deciding that henceforth the deaconesses should not be\nsent, as heretofore, to outside hospitals or other institutions to\ncomplete their training, but should be given the advantages they require\nat our own homes. Owing to this decision only six probationers can be\nreceived for the coming year, and others who have made application to\nenter must wait their turn.\n\nThe German Methodist Church, the daughter of American Methodism,\nanticipated the parent Church in utilizing the womanly gifts and\nservices of deaconesses as members of her aggressive forces, and\nfurnished it a very helpful and stimulating example.\n\n\n [47] _Jahresbericht des Bethanienvereins_, 1884, Bremen.\n [48] _Der Christliche Apologete_, article by Rev. G. Hausser,\n September 20, 1888.\n [49] _Jahresbericht_, 1888, page 8.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nDEACONESSES IN PARIS.\n\n\nWhen in Paris we visited the deaconess establishment on the Rue de\nReuilly, and had the pleasure, ever to be remembered, of seeing the\ninstitution in all its workings under the guidance of Mademoiselle Sara\nMonod, the daughter of Adolphe Monod; members of a family that have been\nProtestants of the Protestants in the annals of France. We examined with\nsome degree of thoroughness the different departments, and saw them in\nthe busy working hours, when the full activities of the great\nestablishment were in exercise.\n\nIn addition to the information and reports then secured I am under\nfurther obligation to Mademoiselle Monod for other material lately\nreceived, among which is a pamphlet entitled _Une Visite a la Maison de\nDiaconesses_, by Madame W. Monod, \"the worthy daughter of one of the\nfounders, and the worthy wife of one of the present chaplains of the\ninstitution.\" I have translated freely from this in the following pages,\nas it is pervaded by a tone of intimate knowledge, and nothing can take\nthe place of the long years of close personal relation that make this\nlittle book so fresh and attractive in its recital.\n\nThe institution is situated on the outskirts of the Faubourg St.\nAntoine, upon an elevation, where the view in one direction is limited\nby Mont St. Genevieve, and on the other embraces a large territory\nintersected by the windings of the Seine and by lines of railroad. The\nspace is thickly dotted by the high chimneys of manufactories and\nmassive constructions of various forms. A great pile of buildings which\nfronts upon the street forms one of the sides of the court within; two\nlong wings extend at right angles, which seem to have been built at\ndifferent intervals of time. That on the right ends with the\npenitentiary, or house of correction; the left wing terminates more\nmodestly at the garden entrance; while farther, at the extreme portion\nof the grounds, still to the left, rises the hospital, standing apart\nfrom the rest. The whole establishment, including the gardens, has an\nextent of fifty-five hundred square meters.\n\nIn the little room at the entrance, where the _concierge_ is usually\nfound in these French houses, sits one of the sisters, surrounded by\nbell-cords and tubes and bells which are constantly in use, bringing\nmessages to and fro in all directions. A sister is always on duty,\nmorning, afternoon, and at night when it is necessary, responding with\ndiscreet politeness to the inquiries made. Adjoining are the little\nreception rooms, where comers and goers are met, and the consulting-room\nof the distinguished oculist, who twice a week gives gratuitously his\nvaluable services. Then come the office and reception-room of the\nchaplain of the house, followed by the little \"prophet's chamber,\"\noccupied by the former directress when she returns upon visits which her\nage and poor health render only too infrequent.\n\nWhat the French call the \"_economat_\" or business office, next demands\nour attention. A dozen registers admirably kept, portfolios of all\nkinds, and numberless papers are arranged upon different shelves. The\nsister in charge notes in her journal every entrance and every\ndeparture, and all the journeys and leaves of absence of the sisters. In\na safe she has the necessary money for current expenses, the rest being\ndeposited in the bank. She provides the stores, examines the accounts of\nthe pharmacy and the kitchen, pays the salaried employees, gives or\nsends to each deaconess the modest sum allowed her for personal needs,\nand transacts the daily business of the house. She must also every\nmonth hand in three reports--one to the Prefect of Police, another to\nthe Minister of the Interior, and the third to the Minister of Finance,\ngiving detailed statistics concerning the age, occupation, and progress\nof her _proteges_. \"How many know how to read? How many to read and\nwrite? How many to read, write, and cipher? What progress has been made\nsince the last report?\" These are some of the questions she has to\nanswer; and, meanwhile, if a crowd of little children come in, she turns\nfrom her writing and calculations and plays with them as if she had\nnothing else to do.\n\nLet us see where these children come from. Here is the \"Salle d'Asile,\"\nas it is called, with its benches and chairs for the little ones, maps\nand historical pictures suspended upon the walls, slates and globes, and\nall the belongings of a school-room. The sister who has directed this\nschool for thirty-five years has seen sons and daughters succeed fathers\nand mothers. More than nineteen hundred children have passed through her\nhands. With what pride she showed us the copy-books, and pointed out\nsome particularly good compositions. Hers was no perfunctory task; a\nmother could not have displayed greater interest in her children. The\nnumber of pupils varies from one hundred and ten to one hundred and\nthirty, a little less than half of them being Catholics. All kinds of\nprimary instruction are given, including gymnastics, singing, and\nmarching. Bible stories hold an important place in this elementary\nteaching, even those which are sometimes considered to be beyond the\nreach of children; for there is nothing in any other book to take their\nplace. It is useless to add that not only lessons are given, but shoes,\naprons, and garments of all kinds, some of the little ones being clothed\nfrom head to foot by the institution. Every day soup is distributed,\nostensibly to the poor and the ill-nourished, but practically partaken\nof by all. Even during the siege of Paris the soup continued to appear.\nIt gradually became less substantial, it is true, but still it was soup.\n\nFrom four to six o'clock the mothers and older sisters and brothers, or\nperhaps some old lady who has been engaged to have the care of several\nchildren, come to take the little ones home. The influence of these\nchildren is felt beyond the school-room; it is a visible, constant\nforce. Such a little girl has persuaded her grandmother not to work on\nSundays. Another asks for a book that her father can read aloud to the\nfamily. And similar instances could be multiplied; they are always to be\nobtained where loving Christian hearts are interested in children, and\nwhen they remember that fine saying of Jacqueline Pascal; \"_Parler a\nDieu des petites ames plus qu' aux petites ames de Dieu._\"[50]\n\nThere used formerly to be attached to this a \"_Creche_,\" where a mother\ncould bring her babe when she went to work in the morning, and could\ncome for it at night. But the government has now started a day-home for\nthis district of the city, so this part of the work of the deaconesses\nhas been discontinued.\n\nPassing by the vegetable garden, which is also a pleasure garden for the\nsick and infirm, we come to the hospital. This was opened in September,\n1873, and can accommodate sixty to seventy patients. There are two large\nwards for women, one for children, a dormitory for aged women, and rooms\nwith one, two, and three beds. All are perfectly heated, lighted, and\nventilated. The medical inspector visits the house every month, and\ngives it due praise for meeting every condition of modern medical\nscience.\n\nA committee of ladies takes the hospital as an especial object of its\ncare. They have organized a system of patronage, by which beds are\nfurnished poor patients at a low rate, in some cases gratuitously.\nFifteen subscribers give each two francs, or forty cents, a month; the\nsick man or his patron pays a franc a day, to which the Deaconess Home\nadds also a franc daily. These three francs represent the bare expenses\nof a hospital bed. Of course, sixty cents a day is far from meeting the\nentire cost of rent, food, baths, medicine, and service; but those\npatients who have been accustomed to a certain degree of comfort in\nlife, when paying three francs, are freed from the painful impression of\nreceiving charity.\n\nMany of the patients, when sent forth from the hospital, are directed to\nthe Convalescents' Home, at Passy. This is an inestimable benefit; what\ncould this poor servant do, whose strength is not yet sufficient to\nundertake fatiguing labor? Or this mother of a family, who would\ncertainly fall ill again if obliged to resume the heavy burden of\nhousekeeping, accompanied by privations and wearing economies, were it\nnot for the home at Passy? Such homes of rest and convalescence are a\nnecessity in connection with every well-equipped deaconess institution.\nThe pharmacy is in the charge of a deaconess trained especially for her\nduties. A deaconess director, several nurse deaconesses and\nprobationers, with one or two aged women, constitute the working force\nof the hospital outside of the physicians. So many denominational\nhospitals are now arising in America that the arrangement of hospitals\nunder the care of deaconesses in Germany, France, and England, cannot\nfail to have interest for us.\n\nThere are no nurses like the deaconesses. Other nurses, however well\nprepared in the best of training-schools, do not have the same high\nmotive that lifts the service onto the plane of religious duty, where\nthe question of self-interest is wholly lost sight of. It was the\nperception of this truth that led the authorities of the German Hospital\nin Philadelphia to send to Germany for deaconesses as nurses, and that\nhas brought about the erection of the magnificent Mary J. Drexel Home\nfor Deaconesses.\n\nBut let us return to Paris and our examination of the home on the Rue de\nReuilly. Leaving the hospital, and turning in the opposite direction\nfrom that to which we came, we are at the house of correction. Bars of\niron before the windows apprise us of the character of the building.\nThere are two divisions of inmates; the one in which the discipline is\nmore rigid is called the _retenue_. Those placed here are generally\nbetween fourteen and twenty-one years of age, although occasionally a\nchild of precocious depravity is met with, who has to be separated from\nthose under less restriction even at ten years of age. The\n_disciplinaire_ is the division of milder restraint. The twenty-five or\ntwenty-six places in each of the two divisions are ordinarily applied\nfor in advance. Pastor Louis Valette said: \"We shall not have room\nenough until we have too much room.\"\n\nThere are three classes of inmates: those who are put here by their\nparents for insubordination or other grave faults; those who are sent\nhere by order of a judge of the court for a limited period, and those\nwho are recognized guilty of a misdemeanor, but are acquitted on account\nof their age, and must remain a certain time, sometimes until they have\nattained their majority, in houses of correction and education.\n\nThe Minister of the Interior pays twelve cents a day for pupils of the\nthird class; the Prefect of Police four hundred dollars a year for those\nof the second class, whatever their number, only the establishment is\nbound to receive them at any time and at any hour.\n\nThere is a system of rewards, to promote good behavior, and those who\nprofit by it can accumulate a small sum of money, sometimes amounting to\nsixteen or eighteen dollars, to have when they go out from here. In\nother cases there is a large indebtedness on the opposite side, which\ncan never be collected.\n\nThe days are occupied in household work, washing, ironing, and sewing,\nand two hours of schooling. When the nature of the work will permit,\ninstructive books are read aloud, or the deaconesses give pleasant talks\non different subjects that will keep the thoughts of the workers busy,\nand give them helpful ideas to store away in their minds. As we went\nabout in the sewing-classes, we noticed that the time was invariably\nutilized in some way that was profitable to the girls. Most of them are\npitiably ignorant of even the commonest knowledge demanded in life.\nThere are separate court-yards for the recreations of the two divisions.\nThe girls of the _disciplinaire_ are sometimes taken outside the\ninstitution for walks; those of the _retenue_, never. The work in this\nlast division is especially difficult, and requires the utmost patience\nand love. These poor girls have to be watched carefully, and kept\nisolated from one another. Some are greatly influenced by the atmosphere\nof the place, the gentle, firm kindness of the sisters, and the\nrestriction they receive. Others go out to take up again the old life of\nimmorality, and are dragged away into the meshes of sin, finding their\nplace, after brief delay, in the wards of a hospital, or sometimes a\nsuicide's grave. It is a singular fact that the numerical appreciation\nof those influenced by this school of reform is precisely the same as\nthat given in the report of the similar work at Kaiserswerth, although\nthe two reports have no connection with one another, and one in no wise\nsupposes the other. Thirty-three years ago one of the founders of the\ninstitution, Pastor Valette, said in answer to a question as to the\namount of good accomplished, \"Sixteen years ago this question came to my\nears, and I stated as a principle that one cannot and ought not to\nanswer it precisely and absolutely, because no one but God can give an\nappreciation of its real value. However, out of curiosity, I set myself\nat work to gather and register some results; and, matured by the\nexperience of six years, I offer them, such as they are: One third of\nthe moral results may be considered excellent; another third as offering\ngood guarantees, and a final third has no value. It seems to me,\nhowever, as I am sure it will seem to you, that here is cause for\nrejoicing. Here is something for which to praise the Lord, and to\nencourage those who administer our affairs. For, I ask of the merchants\nwho listen to me, if any one were to offer you thirty-three and one\nthird per cent. assured, with the hope of a dividend, would you refuse\nthe investment?\"\n\nIn 1871 an occurrence took place worthy of being recorded. On April 13,\nat ten o'clock in the evening, emissaries of the Commune entered the\nhouse, revolvers in hand. Armed men were posted at all the entrances.\nThe deaconesses were summoned to one of the parlors, and held prisoners\nuntil three o'clock the following morning. Meanwhile an investigation\ntook place among the girls in the penitentiary, as they would be the\nmost likely of any of the inmates of the house to have complaints. The\nofficers of the Commune interrogated them closely. Their answers were\nfavorable beyond all expectation. \"Are you happy here?\" \"Oh, yes, very\nhappy.\" \"What have you done deserving punishment?\" \"Nothing that we need\ntalk to you about.\" \"How are you punished here?\" \"The sisters don't\npunish us; they advise us what to do, and warn us.\" \"Now,\" said the\nchief to one, \"just tell me quietly, no one else need hear; if you are\nnot contented I will take you away with me.\" \"What a coward you are,\"\nshe answered, quite scornfully. Not one of them thought of escaping. All\nthis time the prison wagon had been waiting in the street, and would\nhave been filled with deaconesses had the slightest cause of complaint\nbeen found; but it went away empty. Later the sisters had occasion to go\nto the head-quarters of the Commune in their ward, and they met with\npolite consideration. This is not the only experience of the troubled\npolitical life of the great city that the deaconesses have had. The\nFaubourg St. Antoine has been noted ever since the time of the Fronde as\nbeing the haunt of all that is turbulent and revolutionary. In February\n1848, a great barricade was thrown across the Rue de Reuilly, men,\nwomen, and children hurrying with bricks and stones to help in building\nit. Then came the moment of storm and attack, and forty-two men lay dead\nin the street. Some of the wounded were received by the sisters, crowded\nas they were with the children whom the mothers had brought for safety.\nMeanwhile the deaconesses went about unmolested, bought food and\nmedicine, hunted friends and relatives for the sick, and through all\nthat period of excitement and strife kept up their ministrations of\nmercy.\n\nThere is no distinct home for women who are left alone and desire\nChristian surroundings, as is the case in several German institutions,\nbut about sixty such ladies are received as boarders in the Paris home.\nFrequently also the hospitality of the house is enjoyed by young girls\nwho come to Paris alone to earn a livelihood, or who have to stop here\nfor some hours on their way to another place; a great advantage for\ninexperienced young women, unversed in the ways of a city, who find\nthemselves alone in the great world for the first time.\n\nThe preparatory school for deaconesses is on the first floor, below the\nrooms of the sisters. For two years the candidates are under the\ninstruction of superior sisters. They are received into the house\ngratuitously, and accept its regulations while they remain. They have to\npass through all practical duties of house-work, and care of the sick\nand children. They also pursue practical and theoretical courses in\nhygiene, and receive lessons in singing and pedagogics. The chaplains of\nthe institution give them courses of religious instruction, and lectures\non Church history. Some (the larger number) need very elementary\nlessons; others come with a good education. Each is directed according\nto her education and experience. In fact, all classes are represented\namong the deaconesses; servants, teachers, ladies, and shepherdesses.\nThey come from different parts of France, but in larger numbers from the\nSouth.\n\nDeaconesses are constantly in demand to go out in the city as nurses in\nprivate families. Such requests often meet with refusals, because\nsisters cannot be spared for such duties. Their work is limited by the\nsmallness of their numbers. The last report gives sixty deaconesses\nattached to the Home on the Rue de Reuilly.\n\nThe work is upon sterile soil as compared to Germany. The Protestants of\nFrance are in a small minority, surrounded by an overwhelming majority\nof Catholics; while in the beginning of the work some influential\nmembers of the Protestant faith, having an inadequate comprehension of\nthe good in the movement, and a misconception of its plans, exerted a\npowerful influence that for awhile told adversely to the cause. The home\nhas now passed beyond the stage when it can be affected by adverse\ncriticisms; and it to-day not only has the approbation of Christians,\nbut also of those who regard it solely from the point of view of\nphilanthropy.[51]\n\nThere are but two parish deaconesses who are at work in Belleville and\nSte. Marie. The directors of the institution would be glad to increase\nthe number, as they regard the work of the sisters under the direction\nof the city pastors as that which presents the widest opportunities for\ndoing good, while it perpetuates those aspects of the deaconess work\nwhich most closely resemble those of the early Church. But Calvin's\nreply from Geneva to the Church of France is theirs. When petitioned to\nsend more pastors over the boundary into France he replied, \"Send us\nwood and we will send you arrows.\" So the want of deaconesses is a\ncontinual hinderance to the furtherance of the cause, both in the city\nand the provinces.\n\nThe prisons for women in France are under the supervision of women, save\nthe office of chief director, which is filled by a man. The great\nmajority of the prisoners in France being Catholics, the number of\nSisters of Charity is naturally much larger than the number of\ndeaconesses employed. At the prison of Clermont four of the Paris\ndeaconesses are kept constantly at work among the prisoners.\n\nIn connection with the old prison of St. Lazare, the women's prison of\nParis, the deaconesses have a mission especially concerned with caring\nfor discharged female convicts. As was the case at Kaiserswerth, this,\nin its initiation, is closely connected with the saintly life of\nElizabeth Fry. When she came to Paris, in 1835, a drawing-room meeting\nwas held at the residence of the Duchess de Broglie, in which she told\nof her efforts to effect a reform in prisons in England. None of the\nladies of rank and wealth who heard her were stirred to greater effort\nthan was demanded by the keen interest with which they listened to her\nwords; but a quiet governess was present, Mademoiselle Dumas, and with\nher the seeds of truth fell into prepared ground. She determined to\nattempt for her own country a portion of the work Mrs. Fry had\naccomplished for England. Obtaining permission from the authorities to\nvisit the prison of St. Lazare, she went daily to the prisoners shut up\nin the rooms of this great building, formerly the monastery of St.\nVincent de Paul, the founder of the Sisters of Charity. After the\ndeaconess home was established, some deaconesses were set apart to aid\nMademoiselle Dumas in her work. All these years the mission has\ncontinued, not interrupted even during the dark days of the Commune. A\ncommittee of ladies aids in providing shelter and work for the prisoners\nwhen they are discharged. The great publishing house of Hachette & Co.,\nalthough the head of the firm is a Catholic, provides employment in\nfolding paper for books.\n\nThrough the kind offices of Mademoiselle Monod we called on Mademoiselle\nDumas. She is now an extremely aged woman; but her interest in the\nChristian reformation of prisoners of her sex is as keen as it was over\nfifty years ago, when her labors began. The registers of many years\nstand by her desk, and from these we were shown how the records of the\nmission are kept, and in what way the lives of those assisted are\nwatched and followed for years. Narratives of individual reformation\nwere related to us, and through the long correspondence of many years\nshe was enabled to tell us of those who had turned to a better life and\nheld to it permanently. As she talked her eyes brightened, the tones of\nher voice became stronger and clearer, her manner more vivacious, and\nthe years seemed to slip from her. Finally, as if overcome by the\nmemories that the long retrospect had brought to her, and thrilled by\nthe recollections, of all this work meant to her, she ended by\nexclaiming, \"O, my dear St. Lazare!\" I looked at her astonished. I had\njust come from the walls of the gloomy prison, and the place had chilled\nme with horror as I walked through its corridors, and read the stories\nof shame and guilt in the faces of its inmates; most hopeless looking\nfaces, belonging to little children of ten and twelve up to hardened and\nprematurely aged women of fifty and sixty. I could not comprehend a term\nof endearment applied to such a place. But a moment's consideration led\nme to see that this aged saint had there fought and won the best of her\nlife's battles, and the place remains glorified in her thoughts by most\nhallowed and Christ-like memories.\n\nNow that Mademoiselle Dumas is kept to her room, the deaconesses still\ncome to her weekly, make their reports, and keep up the proper entries\nin her books.\n\nA recent letter from Mademoiselle Monod says: \"Mademoiselle Dumas still\nlives, having completed her ninety-sixth year the 26th of last December\n(1888). Only yesterday our prison committee met at her house, she acting\nas presiding officer.\"\n\nThe life of this quiet woman is but little known outside the circle of\nher immediate influence, but it has been more valuable to her country\nthan that of many a general or statesman who has been ranked among the\nfamous of the earth.\n\nThe deaconess home has also branches of work in different parts of\nFrance. These include nine hospitals, two homes for the aged and infirm,\nfour orphanages, two work-rooms for young girls, and a convalescents'\nhome. The house has established close connection with the deaconess\nhouses at St. Loup in French Switzerland, and with Strasburg. The ties\nof a common language and former memories are strong, and these are the\nhomes most akin to the Paris home.\n\nThe ordinary expenses of the Paris deaconess home are about thirty\nthousand dollars a year. Nearly seven thousand dollars are collected\nannually by subscriptions, the remaining sum being made up of returns\narising from service.\n\nThe institution was founded in 1841 by Rev. Antoine Vermeil, a\ndistinguished minister of the Reformed Church, aided by a devout and\nworthy minister of the Lutheran Church, Rev. Louis Valette. It has grown\nup under the joint and harmonious patronage of these two State Churches.\n\nA later deaconess home, entirely devoted to training and employing\nparish deaconesses, was started in 1874, under the sole control of the\nLutheran Church. Some pastors secured the co-operation of a few young\nChristian women to consecrate a portion of their strength and time to\nthe service of the Church. From this beginning sprang the work that\nexists to-day. The home is located in the Rue de Bridaine. There are now\nsixteen deaconesses, six of whom are probationers. Five of them are\nlocated in different parishes in Paris, usually at a long distance from\nthe central house. Each goes forth early in the morning to her parish,\nwhere is a room of some kind serving as a center to the work. Materials\nused in nursing and medicines are stored here, and there is an office\nfor the physician, who comes at stated periods to give free\nconsultation. From the district house the deaconess goes in all\ndirections and in all weather to look up families which have fallen away\nfrom the Church, to gather in children for the Sunday-school, to visit\nthe sick, and to collect garments and money from the rich in order to\ndistribute them among the poor. Such are some of their duties. Each\nsister is under the direction of a pastor, and is aided by his advice,\nwhile still remaining a member of the community to which she belongs.\n\nIn both of the deaconess houses of Paris, as in the German houses, a\nspecial service sets apart those sisters who have passed their period of\nprobation, and have been received into full connection. As one of the\ndeaconess reports beautifully says: \"When Christ calls the soul to a\nspecial vocation he gives it special grace, and those who consecrate\nthemselves to him he consecrates to their task by the strength of his\nSpirit. So in conformity with the usages of the primitive Church we give\nconsecration to our sisters by the laying on of hands. The consecration\nis not a sacramental act, conferring a particular character, greater\nsanctity, or special powers; neither is it simply a ceremony or pious\nformality. It is a real and efficacious benediction, which the Saviour\naccords to our sisters to consecrate them to their holy work, as he\naccorded it to the deacons who received the imposition of the apostles'\nhands.\"\n\nThe good that can be accomplished by deaconesses working together with\nministers in behalf of the manifold interests of the Church is\nincalculable. The most faithful pastor can make only short and\nunsatisfactory visits. Many sorrows which he overlooks the deaconess can\ndiscern and assuage. She knows best how to reach the heart of a\nsorrowing woman, to care for her needs, to discern her wants, and to\nbring solace to the sorrowing and succor to the needy. Deaconesses who\nhave been specially trained for service cannot be spared now that the\nworld has learned to know of them. For \"charity cannot take the place of\nexperience, nor good-will replace knowledge;\" and trained Christian\nservice is the highest of all service.\n\nThe old spirit of the Huguenots has not died out of France, and with\nthat ready susceptibility to noble ideas which is a marked\ncharacteristic of the French character, we can expect to see the\ndeaconess cause thrive and prosper as it has done in other lands.\n\n\n [50] Speak to God about the little ones, rather than to the little\n souls of God.\n [51] See a sympathetic study of the work by Maxime du Camp, a\n member of the French Academy, in his book _Paris Bienfaisant_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nDEACONESSES IN ENGLAND.\n\n\nTo learn the first facts about deaconesses in England, we must go back\nto the early days of the Puritans. In 1576, under Queen Elizabeth, about\nsixty non-conformist ministers of the eastern counties assembled to make\nregulations concerning Church constitution and discipline, and one of\nthem was as follows: \"Touching deacons of both sorts, namely, both men\nand women, the Church should be admonished what is required by the\napostle, that they are not to choose men by custom or course, or for\ntheir riches, but for their faith, zeal, and integrity; and that the\nChurch is to pray in the meantime to be so directed that they may choose\nthem that are meet. Let the names of those that are thus chosen be\npublished the next Lord's Day, and after that their duties to the\nChurch, and the Church's duty toward them. Then let them be received\ninto their office with the general prayers of the whole Church.\"[52]\n\nThere are other references in the works of the early Puritans that\nindicate that the office of deaconess was as well known and recognized\nas were the other offices that were named in accordance with the usages\nof the primitive Church.\n\nIn the early part of the seventeenth century it still survived, as we\nshall see from a quaint and curious picture that is of especial interest\nto all Americans, because it portrays what took place in that community\nof pious souls who furnished us the men we delight to honor as the\nPilgrim Fathers. A number of these heroic souls, who could give up their\ncountry, but would not yield their faith, went forth from England in\n1608, and settled in Amsterdam. They preserved in a foreign land their\nown Church usages, as the following words show: \"In Amsterdam there were\nabout three hundred communicants, and they had for their pastor and\nteacher those two eminent men before named (Johnson and Ainsworth); and\nhad at one time four grave men for ruling elders, three able, godly men\nfor deacons, and one ancient widow for a deaconess, who did them service\nmany years, though she was sixty years of age when she was chosen. She\nhonored her place, and was an ornament to the congregation. She usually\nsat in a convenient place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod\nin her hand, and kept little children in awe from disturbing the\ncongregation. She did frequently visit the sick and weak, especially\nwomen, and as there was need called out ladies and young women to watch\nand do them other helps as their necessity should require; and if there\nwere poor she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or\nacquaint the deacons. And she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an\nofficer of Christ.\"[53]\n\nWhether the \"ancient widow\" with the little \"birchen rod\" had any\nfollowers in the early Puritan communities of the Plymouth Colony we\ncannot say, as there are no records that throw light on the subject; but\nthe history of early New England Congregationalism gives us one\nindication that the office was recognized in the New World. In the\nCambridge Platform, a system of Church discipline agreed upon by the\nelders and messengers of the New England churches assembled in synod at\nCambridge, in 1648, the seventh chapter enumerates the duties of elder\nand deacons, and then adds, \"The Lord hath appointed _ancient widdows_,\nwhere they may be had, to minister in the Church, in giving attendance\nto the sick, and to give succor unto them and others in the like\nnecessities.\" The same confusion of thought concerning the Church widow\nand the deaconess is here seen, but there is evident the recognition of\nthe services that women were officially to render the Church.\n\nIn the early part of the present century Southey voiced the complaint,\nlong reiterated, that Protestantism had no missionaries. We who live in\nthe closing years of the same century, surrounded by the multiplied\nevidences of the extent of missions, when the Protestants of the world\nare expending nearly ten millions of dollars annually, and employing\nnearly six thousand men and women as missionaries, cannot realize the\nchange that has taken place. In 1830 Southey again wrote: \"Thirty years\nhence another reproach may also be effaced, and England may have her\nSisters of Charity.\" He had learned to know their value when serving as\na volunteer in Wellington's army, and a year after the battle of\nWaterloo he had visited the Beguines at Ghent, and what he saw deeply\nimpressed him. \"We should have such women among us,\" he said. \"It is a\ngreat loss to England that we have no Sisters of Charity. There is\nnothing Romish, nothing unevangelical in such communities; nothing but\nwhat is right and holy; nothing but what belongs to that religion which\nthe apostle James has described as 'pure and undefiled before God the\nFather.'\"[54]\n\nSouthey's prophecy has come true. England to-day in her deaconesses\npossesses her Sisters of Charity. How has this change been brought\nabout? The acquaintance of Mrs. Fry with Fliedner, and her visit to\nKaiserswerth, led her to introduce into England the practical training\nof nurses for the sick. The Nursing Sisters' Institution in Devonshire\nSquare, Bishop's Gate, was founded through her efforts in 1840, and\nstill exists \"to train nurses for private families, and to provide\npensions for aged nurses.\"[55]\n\nIn 1842, Fliedner came to London, accompanied by four sisters, at the\ninvitation of the German Hospital at Dalston. These deaconesses won\ngolden opinions from the hospital authorities for their quiet, efficient\nmanner, and their trained skill. The hospital continues to be served by\nthem, but the Sisters now come from the mother house at Darmstadt.\n\nKaiserswerth and its deaconesses became more widely known through the\nlife and inestimable services of Florence Nightingale. When a child,\none of Fliedner's reports fell into her hands. Its perusal marked an\nera in her life. It made clear to her what she should do. She would go\nto Kaiserswerth, and fit herself for a nurse. Her childish resolve never\nwavered. \"Happy is the man who holds fast to the ideals of his youth.\"\nFlorence Nightingale held fast to hers. She went to Kaiserswerth at two\ndifferent times, and through her deeds and her writings the care of the\nsick in England has been completely transformed. She has won a nation's\ngratitude, and now is living in honored old age in one of the London\ninstitutions founded mainly by the money that she contributed, and which\nshe obtained by selling some valuable gifts given her by a foreign\ngovernment in acknowledgment of her care of its wounded soldiers during\nthe Crimean war.\n\nAnother woman distinguished in England's philanthropies is Agnes Jones,\nwho left a home of wealth and refinement to receive her training also at\nKaiserswerth. Returning to England she gave her time and talents in\nsingle-hearted devotion to the care of the poor in the Liverpool\nwork-house, and met death in the midst of her labors. The training which\nled two such women to accomplish such noble deeds naturally was\nrecognized as valuable, and Kaiserswerth soon became an honored name in\nEngland.\n\nIn 1851 Miss Nightingale sent out anonymously her little book entitled\n_An Account of the Institution of Deaconesses_, which added to the\nknowledge already in circulation about the movement in Germany.\nMeanwhile articles were appearing in the reviews. In 1848 one was\nwritten in the _Edinburgh Review_ by John Malcolm Ludlow, who later, in\n1866, gave the results of the thoughts and studies of a number of years\nin _Woman's Work in the Church_, the best historical study of the\nsubject up to the date at which it was written. Since then the Germans\nhave pushed their historical investigations further, and the work needs\nto be revised and to be brought down to the present time.\n\nIn _Good Words_ for 1861 there were two articles by Dr. Stevenson, of\nthe Irish Presbyterian Church, entitled \"The Blue Flag of Kaiserswerth,\"\nafterward incorporated in his work, _Praying and Working_, a book too\nlittle known among us.\n\nThe great upholder of the deaconess cause in the Church of England was\nthe late Dean of Chester, Rev. J. S. Howson. His essay, first published\nin the _Quarterly Review_, was amplified and issued in book form in 1860\nunder the title _Deaconesses_. It won many friends. The cause remained a\nfavorite one with him, and he constantly advocated it by speech and by\ndeed. Since his death his latest thoughts, which remained substantially\nthe same as those that he first advanced, have been published in a work\nentitled _The Diaconate of Women_.\n\nWithin the Church of England, however, the deaconess cause has not met\nthe same prosperous development that it has obtained in connection with\ncertain independent institutions, notably that of Mildmay.\n\nAmong the institutions on the Continent, as well as in the pages of this\nwork up to the present, the terms \"sister\" and \"deaconess\" are used\nsynonymously, to indicate one and the same person. But when we come to\nconsider the deaconess institutions within the Church of England we\ncannot continue to use these two names in the same way. A deaconess is a\nmember of a deaconess institution, actively engaged in charitable deeds,\nbut, like the deaconess on the Continent, she can sever her connection\nwith it when adequate cause presents itself, and return to her family\nand friends. A sister belongs to a sisterhood which closely resembles\nthe Roman Catholic sisterhoods in many features. These sisterhoods began\nin 1847 with a number of ladies brought together through the influence\nof Dr. Pusey, who formed themselves into a community to live under its\nrule. Their influence and number increased, and twenty-three\nsisterhoods are mentioned in the last official report.[56]\n\nDoubtless it was the activity and great usefulness of the continental\ndeaconess houses that provided the stimulating examples which acted on\nthe Church of England and led to the rise of sisterhoods and deaconess\ninstitutions. But the two opposing tendencies within the Episcopal\nChurch--namely, that which desires to approach the Church of Rome, with\nwhich it feels itself in sympathy on many points, and that which views\nwith disfavor any conformity to it, and strives to keep to the landmarks\nset at the great Reformation--these two distinct tendencies are closely\nreflected in the woman's work of the Anglican Church.[57] The\nsisterhoods are distinctly under the fostering care of the former\nelement, the deaconesses are manifestly favored by the latter.\nSisterhoods, again, differ among themselves, some being strongly\nconventual in their life and practice, adopting the three vows of\npoverty, chastity, and obedience, and a few even advocating penance and\nconfession. The vows are taken for life, and, in connection with the\nview of the sacred obligation to life-long service, great stress is laid\nupon the position of the sister as the \"bride of Christ\"--the same\nthought of the mysterious union with the heavenly Bridegroom that is so\ndwelt upon in the nunneries of the Catholic Church. With such views\nProtestants, distinctly such, can have no sympathy. Those who look upon\nthe deaconess as a valuable member of the Church economy do so because\nthey regard her as a Christian woman, strengthened and disciplined by\nspecial training to do better service for Christ in the world. This is\nthe recognized difference: \"The sisterhood exists primarily for the sake\nof forming a religious community, but deaconesses live together for the\nsake of the work itself, attracted to deaconess work by the want which\nin most populous towns is calling loudly for assistance; and with a view\nof being trained, therefore, for spiritual and temporal usefulness among\nthe poor.\"[58]\n\nThere are now seven deaconess establishments in the Church of England,\neach having a larger or smaller number of branches, with diocesan\nsanction and under the supervision of clergymen.[59]\n\nThe first of these was founded in 1861, and is now known as the London\nDiocesan Deaconess Institution. At that time Kaiserswerth was accepted\nas its model; deaconesses were sent there to be trained; Kaiserswerth\nrules were adopted as far as possible, and a modification of the\nKaiserswerth dress for the sisters. The house was then represented at\nthe triennial Conferences in Germany, and in the list of mother houses\npublished at Kaiserswerth[60] the name still appears. It would seem,\nhowever, that now the Kaiserswerth connection is entirely set aside by\nthe London house, for in an historical sketch of the revival of\ndeaconesses in the Church, that is found in the organ of the\ninstitution, called _Ancilla Domini_, for March, 1887, there is no\nmention made of any of the continental houses. The Anglican Church\napparently dates the entire work from the setting apart of its first\ndeaconess, Elizabeth C. Ferard, in 1861, as she was the first to receive\nconsecration through the touch of a bishop's hand. The former connection\nwith Kaiserswerth and the great work carried on in Germany from 1836 to\nthe present time are quite ignored.\n\nBesides the London house already mentioned an East London deaconess home\nwas opened in 1880, to provide deaconesses and church-workers for East\nLondon. Besides the deaconesses and probationers thirty-two associates\nare connected with this home. The associates are ladies who do not\nintend to become deaconesses, but give as much time as they can to the\nwork. They live with the deaconesses, conform to the rules, and wear the\ngarb, but pay their own expenses. These associates are a highly\nimportant part of the working force. They form a valuable tie connecting\nthe sisters with sources of influence and aid that would otherwise be\nclosed to them. Nearly always they are ladies of independent means, and\ncome for longer or shorter periods to relieve the deaconesses, their\nzeal often being as great as that of the sisters whose places they take.\n\nBesides these houses there are homes located at Maidstone, Chester,\nBedford, Salisbury, and Portsmouth, in the respective dioceses of\nCanterbury, Chester, Ely, Salisbury, and Winchester.\n\nIn the home at Portsmouth sisters not only engage in nursing and parish\nwork, but are also given special training for penitentiary and\nout-of-door rescue work. They also have a home for the rescue of\nneglected children.\n\nThe Salisbury Home is beautifully situated in the quiet cathedral city\nof the same name. The house is a picturesque and venerable mansion,\ncovered with clinging green vines, opening out into a garden which in\nolden times belonged to the convent. There is in connection with the\nhome an institution for training girls for domestic service, supported\nby the funds of a charity given for that purpose. The whole service of\nthe house is done by the girls. They attend upon the deaconesses and the\nladies who board there to receive training in the hospital. Each\ndeaconess pays for board and lodging while training, and, if able to do\nso, when she returns for rest, or a visit to her old home.\n\nIn other houses the deaconess is expected to keep her own room in order,\nand may have some duties in the house, but servants do the rough work.\nThe social status of the English deaconesses is, as a rule, markedly\ndifferent from the German deaconesses. Here ladies of rank and inherited\nsocial traditions, of refinement, of accomplishments, and of education,\nmany of them women of means, defraying their entire expenses and often\nthose of their poorer sisters, are largely represented among the\ndeaconesses. On the other hand, the German deaconesses, as we have seen,\nare largely of that station in life that furnishes many for domestic\nservice. Although of course there are among them women of all ranks and\nall degrees of education, still such women form the larger number; and\nthe conditions under which Fliedner began the work, as well as the\ndifference of custom and habit in the two countries, incline the German\nhouses to maintain the rules of service by which nearly every detail of\ndomestic service in their institutions is cared for by the deaconesses.\nThere is more of ceremony and formality in the English deaconess\ninstitutions which are under the direction of the Church of England. At\nSalisbury, for instance, the candidate must reside in the home for three\nmonths, that her ability and efficiency may be tested. If accepted, she\nthen puts on a gray serge habit, a leathern girdle, white cap, black\nbonnet, the veil and cloak of a probationer, and is admitted to the\n\"degree\" of a probationer at a special service. The year of probation\nhaving come to an end, she is again presented to the bishop, and is set\napart as a deaconess by the laying on of hands. This time the habit is\nchanged from gray to blue, and a black ebony cross, with one of gold\ninlaid, is hung upon her neck.[61]\n\nThis is very different from the way in which Fliedner regarded the dress\nand adornment of the deaconesses for whom he was responsible. The king\nof Prussia desired to present them with a small silver cross as their\nbadge of service, but the simple-hearted German pastor dissuaded him,\nsaying that the deaconesses needed no ornament save a meek and quiet\nspirit, and they must avoid symbols which would suggest Romish\nimitations.\n\nThe Strasburg deaconesses also at first wore a small cross, but Pastor\nHaerter discontinued it when he found that the wearing of it gave\noccasion for complaint.\n\nYet however we may differ in the lesser details, of garb, of rules, and\nof ceremonies, from those accepted by some of the Church of England\ndeaconess institutions, we can give unstinted admiration to the lives of\nself-denial, and active, unceasing efforts in behalf of others, that we\nsee among their numbers. Take, for instance, the little publication _The\nDeaconess_, issued by the East London Home, and notice the undertakings\ncarried on by the members--district-visiting, nursing of the sick,\nmothers' meetings, Sunday-school teaching, Bible classes, and all the\nmultitudinous ways of meeting the squalor, poverty, ignorance, sickness,\nand sin of the poor of the east of London. There is no poetic enthusiasm\nthat strengthens one for such work, the dirt, the degradation, the\nforlorn condition are so trying. The little children so precociously\nwicked, so preternaturally cunning, that the natural charm and\nattraction of childhood have wholly disappeared; the sights and sounds\nthat assail the senses; the dulled, hopeless faces, the apathy, the\nstunted intellectual growth--these are the depressing influences that\ncontinually beset the deaconesses, and nothing short of God-given\nstrength and Christ-like enthusiasm can enable these women to devote\nsix, eight, and ten years of service to this worst city district, and to\ncome forth with sunshiny, peaceful faces, and sympathetic, loving\nhearts.\n\nTaking the total number of deaconess institutions under the Church of\nEngland, there are eighty one deaconesses, thirty-four probationers, and\ntwo hundred and twenty-nine associates.[62]\n\nSo far, sisterhoods have proved more attractive to the women of the\nChurch of England than have deaconess establishments. The latter do not\nseem to increase largely in numbers. Vexing questions have arisen as to\nhow the deaconess should be set apart to her work. Should she be\nconsecrated by the imposition of the bishop's hands? What relation\nshould she have to the Church? These questions have been partially\nsettled by the principles and rules that were drawn up in 1871 and were\nsigned by the two archbishops and eighteen bishops. They define a\ndeaconess as \"a woman set apart by a bishop, under that title, for\nservice in the Church;\"[63] placing her under the authority of the\nbishop of the diocese. These recommendations have not been formally\nadopted by the Church of England; they hold good only so far as they are\naccepted.\n\nBut there are other institutions, lying outside of the boundaries of the\nState Church, which have developed more fully and prosperously than\nthose within it. Of these we must speak first of the institution of\nDr. Laseron, which is more closely connected with Kaiserswerth than any\nother in England. In 1855 Dr. Laseron and his wife lost their only\nchild; and as Mrs. Laseron walked through the streets with burdened\nheart she looked at the little children with quickened sympathy, and\nnoticed how many were poor and hungry and scantily clothed. She talked\nwith her husband, and they opened a \"ragged school\" for children. This\nincreased and branched off, until now there is an orphanage, workhouses\nfor boys, and a servants' training school for girls. Requests were\nfrequently made for some of the older girls to act as nurses among the\npoor; and, finally, Dr. Laseron, who was a German by birth, determined\nto found a deaconess house and hospital. A small hospital of twelve beds\nwas opened, and proved insufficient to meet the demands; and none could\nbe accepted as deaconesses, as there was no opportunity to train them in\nso small a place. While waiting to see how the house could be enlarged,\nhe mentioned his perplexity to Mr. Samuel Morley. This gentleman heard\nhim with interest, and said that he was one of the directors of a large\nhospital; that at a recent meeting of the directors a Catholic bishop\nhad offered to send Sisters of Charity who, without compensation, should\nnurse the sick, and he had thought what a fine thing it would be if the\nProtestant Church had also its women of piety who could devote\nthemselves to a similar work. The result of the conversation was that\nMr. Morley contributed forty thousand dollars, with which Dr. Laseron\npurchased a site in Tottenham, built a hospital with fifty beds, and a\ndeaconess was called from Kaiserswerth to superintend it. The hospital\nhas been again enlarged, so that it now accommodates one hundred\npatients. Sixty-four deaconesses are connected with it, who are at\nservice in the hospitals of Cork, Dublin, Scarborough, and Sunderland.\nThis institution is unsectarian, and has met with special aid from\nnon-conformists. It still keeps in close relation to Kaiserswerth, and\nis represented at the Conferences. It has constantly thriven, and the\nmother-house at Tottenham is a center for various benevolent\nenterprises.\n\nIn connection with Dr. Barnardo's Orphanage there is also a deaconess\nhouse. Harley House, the missionary training-school under the direction\nof Dr. and Mrs. Grattan Guinness in East London, has a deaconess home as\none of its branches. The Kilburn (St. Augustine's) Orphanage of Mercy,\nand the London Bible-women's Mission are also centers for the training\nand organizing of women's work in London.\n\nWe must pause more at length over the prison mission under the care of\nMrs. Meredith. American women are beginning to occupy themselves with\nquestions of philanthropy and religious activity to an extent not before\nequaled. The women's prisons in England are especially fruitful of\nsuggestions to us, as many here are interested in having our women\nprisoners separated in prisons by themselves, as has already been\nattempted in a few States. Mrs. Meredith's work is in behalf of the\nprisoners after they have served their sentence and are discharged. She\nis the daughter of General Lloyd, who was formerly governor-general of\nprisons in Ireland. As a little child she was accustomed to go about\nwith her father, and the interior of prisons became familiar to her.\nLater in life, when her family ties were broken, and her hands left free\nfor service, her interest was engaged in behalf of the women convicts\nwho were discharged from prison. She enlisted the support of other\nladies of like views, able to assist her, and in 1866 the Prison Gate\nMission began, which has continued to the present day. Every morning, as\nthe gate of Millbank prison swings back to allow those who have been\nreleased from penal bondage to come forth, a sister stands waiting to\ninvite those who will go with her to a room near by, where breakfast\nawaits them; there are ladies to inquire about their plans and to offer\nthem work. A great laundry was opened in 1867 to provide employment for\nthese women. Here washing is done for two classes: for the poor and\nsick, to whom the service is given as a charity, and to those who pay\nfor the work and whose money enables the mission to be partly\nself-supporting. Then the ladies extended their plans to take in the\nchildren of the prisoners. A law was passed by Parliament which enabled\nMrs. Meredith and her associates to have the care of those children at\nthe Princess Mary Village Home until they are sixteen years of age. This\nhome was founded at Addlestone in 1870, and was named after the Princess\nMary, Duchess of Teck, who aided in obtaining funds to build it. The\ninstitution takes not only the female children of criminal mothers, but\nalso little girls who are likely to drift into a career of crime. It is\nconducted on the cottage plan, each little house having ten inmates and\na house mother to superintend it, and being complete in its own\narrangements. There are eighteen cottages, a large, generous\nschool-room, a small infirmary for the sick, and a little church. About\ntwo hundred children of criminals and the unfortunate class are here\ncared for. Instead of allowing them to drift away and to perpetuate\nvice, crime, and immorality, they are taken entirely from their old\nsurroundings, and new influences of knowledge and purity are thrown\nabout them. There is no part of Mrs. Meredith's mission which has such\nhope for the future and is so valuable in results as this preventive\nwork among the children.\n\nThere are also a woman's medical mission (1882), a Christian woman's\nunion, a girls' school, and a deaconess house in Jerusalem under the\ncontrol of the same association. How it arose is well intimated by the\nfollowing extract from a letter from Mrs. Meredith to the author, dated\nMarch 9, 1889: \"You will know that my course has been progressive with\nregard to the mode of congregating the women who joined me in working.\nAt first we merely came together daily from our own homes, as those who\nmake a business concern do. Then to spare time and money we began to\nlive together. The next step was to admit useful and devoted women who\nhad no property, and to form an association with degrees of membership.\nWhen we found ourselves becoming a corporation of importance, and having\ncombined to acquire property and to found institutions, we invited the\nhelp and counsel of some men of known eminence. Our institutions are all\nbranches of a parent stock, and are now placed in the charge of these\ngood men, and we have taken the name of the Church of England Woman's\nMissionary Association. I am daily persuaded of the value of such\norganizations.\"\n\nIn connection with the London West Central Mission there is an\nassociation of ladies called the Sisters of the People. \"They are\nexpected to be worthy of the beautiful name they bear. They are true\nsisters of the unprivileged and the disheartened; as ready to make a\nbed, cook a dinner, or nurse a baby as to minister to the higher need of\nthe immortal spirit. The sisters live together in the neighborhood of\ntheir work, and wear a distinctive dress as a protection and for other\nreasons; but they take no vows, and are at liberty to withdraw from the\nmission at any time. Their work is directed by Mrs. Hughes. Katherine\nHouse, the residence of the Sisters of the People, was opened early in\nNovember, 1887, and from that day the work of the sisters dates its\ncommencement. Their daily labors are very similar to those of the\ndeaconesses of Mildmay, who work among the London parishes. Each sister\nhas a district allotted to her, which she visits regularly and\nsystematically. The first object which she sets before herself is to get\nto know the people, and to make them feel that she is their true sister\nand friend, irrespective of the fact that they are themselves good or\nbad, respectable or degraded. When once true friendliness is\nestablished, the way is opened for direct religious influence; and many,\nwho in the first instance would never pay any attention to religion,\nwill listen to an appeal from one whom they love and respect.\"[64]\n\nKatherine House accommodates twelve sisters. A second house is urgently\nneeded, and a strong plea is made for it in the Report.\n\nThere are besides \"out sisters,\" who work with the sisters but reside at\ntheir own homes. This is a valuable feature of this mission, as it\ninterests ladies who are living in their own homes, and yet who can be\nvery useful to those who devote their whole work to the sisters' labor.\nIn the Report a great many instances are given which show what an\nintimate knowledge of the poor people is obtained by these sisters, and\nin what practical ways they minister to the bodily and spiritual needs\nof those whom they find in their house-to-house visitations. The term\n\"sister,\" as it is used in the report of the London West Central\nMission, is in all respects a synonym for \"deaconess,\" as the name is\nunderstood in the large deaconess establishment at Mildmay. To the study\nof this we shall devote the following chapter.\n\n\n [52] Daniel Neal's _History of the Puritans_, London, 1703, vol. i,\n pp. 344-346.\n [53] _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth,\n from 1602 to 1625._ By Alex. Young. Second edition. Boston:\n C. E. Little & J. Brown, 1844, pp. 455, 456.\n [54] Schaefer, _Die Weibliche Diakonie_, vol. i, p. 207.\n [55] _The Royal Guide to London Churches_ for 1866, 1867. By Herbert\n Fry, p. 162.\n [56] _Official Year-book of the Church of England_, 1889.\n [57] _Andover Review_, June, 1888, art., \"European Deaconesses,\"\n p. 578.\n [58] _Deaconesses in the Church of England._ Griffith & Farran:\n London, 1880, p. 22.\n [59] _Official Year-book of the Church of England_, 1889.\n [60] _Armen und Kranken Freund_, October, 1888.\n [61] \"Deaconess Work in England,\" _The Churchman_, May 19, 1888.\n [62] I am indebted to the kindness of the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of\n Wakefield for these numbers, upon whom the mantle of Dean Howson\n seems to have fallen in caring for the deaconess cause.\n [63] _London Diocesan Deaconess District Services._\n [64] _First Annual Report of the London West Central Mission_,\n pp. 14-42.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nMILDMAY INSTITUTIONS.\n\n\nValuable suggestions will be obtained from the study of every successful\ndeaconess institution, and none will perhaps furnish more practical\nmodels for American Methodism than does the establishment at Mildmay\nPark in North London. Its methods of work are flexible, and allow place\nfor a diversity of talent among the workers, while a wide variety of\ncharitable and evangelistic effort is undertaken. These two causes give\na breadth and vigor to the work at Mildmay that impress every one who\nhas knowledge of it.\n\nWhenever we find a good cause carried on successfully and prosperously,\nwe know that behind it there must be a strong man or woman who has\n\"thought and wrought\" to good purpose. So the first question that arises\nin the mind of the visitor who for the first time forms one of the\naudience in the great Conference Hall, or looks about in the adjoining\nbuilding to see the deaconess home, is, \"Who first thought this out? Who\nwas the founder of this wonderful mission?\" And the answer tells us\nthat Mildmay originated, as did Kaiserswerth, in the prayerful\ndetermination of a Christian minister and his wife to reach out to every\ngood end that God's spirit of enlightenment could suggest to them. Rev.\nWilliam Pennefather was rector of Christ's Church at Barnet, and while\ndevoted to his ministerial duties his sympathies did not end with his\nown people, nor his own denomination. His home was sometimes called the\n\"Missing Link,\" for it was a meeting-place for noblemen and farmers,\nbishops and clergymen of all churches; a place \"where nationalities and\ndenominations were easily merged in the broad sunshine of Christian\nlove.\"[65] He carried his principle of Christian fellowship further,\nfor, after mature deliberation, in 1856, he issued a call for a\nconference to be held at Barnet whose object was \"to bring into closer\nsocial communion the members of various Churches, as children of the one\nFather, animated by the same life, and heirs together of the same\nglory.\"[66] These conferences have been continued from then to the\npresent time, and are known and prized in many lands. I was present at\nthe conference of 1888, and representatives were there from nearly\nevery Protestant country, while on the platform were leaders of nearly\nevery Protestant denomination, furnishing a wonderful illustration of\nthe union of the Christian Church in Christ; a spiritual union so real\nand eternal that the minor differences of faith were swallowed up in the\ngreat fact that in Christ Jesus all are one.\n\nGradually a variety of missionary and evangelistic agencies grew up\nabout the conferences. In 1860 the little Home was opened at Barnet\nwhich subsequently developed into the deaconess house at Mildmay Park.\nThe question of calling into more active exercise the energies of\neducated Christian women, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, was\none that was attracting attention at the time in England. Mr. and Mrs.\nPennefather had long desired to do something in this direction, and\ntheir desire took this practical form. In its beginning it had to battle\nwith all the \"definite and indefinite objections\" that could be advanced\nagainst any attempt at organizing woman's work. But those days of latent\nsuspicion or more open antagonism are long past. The institution has\njustified its right to be by doing a work that otherwise would have\nremained undone.\n\nIn 1864 Mr. Pennefather was called to St. Jude's, Mildmay Park, and the\nphilanthropic and religious undertakings which he had begun were\ntransferred to his new home. He took with him the \"iron room\" that had\nbeen erected for the conferences at Barnet, and continued to use it for\nthe same purposes at Mildmay; while the missionary training-school and\nhome were accommodated in a house which he hired for the purpose.\n\nHis new parish was in a part of London where poverty and want abounded.\nThere was no adequate provision for the education of the poor and\nneglected children, so he erected a building where elementary\ninstruction could be given at a very low price. A soup-kitchen was\nstarted at the iron room: clubs of various kinds were formed, and other\nagencies were set at work, both for the temporal and spiritual welfare\nof the people. The degraded and miserable neighborhood gradually\nunderwent a transformation, and the police testified that there was a\nmanifest restraint on the lawless locality. \"To many of the waifs of\nlife no human hand was stretched in kindness until he came to the\ndistrict and taught them what Christianity was.\"[67]\n\nA small legacy coming to him, he bought a house with a large garden\nattached, and made it a mission center for the needs of the infirm and\naged; while the ignorant and careless, who would not enter a church,\nwere often induced to attend meetings here.\n\nThe training-school had been started at Barnet for the purpose of\ntraining foreign missionaries; but Mr. Pennefather now saw that there\nwas as great a demand for home mission workers in the sorrowful and\nbenighted portions of the vast metropolis, so, after much deliberation\nand consultation between himself and his wife, he decided to initiate\nthe ministry of Christian women as deaconesses. He hesitated about the\nname to be given to the women whom he employed as Christian workers, but\nno other was suggested conveying the same idea of service to Christ\namong his suffering and needy ones, and, as the appellation had already\nwon respect through the good reports of the deaconess houses on the\nContinent, he decided to adopt the same name. They continued to work in\nhis parish only until the terrible visitation of the cholera in 1866.\nThen when men were swept into eternity by hundreds, and hundreds more\nwere in dire distress, the deaconesses were invited by the minister of\nanother parish to come to his assistance. In this way the bounds of the\nwork began to enlarge. A small hospital was added to the home and a\nmedical-school mission was begun.\n\nIt now became necessary to build a large hall; the iron room was too\nsmall for the conferences, the church too small for the congregation,\nand the missions had outgrown the capacity of the mission room. When the\nplan for a new building was made known money came in unsolicited from\nvarious sources. The undertaking was pushed rapidly forward, and in\nOctober, 1870, the hall was opened. It will seat 2,500 people, having a\nplatform at the west end, and a gallery running around the sides and\neast end.\n\nThanksgiving and prayer were built into the walls from the very\nfoundation; and before the basement rooms were cleared of rubbish, or\nthe floor laid, a prayer-meeting was held to ask for a blessing upon the\nfuture undertakings of the mission. The basement was divided into five\nrooms, to be used for night-schools and other agencies for the benefit\nof the poor.\n\nAdjoining the hall, at the west end, was built the deaconess house. From\nhis home near by Mr. Pennefather had watched the completion of the work\nwith great interest. In one of his letters he says:[68] \"Sometimes I can\nscarcely believe that it is a reality, and not all a dream--the\nConference Hall, with its appendages, and the deaconess house actually\nin existence. May the Holy Spirit fill the place, and may he make it a\ncenter from whence the living waters shall flow forth.\"\n\nFrom a letter written to one of these deaconesses, we gain his opinion\nas to the need of deaconesses, and what was his ideal of a Home.[69]\n\"The need for such an institution is great indeed. I do not suppose\nthere was ever a time in the history of Christianity in which the\nopenings for holy, disciplined, intelligent women to labor in God's\nvineyard were so numerous as at present. The population in towns and\nrural districts are waiting for the patient and enduring love that\ndwells in the breast of a truly pious woman, to wake them up to thought\nand feeling. O! if I had the women and had the means, how gladly would I\nsend out hundreds, two by two, to carry the river of truth into the\nhamlets of our country, and the streets and lanes of our great cities.\nWill you pray for the Home? Ask for women and for means. I want our Home\nto be such a place of holy, peaceful memories that, when you leave it,\nit may be among the brightest things that come to your mind in a distant\nland, or in a different position; and each inmate can help to make it\nwhat it should be.\" But Mr. Pennefather did not live to see the great\nextension in usefulness and importance that the Deaconess Home was to\nobtain in later years. He passed away from life April 28, 1873, leaving\nto his wife, who had ever been his sympathetic and devoted helper, the\ncare of continuing the work he had begun. She is still the head of the\nMildmay Institutions, assisted by a resident superintendent, and aided\nby the counsels of wise, experienced men, who form the board of\ntrustees.\n\nFrom the beginning of the erection of the new building every portion of\nit was put to use. In one of the basement rooms is the invalid kitchen,\nwhere, daily, puddings, jellies, and little delicacies are prepared and\nsent out to sufferers in the neighborhood, who could not otherwise\nobtain suitable nourishment. From eleven to two o'clock tickets are\nbrought in, which have been distributed by the sisters or by the\ndistrict visitors; and those who come to take the dinners, while waiting\ntheir turn, have a kind word, or sympathetic inquiry about the sick one,\nfrom the deaconess in charge.\n\nA flower mission occupies another room. Kind friends send here treasures\nfrom the garden and green-house, field and wood, and children contribute\nbouquets of wild flowers. A deaconess superintends the willing hands\nthat tie the bunches, each of which is adorned with a brightly colored\nScripture text. Ten hospitals and infirmaries were regularly visited\nduring 1888; and more than thirty-eight thousand bunches of flowers were\ndistributed, each accompanied by an appropriate text.\n\nNear at hand is the Dorcas room, where deaconesses are kept busy in\ncutting out clothing and superintending the sewing classes. During the\nwinter of 1887 thirty widows attended this class three times a week,\nglad to earn a sixpence by needlework done in a warm, lighted room,\nwhile a deaconess entertained them by reading aloud. A large amount of\nsewing is given out from the same room, and the garments that are made\nare often sold to the poor at a low price. A most impressive scene is\nwitnessed during the winter months, when, on three evenings of the week,\nall the basement rooms are crowded with the men's night-school, which\nhas, it is believed, no rival in England. The ordinary number of names\non the books exceeds twelve hundred. There are forty-nine classes, all\ntaught by ladies, the majority of them being deaconesses. The subjects\nrange from the elementary to the higher branches of general and\npractical knowledge, including arithmetic, geography, geometry, freehand\ndrawing, and short-hand. The Bible is read in the classes on Monday and\nFriday, and a scriptural address is given by some gentleman on\nWednesday. The school always closes with prayer and singing. The men\nmay purchase coffee and bread and butter before leaving, and of this\nthey largely avail themselves. A lending library is also attached to the\nschool. The highest attendance during last session was five hundred and\neighty-one, the lowest two hundred and eighty-seven.\n\nThe influence of this school is very great, and many pass on from it to\nthe men's Bible-class, which is held on Sunday afternoons in the largest\nbasement room.[70]\n\nA servants' registry is attached to the deaconess house, and through its\nmeans about four hundred servants are annually provided with places.\n\nNearly fifty deaconesses make their home at this central house, many of\nthem having work in the different parts of the city, perhaps at remote\ndistances, but returning at night to the home-like surroundings and\npurer air of the central house. The large sitting-room, the common\nliving-room of the deaconesses, is a charming place. It is of great\nsize, but made cheerful and attractive by pictures, flowers, and bright\nand tasteful decorations that are restful to the eyes. Both Mr. and Mrs.\nPennefather made it a principle of action to have the home life\ncheerful, pleasant, and attractive, so that when the sisters come in\ntoward evening, tired physically, and mentally depressed and exhausted\nby the long strain of hearing tales of misery, and seeing sights of\nwretchedness and squalor the day through, they could be cheered not only\nby the words of sympathy and love of their associates, but by the\nsilent, restful influences of their surroundings.\n\nAs I looked around the great room with deep-set windows, brightened by\nflowers, and still more by the happy faces of the deaconesses, some of\nwhom were young girls with the charms of happy girlhood set off by the\nplain, black dress and wide white collar of the deaconess garb, I could\nbut think the founders wise in arranging such pleasant, home-like\nsurroundings for their workers.\n\nFrom the windows you look down into a beautiful garden, a rare luxury\nfor a London dwelling. This garden was among the later accessions of Mr.\nPennefather, being purchased by him shortly before his death. A train of\ncircumstances led to its possession which he regarded as markedly\nprovidential; and the delightful uses to which \"that blessed garden,\" as\nit has been called, has since been put, seem to justify the importance\nhe attached to securing it. During the conference times great tents are\nreared here for the refreshments which the weary body needs. A fine old\nmulberry tree extends its branches, and under its ample shade meetings\nof one kind or another are held at all hours of the day. The lawn, with\nits quiet, shady walks, furnished with comfortable garden seats,\nprovides a meeting place for friends, where, in the intervals between\nthe services, those who perhaps never see each other during any of the\nother fifty-one weeks of the year may walk or sit together. \"Here in\nmore ordinary times may be seen the children of the Orphanage (where\nthirty-six girls form a happy, busy family) playing together, or the\ndeaconesses in their becoming little white caps, who have run out for a\nbreath of air. Here, too, during the summer, a succession of tea-parties\nis held for the different classes which have been reached by the\ndeaconesses in the more densely populated parts of London, to whom the\ngarden is a very paradise.\"[71]\n\nBefore leaving the Central Deaconess Home I must speak of one branch of\nwork--the artistic illustration of Scripture texts--because it so\nillustrates the happy freedom and wisdom of the Mildmay methods, which\nseek to develop the strength of each sister in the line of her special\naptitudes. Two of the deaconesses have marked ability as artists, and\nthey devote their time to illuminating texts and adorning Christmas and\nEaster cards with rare and exquisite designs. From the sale of these\nilluminations over five thousand dollars were realized last year for the\nbenefit of the institution.\n\nThe Conference Hall, too, should have a further word of recommendation\nfor the truly catholic spirit in which it serves the interests of a\nmyriad of good causes. Besides the crowded meetings of the conference\nthere are held Sunday services throughout the year. The hospitality of\nits rooms is readily granted to every good cause with which the mission\nhas sympathy. During 1887 \"temperance society meetings, railway men and\ntheir wives, Moravian missions, Pastor Bost's mission at La Force, the\nMacAll Paris missions, the Sunday closing movement, young men's and\nyoung women's Christian associations, a Christian police association,\nthe Children's Special Service mission, the Christmas Letter mission,\nBible readings for German residents, and various other foreign and home\nmissions have all in turn been advocated here.\"[72]\n\nThe larger number of the deaconesses at the central house, as well as\nthe twenty-five at the branch house in South London, are employed in\ntwenty-one London parishes, where their work has been sought by the\nclergymen; they go to all, undertaking every kind of labor that can\ngive them access to the hearts and homes of the people. While\nco-operating with the clergyman in charge of a parish their work is\nsuperintended from the Deaconess Home. They visit from house to house\namong the sick and poor, hold mothers' meetings, teach night-schools,\nhold Bible-classes separately for men, women, and children; hold special\nclasses for working women and girls who are kept busily employed during\nthe day, and during the winter months have a weekly average of more than\nnine thousand attendants on their services. They are solving the problem\nof \"how to save the masses\" by resolving the masses into individuals,\nand then influencing these individuals by the power of personal effort\nand love.\n\nBut a few steps from Conference Hall is the Nursing Home, where about\none hundred \"nurse sisters,\" nurses, and probationers make their home in\nthe intervals between their duties, and are presided over by a lady\nsuperintendent of their own. Adjoining is the Cottage Hospital, a\nbeautiful building, the gift of a lady in memory of her son. The walls\nhave been painted and decorated throughout by some ladies who delight in\nusing their skill to make beautiful the homes of the sick.\n\nA large hospital and medical mission also exist in Bethnal Green, a\ndensely populated part of London that in some portions can vie with the\nworst slums of the city. It was so necessary to provide better\naccommodations for nursing the sufferers than could be found in their\npoor homes that a warehouse was fitted up with beds and transformed into\na small hospital. In 1887 four hundred and thirteen patients were\nreceived at the hospital, and in the dispensary for outside patients\nsixteen thousand four hundred and eighteen visits were paid during the\nyear, nearly two thirds of which number were to patients in their own\nhouses. There is no place in which a hospital could be more sorely\nneeded than in this destitute part of London, and perhaps no place where\nit could be more appreciated. \"I had no idea,\" said a man of the better\nclass who was brought in, \"of there being such a place as this; you give\nas much attention to the poorest man you get out of the street as could\nbe given to a prince.\"[73]\n\nEvery Christmas some kind of an entertainment is arranged for the\nhospital patients, and, through the gift of friends, articles of warm\nclothing are distributed to protect against the winter's cold.\n\nA variety of mission work is carried on in connection with Bethnal\nGreen. There is a Men's Institute, open every evening except Sunday and\nMonday, in connection with which is a savings' bank that is well\npatronized. There is a Lads' Institute, where the deaconesses have\nclasses and meet the boys in a friendly way; a men's lodging-house,\nwhere a comfortable bed and shelter can be had for eight cents a night.\nThe latter is an enterprise which could be imitated with profit in all\nour large American cities, where it is very difficult for the homeless\nand poverty-stricken to obtain a decent lodging, or to find any place,\nin fact, where liquor is not sold. There are also evangelistic services\nin the mission here, Sunday-schools, Bible-classes, temperance meetings,\na soup kitchen, and a coffee bar, where, during Christmas week, between\nfour and five hundred men and boys were given light refreshments, and at\nthe same time some idea of the kindliness and good-will that are\nassociated with this happy season of the year.\n\nThere are also two convalescent homes, one at Barnet and one at\nBrighton. The home at Brighton is especially designed for the poor\npatients of the East End mission. The report for the year ending\nDecember 31, 1887, says that five hundred and fifty men, women, and\nchildren enjoyed its benefits for a fortnight or longer.[74]\n\nMildmay nurse deaconesses have also charge of the Doncaster General\nInfirmary, the Nurses' Institute at Malta, and the Medical Mission\nHospital at Jaffa, where two hundred and nineteen patients were received\nthe last year, of whom one hundred and seventy-five were Moslems.\n\nThere also exists under the supervision of Mildmay workers a railway\nmission that was begun in 1880 for men on duty at two of the London\nstations. An organized mission has sprung up from this small beginning\nthat has now extended over three great lines of railroads which employ\nthousands of men.\n\nThe long list of labors given do not exhaust the efforts of Mildmay\nworkers, for, besides special teas for policemen and postmen, and the\nmission room and day-school at Ball's Pond, there is also an educational\nbranch that is meeting the demand for higher educational advantages for\nwomen, under distinctly religious influences, by the Clapton House\nSchool.\n\nThe questions involuntarily present themselves, when reading the\nundertakings just enumerated, that involve not only faithfulness and\ndevotion in service, but disciplined, practiced faculties, \"What class\nof women are these by whom so much has been accomplished? And what is\nthe training that has made them so effective?\" It is difficult to\nanswer the first question. The deaconesses are of all classes, many of\nthem being ladies who devote their time, talent, and means to forward\nthe cause. There are a good many daughters of clergymen, who are\ncarrying out the associations of their life at home. Just how many are\nself-supporting and just how many are maintained by the Institution are\nfacts that are never known; as Mrs. Pennefather says in a letter of\nFebruary 11, 1889, \"There are certain points we deal with as strictly\nprivate. While every probationer pays four guineas for her first month,\nthe after monetary arrangements are never known except to myself and the\nresident lady superintendent.\"\n\n\n NOTE.--There is a further department at Mildmay that has never been\n named, but is certainly an important and busy one; it might be\n called the \"Department of Inquiry,\" for certainly the personal\n visits and letters received, inquiring into the details of the\n institution, must be very large. My obligations to Mrs. Pennefather\n are great, who, both by letter and printed matter, has placed a\n great number of facts at my disposal, of which I have availed myself\n freely in writing this sketch. Mrs. Pennefather's words, \"we are\n glad when we can help any Christian work with the experience God has\n permitted us to gather,\" echo the words of the great apostle, \"Let\n him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in\n all good things.\" I remember, too, the gracious patience with which,\n during one of the crowded days of the last conference, Miss\n Coventry, the superintendent, spent a long hour with us, answering\n fully and minutely the many questions which we put when trying to\n supplement our want of knowledge by her long experience. Indeed, the\n spirit of Mildmay impressed me as generous and helpful; as has been\n said, \"Over the whole house rules the spirit of love, devotion, and\n prayer.\"*\n\n * \"Deaconess Work in England,\" _The Churchman_, May 12, 1888.\n\n\nThe second question is more easy of response. There is a probation\nhouse, where ladies that present themselves as candidates are received\nfor a month, and are given work in teaching orphan children, or go out\nto the city missions and the night-schools under the care of a\ndeaconess. If the probation has proved satisfactory the candidate enters\nthe training-school called \"the Willows,\" a mile or two from the Central\nHouse, a pleasant home which about three years ago came into the\npossession of the institution and the inmates of the school, formerly\naccommodated in five small houses, are now gathered, at slightly greater\nexpense, under one roof in the larger, pleasanter home. The following\nextracts, taken from a little circular called \"A Missionary\nTraining-school,\" will give us a good idea of the life of the embryo\ndeaconesses, and the instruction, practical and theoretical, that they\nreceive. \"The house, which lies a little back from the road, is entered\nthrough a conservatory passage, and on the other side of the spacious\nhall, with its illuminated motto, 'Peace be to this house,' above the\nfireplace, are the lady superintendent's sitting-room and the large\ndining-room, where, on the day when I visited 'the Willows,' about\nthirty of us sat down to dinner. Several others were absent in\nconnection with their medical studies. Both these rooms open on a\nterrace, and beyond stretches a garden which, even in lifeless\nwinter-time, looked inviting, and, in its spring beauty and summer\nloveliness, must be in itself a training for the young natures which are\nlearning in the slums of Bethnal Green and Hoxton their hard\nacquaintance with sin and sorrow. Perhaps in these days of strain and\ntoil too little has been thought of the need of young hearts for some\ngentle relief from the first shock of meeting with the evil with which\nolder workers have a mournful familiarity.\"\n\nThe inmates of the Training-school are not deaconesses alone. The school\nwas started to prepare workers for the foreign field, but the crying\nneed of the vast metropolis turned attention to the home field. The\nChurch of England Zenana Society sends its candidates to Mrs.\nPennefather for training, and she is glad to accept them, believing that\na variety of companionship is needed by those who, in zeal for their\npersonal work, might lose the broad sympathy for all kinds of Christian\nlabor, which is an invaluable cultivation for wise and useful laborers.\n\nThe several classes who pass through the course of training may be\ndesignated as follows:\n\na.) Those who pass on to the deaconess house.\n\nb.) Candidates for (1) the Church of England Zenana Society; (2) the\nChurch Missionary Society.\n\nc.) Those who receive medical training for working among the women and\nchildren of India.\n\nd.) Those who are as yet unconnected with any society.\n\ne.) When vacancies occur some few are received who merely return to home\nor parish work, but who are greatly benefitted by training and\nexperience.\n\n\"The general routine of life seems to be as follows: Prayers at eight\no'clock, then breakfast, followed by a certain amount of domestic duty\nwhich falls to the lot of each. For it is not forgotten that these years\nof training are not for the sake of home life, but as preparation for\nthe self-denials of missionary life. Speaking broadly, the mornings seem\nto be chiefly devoted to classes; afternoons to out of door and district\nwork; and thus theory and practice pleasantly relieve and support each\nother.\"\n\nThere are regular Bible-classes held by different clergymen, and once a\nfortnight there are lectures on the history of missionary work. There\nare classes in Hindustani, drawing, and singing, and for those whose\neducation is defective, elementary classes in arithmetic, geometry, and\nshort-hand. The probationers are also given training in the duties of\nthe store-room, and the order and method that they are taught in caring\nfor the minutest details must certainly form valuable habits in all\nthose who have any desire to profit by the instruction they receive.\n\nFor those who are destined for medical work among the women of India\nthere is a special course of medical training, both theoretical and\npractical.\n\nThe age requirement is not so strictly maintained at Mildmay as at many\nother deaconess houses, but, as a rule, ladies from about twenty to\nthirty years of age are preferred as students in the training-school.\nThe sum of three hundred dollars is charged for the year's expenses at\nthe training-school, medical students paying one hundred dollars\nadditional.\n\nOur study of the Mildmay Institutions has been somewhat extensive. As\nwas said at the beginning of the chapter, the great freedom and\nsimplicity of the Mildmay methods, as well as the happy faculty that its\ndirectors possess of utilizing all varieties of individual talent, make\nthis deaconess establishment one that is full of valuable suggestions to\nthe similar institutions that are now arising in American Methodism. No\nworking force is wasted; if a deaconess possess a special talent, she is\ngiven a field in which to exercise it; and if exceptional conditions\narise workers are found ready to meet them. This training provides\nwell-equipped missionaries for the foreign field, and equally\nwell-prepared missionaries for the great field of the present hour--the\nhome mission work in the crowded wards of great cities.\n\nThe annual expenses of the Mildmay Institutions vary from one hundred\nand ten thousand to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Sixty\nthousand dollars are received in voluntary contributions, and the\nremaining sum is generally obtained from friends who are immediately\nconcerned in the work.\n\nIt is certainly a marvelous tribute to Christian faith, although it is\nnever heralded as such, that an establishment of the extent and\nmagnitude of Mildmay has been maintained for years with no permanent\nendowment to fall back upon, and that annually the renewed self-denial\nof constant friends has to supply the large amount of money needed to\nmeet the entire expenses. Besides those outward and visible services\nwhich it renders \"for the love of Christ, and in his name\" Mildmay\nfurnishes a constant testimony to the fidelity of the Christian faith in\nthe hearts of many believers.\n\n\n [65] _Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather_, p. 279.\n [66] _Ibid._, p. 305.\n [67] _Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather_, p. 435.\n [68] _Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather_, p. 471.\n [69] _Life and Letters of the Rev. W. Pennefather_, p. 471.\n [70] _Mildmay Deaconesses and their Work_, p. 7.\n [71] _Mildmay Deaconesses and their Work_, p. 6.\n [72] _A Retrospect of Mildmay Work During the Year 1887._\n [73] _Mildmay Deaconesses and their Work_, p. 13.\n [74] _A Light in a Dark Place_, p. 21.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nDEACONESSES IN SCOTLAND.\n\n\nWhen Fliedner went on his second tour to England he extended his journey\nto Scotland, and ventured to Edinburgh at a time when the cholera was\nsweeping with fearful ravages through the city in order to become\nacquainted with Dr. Chalmers. The great Scotch divine and his good\ndeeds, that were connected with all kinds of charitable endeavor, moved\nthe German pastor to admiration and stirred him to holy emulation. On\nthe other hand, that Chalmers was profoundly touched by the work that\nFliedner had accomplished in Germany there can be no doubt; we have his\nown words to testify to the importance he attached to the diaconate of\nwomen. In his lectures on Romans, he says: \"Here, too, we are presented\nwith a most useful indication, the employment of female agency, under\nthe eye and with the sanction of an apostle, in the business of the\nChurch. It is well to have inspired authority for a practice too little\nknown, and too little preached on in modern times. Phebe belonged to\nthe order of deaconesses, in which capacity she had been the helper of\nmany, including Paul himself. In what respect she served them is not\nparticularly specified. Like the women in the gospels who waited on our\nSaviour, she may have ministered to them of her substance, though there\ncan be little doubt that, as the holder of an official station in the\nChurch, she ministered to them by her services also.\" It is but\nrecently, however, that deaconesses have become incorporated into the\nreligious life of Scotland, and, so far, they do not exist in connection\nwith the Free Church, of which Chalmers was the able and heroic leader,\nbut only in connection with the national Church--the old historic Church\nof Scotland. Within this Church the question has assumed the form, not\nalone of the revival of the apostolic order of deaconesses, but also of\nthe organization of all the manifold activities of women within the\nChurch into one whole, which is put under the authority and direction of\nthe officers of the Church.\n\nIsolated attempts in this direction had previously been made, but in\n1885 the first definite steps were taken when the Committee on Christian\nLife and Work, of which Dr. Charteris was the Convener, presented to the\nGeneral Assembly a report on \"The need of an organization of women's\nwork in the Church,\" part of which is as follows: \"The organization of\nwomen's work in the Church has become a subject of pressing interest.\nThe Assembly has already sanctioned and regulated the organization of\nwomen's work in collecting for foreign missions, and in sending out and\nsuperintending missionaries. The great and growing strength of the\nmovement thus recognized is one of the most gratifying things in our\nmission; ... but of still older date, and not less powerful, is the part\ntaken by women in the home work of the parish church. Lady visitors are\ncarrying messages of divine truth and of human sympathy into the\ndwellings of the poor both in town and country. Many have been trained\nas nurses that they may be skilled ministrants to the suffering and\nsick; and there can be little doubt that the greater part of the actual\npersonal help which ministers receive in parishes is from the women of\nthe congregations. But those who have done most of the good work are\nmost instant in asking from the Church some means of doing still more.\nFrom ministers and from their female helpers have come many requests to\nthe committee for some provision for training; some recognition and\norganization of those who are trained.... In the Church of England are\nmany homes for nurses and deaconesses; training institutions for female\nmission work of every kind; and the rapidity with which they are\nmultiplying proves of itself how much they are needed; also\nnon-conformist institutions of the kind, and some separate from all\nChurches. Your committee believe that the time has fully come for our\nChurch's taking steps to supply her own wants in this important\ndepartment of mission work.\"[75]\n\nThe General Assembly then directed the committee to inquire into the\nsubject of women's work in the Church, and to bring up a definite report\nto the next assembly. The committee accepted the task, sent out requests\nto every parish for suggestions as to the forms of Christian work to be\ncarried on by women, and the best means of making preparation for their\nspecial training, and prepared themselves by personal inspection of the\nleading institutions for training women workers in England to be able to\nanswer intelligently the same questions. A scheme was reported in 1886\nwhich should incorporate all existing parish organizations, such as\nSabbath-school teachers' and women's societies of all kinds, and should\naim at increasing their number and working power. In 1887 regulations\nwere perfected for working this scheme, and the approval of this by the\nAssembly of 1887 made the new plan a part of the organized work of the\nChurch.\n\nThe comprehensive character of the new departure in the Church of\nScotland is plainly seen from a view of the organization as it now\nexists. The three grades into which the Christian women workers are\ndivided embrace every kind of work done in connection with the Church.\nThe first grade is general in its character, and forms an association\ncalled the Women's Guild. In each parish the members of Bible-classes,\nof Young Women's Congregational Associations, of mission working\nparties, of Dorcas societies, as well as tract distributers,\nSabbath-school teachers, members of the Church choir, and any who are\nengaged in the service of Christ in the Church are all to be accepted as\nmembers of the guild. The next higher grade is the Women Workers' Guild,\nfor which a certain age is required, and an experience of at least three\nyears, with the approval of the kirk session which enrolls them. In\nconnection with this guild are associates, who have a similar relation\nto the members of the Women Workers' Guild that the associates have to\ndeaconesses in the English deaconess houses. They are not pledged to\nregular or constant service, but engage to do some work or contribute\nsome money every year. They can go to the deaconess house, put on the\ngarb of the deaconess while there, and as long as they remain can assume\nthe responsibilities and enjoy the privileges belonging to deaconesses.\nThe third higher grade is that of the deaconesses. Any one desiring to\nbecome a deaconess \"must purpose to devote herself, so long as she shall\noccupy the position of a deaconess, especially to Christian work in\nconnection with the Church, as the chief object of her life.\"[76]\nProvision was also made for a training-school and home where deaconesses\ncould be prepared for their duties.\n\nThere are a great many ladies who for a long time have been engaged in\ndoing the practical work of a deaconess without being clothed in the\ngarb, or invested with the office. The Church of Scotland recognized\nthese workers by providing two classes of deaconesses, who should be\nequal in position, but have different spheres of activity. Those who for\nseven years had been known as active workers, and who have given their\nlives largely to Christian service, are accepted as deaconesses of the\nfirst class, and are free to work wherever they find themselves most\nuseful within the limits of the Church. The second class embraces those\nwho shall have received training in the deaconess institution, or have\nbeen in connection with it for at least two years.\n\nWhen the measure was finally passed by the General Assembly there was no\ndelay in carrying into execution the details indicated by the plan of\nwork. The Deaconess Institution and Training Home was at once started.\nIt was located at Edinburgh, as the most central and convenient place\nfor the institution, and as furnishing the most available advantages for\nthe instruction and training of the deaconesses. From here as a center\nthe work is expected to penetrate into every part of Scotland by means\nof the trained workers whose services will be available for all parts of\nthe country when desired by the ministers and kirk sessions. With true\nScotch prudence and wisdom it was arranged that the lady who was chosen\nto be the superintendent should fit herself thoroughly for the duties of\nher responsible place by becoming familiar with the workings of similar\ninstitutions in England. She was accordingly given six months' leave of\nabsence, which she spent among the great London Homes, and only assumed\nthe duties of her position May 1, 1888. Meanwhile the Home had opened\nunder the temporary care of a lady who had been a worker in Mrs.\nMeredith's Prison Mission, and for six years a Mildmay deaconess. It had\nfrom the beginning the warm co-operation of sympathizing, influential\nfriends. Regular courses of lectures were arranged on subjects connected\nwith Christian work, and as similar courses will be demanded of like\ninstitutions in America it may be interesting to give the syllabus in\nfull:\n\n\n SYLLABUS OF LECTURES.\n (On Tuesdays at 12.)\n\n 1. B.--Professor Charteris. Four Lectures.\n \"How to Begin a Mission.\"\n\n Nov. 29.--1. Whom to visit, and why. The ills we know of, bodily,\n spiritual, social; and seek to lessen.\n Dec. 6.--2. How to induce the people who belong to no church--perhaps\n care for none--to come in.\n Dec. 13.--3. What to do with the children; (a) to attract, (b) to\n influence them.\n Dec. 20.--4. What agencies besides Sunday services prove best.\n\n 2. C.--Dr. P. A. Young. Six Lectures.\n \"Medical Hygiene for the Use of Visitors.\"\n\n Jan. 3.--1. Object and scope of the course of lectures; short sketch\n of the structure and functions of the human body, including a\n brief description of the functions of digestion, absorption,\n circulation, respiration, excretion, secretion, and enervation.\n Jan. 10.--2. Fractures, how to recognize and treat them temporarily;\n bleeding, and how to treat it; the use of the triangular bandage.\n Jan. 17.--3. Treatment of fainting, choking, burns and scalds, bites\n from animals, bruises and tears from machinery, convulsions,\n sunstroke, persons found insensible, suspected poisoning and\n frostbite; how to lift and carry an injured person.\n Jan. 24.--4. Sick-room, its selection, preparation, cleaning, warming,\n ventilation, and furnishing, bed and bedding, infection and\n disinfection.\n Jan. 31.--5. Washing and dressing patients, bed-making, changing\n sheets, lifting helpless patients, food administration, medicines\n and stimulants, what to observe regarding a sick person.\n Feb. 7.--6. Taking temperature, baths, bedsores, nursing sick\n children, application of local remedies, poultices, fomentations,\n blisters, etc.; management of convalescents.\n\n 3. D.--Rev. George Wilson. Four Lectures.\n \"Difficulties Encountered by District Visitors.\"\n\n Feb. 14.--1. Difficulties proceeding from indifference.\n Feb. 21.--2. Difficulties proceeding from ignorance.\n Feb. 28.--3. Difficulties proceeding from adversity.\n Mar. 6.--4. Difficulties proceeding from anxiety.\n Note.--Questions invited from the ladies.\n\n 4. E.--Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod. Four Lectures.\n \"Some Qualifications of a Church Worker, especially among the Poor.\"\n\n March 13.--1. Motives and aims.\n March 20.--2. Difficulties and hindrances, how to overcome them.\n March 27.--3. Conditions of success.\n April 3.--4. Helps, agencies, etc.\n\n 5. F.--Rev. John McMurtrie. Two Lectures.\n \"History and Methods of Missions to the Heathen.\"\n\n April 10.--1. History of missions.\n April 17.--2. Methods of missions.\n\n\nAnother wise provision in this Scotch home is the arrangement by which\nthose who do not wish to become deaconesses, but who want to become\ncompetent Christian workers in their own homes, can come here and spend\nsome months in receiving training and instruction in various methods of\nChristian work. There is no department in life in which many blunders\nand much loss of time and usefulness cannot be prevented by making use\nof the experience of others who have previously overcome the\ndifficulties to be encountered. In other words, we need to obtain all\nthe preparation and discipline we can possibly have in order to do our\nwork well; and especially is this true of Christian work, which demands\nthe highest service that the heart and soul of humanity can give. Many\nindividuals will come to the home to be trained and fitted to work in\ntheir own homes, and will start new lines of Christian activity that\nwill win the sympathies and efforts of many who are eager to be employed\nin good works, if only they can have competent direction.\n\nA pamphlet entitled _The Deaconess Institution and Training Home_ says:\n\"Are there not many parts all over Scotland--mines, quarries,\netc.--where the population is poor and hard-working? Would it not in\nsuch places be an advantage both to minister and people to have a\nChristian lady, trained, experienced, and devoted, to live and work\namong them? Or, which would be possible in every parish, would it not be\na great advantage that in case of need--in a mining accident, an\noutbreak of sickness--a trained Christian nurse should be available\nduring the emergency?\"\n\nThe General Assembly provided that deaconesses should be solemnly\ninducted into their office at a religious service in church. It also\nprovided \"that along with the application for the admission of any\nperson to the office of a deaconess there shall be submitted a\ncertificate from a committee of the General Assembly intrusted with that\nduty stating that the candidate is qualified in respect of education,\nand that she has had seven years' experience in Christian work, or two\nyears' training in the Deaconess Institution and Training Home.\" Also,\n\"Before granting the application, the kirk session shall intimate to the\npresbytery their intention of doing so, unless objection be offered by\nthe presbytery at its first meeting thereafter.\" On Sunday, December 9,\n1888, the first deaconess was set apart to her duties. The kirk session\nwas already in possession of the necessary certificates testifying to\nher \"character, education, experience, devotedness, and power to serve\nand co-operate with others.\" Due intimation had been made to the\npresbytery. The questions were put that were appointed by the General\nAssembly:\n\n\"Do you desire to be set apart as a deaconess, and as such to serve the\nLord Jesus Christ in the Church, which is his body?\n\n\"Do you promise, as a deaconess of the Church of Scotland, to work in\nconnection with that Church, subject to its courts, and in particular to\nthe kirk session of the parish in which you work?\n\n\"Do you humbly engage, in the strength and grace of the Lord Jesus\nChrist, our Lord and Master, faithfully and prayerfully to discharge the\nduties of this office?\"\n\nThe lady who, by answering the above questions, received the sanction of\nthe Church as one of its appointed officers was Lady Grisell Baillie, of\nDryburgh Abbey. She writes to the author of this book: \"I count it a\ngreat honor to be permitted to serve in the Church of my fathers, and I\npray that I may be enabled faithfully and prayerfully to fulfill the\nduties to which I am called, and that it maybe for the glory of our God\nand Saviour that I am permitted to work in his vineyard.\"\n\nMiss Davidson, who was temporary superintendent of the home, but who is\nnow engaged in organizing branches of the Women's Guild throughout\nScotland, and Miss Alice Maud Maxwell, the present superintendent of the\nhome, have also been set apart to the same office. As has been said,\n\"Each represents an old Scottish family, whose members have been\ndistinguished for Christian and philanthropic labors;\" and \"each\nrepresents a different type of deaconess work.\" Lady Grisell Baillie is\nengaged in gentle ministrations among the people of her own home. Miss\nDavidson is at the service of every minister who desires aid in\norganizing women's work in his parish. And Miss Maxwell is at the\ntraining-home, leading a busy life in directing the class labors and\nmissionary activities that center around it and in impressing her life\nand spirit upon a band of workers who are to further Christ's cause both\nat home and in the mission field.\n\nThe mention of any facts that can bring before us the varied character\nthat the deaconess work can assume is valuable. For to be truly useful,\nthis cause needs to provide a place for women of very unlike qualities,\nand also to allow a certain degree of freedom which will insure the\nindividuality of each worker.\n\nThe action of the Church of Scotland has had its influence upon the\nReformed Churches throughout the world holding the presbyterial system.\nAt the session of the London Council of the Alliance of Reformed and\nPresbyterian Churches during the summer of 1888, Dr. Charteris presented\na report embracing many of the features of the elaborate scheme which\nhe had previously devised for the Church of Scotland. And the Council,\nin receiving the report, not only approved it, but \"commended the\ndetails of the scheme stated in the report to the consideration of the\nchurches represented in the Alliance.\" We may regard the Presbyterian\nchurches of Great Britain, therefore, as committed, not only to the\nindorsement of deaconesses as officers in the service of the Church, but\nto the organization of the whole work of women in the churches, under\necclesiastical authority and direction.\n\nThere is one feature of the deaconess cause as it has been developed in\nthe Church of Scotland that is of especial interest to the Methodists of\nAmerica. Most of the great deaconess houses of England have sprung from\nthe personal faith and works of earnest-souled individuals. Mildmay, for\nexample, is a living testimony to the faithfulness and energy of the\nRev. Mr. Pennefather and those associated with him. Within the Church of\nEngland the recognition accorded deaconesses is a partial one, resting\non the principles and rules signed by the archbishops and eighteen\nbishops, and suggested for adoption in 1871. But as yet the English\nChurch has not formally accepted this utterance, and made it\nauthoritative. The German deaconess houses, while receiving the\npractical indorsement of the State Church of Germany, are not in any\nway officially connected with it. Even Kaiserswerth itself is solely\nresponsible to those who contribute to its support for a right use of\nthe means placed at its command. The same fact applies to the Paris\ndeaconess houses. They are all detached efforts, not parts of a general\nsystem. But the Scotch deaconesses are responsible to a church, and a\nchurch is responsible for their work. The Church of Scotland is,\ntherefore, justified in its claim when it says that the adoption of the\nscheme of the organization of women's work by the assembly of 1888, \"is\nthe first attempt since the Reformation to make the organization of\nwomen's work a branch of the general organization of the Church, under\nthe control of her several judicatories.\"[77] The second attempt was\nmade, which was the first also for any Church in America, when, May 18,\n1888, the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States instituted the\noffice of deaconess, and made it an inherent part of the Church economy,\nunder the direction and control of the Annual Conferences.\n\n\n [75] _Organization of Women's Work in the Church of Scotland._\n Notes by A. H. Charteris, D.D.; p. 4.\n [76] _Report of Committee on Christian Life and Work_, 1888, p. 36.\n [77] Nearly all of the facts, both printed and personal, concerning\n the deaconess cause in Scotland have been furnished the writer\n through the kindness of Lady Grisell Baillie, Dryburgh Abbey,\n Scotland.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nTHE DEACONESS CAUSE IN AMERICA.\n\n\nIt was no part of the plan of this book, when first projected, to treat\nof the deaconess cause as it is developing within the United States of\nAmerica, but gradually, through the kindness of many friends belonging\nto different denominations, a number of facts have been obtained which\nbear directly upon the question of how the example of European deaconess\nhouses has influenced and is influencing the Protestant Churches of\nAmerica; and it seems unwise to omit them from the consideration of the\nsubject.\n\nNaturally the German Lutherans, who were well acquainted with the\ndeaconess work in their native land, were the first to try to introduce\nit among their churches. In the yearly report sent out from\nKaiserswerth, January 1, 1847, Fliedner mentions that an urgent appeal\nhad been made to him to send deaconesses to an important city in the\nUnited States, there to have the oversight of a hospital, and to found a\nmother-house for the training of deaconesses. In the report for the\nfollowing year Fliedner again refers to the call from America, and\nstates his intention to extend his travels to the New World, and to take\nwith him sisters who shall aid in founding a mother-house. In the summer\nof 1849 he was enabled to carry out his intention, and July 14, 1849,\naccompanied by four deaconesses, he reached Pittsburg, Pa., where Rev.\nDr. W. A. Passavant, who had written so many urgent appeals for his aid,\nwas awaiting him. The building had already been secured for a hospital\nand deaconess home, and, July 17, was solemnly dedicated at a service\nwhere Fliedner delivered the principal address, and a large audience\ntestified to their interest.\n\nBefore his return to Europe Fliedner visited the New York Synod, and, in\nan English discourse, described the character and aims of Kaiserswerth,\nand commended the newly founded institution at Pittsburg to the sympathy\nand aid of the German Lutheran Church in America. No further results\nwere reached, as the synod contented itself with resolving that \"this\nMinisterium awaits with deep interest the result of the work made in\nbehalf of the institution of Protestant deaconesses at Pittsburg.\"[78]\n\nThe institution is occasionally heard of afterward in the proceedings\nof the Pittsburg Synod, and in the paper, _The Missionary_, published\nunder the auspices of the same Church. Urgent appeals were also sent out\nfor devoted Christian women to come to the aid of the sisters and to\njoin their numbers; but although the hospital, commended by their\nskillful and able ministrations as nurses, had the full approval of the\npublic, there were few, if any, who came to join them, and they were\nunduly burdened by a task too great for their small number.\n\nIn 1854 Dr. Passavant resigned his pastoral charge, and devoted his\nentire time to the furtherance of the cause, but, up to the present, it\nhas not attained the complete organization and wide extension that its\nfriends in the German Lutheran Church have desired.\n\nThe institutions which owe their existence to Dr. Passavant's efforts\nare the infirmary at Pittsburg; the hospital and deaconess home in\nMilwaukee; the hospital in Jacksonville, Ill.; the orphanages for girls\nin Rochester and Mount Vernon, N. Y., and one for boys in Pennsylvania.\n\nThere is, at the present time, only one of the original Kaiserswerth\nsisters left, and that is Sister Elizabeth, the head deaconess at\nRochester. Dr. Passavant still continues to labor at forming a complete\norganization on the basis of the Kaiserswerth system, and, to quote the\nwords of Dr. A. Spaeth, \"As he succeeded forty years ago in bringing the\nfirst sisters over from Kaiserswerth to Pittsburg, I have no doubt that\nnow, when the Church is at last awakening to the importance of this\nwork, he will succeed in the completion of his undertaking.\"\n\nA more recent development of the deaconess work in the German Lutheran\nChurch has arisen in connection with the German hospital in\nPhiladelphia. The hospital was well equipped for its work, but there was\nmuch dissatisfaction with the nursing, which was inefficient and\nunskillful. In the fall of 1882 the hospital authorities turned for\nadvice and co-operation to Dr. W. J. Mann, Dr. A. Spaeth, and other\nclergymen of the denomination in Philadelphia. It was determined to\nsecure German deaconesses as nurses. Several attempts were made to\ninduce Kaiserswerth, or some other large mother-house in Germany, to\ngive up a few sisters to the hospital, but on all sides the applications\nwere refused. The deaconesses were too greatly needed in the Old World\nto be spared for work in the New. At length, through the unremitting\nefforts of Consul Meyer, and of John D. Lankenau, president of the board\nof managers, a small independent community of sisters under the\ndirection of Marie Krueger, who had herself been trained in\nKaiserswerth, acceded to the proposal, and the head-deaconess, with six\nsisters, arrived in Philadelphia June 19, 1884. They left the field of\ntheir self-denying work in the hospital and poor-house at Iserlohn, in\nWestphalia, sadly to the regret of the authorities and citizens of the\nplace, but to the hospital at Philadelphia they gave invaluable aid.\nFrom the first their good services met with appreciation. The efficiency\nof the hospital service was greatly increased; and from physicians and\nhospital authorities there was only one testimony, and that a most\nfavorable one, to the value of deaconesses as trained nurses. Mr.\nLankenau, who has ever been the wise and munificent patron of the\ninstitution, determined to insure a succession of these admirable nurses\nfor the service of the hospital, and, at an expense of over five hundred\nthousand dollars, he built an edifice of palace-like proportions, and\nmade over this munificent gift to the hospital corporation. It was\naccepted by them January 10, 1887. The western wing of the building is\nused as a home for aged men and women; the eastern wing is a residence\nand training-school for the deaconesses, the chapel uniting the two, and\nthe whole being known as the Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia\nMother-house of Deaconesses.\n\nA visit to the Home convinced me that the regulations of the house, the\nwork of the sisters, and the devotion to duty that characterize the\nmother-houses in Germany rule also in this home in the New World. The\nimposing entrance hall with the great stair-way, the floor and stairs of\nwhite marble, the wide halls and spacious reception-rooms and offices\nseemed at first almost incongruous surroundings for the modest active\ndeaconesses, some of whom were busy in the hospital wards, others\nhanging clothes on the line, and others occupied in duties within the\nbuilding. But place and environments are only incidental matters; the\nspirit within is the determining quality; and a conversation with the\n_Oberin_ (head deaconess) and the rector left me with the persuasion\nthat the spirit of earnest devotion to God and humanity is the\nmain-spring of duty in this house.\n\nThe arrangement of the rooms for the sisters is similar to that at\nKaiserswerth; each consecrated sister has a small apartment simply\nfurnished for her own use. The older probationers are divided two and\nthree in a room. Those who have recently entered are placed in two large\nrooms, but here every one has her own four walls--even if they are only\nmade by linen curtains. When Elizabeth Fry first visited Kaiserswerth,\namong the arrangements that she at once recognized and commended was\nthat by which each deaconess was given the privacy of her own apartment.\nIn the deaconess houses that are so rapidly springing up in different\nparts of the United States this provision ought to be guarded with care,\nfor a life that is so constantly drawn out in ministrations to others\nshould have some moments of absolute privacy upon which no one can\nintrude.\n\nThere are at present thirty-two deaconesses at the Philadelphia\nMother-house, twenty of whom are probationers. The house was admitted to\nthe Kaiserswerth Association, and will henceforth be represented at the\nConferences. The direction is vested in a rector and head deaconess,\nneither of whom can be removed except on just cause of complaint. The\ndistinctive dress is black, with blue or white aprons, white caps and\ncollars. There is one addition to their garb which Fliedner would have\nlooked upon with disfavor, and that is a cross--worn by the sisters from\nthe time they are fully accepted as deaconesses.\n\nThe first consecration took place in the beautiful chapel of the Home,\nJanuary 13, 1889, when three deaconesses were accepted as members of the\norder.\n\nFor those who desire to form a good conception of the deaconess\ninstitutions as they are conducted in Germany, a visit to the\nPhiladelphia Mother-house of Deaconesses will be fruitful of valuable\nsuggestions.[79]\n\nIn July, 1887, a Swedish Lutheran pastor in Omaha sent a probationer to\nPhiladelphia to be trained as a sister for a deaconess house to be\nestablished in that central city of the United States. In 1888 four\nothers joined her, and the building of a hospital and deaconess home is\nnow progressing by the generous support of all classes of\nphilanthropists in Omaha. A deaconess home has also recently been\nfounded by Norwegian Lutherans in South Brooklyn, L. I.\n\nIn the German Reformed Church a layman endeavored in 1866 to arouse\ninterest in the deaconess office. The Hon. J. Dixon Roman, of\nHagerstown, Md., at Christmas gave five thousand dollars to the\ncongregation, and with it sent a proposition to the consistory that\nthree ladies of the congregation should be chosen and ordained to the\norder of deaconesses, with absolute control of the income of said fund\nfor the purposes and duties as practiced in the early days of the\nChurch.[80] This, and the action of the Lebanon Classis in 1867,\nrequesting the synod \"to take into consideration the propriety of\nrestoring the apostolic society of deaconesses,\" seem to have been the\nonly steps taken by those connected with this denomination.\n\nIn the Protestant Episcopal Church of America the bishop of Maryland\nfirst instituted an order of deaconesses in connection with St. Andrew's\nParish, Baltimore, Md. Two ladies gave themselves to ministering to the\npoor, and, with the sanction and approval of the bishop, a house was\nobtained and given the name of St. Andrew's Infirmary. In 1873 there\nwere four resident deaconesses and four associates.[81] An early report\nof the infirmary says: \"The deaconesses look to no organization of\npersons to furnish the pecuniary aid required by the demands of their\nposition. Their first efforts have been for the destitute and sick. At\nthe home they minister daily to the suffering and destitute sick\nwherever found; some requiring only temporary medical aid and nursing;\nothers, whom God has chastened with more continuous suffering,\nrequiring, in their penury, constant care and continual ministration.\"\nThere is also under their charge a church school for vagrant children,\nand one also for the children of those comfortably situated in life.\n\nThe \"Forms for Setting Apart Deaconesses,\" the \"Rules for\nSelf-Examination,\" and the \"Rules of Discipline\" in the order of\ndeaconesses in Maryland are largely patterned after the Kaiserswerth\nrules. In truth, the general questions for self-examination in regard to\nexternal duties, spiritual duties to the sick, the conduct of the\ndeaconesses or sisters to those whom they meet, and the means for\nimproving in the duties of the office are in many cases selected, and\nbut slightly altered, from the series prepared by Pastor Fliedner.[82]\nThe influence of the devout German pastor is indelibly stamped upon the\ndeaconess cause in whatever denomination it has developed during the\nnineteenth century.\n\nIn 1864 the deaconesses of the Diocese of Alabama were organized by\nBishop Wilmer. Under the supervision of the bishop the three deaconesses\nwith whom the order originated were associated in taking charge of an\norphanage and boarding-school for girls. In 1873 there were five\ndeaconesses, one probationer, and two resident associates.[83]\n\nIn the Church Home all of the work is done by the inmates. As in the\nforeign Homes, the deaconesses are provided with food and raiment, and\nduring sickness or old age they are cared for at the expense of the\norder. They are forbidden to receive fee or compensation for their\nservices. Any remuneration that is made is paid to the order. In one\nfeature, however, the deaconesses of Alabama differ from either their\nGerman or English sisters, and that is in the care of their individual\nmeans. The \"Constitution and Rules\" says: \"The private funds of\ndeaconesses shall not be expended without the approval of the chief\ndeaconess or the bishop.\"[84] This usage prevails in sisterhoods, but,\noutside of this instance, so far as the author has been able to learn is\nnot known in deaconess institutions.\n\nThe rules for the associates in connection with the order are given\nsomewhat at length, from which the following are taken. After defining\nan associate as a Christian woman desiring to aid the work of the\ndeaconesses, and admonishing her that, although not bound by the rules\nof the Community, yet she must be careful to lead such a life as is\nbecoming one associated in a work of religion and charity, she is\nrequested \"to state what kind of work she will undertake, under the\ndirection of the chief deaconess, and to report the result to her at\nsuch intervals as may be agreed upon.\" The following modes of assistance\nare suggested as most useful; namely, \"to provide and make clothing for\nthe poor; to collect alms; to procure work, or promote its sale; to\nteach in the school; to assist in music or other classes; to relieve the\ndestitute; to minister to the sick; to visit and instruct the ignorant;\nto attend the funeral arrangements for the poor; and to take charge of\nor assist in the decoration of the church.\"\n\nThe feature of the union of the associates with the deaconesses is one\nwhose importance can scarcely be exaggerated. There are many who would\nbe able to serve for a short time in this relation whose valuable aid\nwould be entirely lost if none but deaconesses who give all their time\nand strength could work in the order.\n\nIn the Diocese of Long Island Bishop Littlejohn instituted an\nassociation of deaconesses by publicly admitting six women to the office\nof deaconess in St. Mary's Church, Brooklyn, February 11, 1872. The\nassociation has not continued in the form in which it originated, but\nhas now changed into the Sisterhood of St. John the Evangelist. Still\nthis sisterhood retains many of the distinctive deaconess features. A\nsister may, for instance, withdraw from the sisterhood for proper\ncause. She labors without remuneration, and the sisters live together in\na home, or singly, as they may please, in any place where their work is\nlocated.\n\nIn the Diocese of Western New York there are five deaconesses, with\ntheir associates and helpers, under the direction of the bishop of the\ndiocese.\n\nIn America, however, as in England, within the Episcopal Church\nsisterhoods are more influential and more rapid in their growth than are\ndeaconess institutions. In a list of the sisterhoods of the Episcopal\nChurch in America, given in the monthly magazine devoted to women's work\nin the Church,[85] fourteen sisterhoods are named, one religious order\nof widows, and two orders of deaconesses, one of which is that which is\nnow changed into the Sisterhood of St. John the Evangelist.\n\nIn 1871 the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church\ndiscussed at some length the relation of women's work to the Church, and\nthere resulted increased interest in the subject of sisterhoods and\ndeaconess institutions. An effort has been made to obtain for the order\nof deaconesses a wider recognition than it now enjoys, as it simply has\nthe support of the bishop within whose diocese the deaconesses are at\nwork. To this end, in the General Convention of 1880, a canon was\npresented to the House of Bishops, and accepted by a large vote. But it\nreached the Lower House too late for consideration, and no further\naction has been taken since that time.\n\nIn the Presbyterian Church of America the question of the revival of the\noffice of deaconess has already claimed some attention. The late Dr.\nA. T. McGill for many successive years earnestly recommended the revival\nof the office to the members of his classes in the theological seminary\nat Princeton; and his views, matured by years of reflection, were given\nfor publication in an article published in the _Presbyterian Review_,\n1880.\n\nIn the Minutes of the General Assembly for 1884, page 114, and of 1888,\npage 640, we find an overture asking if the education of deaconesses is\nconsistent with Presbyterian polity, and, if so, should they be\nordained, answered in the negative in the following words: \"_The Form of\nGovernment_ declares that in all cases the persons elected [deacons]\nmust be male members. (Chap. 13. 2.) In all ages of the Church godly\nwomen have been appointed to aid the officers of the Church in their\nlabors, especially for the relief of the poor and the infirm. They\nrendered important service in the Apostolic Church, but they do not\nappear to have occupied a separate office, to have been elected by the\npeople, to have been ordained or installed. There is nothing in our\nconstitution, in the practice of our Church, or in any present\nemergency, to justify the creation of a new office.\" The next year an\nexplanation of this action, which so obviously contradicts the facts of\nhistory, was asked, but the committee declined to say any thing more.\n\nThe Southern Presbyterian Church has proceeded further, and in the\ndirection of the female diaconate, as it is characterized in its main\nfeatures wherever it has existed, when it declares in its _Book of\nChurch Order_, adopted in 1879, that \"where it shall appear needful, the\nchurch session may select and appoint godly women for the care of the\nsick, of prisoners, of poor widows and orphans, and, in general, in the\nrelief of the sick.\"[86]\n\nIn isolated Presbyterian congregations deaconesses have already obtained\nrecognition. At the Pan-Presbyterian Council, held in Philadelphia in\n1880, Fritz Fliedner, the son of Dr. Theodor Fliedner, was present as a\nmember, and through the influence of his words the Corinthian Avenue\nPresbyterian Church set apart five deaconesses, whose duty it should be\nto care for the poor and sick belonging to the congregation.\n\n\"More recently the Third Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, Cal.,\nempowered its three deacons to choose three women from the congregation\nto co-operate with them in their work, granting them seats and votes in\nthe board's monthly meeting.\"[87]\n\nThe very interesting article from which the quotation has just been made\nseems to think the term \"deaconess\" a misnomer for the Kaiserswerth\ndeaconess, as she belongs to a community, whereas the deaconess of the\nearly Church was attached to a congregation and belonged to a single\nchurch as an officer; but it may well be questioned whether the class of\nduties assigned to the deaconess of the early Church and of modern times\nalike, that is, the nursing of the sick, the care of the infirm in body\nand mind, the succoring of the unfortunate, and the education of\nchildren, are not the main characteristics of the office of a deaconess,\nwhile the fact of her connection with a number of like-minded women in\ncommunity life is merely an external feature of the office as it has\ndeveloped in the nineteenth century. Whatever form the question may\nassume, with the Presbyterian churches of Scotland and England so far\ncommitted to the adoption of the office of the deaconess as an effective\npart of the organization of the Church, it seems inevitable that the\nPresbyterian Church of America will have to meet this question in the\nnear future.\n\nThe Methodist Episcopal Church of America, although occupying itself\nwith the question of the diaconate of women later than any of the\ndenominations previously mentioned, by its acceptance of the office and\nby making it an inherent part of its ecclesiastical organization has\ntaken a higher ground than any Protestant body, with the exception of\nthe Church of Scotland. The Methodist Episcopal Church has ever offered\na freer scope for the activities of its women members than any other\nbody of Christians save the Quakers, who are still the leaders in this\nrespect; but it may be questioned if any furnishes a larger number who\nare actively engaged in promoting philanthropic and religious measures.\n\nThe honor of practically beginning the deaconess work in connection with\nthe Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States belongs to Mrs. Lucy\nRider Meyer, of the Chicago Training-school, who, during the summer\nmonths of 1887, aided by eight earnest Christian women, worked among the\npoor, the sick, and the needy of that great city without any reward of\nman's giving. In the autumn the Home opened in a few hired rooms, and\nMiss Thoburn came to be its first superintendent. The story of the\ngrowth of the work, the securing of a permanent home, and the\nenlargement of its resources is a most interesting one.[88]\n\nThe Rock River Conference, within whose boundaries the Chicago Home is\nsituated, had from the beginning an earnest sympathy and confidence in\nthe work as it was developing in its midst. A memorial was prepared, and\nwas presented to the General Conference in May, 1888, by the Rock River\nConference, through its Conference delegates, asking for Church\nlegislation with reference to deaconesses. At the same time the Bengal\nAnnual Conference, through Dr. J. M. Thoburn, also presented a memorial\nasking for the institution of an order of deaconesses who should have\nauthority to administer the sacrament to the women of India. Our\nmissionaries in India have long felt the need of some way of ministering\nto the converted women who are closely secluded in zenana life, and who,\nthough sick and dying, are precluded by the customs of the country from\nany religious service of comfort or consolation that male missionaries\ncan render. If it had been possible for our women missionaries to\nadminister the sacrament many Indian women could have been received into\nthe Church. All of the papers and memorials on this subject were put\ninto the hands of a committee, of which Dr. J. M. Thoburn (afterward\nmade missionary bishop to India and Malaysia) was chairman; and the\nreport of the committee was as follows:\n\n\n \"THE NEW OFFICE OF DEACONESSES IN THE\n METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.\n\n \"For some years past our people in Germany have employed this class\n of workers with the most blessed results, and we rejoice to learn\n that a successful beginning has recently been made in the same\n direction in this country. A home for deaconesses has been\n established in Chicago, and others of a similar character are\n proposed in other cities. There are also a goodly number of similar\n workers in various places; women who are deaconesses in all but\n name, and whose number might be largely increased if a systematic\n effort were made to accomplish this result. Your committee believes\n that God is in this movement, and that the Church should recognize\n the fact and provide some simple plan for formally connecting the\n work of these excellent women with the Church and directing their\n labors to the best possible results. They therefore recommend the\n insertion of the following paragraphs in the Discipline, immediately\n after \u00b6 198, relating to exhorters:\n\n\n \"DEACONESSES.\n\n \"1. The duties of the deaconesses are to minister to the poor, visit\n the sick, pray with the dying, care for the orphan, seek the\n wandering, comfort the sorrowing, save the sinning, and,\n relinquishing wholly all other pursuits, devote themselves in a\n general way to such forms of Christian labor as may be suited to\n their abilities.\n\n \"2. No vow shall be exacted from any deaconess, and any one of their\n number shall be at liberty to relinquish her position as a deaconess\n at any time.\n\n \"3. In every Annual Conference within which deaconesses may be\n employed, a Conference board of nine members, at least three of whom\n shall be women, shall be appointed by the Conference to exercise a\n general control of the interests of this form of work.\n\n \"4. This board shall be empowered to issue certificates to duly\n qualified persons, authorizing them to perform the duties of\n deaconesses in connection with the Church, provided that no person\n shall receive such certificate until she shall have served a\n probation of two years of continuous service, and shall be over\n twenty-five years of age.\n\n \"5. No person shall be licensed by the board of deaconesses except\n on the recommendation of a Quarterly Conference, and said board of\n deaconesses shall be appointed by the Annual Conference for such\n term of service as the Annual Conference shall decide, and said\n board shall report both the names and work of such deaconesses\n annually, and the approval of the Annual Conference shall be\n necessary for the continuance of any deaconess in her work.\n\n \"6. When working singly each deaconess shall be under the direction\n of the pastor of the church with which she is connected. When\n associated together in a home all the members of the home shall be\n subordinate to and directed by the superintendent placed in charge.\n\n \"J. M. THOBURN, _Chairman_.\n \"A. B. LEONARD, _Secretary_.\"\n\n\nThe adoption of this report made its contents a portion of the organic\nlaw of the Church.\n\nIt is doubtful if there was any measure taken at the General Conference\nof 1888 that will be more far-reaching in its results than that which\ninstituted the office of deaconess. The full and complete recognition\naccorded by the highest authority of the Church commended it to the\npeople, who showed a remarkable readiness to accept the provisions.\nNearly simultaneously, at important points distinct from each other,\nsteps were taken to establish deaconess homes, and to provide lectures\nand practical training to educate deaconesses for their work.\n\nThe terms of the law in which the Conference action was expressed were\nnot closely defined. It was felt that in establishing a new office for a\ngreat Church there must be room for a wide interpretation, to meet the\nvarious exigencies that will arise. It is true, also, that there can be\nno final interpretation until there shall be a basis of experience wide\nenough and varied enough to furnish facts that will justify us in\nforming conclusions from them. Still it was thought by those who were\npractically engaged in the work that there should be a common agreement\non certain practical points: What was to be the training that the\ndeaconesses were to receive during the two years of \"continuous\nservice?\" What was to be their distinctive garb? What was to be the\nrelation of the deaconess homes, that were arising, to the Conference\nboard appointed by the Annual Conference? To discuss these and other\nquestions a Conference was held in Chicago, December 20 and 21, 1888, of\nthose who were actively engaged in the work. The outcome of the\ndeliberations was the \"Plan for Securing Uniformity in the Deaconess\nMovement.\" Regulations were suggested concerning homes and their\nconnection with the Conference boards, conditions of admission were\nagreed upon, and a Course of Study and Plan for Training\nrecommended.[89] Of course the recommendations set forth in the \"Plan\"\nare not obligatory, but there has been remarkable unanimity so far in\naccepting them.\n\nIn addition to the Chicago Deaconess Home, and the branch in New\nOrleans, there is the Elizabeth Gamble House in Cincinnati, of which\nMiss Thoburn is superintendent; the Home in New York city, instituted by\nthe Board of the Church Extension and Missionary Society, under the\nsuperintendence of Miss Layton; the home in Detroit, under the auspices\nof the Home Missionary Society; and homes under way or projected in\nPhiladelphia, St. Louis, and Minneapolis; while individually deaconesses\nare employed in Kansas City, Jersey City, Troy, and Albany. It is also\nwell to add that since his return to India, Bishop Thoburn has opened a\ndeaconess house in Calcutta, with four American ladies as deaconesses,\nwhile at Muttra a second home has been opened, of which Miss Sparkes, so\nlong connected with our mission work in India, is superintendent.\n\nPastor Fliedner thought it strange that in the New World where there is\nsuch ceaseless activity in good works, the deaconess cause should make\nsuch slow progress; but the season of sowing had to precede that of\nreaping, and it seems now as though the fullness of time had arrived for\nthe incorporation into the agencies of the churches of America of the\npriceless activities of Christian deaconesses.\n\n\n [78] _Phoebe die Diakonissen_, Dr. A. Spaeth, p. 31.\n [79] For facts concerning the Philadelphia Mother-house of\n Deaconesses, and other important assistance rendered me, I desire\n to express acknowledgements to Dr. W. J. Mann, Dr. A. Spaeth, and\n Rev. A. Cordes, the rector of the house.\n [80] McClintock and Strong's _Cyclopedia_, vol. ii, art.\n \"Deaconesses.\"\n [81] _Sisterhoods and Deaconesses_, Rev. H. C. Potter, D.D.. 1873,\n p. 118.\n [82] _Sisterhoods and Deaconesses_, p. 105.\n [83] _Ibid._, p. 181.\n [84] Constitution and Rules for the Order of Deaconesses of Alabama,\n Art. vi.\n [85] _Church Work_, May, 1888.\n [86] For this and other suggestions regarding the deaconess question\n in the Presbyterian Church, I am greatly indebted to the kindness\n of Dr. Hastings, President of the Union Theological Seminary.\n [87] _Presbyterian Review_, April, 1889, art. \"Presbyterian\n Deaconesses.\"\n [88] Mrs. Meyer's book on _Deaconesses_, containing also the story of\n the Chicago Training-school and Deaconess Home, gives the best\n description to be obtained of the rise of the work in Chicago.\n [89] A more extended and elaborate course of study has been prepared\n by the Rev. Alfred A. Wright, D.D., Cambridge, Mass.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nTHE MEANS OF TRAINING AND THE FIELD OF WORK\nFOR DEACONESSES IN AMERICA.\n\n\nThe deaconesses of the early Church differed from those of modern times,\nas we have seen, in being directly responsible to a church society, and\nin belonging to a church congregation in numbers of two or more. Modern\nlife shows a strong tendency to organization. Wherever there are workers\nin a common cause they are banded together in societies and\nassociations. It was in accordance with the spirit of the age in which\nhe lived that Fliedner united his workers in the Rhenish-Westphalian\nDeaconess Society, in 1836. It was a happy inspiration--shall we not say\na _providential_ one?--that furnished a convenient organization for the\noffice under present conditions. The mother-houses in Germany offered\ngood working-models, and their practical advantages were so obvious that\nin whatever Protestant denomination the diaconate of women has revived,\nit has been in connection with these homes. There is no place where the\ntraining of a deaconess in all its aspects can be so well obtained as in\nthe deaconess home and training-school, which is our synonym for the\nGerman mother-house.\n\nBesides the advantages of a permanent home, under careful supervision,\nto which the probationers and deaconesses have access, in such a home\ncare is taken to train the deaconesses in the doctrines of the Church,\nand there is an atmosphere favorable to the virtues of faith and\ndevotion that the work demands. The deaconesses are never allowed to\nforget that they serve in a threefold capacity: \"Servants of the Lord\nJesus; servants of the sick and poor, 'for Jesus' sake;' servants one to\nanother.\" The motto of the indomitable little republic of Switzerland,\n\"All for each and each for all,\" might well be accepted as that\ncharacteristically belonging to them.\n\nThen, too, there is a tradition of service in such a home. One deaconess\nlearns from another. The physician is at hand to give his suggestions\nand medical instruction, and the lectures on Church history, on the\nhistory of missions, and on methods of evangelization make the home a\ncenter of information on all questions that affect the usefulness of the\noffice. There is no other one place in which to obtain the practical and\ntheoretical instruction that is needed for the education of a deaconess\nwell equipped for her work.\n\nFurthermore, the deaconess home offers a wide and varied field for those\npossessing different gifts. None can be so highly educated and\ncultivated that places cannot be found to utilize their talents to good\nadvantage; while those who are sadly lacking in the education of the\nschools can, by talent, untiring industry, and energy make up for\ndefects in early training.\n\nThe field of work of the deaconess in modern times is a large one. It\nwould be easier to define what it is not than what it is. In orphanages,\nin asylums for fallen women, in women's prisons, in reform schools, in\nSunday-schools, infant schools, and higher schools, in classes among\nworking-girls and servants, in industrial homes, in asylums for the\nblind and deaf and dumb, in hospitals of various kinds, and in churches,\nworking under the direction of the pastor--in all of these relations and\nmany others we find deaconesses in Germany, France, England, and other\nEuropean countries.\n\nThe service in hospitals seems especially incumbent upon Christian\nwomen, and in the early history of these institutions we find\ndeaconesses mentioned in connection with them.\n\nBefore the birth of Christ hospitals were unknown. It is true that in\nRome and Athens a certain provision was made for the poor, and largesses\nwere given them from time to time. But this was done from motives of\npolitical expediency, and not from sympathy or commiseration with their\nills. But as soon as the early Christians were free to practice their\nreligion openly, hospitals arose in all the great cities. In the latter\nhalf of the fourth century the distinguished Christian teacher, Ephrem\nthe Syrian, in Edessa, placed rows of beds for the sick and starving.\nHis contemporary, Basil, the great bishop of Caesarea, founded a number\nof institutions for strangers, the poor, and the sick, caring especially\nfor the lepers.[90] Little houses were built closely together, but so\nthat the patients could be separated one from another, and cared for\nseparately. Even at that early date the hospitals were arranged into\ndivisions for either sex, as they are at the present time. To use a\nmodern phrase, the wards of the men patients were placed under the\ncharge of a deacon while the deaconesses ministered to the sick of their\nown sex, according as their services were required. \"It was a rule for\nthe deacons and deaconesses to seek for the unfortunate day by day, and\nto inform the bishops, who in turn, accompanied by a priest, visited\nthe sick and needy of all classes.\"[91]\n\nIn the Middle Ages there were orders of Hospitallers, consisting of\nlaymen, monks, and knights, who devoted themselves entirely to the care\nof the sick. Under their influence great and splendid hospitals were\nbuilt, of which the old Hotel Dieu in Paris was a conspicuous example.\nThe Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome, and the service of the same\norder, originated like hospitals all over Europe. In late years, with\nthe development of medical and surgical art, hospital arrangements have\narrived at a degree of perfection never before known; and the care of\nthe sick, as it has been studied and practiced by Protestant deaconesses\nand Catholic Sisters of Mercy, has also greatly improved.\n\nThe state to which the hospitals had degenerated in Fliedner's time, and\nthe need of experienced nurses who should be actuated by the highest\nChristian motives, were among the strong reasons he advanced for\nproviding the Church with deaconesses as helpers. Here are his\nwords:[92] \"The poor sick people lay heavily on my mind. How often had\nI seen them neglected, their bodily wants miserably provided for, their\nspiritual needs quite forgotten, withering away in their often unhealthy\nrooms like leaves in autumn; for how many cities, even those having\nlarge populations, were without hospitals! And I have seen many on my\ntravels in Holland, Brabant, England, and Scotland, as in our own\nGermany; I often found the portals of glittering marble, but the nursing\nand care were wretched. Physicians complained bitterly of the\ndrunkenness and immorality of the attendants, and what shall I say of\nthe spiritual care? In many hospitals preachers we're no longer found;\nhospital chaplains yet more seldom. In the pious olden time these men\nwere always in such institutions, especially in the Netherlands, where\nevangelical hospitals bore the beautiful name of \"God's house,\" because\nit was recognized that God especially visits the inmates of such houses,\nto draw them to himself. Do not such wrongs cry to heaven? Is not our\nLord's reproachful word addressed to us, 'I was sick and in prison and\nye visited me not?' And shall not our Christian women be capable and\nwilling to undertake the care of the sick for Christ's sake?\" It was by\nsuch words, and similar ones, as in his famous appeal \"Freiwillige vor\"\n(Volunteers to the front!) which he sent out from Wurtemberg to Basel\nin 1842, that he aroused the Christian women of Germany to give\nthemselves to this service. By their aid he instituted a system of\nnursing that has changed the aspect of every hospital ward in Germany;\nand, through the training that Florence Nightingale enjoyed at\nKaiserswerth, the reform that was there instituted passed to England,\nand has effected a transformation in the entire hospital system of\nEngland.\n\nIn Germany deaconesses are often trained to special duties that are\nrequired in hospitals for certain diseases or certain classes of\npatients, and they are becoming so skillful in their duties that the\npresent system of hospital nursing could not be continued without their\naid.\n\nThe nursing care of deaconesses in insane asylums is especially\nvaluable. The large and well-ordered Insane Asylum for Female Patients\nin Kaiserswerth, with its long lists of cases soundly cured, shows how\nhealthful and important is the quiet, constant influence of intelligent\nChristian attendance upon those who are mentally unsound.\n\nThe usefulness of deaconesses as care-takers in all kinds of hospitals\nand homes for the aged, and asylums of every description, is so apparent\nthat it does not need to be dwelt upon. The _creche_, or day home,\nwhere infants and young children can be sheltered and watched during the\nday while their mothers are at work, is an institution that started in\nParis in 1834, through the efforts of M. Marbeau, one of the mayors of a\ndistrict of the city. This is now incorporated into the government\nsystem of Paris, and the idea has spread to neighboring lands, so that\nsuch homes are found in many of the cities in South Germany and\nSwitzerland. It is true that there are no nurses that can care for\nchildren as the true mother, but where mothers have to be absent from\nmorning until night engaged at hard work, and the little ones are left\nneglected at home, or in the care of other children who are themselves\nyoung enough to need very nearly the same attention that is bestowed on\nthe infants; or where the mothers are such in name, but in reality are\nfailing in every quality which we attach to that sacred office; or where\nthe foundling hospital is the only alternative to which the real mother,\nconfronted by the necessity of earning bread for herself and child, can\nturn--in such cases the _creche_ is a real benefaction whose existence\nhas enabled families to keep together, and children to be given a chance\nin life who otherwise would have had small prospect of keeping soul and\nbody together.\n\nThere is another institution, called the waiting-school, where children\nfrom two to four years of age are received, whose parents both go daily\nto work, and who would be left to wander about the streets unless this\nplace of refuge were opened to them. The _creche_, or day home, seeks\nonly to watch over the infants who are put in its care, or to amuse them\nand keep them contented; the waiting-school goes further, and tries to\ngive the little ones some ideas of discipline and the elementary\nbeginnings of instruction. Fliedner, who was a lover of children, took\ngreat interest in both these institutions, and in his school for\ninfant-school teachers prepared deaconesses especially for the duties\nthat are required in teachers of this class. The motherly heart, the\ngift of story-telling and singing, a pleasant and unruffled demeanor,\nthe quiet but firm inculcation of order and obedience--these and other\nqualities Fliedner sought to develop in instructors for these schools.\n\nThe day homes have already been introduced into many places in the\nUnited States, and often cover the field of both the _creche_ and\nwaiting-school, but there is a wide opportunity for the extension of\ntheir usefulness; and whether in the future, when the demands upon\nChristian deaconesses shall be much more multiplex than they are now, it\nmay be necessary to provide special training for Christian teachers in\nAmerica for such special work, time alone can decide. The question of\nChristian education is one that has not yet been determined in its full\nextent. In the year 1800 Mother Barat, of the Catholic Church, founded\nthe order of Sisters of the Sacred Heart, which is especially devoted to\nthe education of daughters belonging to the higher social ranks. At her\ndeath it numbered three thousand five hundred members, and had over\nseventy establishments, which are located in every civilized land. It\ncannot be maintained that the education given in these schools is either\nextensive or profound, but the influence of the order upon the women\nwhom it has reached has been both. Fliedner, at Kaiserswerth, went as\nfar as his age and environments would permit him to go. He provided\nschools where teachers were prepared as instructors for all grades of\nschools, from the most elementary up to the girls' high-schools; and no\nother institution in Germany, with one or two exceptions, such as the\nVictoria Institute at Berlin, yet offers positions to women teachers of\na higher grade than is afforded by these schools. But in other lands,\nwhere the educational facilities for women are far beyond those that\nGermany can offer at the present time, positions of higher importance\nand wider influence are held by women; and it is an important question\nfor the future what class of women shall fill these places. If Fliedner\nhad had to meet the problem we can imagine he would have done so with\nthe boldness and energy that he showed in solving those that his times\nand circumstances afforded him. He would, doubtless, have enlisted among\nhis deaconesses those whose talents gave him reason to provide them with\nthe widest training the schools can offer; and then he would have\nendeavored to place them where they could do the most effective service\nfor Christ and his Church. It may be that in the future which opens\nbefore the women of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America there will\nbe just such questions seeking and finding solution.\n\nDoubtless at the present time the deaconess who will answer to the\ngreatest number of immediate wants is the \"parish-deaconess,\" or the\nhome mission deaconess, as we may call her. Her usefulness has been well\ntested in the great cities of Germany, France, and England, as we have\nseen. Perhaps nowhere is her work better appreciated than in London, the\ngreatest city of modern times. The tendency of this age of manufactures\nand commerce is to attract laborers and workers from country homes,\nwhere work has become less open to them through the increased use of\nagricultural machines of all kinds, into cities, where factories,\nshops, counting-rooms, and offices constantly afford openings. London\nhas felt the full force of this movement. In 1836 her population was\nabout equal to that of New York, including Brooklyn and Jersey City. Now\nthe great city contains 5,500,000 inhabitants. It is growing at the rate\nof over 100,000 a year, nor is there any influence at work to stop its\ngrowth. The same causes that produce it are constantly at work. The\ngreat massing of the population together, with the unequaled increase in\nthe wealth of the people, make the contrast of riches and poverty\nstriking and obvious. The west of London, with its vast wealth, its\nhomes of refinement and elegance, and its appliances for the enjoyment\nof art, science, and literature, is separated from the poverty, the\ndegradation, the misery, and the sorrow of the East End by a gulf as\ngreat as that which separated Lazarus from Dives. It is difficult for\nthose who are at ease, whose lives, to use Wordsworth's felicitous\nphrase, are made up \"of cheerful yesterdays and confident\nto-morrows\"--it is difficult for such even faintly to apprehend the\ndullness, the drudgery, and the hardships of those who, even at the best\nestate, are obliged to live in such surroundings. The vast metropolis a\nfew years ago was for a short time shaken out of its lethargy by a\nvoice that would be heard, when _The Bitter Cry of Outcast London_ was\npublished. \"Few who will read these pages have any conception of what\nthese pestilential human rookeries are, where tens of thousands are\ncrowded together amid horrors which call to mind what we have heard of\nthe middle passage of the slave-ship. To go into them you have to\npenetrate courts reeking with poisonous malodorous gases arising from\naccumulations of sewerage, refuse scattered in all directions, and often\nflowing beneath your feet; courts, many of them, which the sun never\npenetrates, which are never visited by a breath of fresh air. You have\nto ascend rotten stair-cases, grope your way along dark and filthy\npassages swarming with vermin. Then, if you are not driven back by the\nintolerable stench, you may gain admittance into the dens in which these\nthousands of beings herd together. Eight feet square! That is about the\naverage size of many of these rooms.... Where there are beds they are\nsimply heaps of dirty rags, shavings, or straw, but for the most part\nthe miserable beings find rest only upon the filthy boards.... There are\nmen and women who lie and die day by day in their wretched single room,\nsharing all the family trouble, enduring the hunger and the cold,\nwithout hope, without a single ray of comfort, until God curtains their\nstaring eyes with the merciful film of death.\"[93]\n\nSuch are the places where the deaconesses of East London go in and out\nfrom morn to eve, like angels of mercy, succoring the miserable and\nunhappy, often rebuking vice, and encouraging with friendly words those\nwho are worn and discouraged in the battle of life. Here they nurse the\nsick, hold mothers' meetings, start evening classes for working young\nmen, and gather the children of all ages in every kind of class that can\ninterest and instruct them. They are always ready to provide for\nindividual cases that they meet. If they find a friendless young\nservant-girl who is out of work, they send her to the servants' home,\nwhere, for very little payment, sometimes nothing at all, she can be\ntaken care of long enough to give her fresh courage and strength. Then\nshe is aided in seeking a situation, and so she is saved from the\ninnumerable temptations to vice and misery that are sure to assail her\nif she stands alone.\n\nMany of these deaconesses are educated women, gladly devoting their\nwhole life and energies to the work, and who with \"food and raiment\" are\nquite content. Nothing but a strong indomitable faith in God's love and\npromises can stand the strain of such work. But if there is the faith\nand love to deny self and dare all \"for the love of Christ and in His\nname,\" where can such rewards for labor be found? The dull streets\nbecome filled with friends, sodden countenances brighten, the little\nchildren come with loving faces and gladdened hearts, and the deaconess\nis recognized as interpreting to the hearts of these weary, forlorn,\nhelpless people the love of God who, when He came upon earth, shared the\nburdens that belonged to His humanity. He came as a Man of Sorrows and\nacquainted with grief, and it was the \"common people\" that heard Him\ngladly. The deaconess, in her distinctive dress, is becoming a\nwell-known figure in the east of London, and not only protected but\nrecommended by her garb, she visits the lowest parts of the city without\ndanger. Just such deaconesses are needed in the cities of America. The\ncities of the United States are increasing as wonderfully as the great\ncities of the Old World. With the surplus population of Europe pouring\nin upon us by the hundreds of thousands annually our country is doubling\nin numbers every twenty-five years; and the growth of the towns absorbs\na larger proportion of this multitude than does the country. The cities\nattract the immigrants because there they find others of their own\nnationality. In some cities there are whole foreign colonies where the\npeople speak a foreign tongue, read foreign newspapers, and have very\nfew interests in common with the people of the land in which they live.\nThey continue the same customs and the same habits of thought that\nbelonged to them in the Old World. Examples of such colonies are found\nin the thirty thousand Poles in Buffalo, and the sixty thousand\nBohemians in Chicago.\n\nThen the cities offer attractions that are irresistible to the young men\nand women from the country. Thousands leave quiet country homes every\nyear, and, with no certain prospects before them, cast themselves into\nthe busy life of the nearest great metropolis. In many places,\nespecially in New England, the villages number less, and farm land is\nmuch less valuable than it was fifty years ago. It is this massing of\npopulation that is causing us already to experience some of the evils\nthat are old problems in the great cities of Europe. There is the same\ngulf between the rich and the poor, with the added element that the\ngreat mass of the poor are composed of foreigners and their children.\nAnd the difference in race is a hinderance to a common ground of\nsympathy. A greater hinderance is the difference in religious faith. The\npreponderating number of native Americans are Protestants, and their\nthoughts and beliefs are permeated with the principles that their\nfathers held so dear, and which they sacrificed home and country to\npreserve. They hold a faith that is inseparably connected with free\ninstitutions, personal liberty, and personal responsibility. But the\nmass of foreigners that are in the great cities largely belong to the\nworking-class, and, with the large proportion of the poor who are the\nwards of the city, are Roman Catholic in faith, a faith that has little\nin sympathy with republican institutions, and which least prepares its\nfollowers to exercise the duties of citizens of a republic. Keeping\nthese facts in mind, the statistics contained in the following extracts\nare of telling force: \"If the laboring class should contribute its due\nproportion to the congregations, the churches, many of which are now\nhalf empty, would not begin to hold the people. In 1880 there was in the\nUnited States one evangelical organization to every 516 of the\npopulation; in Boston, _counting churches of all kinds_, there was but\none to every 1,600 of the population; in Chicago, one to every 2,081; in\nNew York, one to every 2,468; in St. Louis, one to every 2,800.\" \"The\nworst of it is that, instead of improving, the condition of things has\nbeen growing worse every year. While the prosperous classes are moving\naway to the suburbs, and the laborers are being more densely massed\ntogether in the heart of the city, the church accommodations, even if\nfully used, are becoming more inadequate to the needs of the community.\nIncluding religious organizations of all sorts, New York had in 1830 one\nplace of worship for every 1,853 of its inhabitants; in 1840, one for\nevery 1,840; in 1850, one for every 2,095; in 1860, one for every 2,344;\nin 1870, one for every 2,004; in 1880, one for every 2,468; and the\nreligious history of Chicago is even more noteworthy in this respect:\nChicago had in 1840 one church for every 747 of its population; in 1851\nthere was one for every 1,009; in 1862, one for every 1,301; in 1870,\none for 1,593; in 1880, one for 2,081; in 1885, one for 2,254. All the\nlarge cities have districts which are destitute of church\naccommodations, and have not seats in Sunday-school for more than one\ntenth of their children.\"[94]\n\nHave we not as great need of deaconesses as any of the cities of the Old\nWorld? Most of our pastors stand alone. They do not have the assistant\ncurates and pastors that are connected with large city churches in\nBerlin and London. When the minister makes pastoral calls, and, entering\nworking-men's homes, finds sickness and scanty resources, he has no\ndeaconess to call to his aid with her cheerful words of encouragement\nand her loving sympathy, that are better than money and medicine. It is\nnot charity alone that is wanted in such cases; it is the knowledge of\nhow to use proper means to make the sick one comfortable, how to lessen\nthe burden on the family that a small additional call for work and care\nhas so sadly taxed; how to enlighten the ignorance that is so common\nwithout wounding the susceptibilities that are so human. For, to quote\nthe words of the Christ in the _Vision of Sir Launfal_:\n\n \"Not what we give, but what we share,\n For the gift without the giver is bare;\n Who gives himself with his alms feeds three:--\n Himself, his hungry neighbor, and Me.\"\n\nIt is for such ministrations that we need deaconesses in every\nevangelical church of the United States; may the women that are ready to\n\"publish the tidings\" be \"a great host.\"\n\n\n [90] _Der Diakonissenberuf nach seiner Vergangenheit und Gegenwart._\n Emil Wacker, Guetersloh, 1888, p. 196.\n [91] McClintock and Strong's _Cyclopedia_, vol. iv, art. \"Hospitals.\"\n The editors give as authority for this statement, Augustine, _De\n Civit. Dei_, i, xxii, c. 8.\n [92] Theodor Fliedner, _Kurzer Abriss seines Lebens_. Kaiserswerth,\n 1886, p. 60.\n [93] _The Bitter Cry of Outcast London_, pp. 3-10.\n [94] _Modern Cities_, by S. L. Loomis, New York, 1887, pp. 88, 89.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nOBJECTIONS MET AND SUGGESTIONS OFFERED.\n\n\n\"Success and glory are the children of hard work and God's favor,\" is\nthe inscription upon the tablet erected in Christ's Hospital, London, to\nthe memory of Sir Henry Maine.\n\nUpon these two elements depends the future of the deaconess cause in\nAmerica. We are assured of the one; will the other be forthcoming? Will\nthe individual members of the Church give this cause their hearty\nsupport? Surely the facts that have been stated must have convinced the\njudgment, but perhaps there are certain prejudices to be overcome. \"I\nfear that deaconesses too closely resemble Catholic nuns for Protestants\nto accept them,\" says one. No; these helpful Christian women are\nthoroughly Protestant. Deaconesses are no Catholic institution. Wherever\nthey have appeared they have been met by open antagonism from the\nCatholic Church. Witness the calumnies with which the papers of that\ncapital have constantly assailed the deaconess home of Paris.\n\nThere is good in the Catholic sisterhoods, but mingled with much that we\ndisapprove. The deaconess institutions have the good features, but have\navoided the ill. Much of the success of the Catholic Church in winning\nthe poor and in retaining its influence over the lowly is due to the\npower exerted by the sisters who go about from house to house among the\npoor, and are received as friends.\n\nThere is a great army of Catholic sisters. It is calculated that there\nare about 28,000 Sisters of Vincent de Paul, 22,000 Franciscan Sisters\ncaring for the sick, 6,000 Sisters of the Holy Cross, 5,000 Sisters of\nCharles, making a total of about 60,000 sisters of various orders\nbelonging to the Catholic Church[95] who are occupied with works of\nmercy. The sisters engaged in education are often well-trained and\naccomplished. The order of Charles will not accept widows, orphans\nwithout property, girls from asylums, or those that have served as\nmaids. As a rule, those that join it must make some contribution of\nmoney to the order when they are received. This order is small, but one\nof the most active and aggressive of any. The great number of the\nsisters, however, are women of few advantages, taken from poor homes and\nlives of toil. There is wisdom in this course, for a great deal of the\nwork to be done depends upon qualities that can be developed by\ntraining, while the exceptional education and talents are employed in\nthe exceptional places.\n\nA contemplation of these facts just recorded causes us better to\nunderstand the importance that the co-operation of women has for the\nCatholic Church. It causes us, too, to appreciate better the opening\nbefore the Protestant women of all evangelical churches, so wide, so\nall-embracing that every variety of talent can find a place.\n\nGifts of clothes or food or fuel are not so well appreciated as the\nrespectful hearing which clothes the teller with self-respect, the kind\nword and loving sympathy that feed the heart, the inspiring consolations\nof religious faith that animate and warm the soul, and such gifts women\nof sympathetic Christian hearts can ever render. As has been well said,\n\"Shall the advantages of such a system be monopolized by those who have\nso little else to offer?\"[96]\n\nYou may say, \"I do not object to the deaconess and her work, but I do\nobject to her distinctive dress. I do not believe in a uniform of\ncharity.\" But let us consider the arguments that can be brought forward\nin favor of it. It is a distinctive garb because its wearer is a\ndistinctive officer of the Church. Unless she were \"set apart\" by some\nuniform immediately and widely recognized how could she have the\nprotection that is accorded her? Alike in every land where she is known,\nas we have seen, the deaconess can venture into any part of the great\ncities at any hour, and is invariably treated with respect. There is in\nthe heart of the rudest and most lawless some trace of chivalry which\nrecognizes the self-denying lives of these women. Then, in making her\nvisits, the deaconess finds her dress an introduction that opens doors\nthat would otherwise remain closed to her. It certainly is a convenient\nand economical garb, that saves a great deal of time and money to the\nwearer.\n\nAre not these advantages more than an offset to an ill-defined objection\nto the dress because it has been associated with women who are alien to\nour Protestant faith? This is a minor matter, however, and one that can\nbe adjusted at liking.\n\nYou may say, \"I do not like to think of a woman who is dear to me cut\noff from the pleasures of home life, and devoted to a life-time of work\namong those who, in many respects, must be repugnant to her tastes. It\ndoes not seem so high and beautiful a life as that which makes home a\ncenter, and carries on its activities from there.\"\n\nBut there are many women debarred from the pleasures of home life by\nGod's direct providence to whom other duties and responsibilities have\nbeen allotted. And then this work may not necessarily be for life. It is\ntrue that when a Christian woman occupies the position of a deaconess\nshe must relinquish wholly all other pursuits so long as she holds this\noffice. Neither without grave and weighty reasons should she seek to\nleave it. It is her calling. The period of probation has its uses, not\nonly in making the probationer familiar with the duties and tasks\ndemanded of her, but in giving her time to test the strength of her call\nto service, that she may not, through enthusiasm, lightly assume the\nduties of the office, nor as lightly throw them aside.\n\nBut if a deaconess is called away to perform her duties as a sister or\ndaughter, or if she desires to marry, she is free to do so, after giving\ndue information to those with whom she is connected in work. Freedom and\nliberty are in every phase of this office.\n\nAs to the highest life for a woman, an archbishop of England well said\nsome years ago, \"that whatever life God gives to any woman is the\nhighest life for that woman,\" and that \"in becoming a deaconess a woman\ndevoting herself to this life must believe that it is the highest life\nfor her, and that in it she gives herself wholly to the Lord.\"[97]\n\nThere should be no country like America for the favorable development of\nthe deaconess cause, because in no other have women such large freedom\nof action, and, if we may believe our friends, they have improved it\nwell. A distinguished English historian has just given us what we are\nfain to accept as words of just and discriminating praise. \"In no other\ncountry have women borne so conspicuous a part in the promotion of moral\nand philanthropic causes.... Their services in dealing with charities\nand reformatory institutions have been inestimable.... The nation, as a\nwhole, owes to the active benevolence of its women, and their zeal in\npromoting social reforms, benefits which the customs of continental\nEurope would scarcely have permitted women to confer.... Those who know\nthe work they have done and are doing in many a noble cause will admire\nstill more their energy, their courage, their devotion. No country seems\nto owe more to its women than America does, nor to owe to them so much\nof what is best in social institutions, and in the beliefs that govern\nconduct.\"[98]\n\nNor in any denomination should we expect women to be more ready to adopt\nthis work than in the Methodist Episcopal Church, because women members\nhave been accustomed to exercise nearly all the obligations and duties,\nand many of the privileges, that are accorded the laity of the great\nconnection, and they are prepared to accept new duties in new relations.\nThis Church has over a million women enrolled as members, able to serve\nit in every capacity, from the lady in her home dispensing gracious\nChristian hospitality, to the one standing quite alone, who will\nwelcome, as a brevet of rank, this new call to service. There are many\nsuch women ready to respond. Many, too, whose hearts have been left\ndesolate by bereavement, who will be glad to fill the empty hands and\nvacant life by work for God and humanity. To such a woman the wide world\nis her home; the dear ones of her family are the poor and sick and needy\nwho crave her aid.\n\nThe beautiful Mildmay motto is: \"They dwell with the King for his work.\"\nThere are thousands of women all over the land who are ready to become\n\"King's Daughters\" in this additional sense of the word. The\npossibility of what such women can accomplish in the furtherance of\nGod's kingdom upon earth has not begun to be fathomed.\n\nThink of a great city church, with the manifold interests clustering\naround it, left to the care of a single pastor! He has not only the\npreparation of his weekly sermons, the care of the social meetings of\nthe church, but a long line of other duties that are equally important\nto maintain. He must perform pastoral duties, push forward aggressive\nmovements in behalf of the masses not touched by the church services,\nand fulfill public duties in connection with great charities,\nphilanthropies, and moral reforms that he cannot neglect without injury.\nIf the efforts of such a pastor could be furthered by one, two, or more\ndeaconesses, as are many of the pastors of the London churches, how\ngreatly would the working force of such a Church be increased!\n\nIt is true that we must develop the work in accordance with our American\nideas and institutions. Through the study of the methods that have been\nadopted in European institutions, and the experience that has been there\nwon through long years of patient toil, we are prepared in a measure to\nstart where their work leaves off. But we shall find that our\ncircumstances require new adjustments, and that we shall have our own\nproblems to solve, so that eventually our work will assume a\ndistinctively American form.\n\nWe have only to plant the seed and to give it favorable conditions for\ngrowth. The outcome is not ours: \"In the morning sow thy seed, and in\nthe evening withhold not thy hand.\" The results are with Him who giveth\nthe increase.\n\nThe practical question may occur to some one who reads these pages,\n\"What shall I do to become a deaconess?\" Write to the superintendent of\nthe nearest deaconess home, and ask for directions. It is best not to\nmultiply homes until we have a larger number of trained deaconesses that\nare ready to take charge of them, and until the number of applicants\ndesiring to enter them is much greater than at present.\n\nMany churches that need the services of a deaconess will doubtless\nselect one of their number whose heart God has inclined to this service,\nand will provide the means by which she can secure the necessary\ntraining at a home and training-school. There are many devout Christian\nwomen in every community who have for years been deaconesses in labors,\nif not in title and prerogatives. It is very important for such women to\ngive their sympathies and fostering care to this new institution. If not\ndeaconesses by office, they can ally themselves as associates. The\nassociate is a real officer in many of the deaconess establishments in\nLondon. Ladies who have great sympathy with the cause, and an earnest\ndesire to do what they can to advance it, give some portion of their\ntime, their labor, or their means to promote its interests. They will go\nto the home and reside there for some weeks or months, being under the\ndirection of the superintendent and filling all the duties of a sister.\nOr, if such duties are not practicable, they will work in behalf of the\nhome, often securing the aid of those whose assistance is most valuable.\nIn some places it is arranged that a woman who earns her bread by daily\ntoil shall be assigned to labor at her regular vocation, consecrating a\ncertain portion of her wages (perhaps one twenty-fourth) to the cause\nwith which she is allied.\n\nThe Church has been accused of being too abstract, too ideal, too far\nremoved from the life of the people in its every-day aspects. It is well\nfor Church members to examine themselves, and the Church communities to\nwhich they belong, to judge how much ground there is for such criticism.\nNone are so sharp-sighted as hostile critics, and from none can such\ngood lessons be learned. But this accusation is not a new one, and the\nonly effectual way to meet it is to point to what the Church has\naccomplished. Over eighteen hundred years ago, when John the Baptist was\nin danger of mistaking our Lord, he sent to him, saying: \"Art thou he\nthat should come? or look we for another?\" and the answer was: \"Go your\nway, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the\nblind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the\ndead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.\"\n\nLet us be prepared to make a similar answer to-day, and the Church need\nfear no accusation of holding aloof from the needs of the daily life of\nthe people.\n\n\"Christianity, as it stands in the Bible and in our creeds, will neither\nbe read nor understood by millions; Christianity as it is revealed in\nthe loving service of deaconesses will be recognized by the dullest\neyes.\"[99]\n\nWe have reached a new departure in Methodism. The Church has added\nanother to its aggressive forces. How is it to be received? What welcome\nwill be given it? May pastors and people, one and all, be in that\nattitude of spirit where we shall respond readily to the command:\n\"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.\"\n\n\n [95] _Die Diakonissenberuf nach seine Vergangenheit und gegenwart._\n Emil Wacker. Guetersloh, 1888, chap. vi.\n [96] _Modern Cities._ S. L. Loomis, The Baker & Taylor Co., New York,\n 1887, p. 192.\n [97] _Deaconesses in the Church of England_, Griffith & Farran, 1880,\n p. 31.\n [98] _The American Commonwealth_, James Bryce. MacMillan & Co., 1889,\n vol. ii, pp. 586, 589.\n [99] _Phoebe die Diakonissen_, p. 8.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE.\n\nYEARLY EXPENDITURES AT KAISERSWERTH.\n\n\nWhile the book is in press the following interesting statistics are\nreceived, which are deemed of sufficient importance to insert here.\n\nReceipts and expenditures of Kaiserswerth for the three years from 1885\nto 1888:\n\n Year. Receipts. Expenses.\n\n 1885-1886 333,476 m. 74 pf. 331,812 m. 12 pf.\n 1886-1887 371,523 m. 46 pf. 370,626 m. 45 pf.\n 1887-1888 337,508 m. 14 pf. 492,384 m. 21 pf.\n\nIn the year 1887-1888, the excess of expenses over receipts was caused\nby the construction of a new building, and special funds were\ncontributed which more than met the deficit.\n\nRev. F. Fliedner, the son of Pastor Fliedner further writes: \"This does\nnot include the expenses in the East and other foreign stations. In\ntruth, about six hundred thousand marks pass yearly through our\ntreasury.\" What an amount of good accomplished by the yearly expenditure\nof one hundred and fifty thousand dollars!\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n Acts vi, 3, 13, 79.\n Addlestone, 161.\n Africa, Northern, 108.\n Age requirements, 29, 187.\n Alabama, 213.\n America, 73, 107, 252.\n AMERICA, THE DEACONESS CAUSE IN, 204: German Lutherans, 204;\n W. A. Passavant, Pittsburg, 205; Mary J. Drexel Home and\n Philadelphia Mother-house of Deaconesses, 208; Swedish\n Lutherans, Omaha, 211; Norwegian Lutherans, Brooklyn, 211;\n German Reformed, Hagerstown, 211; Protestant Episcopal\n Church, Baltimore, 212; Alabama, 213; Long Island, 215;\n Western New York, 216; Presbyterian Church, 217; Southern\n Presbyterian Church, 218; Methodist Episcopal Church, Lucy\n Rider Meyer, 220; Rock River Conference, Bengal Conference,\n 221; General Conference action, 222; Conference, \"Plan,\"\n Homes, 226.\n AMERICA, THE MEANS OF TRAINING AND THE FIELD OF WORK FOR\n DEACONESSES IN, 228: threefold service, 229; hospitals, 230;\n day-homes, 236; home-mission deaconesses, 238; London, 239;\n cities, 242; parish deaconesses, 245.\n Amprucla, a deaconess, 25.\n Amsterdam, 43, 143.\n Andrews, Edward G., 6.\n _Andover Review_, 150.\n Apostolic Constitutions, 19, 21, 24, 85.\n _Armen und Kranken Freund_, 66.\n \"Associates,\" 193, 213-215, 256.\n Asia Minor, 76, 108.\n Austria, 104, 108.\n Author's facilities, 4.\n\n Baillie, Lady Grisell, 200, 201, 203.\n Ball's Pond, 182.\n Balsamon, Professor, 31.\n Baltimore, St. Andrew's, 212.\n Baptism, 22, 32.\n Barat, Mother, 237.\n Barnet, 167, 181.\n Bartholomew's prayer, 23.\n Basil, of Caesarea, 231.\n Beghards, The, 37.\n Beguines, The, 35-37, 145.\n Beirut, Syria, 76.\n Belgium, 34, 37.\n Belleville, France, 134.\n Bengal Conference, 221.\n Berlin, 72, 99, 102, 111, 113, 114, 237, 245.\n Barnardo, Dr., 159.\n Berne, Switzerland, 103.\n Bertheau, Caroline, 72.\n Bethany House, 72, 102.\n Bethany Society, 110, 118.\n Bethnal Green, 180, 185.\n Bible-classes, 175, 186.\n Bible stories, 65, 124.\n Bible study, 84.\n Birthdays, 64, 71.\n Boarders in Home, 132.\n Bohemian brethren, 40.\n Bohemians, Chicago, 243.\n Boston churches, 244.\n Bremen, Germany, 110.\n Brighton, England, 181.\n Brooklyn, N. Y., 211, 215.\n Brotherhood in Christ, 10, 11.\n Brotherhood of the Common Life, 37.\n Buffalo, Poles in, 243.\n\n Calcutta, India, 227.\n Calvin, John, 42, 134.\n Cambridge Platform, 144.\n Catechumens, female, 21.\n Celibacy. See Monks, Nuns.\n Chalmers, Thomas, 57, 189.\n Charitable institutions, 9, 54, 57.\n Charite, La, 100.\n Charlotte, Sister, 75.\n Charteris, A. H., 190, 192, 201.\n Chicago, Ill., 73, 243-245.\n Chicago Training-school, 220, 221.\n Children, 10, 64, 123.\n Cholera, 48, 170.\n Christ, 246.\n Christianity, 257.\n Christmas, 178, 180, 181.\n Chrysostom, 25, 26.\n Church of England, 149, 150, 157, 191.\n Church of England Woman's Missionary Association, 163.\n Church of England Zenana Society, 185.\n Church of Scotland, 190, 193, 195, 201, 203.\n Church of the Deaconesses, 31.\n _Churchman, The_, 105, 155.\n Cincinnati, O., 226.\n Cities, 242, 243, 245.\n Clapton House School, 182.\n Classes of deaconesses, 186, 194.\n Collecting money, 53, 54, 114.\n Commune, 131.\n Commune deaconess. See Parish deaconesses.\n Compassion, Christian, 11, 13.\n Conference, Chicago, 226.\n Kaiserswerth, 86, 106, 152.\n Mildmay, 167.\n Conference Hall, 171, 178.\n Consecration, 23, 29, 85, 140, 199, 210, 211, 217.\n Contagious diseases, 84, 88, 170.\n CONTINENT, OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS ON THE, 93: Strasburg,\n Pastor Haerter, 93; Muelhausen, parish deaconesses, 95;\n Berlin servants, 99; Bethany House, 102; Dettelsau, Berne,\n Sophie Wurdemberger, 103; Saint Loup, Pastor Germond, 104;\n Riehen, Zuerich, Gallneukirchen, 104; joint management, 106;\n environment, 107; many deaconesses, more needed, 108.\n Convalescent homes, 181.\n Convalescents' home, 126.\n Cordes, A., 211.\n Constantinople, 25, 28, 31.\n Cottage Hospital, 179.\n Coventry, Miss, 183.\n Creche, 125, 234, 236.\n\n Dalston, 146.\n Damsels of Charity, 43.\n Darmstadt, 146.\n Daughter-houses, 71, 138.\n Davidson, Miss, 200, 201.\n Day homes, 235, 236.\n \"Deaconess,\" 149.\n how become? 255.\n Deaconess Institution and Training-home, 195, 198.\n Deaconesses, numerous, 107.\n world-wide demand, 108.\n See \"Associates,\" America, Consecration, Continent,\n Diaconate, Early, England, Fliedner, German, Kaiserswerth,\n Literature, Methodist Episcopal Church, Mildmay,\n Objections, Paris, Scotland, Twelfth, etc.\n Deacons appointed, 13.\n De la Mark, Henry Robert, 44.\n Denmark, 108.\n Detroit, Mich., 226.\n Devonshire Square, 146.\n Devotions, 83, 118.\n DIACONATE, THE, 9: brotherhood of all in Christ, 10; foreign\n missions, 11; home missions, 12; diaconate, 13; female\n diaconate, 14; meaning, 16; qualities, field, 17.\n Diaconate, female, 13, 17, 20, 24, 30, 34, 45, 46, 189.\n organic, 203.\n Discipline, 127, 129.\n Dispensary, 69, 75, 103, 180.\n Disselhoff, J., 31, 41, 48, 76, 91, 108, 109.\n Doellinger, 10.\n Doncaster General Infirmary, 182.\n Dorcas room, 174.\n Dove, symbol, 91.\n Dress, distinctive, 36, 82, 116, 155, 156, 210, 242, 249.\n Du Camp, Maxime, 134.\n Dumas, Mademoiselle, 135, 138.\n Duesseldorf, 56.\n Duesselthal, 56.\n\n Early Church, 231.\n EARLY CHURCH, DEACONESSES IN THE, 18: Pliny's letter, 19;\n apostolic constitutions, 19; deaconesses, widows, virgins,\n 20; deaconess' duties, 21; prayer of ordination, 23;\n greatest growth in Eastern Church, 24; Chrysostom, 25;\n Olympias, 27; age, property, 29; in Western Church, 30;\n decay, extinction, 32.\n East London Deaconess Home, 152, 156.\n Easter cards, 178.\n Eastern Church, 24.\n Eccl. xi, 6, 255.\n Edinburgh, Scotland, 189.\n Eilers, Frederick, 110, 115.\n Elberfeld, 58, 71.\n Elizabeth of Prussia, 101.\n Endowment, 67.\n England. See London.\n ENGLAND, DEACONESSES IN, 142: Puritans, 142; Amsterdam, 143;\n Plymouth colony, widows, 144; Southey, Protestants, 145;\n Mrs. Fry, Fliedner, Florence Nightingale, 146; Agnes Jones,\n 147; Ludlow, Stevenson, Howson, 148; \"sister,\" \"deaconess,\"\n 149; Church of England, 150; outside institutions, 158;\n Tottenham, 159; Prison Gate Mission, 161; London West\n Central Mission, 163. See Mildmay.\n Environment, 107.\n Eppstein, 50.\n Epidemic, 87.\n Ephrem the Syrian, 231.\n Europe. See Continent.\n Expenses, 82, 187, 188, 258.\n\n Faith and works, 202, 230.\n Fallen women, 112.\n Farming, 69.\n Faubourg Saint Antoine, 121, 132.\n Feierabend Haus, 71.\n Ferard, Elizabeth C., 152.\n Flag at Kaiserswerth, 91.\n FLIEDNER, THE RESTORER OF THE OFFICE OF DEACONESS, 46:\n Kloenne, 46; Amalie Sieveking, 47; Count von der Recke, 49;\n Theodor Fliedner, 50; Idstein, Giessen, Goettingen, 51;\n Herborn, Cologne, Kaiserswerth, 52; collecting money, 53;\n Elizabeth Fry, 55; Prison Society, Frederika Muenster, 56;\n convict Minna, refuge, 57; Fraeulein Goebel, deaconesses, 59;\n Rhenish Westphalian Deaconess Society, 60.\n Fliedner, Theodor, 44, 50, 55, 56, 60, 61, 66, 68, 73, 74,\n 90, 100, 102, 146, 155, 189, 205, 213, 232, 237, 238.\n wife of, 56, 58, 62, 63, 65-67.\n wife, second, 72.\n Fliedner, Fritz, 218, 258.\n Florence, Italy, 77.\n Florentius, 38.\n Flower mission, 173.\n Foreign missions, 170.\n France, 67. See Paris.\n Frankfort, 72, 110, 111, 113.\n Frederick William IV., 49, 69, 72, 102.\n Free Church of Scotland, 190.\n Friends, The, 220.\n Fry, Elizabeth, 55, 57, 60, 103, 135, 146, 209.\n Fry, Herbert, 146.\n\n Gal. vi, 6, 183.\n vi, 10, 13.\n Gallneukirchen, 104, 105.\n Gamble, Elizabeth, 226.\n Garden 57, 125, 176.\n General Conference, 221.\n action, 4, 222.\n German hospital, 127, 146.\n German Lutherans, 204, 205, 206, 207.\n GERMAN METHODISM, DEACONESSES IN, 110: Bethany Society, 110;\n reports, 111; fallen women, nurses, 112; Frankfort, Hamburg,\n Berlin, 113; collection, 114; Saint Gall, Zuerich, 115;\n Sister Myrtha, 116; \"God's Fidelity,\" 117; regulations,\n Bethany Society, 118; home training, 119.\n German Reformed Church, 211.\n Germany, 46, 118, 202, 235.\n See Berlin.\n Germond, Pastor, 104.\n Giessen, University, 51.\n Gobat, Dr., 74.\n Goebel, 59.\n Gottestreue, or God's Fidelity, 117.\n Goettingen, University, 51.\n Greece, 108.\n Greek Church, 24.\n Groot, Gerhard, 37, 38.\n Guinness, Grattan, 160.\n\n Hachette & Co., 136.\n Hadwig, Duchess, 115.\n Hagerstown, Md., 211.\n Hamburg, 111, 113.\n Harley House, 160.\n Haerter, Pastor, 93.\n Hastings, President, 218.\n Hausser, G., 110, 111.\n Headship, twofold, 106.\n Herborn, 52.\n Herford, 41.\n Herzog, 32.\n Holland, 108.\n Home, pleasures of, 250.\n Home missionary. See Parish deaconess.\n Home missions, 170.\n Hospitals. 48, 62, 69, 71, 73-75, 83, 93, 100, 103, 115,\n 125, 127, 146, 158, 170, 179, 180, 206, 207, 230, 232.\n House-mother, 106.\n House of correction, 127.\n House of Evening Rest, 71.\n Howson, J. D., 15, 27, 84, 148, 157.\n Hoxton, 185.\n Hughes, Mrs., 163.\n Huguenots, 141.\n Humanitarianism, 11.\n Huss, John, 40.\n\n Idstein, gymnasium, 51.\n Ignatius, 21, 29.\n Infirmary, 206.\n _Imitation of Christ_, 38.\n Immigrants, 242.\n India, 186, 187, 221, 227.\n Inquiry, Department of, 183.\n Insane, 68, 105, 234.\n Introduction, 3.\n Invalid kitchen, 173.\n Iserlohn, Westphalia, 208.\n Italy, 77, 78, 108, 232.\n\n Jacksonville, Ill., 73, 206.\n Jaffa, 182.\n Jerusalem, 74, 162.\n John ii, 5, 257.\n John the Baptist, 257.\n Jones, Agnes, 147.\n Jubilee anniversary, 91.\n\n Kaiserswerth, 52, 57, 147, 152, 203, 234.\n yearly expenses, 258.\n KAISERSWERTH, THE INSTITUTIONS AT, 61: deaconess home,\n hospital, first deaconess, 63; normal-school for\n infant-school teachers, 64; Bible stories, 65; Fliedner's\n wife, 65; publishing house, _Kaiserswerth Almanac_, _The\n Poor and Sick Friend_, finance, 66; orphan asylum, 67;\n normal-school for female teachers, insane asylum, 68; farm,\n 69; refuge, Salem, 70; House of Evening Rest,\n daughter-houses, 71; Berlin, 72; Pittsburg, 73; Jerusalem,\n 74; Beirut, Smyrna, 76; Salem in the Lebanon, 77.\n KAISERSWERTH, THE REGULATIONS AT, AND THE DUTIES AND\n SERVICES OF THE DEACONESSES, 79; service, 79; nurses,\n teachers, visitors, 80; probation, 81; dress, expenses, 82;\n duties, quiet half-hour, 83; union, obedience, 84;\n consecration, 85; conferences, statistics, 86; emergencies,\n 87; wars, 89; Fliedner's death, successors, 91.\n _Kaiserswerth Almanac_, 86.\n Katherine Home, 163.\n Kempis, Thomas a, 38.\n Kilburn Orphanage, 160.\n King's Daughters, 253.\n Kloenne, Johann Adolph Franz, 46, 54.\n Krueger, Marie, 207.\n\n Lads' Institute, 181.\n Lambert le Begue, 34.\n Lankenau, John D., 207, 208.\n Laseron, Dr. and Mrs., 157, 158.\n Laundry, 161.\n Layton, M. E., 226.\n Lectures, syllabus of, 196.\n Leonard, A. B., 224.\n Library, lending, 175.\n Life, the highest, 251.\n Lightfoot, Bishop, 15.\n Literature referred to, 10, 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26,\n 31, 33, 44, 47, 49, 55, 66, 68, 70, 76, 79, 110, 111, 120,\n 134, 142, 144, 146, 148, 150-152, 155-157, 164, 167, 175,\n 178, 181, 192, 194, 205, 212, 214, 216, 217, 221, 226, 232,\n 241, 245, 253.\n Littlejohn, Bishop, 215.\n Liverpool work-house, 147.\n London, 166, 238-241, 245, 256.\n See Mildmay.\n London Diocesan Deaconess Institution, 151.\n London Bible-women's Mission, 160.\n London West Central Mission, 163, 164.\n Loomis, S. L., 245.\n Los Angeles, Cal., 219.\n \"Lost Way, The,\" 100.\n Love, Christian, 11, 13.\n Lucian, 22.\n Ludlow, John Malcolm, 20, 23, 37, 87, 148.\n Luke x, 5, 184.\n Luther, Martin, 40, 42.\n\n McClintock & Strong, 23, 232.\n McGill, A. T., 217.\n MacMaster, 11.\n Makrina ordained, 29.\n Maine, Henry, 247.\n Malta, 182.\n Mann, W. J., 207, 211.\n Marbeau, M. 235.\n Marthashof, 99, 102.\n Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia Mother-house of\n Deaconesses, 87, 127, 210, 211.\n Matt. xi, 3-5, 257.\n Maxwell, Alice Maud, 200, 201.\n Medical mission, 179.\n Medical training, 186, 187.\n Mennonites, 44, 54, 59.\n Men's Bible-class, 175.\n Men's Institute, 180.\n Men's Night-school, 174.\n Meredith, Mrs., 160, 162.\n Methodism, German, 110.\n Methodist Episcopal Church, 107, 203, 220, 253, 257.\n Meyer, Consul, 207.\n Meyer, Lucy Rider, 220, 221.\n Middle Ages, 232.\n Middleburg, 42.\n Mildmay, 202, 253.\n MILDMAY INSTITUTIONS, 166: William Pennefather, Barnet,\n Conferences, 167; Mildmay Park, 168; missionary\n training-school and home, 169; deaconesses, 170; conference\n hall, deaconess house, 171; Pennefather's death, successor,\n 173; invalid kitchen, flower mission, 173; Dorcas room,\n men's night school, 174; lending library, men's Bible-class,\n servants' registry, 175; sitting-room, 175; garden, 176;\n orphanage, Scripture texts, 177; conference hall, parish\n deaconesses, 178; nursery home, cottage hospital, medical\n mission, 179; Bethnal Green, 180; convalescent homes, 181;\n nurses, railway mission, 182; deaconesses of all classes,\n 183; missionary training-school, 184; classes trained, 186;\n expenses, 188.\n Milwaukee, Wis., 73, 206.\n Ministrae, 19.\n Minna, convict, 57.\n Minneapolis, Minn., 226.\n Missionary training school, 169, 170, 184, 185, 186.\n Missions, 11, 12.\n Mohammedans, 75.\n Monks, 32, 41, 136.\n Monod, Sara, 120, 136, 138.\n Monod, W., 120.\n Moravians, 44, 45.\n Morley, Samuel, 159.\n Mother-houses, 64, 72, 74, 80, 86, 106.\n Mothers, 235.\n Mount Vernon, N. Y., 206.\n Muelhausen, 95.\n Muenster, Frederika, 56.\n Muttra, India, 227.\n Myrtha, Sister, 116.\n\n Neal, Daniel, 142.\n Neander, 23, 24.\n Nectarius, Bishop, 28.\n Netherlands, 35, 37, 39, 42, 44.\n Neudettelsau, 103.\n New Orleans, La., 226.\n New York, N. Y., 226, 244, 245.\n Nicarete, deaconess, 25.\n Night-school, 174.\n Nightingale, Florence, 146-148, 234.\n Normal school, 64, 66, 68.\n _North American Review_, 12.\n Norway, 108.\n Norwegian Lutherans, 211.\n Nuns, 32, 37, 41, 151, 247.\n Nursery girls, 101.\n Nursery home, 179.\n Nurses, 68, 71, 80, 83, 89, 90, 93, 104, 112, 113, 127, 133,\n 182, 191, 208.\n Nursing sisters' institution, 146.\n\n OBJECTIONS MET AND SUGGESTIONS OFFERED, 247: hard work and\n God's favor, 247; not nuns, 247; Roman Catholic sisters,\n 248; distinctive dress, 249; cut off from home life, 250;\n America favorable, 252; Methodist Episcopal Church\n favorable, 253; how become deaconess? 255; \"do it,\" 257.\n Orleans, Synod of, 30.\n Olympias, 26, 27.\n Omaha, Neb., 211.\n Ordination. See Consecration.\n Origen, 30.\n Orphanages, 67, 73, 75-77, 159, 177, 206.\n \"Outsiders,\" 164.\n\n Palestine, 76.\n Paris, 232, 235.\n PARIS, DEACONESSES IN, 120: Sara Monod, W. Monod, 120;\n deaconess establishment, 121; reports, children, 123;\n creche, hospital, 125; convalescents' home, 126; house of\n correction, 127; moral results, 130; Commune investigation,\n 131; wounded, boarders, 132; preparatory school, nurses,\n 133; success, parish deaconesses, 134; prisons for women,\n 135; Mademoiselle Dumas, 136; branches, 138; parish\n deaconesses, 139; consecration, 140.\n Paris, Matthew, 37.\n Parish Deaconesses, 72, 80, 96, 103, 110, 134, 139, 191,\n 238, 254.\n Pascal, Jacqueline, 125.\n Passavant, W. A., 73, 205, 206.\n Passy, 126.\n Pastors, 245, 254.\n Pegran, Pasteur, 44.\n Pentadia, 26.\n Pennefather, William, 167, 173, 202.\n wife of, 173.\n 1 Pet. ii, 5, 40.\n iii, 4, 155.\n Pharmacy, 126.\n Philadelphia, Pa., 87, 127, 207, 210, 218, 226.\n Phoebe, 14, 22, 189, 205.\n Pilgrim fathers, 143, 144.\n Pittsburg, Pa., 73, 205.\n Plan for securing uniformity, 226.\n Plato, 10.\n Pliny, letter, ministrae, 19.\n Poles in Buffalo, 243, 244.\n Poor Men of Lyons, 39.\n _Poor and Sick Friend_, 66, 104, 152.\n Portsmouth, 153.\n Potter, H. C. 212.\n Prayer, 23, 83, 84, 118.\n Presbyterian Church, 202, 217.\n _Presbyterian Review_, 217, 219.\n Preparatory school, 133.\n Princess Mary Village Home, 161.\n Prison Gate Mission, 161.\n Prisoners, 55-58, 60, 70, 112, 135, 160, 161.\n Probation, 81, 118, 184, 187.\n Procla, deaconess, 26.\n Protestant Episcopal Church, 212.\n Protestants, 48, 105, 145, 151.\n Psa. lxviii, 11, 246.\n Publishing House, 66, 136.\n Pudentiana, deaconess, 30.\n Puritans, 142, 144.\n Pusey, Dr., 149.\n\n Railway mission, 182.\n Recke, Count von der, 49.\n Rector, 106.\n Reformed Church, 42.\n Regulations, 79, 118, 193, 213.\n Reichardt, Gertrude, 63.\n Rest, 70, 71, 117.\n Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess Society, 228.\n Riehen, near Basel, 104.\n Rochester, N. Y., 73, 206.\n Rock River Conference, 221.\n Roman, J. Dixon, 211.\n Roman Catholic Church, 30, 34, 244, 248, 249.\n Rom. xvi, 1, 14, 115, 189.\n Rome, 30, 78, 232.\n Rue de Bridaine, 139.\n Rue de Reuilly, 120, 127, 132.\n Russia, 108.\n\n Sabiniana, 25.\n Sachsenhausen, 112.\n St. Christopher's Church, 35.\n St. Gaul, 112, 115.\n St. Louis, Mo., 226.\n St. Loup, 104.\n St. Marie, 134.\n Salem, 70, 77, 117.\n Salisbury Home, 153.\n Salle d'Asile, 123.\n Savings Bank, 181.\n Schaefer, Theodor, 22, 27, 39, 42, 49, 95, 99, 146.\n Schaff, Philip, 23, 24, 30.\n Scheffel, 115.\n SCOTLAND, DEACONESSES IN, 189: Church of Scotland, A. H.\n Charteris's report, 190; three grades of women workers, 193;\n Deaconess Institution and Training-home, 195; syllabus of\n lectures, 196; consecration, seven years' experience or two\n years' training, 199; Presbyterian Churches of Great\n Britain, 202; office of deaconess made organic, 203.\n Scripture texts, illustration of, 177.\n Servants, 85, 99, 101, 102.\n Servants Home, 241.\n Servants' Registry, 175.\n Service, threefold, 79, 229.\n Shanghai, 109.\n Sieveking, Amalie, 47.\n Singing, 84, 85.\n \"Sister,\" 149, 165.\n Sisterhoods, 47, 150, 157, 212, 215, 216, 248.\n Sisters of Charity, 93, 136, 145.\n Sisters of the Common Life, 37, 39.\n Sisters of the People, 163, 164.\n Sisters of the Sacred Heart, 237.\n Smyrna, 76.\n Soup Kitchen, 169.\n Southern Presbyterian Church, 218.\n Southey, 145, 146.\n Spaeth, A., 205, 207, 211.\n Spain, 108.\n Sparkes, Miss, 227.\n Sparta, 10.\n Spee, Count, 58.\n Spee, Countess, 59.\n Statistics, 86, 87.\n Stevenson. Dr., 148.\n \"Stille halbe Stunde,\" 84.\n Strasburg, 93.\n Success and glory, 247.\n Superintendent, 72, 195.\n Support. See Expenses.\n Sweden, 108.\n Swedish Lutherans, 211.\n Switzerland, 104, 112, 235.\n Syllabus of Lectures, 196.\n Syria, 76.\n\n Talitha Cumi, 75.\n Teachers, 68, 76, 80.\n See Normal.\n Theodosius, Emperor, 28.\n Thoburn, Isabella, 226.\n Thoburn, J. M., 5, 221, 222, 224, 227.\n 1 Tim. iii, 8, 17.\n iii, 8, 9, 79.\n iii, 11, 15.\n v, 9, 16.\n Tit. ii, 3, 16.\n Tottenham, 159.\n Training-school, 62, 70, 229.\n Turkey, 108.\n TWELFTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURIES, DEACONESSES FROM THE,\n 34; Belgium, Lambert le Begue, 34; Beguines, 35; Sisters\n and Brothers of the Common Life, Gerhard Groot, 37; Thomas a\n Kempis, 38; Waldenses, 39; Bohemians, Huss, 40; Luther, 40;\n Calvin, 42; Netherlands, 42; Damsels of Charity, 43;\n Mennonites, Moravians, 44; Zinzendorf, 45.\n\n Uniformity, Plan, 226.\n United States. See America.\n\n Valette, Pastor, 130, 139.\n Vermeil, Pastor, 100, 139.\n Vienna, 104.\n Virgins, 20, 21, 25.\n Von Stein, 48.\n\n Wacker, Emil, 21, 40, 66, 231, 248.\n Waiting-school, 235, 236.\n Wakefield, Bishop of, 157.\n Waldenses, 39.\n Wars, nurses in, 89.\n Weiss, G., 110.\n Wesel, 42.\n Western Church, 30.\n Western New York, 216.\n Widows, 16, 20, 21, 144.\n Williams, Miss, 104.\n \"Willows, The,\" 184.\n Wilmer, Bishop, 213.\n Winckworth, C., 102.\n Women, Old Testament, 24.\n Apostolic times, 13, 16.\n Early Church, 20.\n Methodist, 6.\n Women's Guild, 193, 200.\n Women Workers' Guild, 193.\n Wordsworth, 15, 239.\n Work, hard, 247.\n Wounded, 89, 131.\n Wurdemberger, Sophie, 103.\n Wurtemberg, 110.\n Work-house, 72, 147.\n\n Young, Alexander, 144.\n\n Zinzendorf, Count, 45.\n Zuerich, 104, 112, 115, 116.\n\n\n\n\n +------------------------------------------------------------------+\n | |\n | Transcriber's notes: Obvious spelling/typographical and |\n | punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison |\n | with other occurrences within the text and consultation of |\n | external sources. |\n | |\n | The original book was published by HUNT & EATON at New York, and |\n | by CRANSTON & STOWE at Cincinnati. The copyright date was 1889. |\n | |\n | Occasional discrepancies between index and text (for example, |\n | \"Harter\" in the index but \"Haerter\" in the text) have been |\n | corrected to match the text. |\n | |\n | Some inconsistent mid-line hyphenations have been retained: |\n | \"bedside\" and \"bed-side\" occur once each |\n | \"housework\" and \"house-work\" occur once each |\n | \"workhouse[s]\" occurs twice and \"work-house\" occurs three times |\n | |\n +------------------------------------------------------------------+","title":"Deaconesses in Europe and their Lessons for America","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":57208}