ing the Gospel to every creature, but the choice of the ways and the means, the modes and the instruments, by which this work is to be done, has been left, very largely, to the judgment of the Church, under the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, there may be in our Christian work many things that are not once referred to in the Scriptures, but are, nevertheless, in reality, quite as scriptural, because as truly in accordance with the spirit of Scripture, as if Christ and his Apostles had distinctly specified them, and, in so many words, commanded us to adopt

them.

But, however certain we may feel that this or that mode of operation is in harmony with the spirit of Scripture, it is always a source of great satisfaction to be able to appeal to the direct authority of the Divine word. Now, as to the employment of women as missionaries, there is something that does, at least come very near to direct scriptural warrant. It must be confessed that St. Paul, in one or two instances so expresses himself as to convey an impression unfavourable to the employment of women as teachers of religion.

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Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35.) "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (1 Tim. ii. 11, 12.) It is obvious, however, that what Paul forbids, in these passages, is a woman's taking part in the public services of the Church. If the Apostle's language be pressed so far as to exclude all teach

ing on the part of women, then it is not right that they should be engaged as Sunday-school teachers, and, indeed, every Christian woman who has written a religious book, or contributed a religious article to a magazine, comes within the scope of Paul's censure. No, the Apostle, with that keen sense of propriety which distinguished him, forbad most positively a woman's taking part in the public services of the Church; but we shall see that he provided for women other work in Christ's cause, and work more befitting their character, their gifts, and their position. He tells Titus to teach the aged women, "that they be, in behaviour, as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Here certainly is something like missionary work for women; but I confess that it is, literally, only for the aged women; and to the question, when do women become aged? he must be a very courageous man who would venture to reply, and Paul himself is discreetly silent upon this point. However, this, at all events, is established, the employment of Christian women in good works that are distinctly specified, and especially in this, the teaching of the younger women. But we have in the last chapter of the epistle to the Romans the names of several women who are stated to have engaged much in active Christian service; Phoebe, Priscilla, Mary, Tryphena, and Tryphosa. his Epistle to the Phillippians Paul writes thus, "And I entreat thee also; true yoke-fellow, help those women which laboured with me in the Gospel." (Phil. iv. 3.) There is not an exact specification of the sort

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of Christian service to which these good women consecrated themselves. Phoebe is called " a servant of the Church at Cenchrea;" and the word translated servant has led many to adopt the somewhat doubtful hypothesis that Phoebe was a deaconess, and that this order of persons existed in the Church at that time. All we know is, that she was a servant of the Church, or as the older versions call her, a minister of the Churchand that she had been a succourer of many, and of Paul amongst the number. Of Priscilla we read that she, as well as her husband, helped to expound the way of God more perfectly to Apollos.

The testimony of Scripture, then, with regard to this subject, is to the effect that Christian women were, in the Apostolic age, very extensively employed in the service of the Church; they were not permitted to teach in the public assemblies of Christians, but, with this single exception, they appear to have been engaged in every variety of work that was calculated to promote the cause of Christ.

There is no doubt whatever that, under the name of deaconesses, women served in the Christian Church, for some centuries after the Apostolic age. "Although," says Neander, "in conformity with their natural vocation, the women were excluded from the offices of teaching and governing in the Church, yet the peculiar qualities of the sex were in this way now claimed as special gifts for the service of the Church. By the means of such deaconesses the Gospel would be introduced into the bosom of families where, from the customs of the East, no man could gain admittance. As Christian wives, too, and mothers of tried experience in all the duties of their sex, they were also bound to assist the younger women with their counsel

and encouragement." (Ch. Hist. vol. 1. p. 262, Bohn's Edition.) It is not easy to determine how long this order of persons continued to exist in the Church; it can be traced down to the tenth century, in the Latin Church, and to the close of the twelfth in the Greek; but, by that time, this very sensible and useful institution had been superseded by the unnatural and superstitious practice. of establishing nunneries. Yet, however strongly we, as Protestants, may object to the conventual system, we cannot, for a moment, question its great influence and power, as an element of Romanism. The zeal and activity of some of the Catholic sisterhoods are well known. We daily see these devout women going about, and, in their way, doing good. To the church with which they are nected they must be invaluable. Very wisely has Romanism availed itself of such a power as that which womanly intelligence, earnestness, gentleness and patience afford; and it surely behoves Protestants to consider very seriously whether they have not placed themselves at a great disad. vantage in not enlisting the services of Christian women after a systematic manner and on an extensive scale.

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Apart, however, from all scriptural authority, and all historical example, there seems to be abundant reason for the employment of Christian women, in some kinds of Christian work. Pastoral visitation is, undoubtedly, an institution of great value, and, possibly, it is far too much neglected by some Christian ministers; but, really, in many cases, when the pastor calls at a poor man's house, his presence cannot be very welcome; he may, to some extent, cause an interruption of the domestic duties, a derangement of the household economy; the very respect which may be felt for him only serves to increase the inconvenience

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which his untimely call has produced. But a Christian woman can go to that home at any time and create no confusion; she can always make herself welcome to the abodes of the poor. She alone knows the trials, the difficulties, the sorrows, and, if there be any, the weaknesses of her fellowwomen. There are many things which though not directly irreligious are very near akin to irreligion, and upon which women only can speak to women. The pastor goes to some house in which there is a great lack of order, of cleanliness, of thrift. The presiding genius of the place is a gossip, a slattern, and a scold. and her children are dirty and ragged; there is great waste in the house; the food is not economically chosen; it is very badly cooked; the family could be maintained comfortably for less than it costs to keep it wretchedly; debt is contracted; articles of furniture and of clothing are pledged at the pawnbroker's; the travelling packman tempts the simple woman with his gaudy wares, and, without her husband's knowledge, she contracts obligations to pay so much per week, for some piece of flaunting finery. Altogether, through want of thrift, cleanliness, order, and good sense, the house is a scene of great wretchedness, and the husband unable to endure such miseries, flies for refuge to the pot-house. Now much of this state of things the pastor probably does not detect, and therefore cannot cure. How is he to teach the most economical way of conducting such a house? How is he to give instructions upon domestic matters? If he be a man in the true sense of the word, he is profoundly ignorant of all such things; if he have a wife of the right stamp she will take care that he shall know absolutely nothing of domestic economy; so there he sits down in the midst of this wretchedness, utterly unable to

account for it, and, if possible, still more unable to cure it. Perhaps he reads a chapter and offers up a prayer, when, in point of fact, what is most needed is some sensible advice on the mending of clothes, the cooking of food, the washing of floors, the treatment of children, and the way to make a shilling go as far as possible. The good woman of the house complains, with sighs and tears, that she has nothing but trouble, and she details her troubles at great length, and the pastor, good man, piously reminds her that all things work together for good, and tells her of that rest in which all troubles will cease. This is very well, but it would be more to the immediate purpose if he showed her how nineteen-twentieths of her grievances arose from her own foolishness, and how by a little diligence, and care, and good temper, she might escape them. This, however, the pastor probably cannot do; but even if he can, he had better not venture to open his mind on such subjects, lest he should make bad worse, for nothing is more likely to be resented than his interference with the domestic affairs of this unfortunate family; and he goes away knowing that he has not remedied, and cannot remedy the evils that are demoralising, if they have not already demoralised, that home. But a Christian woman goes and, almost instinctively, recognizes many a cause of misery which the pastor cannot recognize at all, and, with her practical knowledge, and her tact, she can quietly and kindly offer suggestions which are likely in some measure to be acted upon. She has a thousand times the power of the best pastor, if the question be how are the homes of the poor to be made happy? Order, cleanliness, and thrift are not religion, but they are very powerful helps to religion, and Christian women, and Christian women only, can secure

them in the homes of many of the poor. And when such a missionary engages, as she will engage, in direct Christian instruction, when she reads the Bible and talks about sacred things, her fellow-women, whose confidence she has gained, by her practical sympathy with them, in their difficulties and troubles, will converse with her in a free and unconstrained manner, will open their hearts to her fully; she understands them, and they understand her. In seasons of sickness, too, and when death is near at hand, what a great advantage it must be if the words of Christian consolation and hope are associated with those offices of tender kindness which none but a Christian woman can perform.

Certainly, there is much work of a directly, and much more of an indirectly religious character, which Christian men, whatever their abilities and whatever their zeal, are not at all capable of doing, and which the manliest men are especially incapable of doing. As to the work of the Town missionary, and the Scripture reader, the pastor, if he had time, might undertake that very well, but such work as we have just noticed is not work for men; to be done at all, it must be entrusted to the Phoebes, the Priscillas, the Tryphenas, and Tryphosas, whom God, from time to time, raises up and qualifies, for such services of Christian wisdom, sympathy, and love.

Now, to some extent, this work is done by what is usually called the system of district visitation. A large number of Christian women, inspired by love to Christ and love to their fellow sinners, voluntarily undertake this arduous service, and go from house to house, paying visits that are like those of angels, not because they are few and far between," but because they are so full of kindness, and instruction, and help. But it is

to be feared that this entirely voluntary service will prove ineffectual, and that it will require to be supplemented by the efforts of those whose whole time shall be given to

it. Purely voluntary effort may suffice for our Sunday Schools, because on the Sunday, Christian men and women have time at their disposal, but it is very often found that purely voluntary effort cannot be relied upon in Ragged Schools, because, on other days of the week, no leisure can be had by the majority of our people. The Christian women who are most at liberty to do the work of district visitation are, for the most part, persons whose position in society, to a great extent, disqualifies them from thoroughly understanding the wants of the humbler classes, and they are, therefore, incapable of rendering them all the instruction and help that are required. The district visitor who, having ample means at her disposal, gives pecuniary help, does not confer anything like so great a boon as she who, though unable to give a fraction, can, by her practical knowledge, set a poor woman's house to rights, or, rather teach her how to do it herself. We greatly need such visitors as can do this; but, as a rule, such are to be found only amongst those who have no time to spare, who have to work for their own subsistence. If then we are to have Christian women in all respects qualified to cheer, direct, and help the poor, and give their whole time to this service (and it is only by giving one's whole time to anything that it can be done well) we must have those who cannot afford to work gratuitously and whom we must liberally support.

Impressed by such considerations as these, many churches and many private individuals have sought out and engaged women to act as missionaries. With the church of which

the author of this letter is the pastor three such agents are associated, and a few words which are the result of experience will scarcely be considered out of place. In the case referred to, the experiment is now old enough to afford facts by which the value of the system may be tested. Of the three missionaries employed, one is engaged by members of the Church and congregation, the others by the Sunday School Teachers; and women more thoroughly efficient it would be difficult to find; ever since their appointment they have increasingly enjoyed the confidence and esteem of those who support them and under whose auspices their work is carried on. Some idea of the nature and extent of that work may be formed from the fact that one of these good women paid about 3,500 visits last year, chiefly, indeed almost exclusively, to people of the humblest class, many of whom, if not indeed the great majority, were not in the habit of attending public worship. When visiting the people, it is the missionary's custom to read and pray, to converse upon the evils of intemperance, uncleanliness, extravagance, debt, and bad temper, and the practical aspects of Christianity are always kept in view; and the writer of this letter has no doubt that a thousand pieces of good advice have been given which would never have occurred to himself, or which, if they had occurred to him, he would not have tured to give. The journals kept by these Christian sisters abound with instances of neglected children brought to the Sunday School, of godless and miserable men and women induced to frequent the sanctuary, of drunkards of both sexes persuaded to become sober characters, of homes, once destitute and filthy, converted into scenes of plenty and of cleanliness. It is also found that,

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with few exceptions, the missionaries meet with a very kind reception and are almost always asked and expected to repeat their visits. In connection with these missions, which are conducted in different parts of the town, mothers' meetings are held by the missionaries and the superintendents under whose direction they work, and these meetings are well attended, and are means of accomplishing great good. The pastor of the Church can also bear witness that no small proportion of those who have been united to the Church since the organization of these missions, have been brought to a knowledge of Christ through the instrumentality of these excellent women; and he feels that, were their operations to be abandoned, the Church would sustain a calamity which it would be difficult to exaggerate. In short, of all the forms of Christian philanthropy with which he is acquainted there is none which he has reason to esteem more highly than that which has given to himself and to the Church this admirable agency.

But, for his facts, the writer does not rely merely upon the results of his own experience. He has made. enquiries as to the working of this kind of agency in various churches, and ascertained that, as a rule, it is of the most satisfactory character. Difficulties have been experienced, and are likely to be experienced, in the effort to obtain the services of well-qualified persons; but just the same difficulty is met with in endeavouring to discover men who are fit to undertake home missionary work, and, indeed, the writer strongly inclines to the belief that, in most churches, for one man fit to engage in such work, three women far better qualified for it might be found.

One word as to the expenses which are likely to be incurred by a church when it engages a Bible woman.