The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-25
THE WOMEN OF THE CHURCH
BY c. H. MANDY

I "coy, uncertain, and hard to please" but let them be put to the test and rarely | do they fail.
 I have recently seen a band of devoted women work to place a roof on an in- completed church building. It beats any thing that has come under my observa- | ton in the way of church work. They
 have worked early and late. They have | had month of self-denial, they have
 raised money by the work of their will
 ing and nimble fingers, they have in-
 vented numerous ways and means of getting the niclxes and dimes from some times unwilling pockets. With them there
 has been no task too hard or duty i'm possible"
 As one of the members of the building l committee expressed 1t, "1f women were
 carpenters and bricklayers, the church would have been completed long ago." No one knows the amount of self-denial
 they have gone through, and now they
 the splendid church edifice Is nearing l completion. These are women of the | church.
 | The work of the woman of the church is not confined to any particular denomi- nation, sect or creed. It extends to every | branch of Christian work.
 | Could there be more shining example | VI hOlndn B utNOllOu u icil6lOn ludU tldt of the Sisters of Charity I never pass one of these gentle, sweet-faced women | on the street but that I feel impelled to raise my hat to her. Surely the love | of God and of sinful, suffering humanity must be deeply implanted in the heart of woman who for the sake of her religious l principles leaves the world and its pleas ures and comforts and all that appeals to her woman nature and dons the son. bre robes of her holy office 1 Great as must be her reward In the consciousness of a duty nobly performed here below, surely much greater will be her reward in heaven.
 | They are women of the church. | Some time ago I sat in one of our churches The matron of the Home fo1
 Friendless Girls, maintained by the Sal.
 vation Army, made an address. In sim. pie language, with unassuming manner | with a delicacy that was irreproachable
 she told of her life work in trying to re.
 claim those who had erred.
 What a story of patient self-sacrifce
 she unfolded, what a story of love ana devotionl There was scarcely a dry eyt
 In the congregation when she concluded | her address. There were few present who
 did not regard her with almost reveren | tial respect. She was a woman of tho | church.
 It is the women of the church who built I
 behind every movement to build ant
 maintain our hospitals, reformatories
 orphan asylums, sanitariums for the sicl | and infirm and homes for the aged anC the feeble. In every movement for tn,
 advancement, theA uplift, the bettermen | of the human ree, the women of tn, church have been predominant, and her: will be the reward.
 | When the Rev. J. J. D. Hall was chap
 lain of the state peNitentiary he got int
 a discussion with a man who was in clined to be a scoffer.
 Why" said the man, eff you go tt
 any church in Birmingham on Sunda,
 morning, you will find that 60 per cen
 of the congregation are women and chil
 dren." Yes" quickly replied the rever
 end gentleman with the alphabetical
 cognomen, "and you can go to the peni
 tentiary any day of the week and fint 95 per cent of the inmates are men.
 And if you are from Missouri" just-visi
 the state penitentiary at Pratt City ant
 you will be impressed with one poin
 about Brother Halls remark, and tha is, it's true.