CHRIST'S WORK AND SINGLE WOMEN: Anonymous
He who would understand the spirit of apostolic life should often study it with care. It gives prominence, we say, to female exertion for Christ, and as there are many homes where the single reside and devote themselves to His cause, it may be well to glance for a moment at such abodes. They may be centers of influence for good such as only the religion of Jesus can produce. And it is not too much to say that from those homes, where the Spirit of wisdom dwells, there emanates much of what is fitted to soothe man’s sorrows, to restore happiness to the wretched, and promote Christ’s glory upon earth.
Single women often have a mission of mercy such as is not entrusted to these who have the cares of a home to carry or the duties of a home to discharge. It may be among relatives—it may be in the homes of the poor or the diseased—it may be in the prison to clothe and teach and pray for—or the workhouse to cheer—or the schoolhouse to instruct—or by the deathbed to point to life everlasting. But wherever it is, in all the varied scenes of sorrow or of toil, an unmarried woman, if the Spirit of God be her teacher, has such means and such power of doing good as God has entrusted to no other class.
The unmarried, if they be also the Spirit-taught, can leisurely cultivate the graces of the divine life, can without distracting cares give themselves calmly to work the work of God; and hence there is probably not a minister, if he be zealously watching for souls, who would not confess how much he is indebted to the aid of this class. Rising by grace above all that is deemed irksome or isolating in their solitary position, they often learn to spend and be spent in work of doing good.
Phoebe, “the servant of the Church” (Rom 16:1) and “the succourer” of the Church and of Paul (Rom 16:2); “Mary, who bestowed much labor” on the Apostles (Rom 16:6); “Tryphena and Tryphosa” with others who will be held in everlasting remembrance have still their sisters and successors in the churches (Rom 16:12).
And if sometimes a feeling of loneliness or insulation do creep over them, it is dispelled, we believe, or it may even be turned into gladness by a more intense devotedness to the service and the glory of our Lord. He is with us always. There need, therefore, be no loneliness—at least, the lonely are as safely guarded as the Prophet was by his chariots and horsemen of fire (2Ki 6:17).
Thus kept in safety, communion with God becomes the secret at once of their happiness and their efforts. No need then for such devoted souls to flee to nunneries for peace—they find it in the full, free service of their God. In feeding the hungry, in clothing the naked, in drawing out the soul to the poor, they have enough to make the heart and the home perennially happy. The tear of misery dried, the wanderer reclaimed, the fallen raised up, may surely impart a joy with which the world cannot intermeddle.
And while the frivolous flutter life away in the pursuit of shadows, delusions, follies, sin, those whom we now describe are walking in the footsteps of Him who “went about doing good” (Act 10:38). With Dorcas, they make garments for the poor (Act 9:36, 39); with Priscilla, they are helping forward the cause of truth in its death-strife with all that is false (Act 18:2, 18, 26); and when God gives the means, they are as ready to distribute as to sympathize.
Some of them at least know, that an idle day is worse than lost—it will meet us at the Judgment demanding why we lost it. And under that conviction they do good—it may be by stealth, yet resolutely. “Fearful of fame, unwilling to be known,” they shrink from public notice, yet are they unwearied in their work of faith. Some are even self-sacrificing in that cause, and, rising above “self, that narrow, miserable sphere,” welcoming the work, which their Lord has in His holy providence allotted, they try to cheat pain of its groans and grief of its tears, and by a blessing from on high, they often succeed.
In a word, we look in vain for more devoted servants of Christ than may often be found in the homes of unmarried females. And the tact of such workwomen is often not less remarkable than their zeal. There are no doubt silly women who yield to mere emotion and deem it principle—who give so unwisely, that their gifts are bounties on deception, or idleness, or vice. As there are some whose very charity savors of insult, or whose compassion is like smoke to the eyes or niter to a wound, there are also some so lavish and unwise as to promote the very evils which they try to cure.
But in other cases, a skill in detecting and a firmness in resisting imposture, as well as a tenderness in aiding, are acquired by experience, lend a moral weight to all other actions. The family just sinking silently into want is helped with a delicacy, which saves every feeling. The gentlewoman in decay is treated as a companion and a friend in the act of being relieved. The pale and dying mother is aided in a manner so feminine and kindly, that no poignancy is added to the coming pain of separation. And these are truly Christian sights: they help to reconcile us in some degree to sorrow, or if we still weep, the tears of gratitude are mingled with those of grief.
Now, in all this we are just telling how happy are the hearts and the homes of those single women who are thus employed. The position which they occupy and the work which they do approximate closely to the character of the redeemed, or the “zealous of good works” (Tit 2:14), while by the grace of God, they are brought within the sweep of the beatitude, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy” (Mat 5:7). They correspond to the standard of the King and Judge, Who says, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me” (Mat 25:35).
Anonymous
