The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1903-05-29
EPWoRTH LEAGUE.
Topic For the Week Beginning May
81, s'NIfssionary Meeting, Work
Among Heather Women"

The moral character of any people is
determined by it's estimate of woman.
There is no surer clew in the his.
torical study of human advancement
than the regard for womanhood.
Christian womanhood stands world
wide apart from and above heather
womanhood in any age or in any ma
ton. The respect in which woman
kind are now held i'll Christian lands
is not the same among all nationalities.
but is alike in this-a far higher place
is accorded them than in any pagan OF
Mohammedan communities.
Probably the lowest place in the
scale of womanhood is reached in
some parts of Africa on the east coast
and back to the interior in the Portu-
guese possessions. Here her value is
computed in cows, if she chances to be
daughter of a chief. She is slave, to
be bought and sold at the caprice of
her father or husband. She builds the
hut, cultivates the soil with hard labor
and cooks the meals for the man who
owns her and to whom she bears chill
dren The number he may own like
her is limited only by his power to
purchase. Slavery, polygamy and
witchcraft preside in her world and
make it living hell when compared
with the lot of Christian women in
homes of love and purity.
The condition of woman in more civ
ilized lands has some brighter fea-
lures and yet is most pathetic in many
particulars. Romantic love in those
regions has no part in family life and
there is no conception of home as it is
understood in Christian lands. There
are many details of family life which
appear in China and Japan and India
and other lands which are valuable
and should be preserved and adopted
everywhere, but the foundations as a
whole are inadequate to the fullest
and highest development of womanly
virtue and worth. The reverence for
parents and influence of motherhood in
the Chinese family, the unvarying po-
likeness and patient obedience of ia
pan, the deep righteousness of the wo-
men of India are all admirable.
The work of Christian women for
their heather sisters, though but re-
Gently begun in any systematic man
ner, has made great advancement. 1t
takes several forms. AS important as
any work is that of the medical mis-
sionaries. No such thing as medical
-se,4c ~, ,4,,,,
except as introduced by Christian
physicians. Crudest quackery and So
perstition prevail among native prac-
titioners. No male doctor is allowed
in the orient to visit and examine a fe-
male patient The medical woman
missionary, with cures which to native
minds seem truly miraculous, finds
welcome everywhere and is able with
medicines for bodily ills to also carry
the good tidings for sin cursed souls.
Next to the curse of disease lies the
curse of ignorance and idleness. These
prevail in all heathendom. Education
gives occupation to the idle mind, fills
life with new and higher ideals and
incentives. The school of all grades,
from kindergarten to college, is lifting
heather womanhood into new world
of being.
Greater than either of these agencies,
however, is the direct preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, which for the
first time in all the ages gives to them
an idea of future blessedness for wom-
an and life of love and happiness on
earth. God speed the holy work for
purer womanhoodI