(1) Sisterhoods and Deaconesses. By the Rt. Rev. HENRY C. POTTER, D. D. New York. 1872.

(2) Women Helpers in the Church: Their Sayings and Doings. By WILLIAM WELSH. Philadelphia. 1872.

(3) Church Work. Four volumes. New York. 1885-89.

(4) The Spirit of Missions and Annual Reports of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. 1821-89.

(5) Journals of the General Convention. 1850-89.

SOME years ago, in the early days of the Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of Missions, a circular letter to the clergy, asking for the appointment of a lady in every parish to correspond with the General Secretary of the Auxiliary on the subject of woman's missionary work in the Church, brought from one of the number the following response:--

Your circular on Woman's Work demands of me an answer because I most heartily approve and endorse the movement. Not that I hope to be of any assistance to any other missionary field than the one I am now occupying, though I have here, and have had the year past, every available instrumentality for the accomplishment of the work you propose. I am a missionary upon missionary ground, occupying four parishes regularly organized, with gentlemen in the vestry of each parish; but if it were not for the ladies, there would not be either parish, church, or minister. The ladies not only provide for such support as is given pecuniarily, but superintend the Sunday Schools. I have under my charge four schools, with not one male teacher in any of them, two of them conducted entirely by females, and two having only male superintendents. Woman's work! Yes, it is all woman's work, as far as my experience goes. I have presented the matter to such ladies in my different congregations as you suggest, and the reply is : ' What more can we do ? We teach school now all the week, collect the offerings of the people for the support of the minister, superintend the Sunday Schools, catechise the children preparing for Confirmation, visit the sick, and ring the church bell!'

No quotation could more aptly introduce the topic upon which I have been asked to write, --a topic almost untouched in all the fifty-nine volumes of this REVIEW since its establishment in 1848. Some stray papers its older readers may remember, like that by the Rev. Dr. Huntington, on "Deaconesses," in the number for January, 1872, but the general subject, historically treated, seems to have been entirely overlooked by each successive editorial management.

Indeed, when we come to consider the matter, there seems to have been very little written about the work of Churchwomen in this land, anywhere or by anybody. And this is not strange, because most of the best work of women in the Church, as in the home, is of such a simple and elementary nature that they themselves seldom take the trouble to record it, or think it worthwhile to supply the facts for an article, much less for a book or a series of volumes.

Scattered through the pages of the Journals of the General Convention and the Proceedings of the Board of Missions, are resolutions, reports of Committees, and records of attempted legislation on woman's organized work in the Church, resulting in the establishment of the Woman's Auxiliary, at the semi-centennial meeting of the Board of Missions, in 1871, and in the passage of the Canon of Deaconesses, at the Centennial meeting of the General Convention, in 1889.

The papers on "Legislation on Woman's Work in the American Church," printed in the fourth volume of Church Work, make the mistake of crediting the introduction of the subject to the consideration of General Convention, to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Stevens, late Bishop of Pennsylvania, in 1862, when more careful research shows that such credit is due to his predecessor in office, Bishop Alonzo Potter, in 1850.

For thirty-nine years, extending through thirteen successive sessions of the General Convention, the idea of woman's work, under canonical law and protection, had thus been kept more or less prominently before the mind of the Church; but meanwhile, without waiting either for law or for protection, the women themselves had been going steadily on, in every weak parish and mission where their services were required, collecting the offerings of the people for the support of the minister, teaching in the Sunday Schools, preparing the children for Confirmation, visiting the sick, and ringing the church bell.

The Bishop of Central New York gives a picture that no doubt any bishop in the land could duplicate:--

In the Diocese where I have charge, including now [1885] nearly one hundred and fifty congregations, many of them missions yet, but most of them organized parishes having wardens and vestrymen, both the original Church life and the survival of it from year to year are owing to women. The first services were often called for and held, the places of worship were provided, the comforts and decencies, and not merely the decorations, were furnished, the money was raised, the Church buildings were put up (often very slowly), and the clergy have been paid, by the ingenuity, zeal, and toil of women. . . . Except for the female capacity and resolution, prudence and sacrifice, which have been actually brought to bear, more than one half of these flocks would never have been gathered, or would have been scattered and lost. And this statement is not so general but that, taking up the list of parishes, I can put my finger on the names of scores of them that without this kind of female leadership, would have perished, especially outside of the cities and large towns. Some of you would be entertained at the shape and manner of these volunteer services. I recall the example of one woman, unmarried, who having waited from week to week for some unbusiness-like vestrymen to fulfil their promise, harnessed her father's farm-horse into a lumber-wagon, drove to a village some miles away, and brought home a load of window-sashes for the completion of the chapel. Why is this not as honorable, as saintly, as what is told in the old legend of S. Marina, the hermit's daughter, who went from the Eastern monastery in the desert with a wagon and oxen to the shores of the Red Sea, to cart supplies for the monks?

It has been remarked that women doing this kind of work have seldom taken the trouble to record it; but here is an account, from one among those to whom Bishop Huntington refers, that will serve as a specimen, not only of service rendered in his field of labor, but of similar service everywhere, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. It is worth while to make room for it even in the pages of so dignified a periodical as the CHURCH REVIEW, for it is on the foundation of such early efforts that many of the strongest parishes in the land are built, and it is to such modest but untiring workers that their present prosperity, under GOD, is really due.

On the 20th of April, 1873, the house on Willowdale Farm, Fayette, was opened for service, the dining-room, only eighteen by sixteen feet, being arranged for the occasion. Boards were placed upon chairs to make seats enough, a very small, old organ was provided, and a little table as reading-desk. These details are recorded for the encouragement of people who live plainly, and in small houses, to assure them that the success of a mission does not depend upon the size of the room in which it is begun. A young girl in the neighborhood kindly offered to play, and lead the singing; a woman drove to Geneva and brought out one of the students of Hobart College to act as lay reader, the Rev. Dr. Van Rensselaer, then President of the College, appointing him to that work. In those infant days of Grace Mission, hymnals not being attainable, a young girl wrote out sufficient copies of some favorite hymns to be used. Twenty-two persons were present at that first service, which was held at three o'clock in the afternoon. The attendance gradually increased, until often the kitchen door had to stand open, and chairs were placed there for the people.

When Christmas came, a neighbor possessed of two large parlors, kindly offered them for the Christmas tree, and a magic-lantern entertainment, which gave great pleasure to about one hundred guests. The women of the neighborhood brought quantities of biscuits, pressed meats, the richest cakes, and all things requisite for an abundant feast. Of course all this necessitated much forethought and labor, but the women did it all gladly, willingly. One woman had the special privilege of entertaining the priests, deacons, and lay readers, who came unfailingly through summer's heat or winter's cold, regardless of their own comfort, to carry on the services.

On Advent Eve, a widow of limited means gave one dollar, the first offering toward building a church. By the Advent of 1874, the church was well under way. One of the farmers offered to board the carpenters, as there were no funds to pay their board anywhere. The farmers did most of the hauling of stone and lumber gratuitously, their wives and daughters bringing them refreshments and feasting them under the trees near the church site. On April 1, 1875, the church was consecrated, women providing entertainment for the numerous guests in attendance, and making a very happy festival of the day. Women had gladly given their labor, cleaning, carpeting, and generally preparing the newly finished church for consecration. One woman constantly put her horse to the use of those who came to hold the services, driving them to and fro.

On May 3, 1875, two lay readers, one a student, one a farmer, went to Day's Landing, five miles south of Willowdale, and held the first service in a small schoolhouse there. One of the women from Grace Church went also, to play the organ, lead the responses, and help generally. The services were kept up at intervals, with varying degrees of interest manifested, for five years; and lest any one should doubt about the final results of mission work or be disheartened by temporary discouragements, it should be recorded that on one occasion the (farmer) lay reader went through the service on a lovely summer day with only two persons in attendance. Yet because grace was given to persevere, in due time GOD sent a resident deacon to minister to souls, and to labor, working with his own hands even in the foundation trench, until S. Andrew's Church stood fair and finished, ready for consecration, which took place the 22d of June, 1880. On that day the women of the neighborhood brought the richest and best refreshments, and spread a grand feast on the lawn near the church for the congregation.

During these years a mission was kept up for a time in the public hall at Fayette Station. One woman, working in a family of the neighborhood, used to scrub and prepare the hall for service, and once purchased the wood to keep it warm. A woman from Grace Church went every Sunday to play the organ, to help the people find their places in the Prayer Book, and to bring children to Holy Baptism.

Another mission was kept up for a time in a schoolhouse three miles north of Grace Church, and women from Grace Church used to go there to teach and play the organ.

When a resident priest took charge of Grace and S. Andrew's, he organized a mission in the public hall at Romulus, on Advent Sunday, 1882. By the following Low Sunday, twelve adults presented themselves for Holy Baptism. Now [1885] S. Stephen's church there is nearly finished, and there is a most faithful and devout congregation. The women of Romulus have willingly, gladly given loving service to the church. One especially constantly adorns the church with the most beautiful flowers, gathering them unsparingly. No wonder that her plants bloom with unequalled profusion and sweetness.

Twelve years have passed since that first service in the dining room at Willowdale, and GOD has been graciously pleased to allow many women to aid in various ways the mission work carried on by His devoted priests in that neighborhood. . . .

S. Faith's Guild of Grace Church meets every Tuesday, from three till five o'clock, at one of the farmhouses near the church. They alter, repair, or make articles for distribution, and embroidery for the altar; they also take care of the sick, visit the county-house, bring persons to Holy Baptism, and do all in their power to assist the minister in parish work of all kinds.

A very important branch of woman's work has been developed at S. Andrew's, Day's Landing. Last October two women moved into the house next the church, and devoted themselves to do all they could for CHRIST'S sake, giving up all thought of personal comfort. The house is known as S. Andrew's Fold. These women take temporary charge of children requiring it, and teach a Church school. The Fold has no endowment or pledged support of any kind; it is a pure venture of faith. They give relief and comfort to many, sending Thanksgiving and Christmas presents to those for whom nothing is provided. They catechise, instruct, and bring many to Holy Baptism. They have endured great hardships and deprivations, and yet go on, cheerful and trusting.

After reading this simple story from a woman's pen, it will do no harm to add another contribution from the same section of the country, written by the rector of the church referred to. One striking contrast is to be noted. The women dwell with thankfulness upon the personal labor and the spiritual help they have been permitted to bring to the LORD'S work, but a man draws special attention to the sum of money earned by woman's skill and perseverance. It is not an exceptional case, for it is too often the custom to value woman's work in the Church by the number of dollars raised, the cost of boxes sent out into missionary homes, or the amount saved by such service to the parish treasury. This is a pity, because such giving is but of secondary importance after all. The best giving cannot be reckoned by dollars and cents.

For a number of years after its inauguration, S. Paul's parish, Chittenango, had no Church edifice. In 1862 it was determined that a church should be built, and of course the question how it should be paid for immediately arose. There was the usual subscription paper circulated, which was liberally signed by many, and about $1,600 were thus raised. Some of the young ladies of the parish being quite skilful in making tatting, it occurred to some one that they might turn their skill to good account. The matter was talked over, and a society formed, and named the Tatting Society. Better success than they had dared to hope for attended the efforts of these children of the Church. Their work became quite famous, orders for tatting were received from all quarters, till, by this simple means, they had earned a thousand dollars for their beloved Church. As a memorial, a cross was wrought in tatting, and placed with other articles in the corner-stone. The enterprise of these young ladies was not only good in itself, it not only showed what could be done when energy was rightly directed, but it inspired the older members of the congregation, so that the remaining sum necessary to complete the building was easily raised, and the church entered on its career free from debt. Our good Bishop sometimes pleasantly speaks of S. Paul's as the Tatting Church.

Before leaving this earliest sphere of woman's Church work, some mention should be made of the way in which women teach and train the children to follow in their footsteps; and perhaps no better examples can be given than the story of the little Pin Society and of the Daisy Guild, written by a woman well and widely acquainted with children's work and woman's work for children.

The smallest and most original society with which I have any acquaintance is composed of a number of little girls who are banded together to work for their own parish and for missions. These children meet once a week to manufacture, from scraps rescued from the rag-bag, pocket pin-cushions, needle-books, and pen-wipers, which they sell for pins. A small pin-ball is valued at ten pins; more elaborate articles bring a better price. When the society has amassed three hundred and sixty-five pins (the usual number in a paper) they are sold for ten cents. Occasionally articles are made whose intrinsic value warrants their being sold for pennies instead of pins. The first year of its existence this unique society made eleven dollars, with a part of which a Prayer Book and Hymnal were bought for the chancel that had recently been added to the parish church.

The rules of this society are: First, if any child is angry or cross during working hours, or on the way home from a meeting, she shall pay a fine of ten pins. Second, if any member is absent from a meeting, she shall pay a fine of five pins. Third, every member shall do her best to dispose of articles for the objects of the society. Fourth, every member shall bring all the pins she has collected during the week, to be counted and added to the general fund. The patient, ingenious, and loving head of the society bears this testimony to its members:

'They are always interested and untiring in their zeal and industry, very regular in attendance, kind, unselfish, and thoughtful, very polite and well-behaved, and very anxious for the chapel for which they work.'

In a little mission in Central New York, that has been maintained for years chiefly through the efforts of one good woman, there is an association called the 'Daisy Guild,' in which six young girls are being trained to do just such work as their leader does, in the same consecrated spirit. These girls take care of the little chapel; they sweep and dust it; they attend to the floral decorations, finding, gathering, begging, bringing flowers, plants, ferns, leaves, mosses, for every service, except in the depths of winter, when they gather evergreens, and twine them for Christmas. When their leader is away from home she intrusts the key of the chapel to one of the members of the guild, who has charge also of the Communion service; and this little twelve-year-old girl, aided by another of the same age, marks and distributes the envelopes in which are gathered contributions for the current expenses of the mission. Another member, fourteen years of age, plays the organ when the regular organist is absent; and all are gladly ready to do any work for the Church which may be demanded of them.

"What more can we do?" is the natural question of women whose lives are spent in rural districts or in a manufacturing community, devoting their spare time to parish duties, and to the training of the little children in like loving and loyal ways.

The answer to the question came out of those significant words, "their spare time," and it came in the form of another question: "Why should not some women give their whole time to the work of the Church?" The Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg asked it first in this country; and this is how one woman responded, as we are told in his Life, written by Sister Anne Ayres, the quotations being given in the fourth volume of Church Work, p. 238.

It was on a Sunday in the little chapel of S. Paul's College, College Point, where Dr. Muhlenberg's sister and niece, and some lady friends, were spending part of the summer vacation. The Rector preached a sermon on Jephthah's vow, with an application glancing at the blessedness of giving one's self undividedly to GOD'S service. The suggestion was covert and guarded. Reading over the manuscript later, there seemed little in it to produce a very marked effect, yet the arrow from the bow thus drawn at a venture was guided by a Higher Power straight to the heart of at least one of his hearers. The latter at that time was too little acquainted with the preacher to speak freely of the deep impression received. All that was ventured, in meeting him casually after the service, was a brief expression of the interest felt in the discourse, and the conviction that there was something better and happier than the ways of our every-day Christianity. 'Yes,' Dr. Muhlenberg rejoined, 'no man that warreth entangleth himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier,' and after this single utterance passed out of the room.

But the text thus spoken was a nail in a sure place, which thenceforth through a lifetime was never to loose its hold; and from this germ was developed later the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion, so called from the parish under whose first pastor it originated. The formal organization of the community took place later. This first Sister was consecrated one winter evening in the Church, at the dispersion of the congregation after daily service. Besides the pastor in his surplice within the chancel, and the Sister in her accustomed dress kneeling at the rail, the only other present was the good old sexton waiting to put out the lights. The whole was as simple as it was solemn.

Those were days of great excitement in the Episcopal Church. The secession of Mr. Newman and others of the Oxford School to Rome was then recent, and all parties were filled with alarm at whatever they thought tending in that direction. The very name 'Sister' would have been obnoxious. But it was not so much prudence as a sense of the sacredness of the engagement which ruled in the privacy of the above occasion.

Observation and talk would kill what there was of Divine life in this germ. All true growth is hidden and silent; so a reserve on the subject seemed mutually, almost tacitly, understood. ... In 1852 the community was regularly organized as the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion. Principles of association were formulated, and a body of tried rules adopted.

Beginning with the year 1845, we thus have the voluntary work of women in the Church organized, under the clergy, into sisterhoods, first parochial, next Diocesan, and finally general, with affiliated branches of English orders established in many homes of their own, both in cities and in country places. They are too well known to need enumeration,- S. Mary's, S. Margaret's, All Saints', S. John Baptist's, The Good Shepherd, S. John the Evangelist's, S. Monica's, and others, not less than twenty in all, scattered through the Dioceses of New York, Long Island, Albany, Massachusetts, Maryland, Newark, Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, Chicago, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, and Texas.

These sisterhoods have developed altogether new lines of woman's work in and for the Church. They have the charge of admirable Church schools, and of institutions of all kinds,--hospitals, orphanages, penitentiaries, homes for the aged, and shelters for babies; and they do mission work of the very best quality in several parishes, and with especially marked success among the colored people in Baltimore. The record of the Sisters of S. Mary in Memphis, during the yellow fever of 1878, as told by the Rev. Dr. Dix, is sufficient of itself to win for such workers the lasting love and gratitude of a Church honored and blessed by such devotion.

In close connection with sisterhood work, we have the practical revival of the Order of Deaconesses, long before the actual canonical legislation on the subject was reached by General Convention.

It is interesting to go behind the scenes, and see how the single Diocesan community into which Sisters are at present received as deaconesses--that of Alabama--traces its origin, in 1864, back to another Order of Deaconesses of the Diocese of Maryland, organized in 1855, but now no longer in existence; and careful study shows most of the sisterhoods to have been more or less connected in their earlier days, though having now their own individual independence.

If we want to get at the root idea of the modern deaconess, we must not, however, look for it in any form of community life as such, though the friends of the idea will always grant that deaconesses may live in community if they choose to do so.

The Canon orders that a deaconess shall be "set apart for that office," the words implying not union, but separateness, and it is this very thought of separateness that best distinguishes the deaconess from the sisterhood idea.

"The duty of a deaconess," the Canon states, "is to assist the minister in the care of the poor and sick, the religious training of the young and others, and the work of moral reformation." It is evident that a parochial sisterhood can do such service equally well and perhaps better, or members of a Diocesan or general sisterhood, or volunteer workers among the women of the parish; indeed, many will seriously doubt whether a deaconess ever will be found who will do better or more satisfactory work in the lines indicated than is described in Mr. Welsh's Women Helpers in the Church. In S. Mark's parish, Frankford, and in the Episcopal Hospital Mission, Philadelphia, the very best and most successful woman's work that the American Church can show has been going on quietly and steadily for more than a quarter of a century under the same devoted leadership, a crown of honor to those whose lives have been thus faithfully consecrated, and an example so wide-spread and enduring that no earthly record can ever be made of its influence and results. But, at its best, the volunteer work of women is work done in "their spare time," and is not work to which the Church clearly understands that their whole lives are consecrated, however complete the consecration at heart of each individual worker may be; and the work of women in a sisterhood is open to criticisms and objections on the part of so large a proportion of both clergy and laity that women are too often hindered from accepting it, when their own desire and the circumstances of their lives would otherwise unite in directing them to it.

The American Church as a whole, speaking through her most august and representative bodies,--the General Convention and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society,--offers to women but two honorable and authorized opportunities of personal service. Much of the associated and independent work of women is often and cheerfully commended; but only as a regularly appointed missionary of the Board of Missions, or as a deaconess, duly set apart by some bishop of the Church in accordance with the Canon, can a woman claim and expect the guidance and protection that are afforded by the universally recognized and accepted law of the Church.

The mention of Mrs. Hill, of Mrs. Thomson, and of Miss Fay, will at once recall the long roll of honored names that have adorned our missionary records, both at home and abroad; and it is work such as theirs, done in the same spirit, with the same devotion, and in like submission to rightful authority, to which the Church calls women to engage, in any and every parish and mission-station under her care, either as a duly appointed missionary, or a no less duly appointed deaconess.

This is the point we have reached in regard to woman's work, at the close of the first century of the life of the Church in these United States of America. It is not difficult to prophesy what the close of another century may see, if only the women of the Church are faithful to their calling; and if the clergy are but quick to comprehend, and wise to grasp the opportunity, given them now as perhaps it never will be given again, to teach and train the next generation of the women of the Church to become such assistants, whether as missionaries or as deaconesses, as they themselves most earnestly desire that they shall be.

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