The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-06-10


plications and prayer night and day
See how he recognizes the valuable ser
vices of widows: Having been the wife
Of one man, well reported Of for good
works if she have brought up children.
if shs have lodged strangers, if she have
wasaed the saints feet, if she have re-
licFed the afflicted, if she have dutifully
followed every good work" What a
programme for a fruitful and beautiful
life in widowhood! He was not willing
tAat Timothy should take young widows
into the diaconate OF the church, be-
cause there was something better for
| them 10 do: 81 will, therefore, that the
younger women marry, bear children,
I guide the house, give none occasion TO
the enemy to speak reproachfully."
Ia these three conditions Of woman 5
/ life we have compared the Christian
( culture with the Hebrew, and, i'm so do
/ ing, have selected the very best Of the
ancient civilizations for women. If time
/ allowed, we might show how much
worse was her condition under ancient
! barbarism, and under the civilization
/ Of Greece and Rome, in which she was
/ always wholly ignored or treated as the
mere instrument Of mans lusts, or the
H4Ht tA4+Al4 VI MS ptSbilIlt3 Il LlAt scr al /
/ Of his wants. But time would fail.
To this comparison we would add a
/ few important facts:
! First-Christianity IS the only form
! of religion which was inaugurated and
/ first propagated through woman
| The mystery Of the incarnation set
aside woman for the sanctities Of life in
1 a manner which has had its influence on
I .r o,,I a,-I T,1
| ever since Jesus lived and died. That
| in becoming visibly connected with our
race the Eternal God should be "made
of woman" and not Of man, that he
should become the Son of Man by be-
| coming a son Of woman, is a fresh ex-
hibition Of the exquisite delicacy Of
| Gods character and love.
The treatment of the Mother Mary by
Jesus has secured to woman vast, and,
I fear, generally unacknowledged boon.
lie might have made her a goddess
He might have kept His mother from
having other sons, which it would seem
he did not. He might have associated
her in His march of miracle through the
land, but He did not His treatment Of
her at the Cana miracle shows how He in
tended that she should never be consider
tH Il ulAlDt NOhdH as ne was a IllNlHe
Man. He might have carried her up with
Him in the Ascension, and so left for
her name a glory it can never have, but
losing the womanly glory that now be-
longs to it. But He did not. Nor did
He leave her Regent of the Church in
His absence. Nor did He give her any
social and ecclesiastical position. He
left her simply the inheritance of beau
tiful honor that she should be remem-
bered as His mother, "Mary, the mother
Of Jesus"
Second-In all His progress Jesus was
attended by women. They seemed best
to appreciate Him, if not to understand |
Him. They seemed best fitted to give !
that kind of ministration needed to i'm |
part an impulse to the infant bands of |
Christian believers. Jesus did not repel |
women, but drew them about Him. |
Joanna, the wife of Chuza, man of |
rank in Herods court, was his friend |
The mother of Zebedee's children - |
and Mary, the wife of CleOpas, and Mary !
and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus and |
Mary of Magdala, were cherished friends. |
How they loved him! How much more
constant they were than the men who |
professed devotion to Him.
Third-It is a remarkable fact that
the first declaration of His Messiahship
made by the Son of God was not in
announcement to the Sanhedrim, the
great Council of His nation, who never
could extract an acknowledgment from
Him; nor was it to Nicodemus, a learn |
ed, influential and moral man, who
seems to have visited Him to be inform |
ed of his claims and purposes; but it |
was to a woman, woman not Of His /
race or nation, not of His faith and |
practice, a Samaritan woman, whose life
had not been stainless.
Fourth-It is another remarkable fact |
that when He burst the bars of the |
grave His resurrection was not first an |
nounced to men, to His male friends |
and disciples, but to women, to sainted |
Mary of Magdala, to the mother of |
James the Less, and to Salome. These |
first saw Him when He left the grave |
These first had the light of the resurrec-
tion thrown on life and immortality |
These first beheld Him in the resumed |
body He was to carry into the heavens |
These first conveyed to the Apostles the |
news of that fact whose announcement |
was to shake down the Temple in Jeru- |
salem and all the pagan temples in
Greek and Roman cities.
Fifth-There must be something in |
woman especially fitted for the ministry |
of the saints in gospel-work The ex-
ample and teaching of Jesus seem to |
have inspired confidence in His apos- |
ties to employ the aid of women in |
planting the societies that were to bear |
the name of Jesus and propagate his |
principles.
In the records which have been pre-
served Of the career of the foremost |
man of early Christianity, the most |
gifted, the most energetic, the Apostle |
Paul, this comes out most conspicuously, |
even in Incidental statements. have
already alluded to the fact that Paul is |
not popular with "those women" of our
day who are laboring to destroy the
family as it rests on the foundation of
Christianity, but even they owe more
to the teaching of Paul than they take
time to consider or have the grace to
acknowledge That man is not to be
spoken of in a fippant way as a soured
old bachelor or an embittered widower
who had such an array of friends among
women as Paul manifestly enjoyed. 1t
is really a most interesting catalogue
that can be made of them from the sal
utations with he sends them in his
letters. 'Those women" deserve to have
their names repeated here.
First of all was Phoebe, a deaconess.
whom Paul calls ''our sister," and to
whom he instructed letter to the church
in Rome, commanding her to be received
in manner as becomes the saints, and
assisted in whatever business she might
have need of them, 'for she has been a
succorer of many and myself also" says
the Apostle. In Rome was Aquila with
his wife Priscilla, who having formerly
been driven from the city, and being
tentmakers took up with Paul in
Corinth and became Christians, and
had Church in their house" in Rome.
OF Priscilla, and of her husband, Paul
declared they were his "helpers in Christ
Jesus" who had for his life ''laid down
their own necks." There was also a
Mary in Rome who had bestowed much
labor" ON Paul, and there were Junia,
who was his "kinswoman," and Tryphe-
ma and Tryphose, who labored in the
Lord" and Persis "who labored much in
the Lord and the mother of Rufus,
shis mother says Paul so tenderly
aand mine;" besides Julia and the sis
ter of Nereus. If this epistle had been
written in the nineteenth century,
JuIia's sir-name might have been Teyis,
for so Paul would have honored the
beloved founder of this school. These
were so notably his friends in one
church, and had so singularly devoted
/ themselves to him in the pros ecutlon OF
his great work as an Apostle, that he
| felt it right to mention their names in
letter which had been publicly read in
the chuich. Here are ten distinguished