The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-04
FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1859.
4 wOMANOFDISJOLNTED THOUGHT

Church" The fattering JUNCTION of martyr
dom is too soothing to distressed or dis
torted spirit to be obstinately, or even mildly,
thrust aside. Ever since the proverb first
gained general acceptation, it has been heard
on the lips of thousand who would not give
straw to enter the kingdom of heaven unless
they could enter it in a state of mutilation.
either literally, as when torn limb from limb
by the enemies of the true faith or meta
phorically, as when they are afflicted with all
manner of evils quite beyond the endurance
of any class of mortals save veritable martyrs.
Every ''teacher of disjointed thinking in
matters of religion, and every disjointed
teacher of the truth, has entered
with zeal upon crooked, forbid
den, or unusual paths mainly through
the inspiration of yearning for martyrdom,
actual or metaphorical. The world at large
relishes sensations of every degree. man
may pass a hundred dogs on the street with
out deigning to notice any one of them, pro-
vided always that each one of the hundred
trots along on all fours, as it was intended
that dogs should do. But hundred men
will stay their pace to contemplate a dog
standing erect, like one of themselves and
trutting about on his hindmost legs alone.
So hundred sturdy masculine divines may
lay down the law and expound the prophets
to empty pews, while the apparition of deli
cate woman in the pulpit will draw together
the good, the bad and the Indifferent, the
well-dressed habitual church-goers and the
rag-tag and bob-tail of humanity as well.
The widow Van Cott is one of those ano-
malous and disiointed creatures, and, as a
matter of course, she has succeeded in draw
ing crowd. The people of Philadelphia, it
is true, are yet strangers to her face, but she
has asrepeatedly of late appeared in the pulpits of
New York, and gone through the entire
programme, from the first lesson to the dox-
ology. By some crook in the machinery of
the Methodist Church. she has secured a
license as 'local preacher" and under this
sanction has insisted upon her right to pro-
claim the glad tidings to all who might choose
to listen to them when coming from her lips.
But, in a recent sermon, she complained of
the reception she had encountered. Not that
the world has refused to listen to her, for
such has not been the case; but she has en-
countered scorn and contempt since she began
to preach, and she therefore lays the fiat
tering JUNCTION of a foretaste of martyrdom to
her soul And, as might be anticipated, she
finds the sensation rather agreeable than
otherwise She declares stoutly that she
''could stand it all, and moreover that she is
s'proud of her sex certainly both very pardon
able and commendable traits. When
woman loses her pride in her sex, she is very
far gone; and when she finds the world too
much for her and sinks into despair she is
certainly to be pitied, for the mistake she has
made in challenging the scorn and contempt
of the world, if not for the very burden of
her woes
But the widow Van Cott processes to be
called to the work, and inquiries pathetically
if it would not be sinful for her to refuse to
listen to the call. IF, she asks, "a man by
exercising his talents and the strength that
God has given him can bring souls from
darkness into the light, why should not the
woman strive to increase the army of the
Lord by engaging in the same labor when
she feels she has been called to do it?'
In further support of her position,
she recounts the history of the women who
figured SO nobly and prominently in the
closing scenes of the great tragedy which is
made the foundation of our faith, and cites
the unquestioned fact that none Of them were
rebuked for being out of their appropriate
place. She neglects, however, to recall the
circumstance that each one of these women
was called to the simple work of quiet and
unobtrusive ministrations, and that from
the ranks Of their sturdier mates the apostles
were exclusively selected. If the disposition
of the two sexes made by the Founder of the
Christian faith in the work of evangelization
goes for aught, it certainly establishes the fact
that at the outset a clear distinction
was made between them, and each was
assigned to particular sphere, in
strict harmony with it's qualities of
head, heart, and limb. With a few
anomalous exceptions, this distinction has
been maintained by all branches of the Church
from that day to this; and although it may
have been reserved for the widow Van Colt
Miss Olympia Brown, and few other choice
spirits of these latter days, to discover thai
the Church during all this time has been sys
tenatically depriving herself OF the use OF
grand element of strength and powerful
weapon Of aggression, it is barely possible
10 submit, that the practice of eighteen cen
turies goes some lengths towards rebuttine
the presumption In short, we fear that the
widow Van Colt is but counterpart of tn,
erratic Anna f. Dickinson and the irrepressi
BILE Doctress Mary E. Walker The elevation
of their sex will give them all work enough
for the period of their natural lives; but i