Pastor Fliedner thought it strange that in the New World where there is such ceaseless activity in good works, the deaconess cause should make such slow progress; but the season of sowing had to precede that of reaping, and it seems now as though the fullness of time had arrived for the incorporation into the agencies of the churches of America of the priceless activities of Christian deaconesses.

[78] Phoebe die Diakonissen, Dr. A. Spaeth, p. 31. [79] For facts concerning the Philadelphia Mother-house of Deaconesses, and other important assistance rendered me, I desire to express acknowledgements to Dr. W. J. Mann, Dr. A. Spaeth, and Rev. A. Cordes, the rector of the house. [80] McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, vol. ii, art. "Deaconesses." [81] Sisterhoods and Deaconesses, Rev. H. C. Potter, D.D.. 1873, p. 118. [82] Sisterhoods and Deaconesses, p. 105. [83] Ibid., p. 181. [84] Constitution and Rules for the Order of Deaconesses of Alabama, Art. vi. [85] Church Work, May, 1888. [86] For this and other suggestions regarding the deaconess question in the Presbyterian Church, I am greatly indebted to the kindness of Dr. Hastings, President of the Union Theological Seminary. [87] Presbyterian Review, April, 1889, art. "Presbyterian Deaconesses." [88] Mrs. Meyer's book on Deaconesses, containing also the story of the Chicago Training-school and Deaconess Home, gives the best description to be obtained of the rise of the work in Chicago. [89] A more extended and elaborate course of study has been prepared by the Rev. Alfred A. Wright, D.D., Cambridge, Mass.



CHAPTER XIV.

THE MEANS OF TRAINING AND THE FIELD OF WORK FOR DEACONESSES IN AMERICA.

The deaconesses of the early Church differed from those of modern times, as we have seen, in being directly responsible to a church society, and in belonging to a church congregation in numbers of two or more. Modern life shows a strong tendency to organization. Wherever there are workers in a common cause they are banded together in societies and associations. It was in accordance with the spirit of the age in which he lived that Fliedner united his workers in the Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess Society, in 1836. It was a happy inspiration—shall we not say a providential one?—that furnished a convenient organization for the office under present conditions. The mother-houses in Germany offered good working-models, and their practical advantages were so obvious that in whatever Protestant denomination the diaconate of women has revived, it has been in connection with these homes. There is no place where the training of a deaconess in all its aspects can be so well obtained as in the deaconess home and training-school, which is our synonym for the German mother-house.

Besides the advantages of a permanent home, under careful supervision, to which the probationers and deaconesses have access, in such a home care is taken to train the deaconesses in the doctrines of the Church, and there is an atmosphere favorable to the virtues of faith and devotion that the work demands. The deaconesses are never allowed to forget that they serve in a threefold capacity: "Servants of the Lord Jesus; servants of the sick and poor, 'for Jesus' sake;' servants one to another." The motto of the indomitable little republic of Switzerland, "All for each and each for all," might well be accepted as that characteristically belonging to them.

Then, too, there is a tradition of service in such a home. One deaconess learns from another. The physician is at hand to give his suggestions and medical instruction, and the lectures on Church history, on the history of missions, and on methods of evangelization make the home a center of information on all questions that affect the usefulness of the office. There is no other one place in which to obtain the practical and theoretical instruction that is needed for the education of a deaconess well equipped for her work.

Furthermore, the deaconess home offers a wide and varied field for those possessing different gifts. None can be so highly educated and cultivated that places cannot be found to utilize their talents to good advantage; while those who are sadly lacking in the education of the schools can, by talent, untiring industry, and energy make up for defects in early training.

The field of work of the deaconess in modern times is a large one. It would be easier to define what it is not than what it is. In orphanages, in asylums for fallen women, in women's prisons, in reform schools, in Sunday-schools, infant schools, and higher schools, in classes among working-girls and servants, in industrial homes, in asylums for the blind and deaf and dumb, in hospitals of various kinds, and in churches, working under the direction of the pastor—in all of these relations and many others we find deaconesses in Germany, France, England, and other European countries.

The service in hospitals seems especially incumbent upon Christian women, and in the early history of these institutions we find deaconesses mentioned in connection with them.

Before the birth of Christ hospitals were unknown. It is true that in Rome and Athens a certain provision was made for the poor, and largesses were given them from time to time. But this was done from motives of political expediency, and not from sympathy or commiseration with their ills. But as soon as the early Christians were free to practice their religion openly, hospitals arose in all the great cities. In the latter half of the fourth century the distinguished Christian teacher, Ephrem the Syrian, in Edessa, placed rows of beds for the sick and starving. His contemporary, Basil, the great bishop of Caesarea, founded a number of institutions for strangers, the poor, and the sick, caring especially for the lepers.[90] Little houses were built closely together, but so that the patients could be separated one from another, and cared for separately. Even at that early date the hospitals were arranged into divisions for either sex, as they are at the present time. To use a modern phrase, the wards of the men patients were placed under the charge of a deacon while the deaconesses ministered to the sick of their own sex, according as their services were required. "It was a rule for the deacons and deaconesses to seek for the unfortunate day by day, and to inform the bishops, who in turn, accompanied by a priest, visited the sick and needy of all classes."[91]

In the Middle Ages there were orders of Hospitallers, consisting of laymen, monks, and knights, who devoted themselves entirely to the care of the sick. Under their influence great and splendid hospitals were built, of which the old Hotel Dieu in Paris was a conspicuous example. The Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome, and the service of the same order, originated like hospitals all over Europe. In late years, with the development of medical and surgical art, hospital arrangements have arrived at a degree of perfection never before known; and the care of the sick, as it has been studied and practiced by Protestant deaconesses and Catholic Sisters of Mercy, has also greatly improved.

The state to which the hospitals had degenerated in Fliedner's time, and the need of experienced nurses who should be actuated by the highest Christian motives, were among the strong reasons he advanced for providing the Church with deaconesses as helpers. Here are his words:[92] "The poor sick people lay heavily on my mind. How often had I seen them neglected, their bodily wants miserably provided for, their spiritual needs quite forgotten, withering away in their often unhealthy rooms like leaves in autumn; for how many cities, even those having large populations, were without hospitals! And I have seen many on my travels in Holland, Brabant, England, and Scotland, as in our own Germany; I often found the portals of glittering marble, but the nursing and care were wretched. Physicians complained bitterly of the drunkenness and immorality of the attendants, and what shall I say of the spiritual care? In many hospitals preachers we're no longer found; hospital chaplains yet more seldom. In the pious olden time these men were always in such institutions, especially in the Netherlands, where evangelical hospitals bore the beautiful name of "God's house," because it was recognized that God especially visits the inmates of such houses, to draw them to himself. Do not such wrongs cry to heaven? Is not our Lord's reproachful word addressed to us, 'I was sick and in prison and ye visited me not?' And shall not our Christian women be capable and willing to undertake the care of the sick for Christ's sake?" It was by such words, and similar ones, as in his famous appeal "Freiwillige vor" (Volunteers to the front!) which he sent out from Wurtemberg to Basel in 1842, that he aroused the Christian women of Germany to give themselves to this service. By their aid he instituted a system of nursing that has changed the aspect of every hospital ward in Germany; and, through the training that Florence Nightingale enjoyed at Kaiserswerth, the reform that was there instituted passed to England, and has effected a transformation in the entire hospital system of England.

In Germany deaconesses are often trained to special duties that are required in hospitals for certain diseases or certain classes of patients, and they are becoming so skillful in their duties that the present system of hospital nursing could not be continued without their aid.

The nursing care of deaconesses in insane asylums is especially valuable. The large and well-ordered Insane Asylum for Female Patients in Kaiserswerth, with its long lists of cases soundly cured, shows how healthful and important is the quiet, constant influence of intelligent Christian attendance upon those who are mentally unsound.

The usefulness of deaconesses as care-takers in all kinds of hospitals and homes for the aged, and asylums of every description, is so apparent that it does not need to be dwelt upon. The creche, or day home, where infants and young children can be sheltered and watched during the day while their mothers are at work, is an institution that started in Paris in 1834, through the efforts of M. Marbeau, one of the mayors of a district of the city. This is now incorporated into the government system of Paris, and the idea has spread to neighboring lands, so that such homes are found in many of the cities in South Germany and Switzerland. It is true that there are no nurses that can care for children as the true mother, but where mothers have to be absent from morning until night engaged at hard work, and the little ones are left neglected at home, or in the care of other children who are themselves young enough to need very nearly the same attention that is bestowed on the infants; or where the mothers are such in name, but in reality are failing in every quality which we attach to that sacred office; or where the foundling hospital is the only alternative to which the real mother, confronted by the necessity of earning bread for herself and child, can turn—in such cases the creche is a real benefaction whose existence has enabled families to keep together, and children to be given a chance in life who otherwise would have had small prospect of keeping soul and body together.

There is another institution, called the waiting-school, where children from two to four years of age are received, whose parents both go daily to work, and who would be left to wander about the streets unless this place of refuge were opened to them. The creche, or day home, seeks only to watch over the infants who are put in its care, or to amuse them and keep them contented; the waiting-school goes further, and tries to give the little ones some ideas of discipline and the elementary beginnings of instruction. Fliedner, who was a lover of children, took great interest in both these institutions, and in his school for infant-school teachers prepared deaconesses especially for the duties that are required in teachers of this class. The motherly heart, the gift of story-telling and singing, a pleasant and unruffled demeanor, the quiet but firm inculcation of order and obedience—these and other qualities Fliedner sought to develop in instructors for these schools.

The day homes have already been introduced into many places in the United States, and often cover the field of both the creche and waiting-school, but there is a wide opportunity for the extension of their usefulness; and whether in the future, when the demands upon Christian deaconesses shall be much more multiplex than they are now, it may be necessary to provide special training for Christian teachers in America for such special work, time alone can decide. The question of Christian education is one that has not yet been determined in its full extent. In the year 1800 Mother Barat, of the Catholic Church, founded the order of Sisters of the Sacred Heart, which is especially devoted to the education of daughters belonging to the higher social ranks. At her death it numbered three thousand five hundred members, and had over seventy establishments, which are located in every civilized land. It cannot be maintained that the education given in these schools is either extensive or profound, but the influence of the order upon the women whom it has reached has been both. Fliedner, at Kaiserswerth, went as far as his age and environments would permit him to go. He provided schools where teachers were prepared as instructors for all grades of schools, from the most elementary up to the girls' high-schools; and no other institution in Germany, with one or two exceptions, such as the Victoria Institute at Berlin, yet offers positions to women teachers of a higher grade than is afforded by these schools. But in other lands, where the educational facilities for women are far beyond those that Germany can offer at the present time, positions of higher importance and wider influence are held by women; and it is an important question for the future what class of women shall fill these places. If Fliedner had had to meet the problem we can imagine he would have done so with the boldness and energy that he showed in solving those that his times and circumstances afforded him. He would, doubtless, have enlisted among his deaconesses those whose talents gave him reason to provide them with the widest training the schools can offer; and then he would have endeavored to place them where they could do the most effective service for Christ and his Church. It may be that in the future which opens before the women of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America there will be just such questions seeking and finding solution.

Doubtless at the present time the deaconess who will answer to the greatest number of immediate wants is the "parish-deaconess," or the home mission deaconess, as we may call her. Her usefulness has been well tested in the great cities of Germany, France, and England, as we have seen. Perhaps nowhere is her work better appreciated than in London, the greatest city of modern times. The tendency of this age of manufactures and commerce is to attract laborers and workers from country homes, where work has become less open to them through the increased use of agricultural machines of all kinds, into cities, where factories, shops, counting-rooms, and offices constantly afford openings. London has felt the full force of this movement. In 1836 her population was about equal to that of New York, including Brooklyn and Jersey City. Now the great city contains 5,500,000 inhabitants. It is growing at the rate of over 100,000 a year, nor is there any influence at work to stop its growth. The same causes that produce it are constantly at work. The great massing of the population together, with the unequaled increase in the wealth of the people, make the contrast of riches and poverty striking and obvious. The west of London, with its vast wealth, its homes of refinement and elegance, and its appliances for the enjoyment of art, science, and literature, is separated from the poverty, the degradation, the misery, and the sorrow of the East End by a gulf as great as that which separated Lazarus from Dives. It is difficult for those who are at ease, whose lives, to use Wordsworth's felicitous phrase, are made up "of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows"—it is difficult for such even faintly to apprehend the dullness, the drudgery, and the hardships of those who, even at the best estate, are obliged to live in such surroundings. The vast metropolis a few years ago was for a short time shaken out of its lethargy by a voice that would be heard, when The Bitter Cry of Outcast London was published. "Few who will read these pages have any conception of what these pestilential human rookeries are, where tens of thousands are crowded together amid horrors which call to mind what we have heard of the middle passage of the slave-ship. To go into them you have to penetrate courts reeking with poisonous malodorous gases arising from accumulations of sewerage, refuse scattered in all directions, and often flowing beneath your feet; courts, many of them, which the sun never penetrates, which are never visited by a breath of fresh air. You have to ascend rotten stair-cases, grope your way along dark and filthy passages swarming with vermin. Then, if you are not driven back by the intolerable stench, you may gain admittance into the dens in which these thousands of beings herd together. Eight feet square! That is about the average size of many of these rooms.... Where there are beds they are simply heaps of dirty rags, shavings, or straw, but for the most part the miserable beings find rest only upon the filthy boards.... There are men and women who lie and die day by day in their wretched single room, sharing all the family trouble, enduring the hunger and the cold, without hope, without a single ray of comfort, until God curtains their staring eyes with the merciful film of death."[93]

Such are the places where the deaconesses of East London go in and out from morn to eve, like angels of mercy, succoring the miserable and unhappy, often rebuking vice, and encouraging with friendly words those who are worn and discouraged in the battle of life. Here they nurse the sick, hold mothers' meetings, start evening classes for working young men, and gather the children of all ages in every kind of class that can interest and instruct them. They are always ready to provide for individual cases that they meet. If they find a friendless young servant-girl who is out of work, they send her to the servants' home, where, for very little payment, sometimes nothing at all, she can be taken care of long enough to give her fresh courage and strength. Then she is aided in seeking a situation, and so she is saved from the innumerable temptations to vice and misery that are sure to assail her if she stands alone.

Many of these deaconesses are educated women, gladly devoting their whole life and energies to the work, and who with "food and raiment" are quite content. Nothing but a strong indomitable faith in God's love and promises can stand the strain of such work. But if there is the faith and love to deny self and dare all "for the love of Christ and in His name," where can such rewards for labor be found? The dull streets become filled with friends, sodden countenances brighten, the little children come with loving faces and gladdened hearts, and the deaconess is recognized as interpreting to the hearts of these weary, forlorn, helpless people the love of God who, when He came upon earth, shared the burdens that belonged to His humanity. He came as a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, and it was the "common people" that heard Him gladly. The deaconess, in her distinctive dress, is becoming a well-known figure in the east of London, and not only protected but recommended by her garb, she visits the lowest parts of the city without danger. Just such deaconesses are needed in the cities of America. The cities of the United States are increasing as wonderfully as the great cities of the Old World. With the surplus population of Europe pouring in upon us by the hundreds of thousands annually our country is doubling in numbers every twenty-five years; and the growth of the towns absorbs a larger proportion of this multitude than does the country. The cities attract the immigrants because there they find others of their own nationality. In some cities there are whole foreign colonies where the people speak a foreign tongue, read foreign newspapers, and have very few interests in common with the people of the land in which they live. They continue the same customs and the same habits of thought that belonged to them in the Old World. Examples of such colonies are found in the thirty thousand Poles in Buffalo, and the sixty thousand Bohemians in Chicago.

Then the cities offer attractions that are irresistible to the young men and women from the country. Thousands leave quiet country homes every year, and, with no certain prospects before them, cast themselves into the busy life of the nearest great metropolis. In many places, especially in New England, the villages number less, and farm land is much less valuable than it was fifty years ago. It is this massing of population that is causing us already to experience some of the evils that are old problems in the great cities of Europe. There is the same gulf between the rich and the poor, with the added element that the great mass of the poor are composed of foreigners and their children. And the difference in race is a hinderance to a common ground of sympathy. A greater hinderance is the difference in religious faith. The preponderating number of native Americans are Protestants, and their thoughts and beliefs are permeated with the principles that their fathers held so dear, and which they sacrificed home and country to preserve. They hold a faith that is inseparably connected with free institutions, personal liberty, and personal responsibility. But the mass of foreigners that are in the great cities largely belong to the working-class, and, with the large proportion of the poor who are the wards of the city, are Roman Catholic in faith, a faith that has little in sympathy with republican institutions, and which least prepares its followers to exercise the duties of citizens of a republic. Keeping these facts in mind, the statistics contained in the following extracts are of telling force: "If the laboring class should contribute its due proportion to the congregations, the churches, many of which are now half empty, would not begin to hold the people. In 1880 there was in the United States one evangelical organization to every 516 of the population; in Boston, counting churches of all kinds, there was but one to every 1,600 of the population; in Chicago, one to every 2,081; in New York, one to every 2,468; in St. Louis, one to every 2,800." "The worst of it is that, instead of improving, the condition of things has been growing worse every year. While the prosperous classes are moving away to the suburbs, and the laborers are being more densely massed together in the heart of the city, the church accommodations, even if fully used, are becoming more inadequate to the needs of the community. Including religious organizations of all sorts, New York had in 1830 one place of worship for every 1,853 of its inhabitants; in 1840, one for every 1,840; in 1850, one for every 2,095; in 1860, one for every 2,344; in 1870, one for every 2,004; in 1880, one for every 2,468; and the religious history of Chicago is even more noteworthy in this respect: Chicago had in 1840 one church for every 747 of its population; in 1851 there was one for every 1,009; in 1862, one for every 1,301; in 1870, one for 1,593; in 1880, one for 2,081; in 1885, one for 2,254. All the large cities have districts which are destitute of church accommodations, and have not seats in Sunday-school for more than one tenth of their children."[94]

Have we not as great need of deaconesses as any of the cities of the Old World? Most of our pastors stand alone. They do not have the assistant curates and pastors that are connected with large city churches in Berlin and London. When the minister makes pastoral calls, and, entering working-men's homes, finds sickness and scanty resources, he has no deaconess to call to his aid with her cheerful words of encouragement and her loving sympathy, that are better than money and medicine. It is not charity alone that is wanted in such cases; it is the knowledge of how to use proper means to make the sick one comfortable, how to lessen the burden on the family that a small additional call for work and care has so sadly taxed; how to enlighten the ignorance that is so common without wounding the susceptibilities that are so human. For, to quote the words of the Christ in the Vision of Sir Launfal:

"Not what we give, but what we share, For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three:— Himself, his hungry neighbor, and Me."

It is for such ministrations that we need deaconesses in every evangelical church of the United States; may the women that are ready to "publish the tidings" be "a great host."

[90] Der Diakonissenberuf nach seiner Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Emil Wacker, Guetersloh, 1888, p. 196. [91] McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, vol. iv, art. "Hospitals." The editors give as authority for this statement, Augustine, De Civit. Dei, i, xxii, c. 8. [92] Theodor Fliedner, Kurzer Abriss seines Lebens. Kaiserswerth, 1886, p. 60. [93] The Bitter Cry of Outcast London, pp. 3-10. [94] Modern Cities, by S. L. Loomis, New York, 1887, pp. 88, 89.



CHAPTER XV.

OBJECTIONS MET AND SUGGESTIONS OFFERED.

"Success and glory are the children of hard work and God's favor," is the inscription upon the tablet erected in Christ's Hospital, London, to the memory of Sir Henry Maine.

Upon these two elements depends the future of the deaconess cause in America. We are assured of the one; will the other be forthcoming? Will the individual members of the Church give this cause their hearty support? Surely the facts that have been stated must have convinced the judgment, but perhaps there are certain prejudices to be overcome. "I fear that deaconesses too closely resemble Catholic nuns for Protestants to accept them," says one. No; these helpful Christian women are thoroughly Protestant. Deaconesses are no Catholic institution. Wherever they have appeared they have been met by open antagonism from the Catholic Church. Witness the calumnies with which the papers of that capital have constantly assailed the deaconess home of Paris.

There is good in the Catholic sisterhoods, but mingled with much that we disapprove. The deaconess institutions have the good features, but have avoided the ill. Much of the success of the Catholic Church in winning the poor and in retaining its influence over the lowly is due to the power exerted by the sisters who go about from house to house among the poor, and are received as friends.

There is a great army of Catholic sisters. It is calculated that there are about 28,000 Sisters of Vincent de Paul, 22,000 Franciscan Sisters caring for the sick, 6,000 Sisters of the Holy Cross, 5,000 Sisters of Charles, making a total of about 60,000 sisters of various orders belonging to the Catholic Church[95] who are occupied with works of mercy. The sisters engaged in education are often well-trained and accomplished. The order of Charles will not accept widows, orphans without property, girls from asylums, or those that have served as maids. As a rule, those that join it must make some contribution of money to the order when they are received. This order is small, but one of the most active and aggressive of any. The great number of the sisters, however, are women of few advantages, taken from poor homes and lives of toil. There is wisdom in this course, for a great deal of the work to be done depends upon qualities that can be developed by training, while the exceptional education and talents are employed in the exceptional places.

A contemplation of these facts just recorded causes us better to understand the importance that the co-operation of women has for the Catholic Church. It causes us, too, to appreciate better the opening before the Protestant women of all evangelical churches, so wide, so all-embracing that every variety of talent can find a place.

Gifts of clothes or food or fuel are not so well appreciated as the respectful hearing which clothes the teller with self-respect, the kind word and loving sympathy that feed the heart, the inspiring consolations of religious faith that animate and warm the soul, and such gifts women of sympathetic Christian hearts can ever render. As has been well said, "Shall the advantages of such a system be monopolized by those who have so little else to offer?"[96]

You may say, "I do not object to the deaconess and her work, but I do object to her distinctive dress. I do not believe in a uniform of charity." But let us consider the arguments that can be brought forward in favor of it. It is a distinctive garb because its wearer is a distinctive officer of the Church. Unless she were "set apart" by some uniform immediately and widely recognized how could she have the protection that is accorded her? Alike in every land where she is known, as we have seen, the deaconess can venture into any part of the great cities at any hour, and is invariably treated with respect. There is in the heart of the rudest and most lawless some trace of chivalry which recognizes the self-denying lives of these women. Then, in making her visits, the deaconess finds her dress an introduction that opens doors that would otherwise remain closed to her. It certainly is a convenient and economical garb, that saves a great deal of time and money to the wearer.

Are not these advantages more than an offset to an ill-defined objection to the dress because it has been associated with women who are alien to our Protestant faith? This is a minor matter, however, and one that can be adjusted at liking.

You may say, "I do not like to think of a woman who is dear to me cut off from the pleasures of home life, and devoted to a life-time of work among those who, in many respects, must be repugnant to her tastes. It does not seem so high and beautiful a life as that which makes home a center, and carries on its activities from there."

But there are many women debarred from the pleasures of home life by God's direct providence to whom other duties and responsibilities have been allotted. And then this work may not necessarily be for life. It is true that when a Christian woman occupies the position of a deaconess she must relinquish wholly all other pursuits so long as she holds this office. Neither without grave and weighty reasons should she seek to leave it. It is her calling. The period of probation has its uses, not only in making the probationer familiar with the duties and tasks demanded of her, but in giving her time to test the strength of her call to service, that she may not, through enthusiasm, lightly assume the duties of the office, nor as lightly throw them aside.

But if a deaconess is called away to perform her duties as a sister or daughter, or if she desires to marry, she is free to do so, after giving due information to those with whom she is connected in work. Freedom and liberty are in every phase of this office.

As to the highest life for a woman, an archbishop of England well said some years ago, "that whatever life God gives to any woman is the highest life for that woman," and that "in becoming a deaconess a woman devoting herself to this life must believe that it is the highest life for her, and that in it she gives herself wholly to the Lord."[97]

There should be no country like America for the favorable development of the deaconess cause, because in no other have women such large freedom of action, and, if we may believe our friends, they have improved it well. A distinguished English historian has just given us what we are fain to accept as words of just and discriminating praise. "In no other country have women borne so conspicuous a part in the promotion of moral and philanthropic causes.... Their services in dealing with charities and reformatory institutions have been inestimable.... The nation, as a whole, owes to the active benevolence of its women, and their zeal in promoting social reforms, benefits which the customs of continental Europe would scarcely have permitted women to confer.... Those who know the work they have done and are doing in many a noble cause will admire still more their energy, their courage, their devotion. No country seems to owe more to its women than America does, nor to owe to them so much of what is best in social institutions, and in the beliefs that govern conduct."[98]

Nor in any denomination should we expect women to be more ready to adopt this work than in the Methodist Episcopal Church, because women members have been accustomed to exercise nearly all the obligations and duties, and many of the privileges, that are accorded the laity of the great connection, and they are prepared to accept new duties in new relations. This Church has over a million women enrolled as members, able to serve it in every capacity, from the lady in her home dispensing gracious Christian hospitality, to the one standing quite alone, who will welcome, as a brevet of rank, this new call to service. There are many such women ready to respond. Many, too, whose hearts have been left desolate by bereavement, who will be glad to fill the empty hands and vacant life by work for God and humanity. To such a woman the wide world is her home; the dear ones of her family are the poor and sick and needy who crave her aid.

The beautiful Mildmay motto is: "They dwell with the King for his work." There are thousands of women all over the land who are ready to become "King's Daughters" in this additional sense of the word. The possibility of what such women can accomplish in the furtherance of God's kingdom upon earth has not begun to be fathomed.

Think of a great city church, with the manifold interests clustering around it, left to the care of a single pastor! He has not only the preparation of his weekly sermons, the care of the social meetings of the church, but a long line of other duties that are equally important to maintain. He must perform pastoral duties, push forward aggressive movements in behalf of the masses not touched by the church services, and fulfill public duties in connection with great charities, philanthropies, and moral reforms that he cannot neglect without injury. If the efforts of such a pastor could be furthered by one, two, or more deaconesses, as are many of the pastors of the London churches, how greatly would the working force of such a Church be increased!

It is true that we must develop the work in accordance with our American ideas and institutions. Through the study of the methods that have been adopted in European institutions, and the experience that has been there won through long years of patient toil, we are prepared in a measure to start where their work leaves off. But we shall find that our circumstances require new adjustments, and that we shall have our own problems to solve, so that eventually our work will assume a distinctively American form.

We have only to plant the seed and to give it favorable conditions for growth. The outcome is not ours: "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand." The results are with Him who giveth the increase.

The practical question may occur to some one who reads these pages, "What shall I do to become a deaconess?" Write to the superintendent of the nearest deaconess home, and ask for directions. It is best not to multiply homes until we have a larger number of trained deaconesses that are ready to take charge of them, and until the number of applicants desiring to enter them is much greater than at present.

Many churches that need the services of a deaconess will doubtless select one of their number whose heart God has inclined to this service, and will provide the means by which she can secure the necessary training at a home and training-school. There are many devout Christian women in every community who have for years been deaconesses in labors, if not in title and prerogatives. It is very important for such women to give their sympathies and fostering care to this new institution. If not deaconesses by office, they can ally themselves as associates. The associate is a real officer in many of the deaconess establishments in London. Ladies who have great sympathy with the cause, and an earnest desire to do what they can to advance it, give some portion of their time, their labor, or their means to promote its interests. They will go to the home and reside there for some weeks or months, being under the direction of the superintendent and filling all the duties of a sister. Or, if such duties are not practicable, they will work in behalf of the home, often securing the aid of those whose assistance is most valuable. In some places it is arranged that a woman who earns her bread by daily toil shall be assigned to labor at her regular vocation, consecrating a certain portion of her wages (perhaps one twenty-fourth) to the cause with which she is allied.

The Church has been accused of being too abstract, too ideal, too far removed from the life of the people in its every-day aspects. It is well for Church members to examine themselves, and the Church communities to which they belong, to judge how much ground there is for such criticism. None are so sharp-sighted as hostile critics, and from none can such good lessons be learned. But this accusation is not a new one, and the only effectual way to meet it is to point to what the Church has accomplished. Over eighteen hundred years ago, when John the Baptist was in danger of mistaking our Lord, he sent to him, saying: "Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?" and the answer was: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached."

Let us be prepared to make a similar answer to-day, and the Church need fear no accusation of holding aloof from the needs of the daily life of the people.

"Christianity, as it stands in the Bible and in our creeds, will neither be read nor understood by millions; Christianity as it is revealed in the loving service of deaconesses will be recognized by the dullest eyes."[99]

We have reached a new departure in Methodism. The Church has added another to its aggressive forces. How is it to be received? What welcome will be given it? May pastors and people, one and all, be in that attitude of spirit where we shall respond readily to the command: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."

[95] Die Diakonissenberuf nach seine Vergangenheit und gegenwart. Emil Wacker. Guetersloh, 1888, chap. vi. [96] Modern Cities. S. L. Loomis, The Baker & Taylor Co., New York, 1887, p. 192. [97] Deaconesses in the Church of England, Griffith & Farran, 1880, p. 31. [98] The American Commonwealth, James Bryce. MacMillan & Co., 1889, vol. ii, pp. 586, 589. [99] Phoebe die Diakonissen, p. 8.



NOTE.

YEARLY EXPENDITURES AT KAISERSWERTH.

While the book is in press the following interesting statistics are received, which are deemed of sufficient importance to insert here.

Receipts and expenditures of Kaiserswerth for the three years from 1885 to 1888:

Year. Receipts. Expenses.

1885-1886 333,476 m. 74 pf. 331,812 m. 12 pf. 1886-1887 371,523 m. 46 pf. 370,626 m. 45 pf. 1887-1888 337,508 m. 14 pf. 492,384 m. 21 pf.

In the year 1887-1888, the excess of expenses over receipts was caused by the construction of a new building, and special funds were contributed which more than met the deficit.

Rev. F. Fliedner, the son of Pastor Fliedner further writes: "This does not include the expenses in the East and other foreign stations. In truth, about six hundred thousand marks pass yearly through our treasury." What an amount of good accomplished by the yearly expenditure of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars!



INDEX.

Acts vi, 3, 13, 79. Addlestone, 161. Africa, Northern, 108. Age requirements, 29, 187. Alabama, 213. America, 73, 107, 252. AMERICA, THE DEACONESS CAUSE IN, 204: German Lutherans, 204; W. A. Passavant, Pittsburg, 205; Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia Mother-house of Deaconesses, 208; Swedish Lutherans, Omaha, 211; Norwegian Lutherans, Brooklyn, 211; German Reformed, Hagerstown, 211; Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore, 212; Alabama, 213; Long Island, 215; Western New York, 216; Presbyterian Church, 217; Southern Presbyterian Church, 218; Methodist Episcopal Church, Lucy Rider Meyer, 220; Rock River Conference, Bengal Conference, 221; General Conference action, 222; Conference, "Plan," Homes, 226. AMERICA, THE MEANS OF TRAINING AND THE FIELD OF WORK FOR DEACONESSES IN, 228: threefold service, 229; hospitals, 230; day-homes, 236; home-mission deaconesses, 238; London, 239; cities, 242; parish deaconesses, 245. Amprucla, a deaconess, 25. Amsterdam, 43, 143. Andrews, Edward G., 6. Andover Review, 150. Apostolic Constitutions, 19, 21, 24, 85. Armen und Kranken Freund, 66. "Associates," 193, 213-215, 256. Asia Minor, 76, 108. Austria, 104, 108. Author's facilities, 4.

Baillie, Lady Grisell, 200, 201, 203. Ball's Pond, 182. Balsamon, Professor, 31. Baltimore, St. Andrew's, 212. Baptism, 22, 32. Barat, Mother, 237. Barnet, 167, 181. Bartholomew's prayer, 23. Basil, of Caesarea, 231. Beghards, The, 37. Beguines, The, 35-37, 145. Beirut, Syria, 76. Belgium, 34, 37. Belleville, France, 134. Bengal Conference, 221. Berlin, 72, 99, 102, 111, 113, 114, 237, 245. Barnardo, Dr., 159. Berne, Switzerland, 103. Bertheau, Caroline, 72. Bethany House, 72, 102. Bethany Society, 110, 118. Bethnal Green, 180, 185. Bible-classes, 175, 186. Bible stories, 65, 124. Bible study, 84. Birthdays, 64, 71. Boarders in Home, 132. Bohemian brethren, 40. Bohemians, Chicago, 243. Boston churches, 244. Bremen, Germany, 110. Brighton, England, 181. Brooklyn, N. Y., 211, 215. Brotherhood in Christ, 10, 11. Brotherhood of the Common Life, 37. Buffalo, Poles in, 243.

Calcutta, India, 227. Calvin, John, 42, 134. Cambridge Platform, 144. Catechumens, female, 21. Celibacy. See Monks, Nuns. Chalmers, Thomas, 57, 189. Charitable institutions, 9, 54, 57. Charite, La, 100. Charlotte, Sister, 75. Charteris, A. H., 190, 192, 201. Chicago, Ill., 73, 243-245. Chicago Training-school, 220, 221. Children, 10, 64, 123. Cholera, 48, 170. Christ, 246. Christianity, 257. Christmas, 178, 180, 181. Chrysostom, 25, 26. Church of England, 149, 150, 157, 191. Church of England Woman's Missionary Association, 163. Church of England Zenana Society, 185. Church of Scotland, 190, 193, 195, 201, 203. Church of the Deaconesses, 31. Churchman, The, 105, 155. Cincinnati, O., 226. Cities, 242, 243, 245. Clapton House School, 182. Classes of deaconesses, 186, 194. Collecting money, 53, 54, 114. Commune, 131. Commune deaconess. See Parish deaconesses. Compassion, Christian, 11, 13. Conference, Chicago, 226. Kaiserswerth, 86, 106, 152. Mildmay, 167. Conference Hall, 171, 178. Consecration, 23, 29, 85, 140, 199, 210, 211, 217. Contagious diseases, 84, 88, 170. CONTINENT, OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS ON THE, 93: Strasburg, Pastor Haerter, 93; Muelhausen, parish deaconesses, 95; Berlin servants, 99; Bethany House, 102; Dettelsau, Berne, Sophie Wurdemberger, 103; Saint Loup, Pastor Germond, 104; Riehen, Zuerich, Gallneukirchen, 104; joint management, 106; environment, 107; many deaconesses, more needed, 108. Convalescent homes, 181. Convalescents' home, 126. Cordes, A., 211. Constantinople, 25, 28, 31. Cottage Hospital, 179. Coventry, Miss, 183. Creche, 125, 234, 236.

Dalston, 146. Damsels of Charity, 43. Darmstadt, 146. Daughter-houses, 71, 138. Davidson, Miss, 200, 201. Day homes, 235, 236. "Deaconess," 149. how become? 255. Deaconess Institution and Training-home, 195, 198. Deaconesses, numerous, 107. world-wide demand, 108. See "Associates," America, Consecration, Continent, Diaconate, Early, England, Fliedner, German, Kaiserswerth, Literature, Methodist Episcopal Church, Mildmay, Objections, Paris, Scotland, Twelfth, etc. Deacons appointed, 13. De la Mark, Henry Robert, 44. Denmark, 108. Detroit, Mich., 226. Devonshire Square, 146. Devotions, 83, 118. DIACONATE, THE, 9: brotherhood of all in Christ, 10; foreign missions, 11; home missions, 12; diaconate, 13; female diaconate, 14; meaning, 16; qualities, field, 17. Diaconate, female, 13, 17, 20, 24, 30, 34, 45, 46, 189. organic, 203. Discipline, 127, 129. Dispensary, 69, 75, 103, 180. Disselhoff, J., 31, 41, 48, 76, 91, 108, 109. Doellinger, 10. Doncaster General Infirmary, 182. Dorcas room, 174. Dove, symbol, 91. Dress, distinctive, 36, 82, 116, 155, 156, 210, 242, 249. Du Camp, Maxime, 134. Dumas, Mademoiselle, 135, 138. Duesseldorf, 56. Duesselthal, 56.

Early Church, 231. EARLY CHURCH, DEACONESSES IN THE, 18: Pliny's letter, 19; apostolic constitutions, 19; deaconesses, widows, virgins, 20; deaconess' duties, 21; prayer of ordination, 23; greatest growth in Eastern Church, 24; Chrysostom, 25; Olympias, 27; age, property, 29; in Western Church, 30; decay, extinction, 32. East London Deaconess Home, 152, 156. Easter cards, 178. Eastern Church, 24. Eccl. xi, 6, 255. Edinburgh, Scotland, 189. Eilers, Frederick, 110, 115. Elberfeld, 58, 71. Elizabeth of Prussia, 101. Endowment, 67. England. See London. ENGLAND, DEACONESSES IN, 142: Puritans, 142; Amsterdam, 143; Plymouth colony, widows, 144; Southey, Protestants, 145; Mrs. Fry, Fliedner, Florence Nightingale, 146; Agnes Jones, 147; Ludlow, Stevenson, Howson, 148; "sister," "deaconess," 149; Church of England, 150; outside institutions, 158; Tottenham, 159; Prison Gate Mission, 161; London West Central Mission, 163. See Mildmay. Environment, 107. Eppstein, 50. Epidemic, 87. Ephrem the Syrian, 231. Europe. See Continent. Expenses, 82, 187, 188, 258.

Faith and works, 202, 230. Fallen women, 112. Farming, 69. Faubourg Saint Antoine, 121, 132. Feierabend Haus, 71. Ferard, Elizabeth C., 152. Flag at Kaiserswerth, 91. FLIEDNER, THE RESTORER OF THE OFFICE OF DEACONESS, 46: Kloenne, 46; Amalie Sieveking, 47; Count von der Recke, 49; Theodor Fliedner, 50; Idstein, Giessen, Goettingen, 51; Herborn, Cologne, Kaiserswerth, 52; collecting money, 53; Elizabeth Fry, 55; Prison Society, Frederika Muenster, 56; convict Minna, refuge, 57; Fraeulein Goebel, deaconesses, 59; Rhenish Westphalian Deaconess Society, 60. Fliedner, Theodor, 44, 50, 55, 56, 60, 61, 66, 68, 73, 74, 90, 100, 102, 146, 155, 189, 205, 213, 232, 237, 238. wife of, 56, 58, 62, 63, 65-67. wife, second, 72. Fliedner, Fritz, 218, 258. Florence, Italy, 77. Florentius, 38. Flower mission, 173. Foreign missions, 170. France, 67. See Paris. Frankfort, 72, 110, 111, 113. Frederick William IV., 49, 69, 72, 102. Free Church of Scotland, 190. Friends, The, 220. Fry, Elizabeth, 55, 57, 60, 103, 135, 146, 209. Fry, Herbert, 146.

Gal. vi, 6, 183. vi, 10, 13. Gallneukirchen, 104, 105. Gamble, Elizabeth, 226. Garden 57, 125, 176. General Conference, 221. action, 4, 222. German hospital, 127, 146. German Lutherans, 204, 205, 206, 207. GERMAN METHODISM, DEACONESSES IN, 110: Bethany Society, 110; reports, 111; fallen women, nurses, 112; Frankfort, Hamburg, Berlin, 113; collection, 114; Saint Gall, Zuerich, 115; Sister Myrtha, 116; "God's Fidelity," 117; regulations, Bethany Society, 118; home training, 119. German Reformed Church, 211. Germany, 46, 118, 202, 235. See Berlin. Germond, Pastor, 104. Giessen, University, 51. Gobat, Dr., 74. Goebel, 59. Gottestreue, or God's Fidelity, 117. Goettingen, University, 51. Greece, 108. Greek Church, 24. Groot, Gerhard, 37, 38. Guinness, Grattan, 160.

Hachette & Co., 136. Hadwig, Duchess, 115. Hagerstown, Md., 211. Hamburg, 111, 113. Harley House, 160. Haerter, Pastor, 93. Hastings, President, 218. Hausser, G., 110, 111. Headship, twofold, 106. Herborn, 52. Herford, 41. Herzog, 32. Holland, 108. Home, pleasures of, 250. Home missionary. See Parish deaconess. Home missions, 170. Hospitals. 48, 62, 69, 71, 73-75, 83, 93, 100, 103, 115, 125, 127, 146, 158, 170, 179, 180, 206, 207, 230, 232. House-mother, 106. House of correction, 127. House of Evening Rest, 71. Howson, J. D., 15, 27, 84, 148, 157. Hoxton, 185. Hughes, Mrs., 163. Huguenots, 141. Humanitarianism, 11. Huss, John, 40.

Idstein, gymnasium, 51. Ignatius, 21, 29. Infirmary, 206. Imitation of Christ, 38. Immigrants, 242. India, 186, 187, 221, 227. Inquiry, Department of, 183. Insane, 68, 105, 234. Introduction, 3. Invalid kitchen, 173. Iserlohn, Westphalia, 208. Italy, 77, 78, 108, 232.

Jacksonville, Ill., 73, 206. Jaffa, 182. Jerusalem, 74, 162. John ii, 5, 257. John the Baptist, 257. Jones, Agnes, 147. Jubilee anniversary, 91.

Kaiserswerth, 52, 57, 147, 152, 203, 234. yearly expenses, 258. KAISERSWERTH, THE INSTITUTIONS AT, 61: deaconess home, hospital, first deaconess, 63; normal-school for infant-school teachers, 64; Bible stories, 65; Fliedner's wife, 65; publishing house, Kaiserswerth Almanac, The Poor and Sick Friend, finance, 66; orphan asylum, 67; normal-school for female teachers, insane asylum, 68; farm, 69; refuge, Salem, 70; House of Evening Rest, daughter-houses, 71; Berlin, 72; Pittsburg, 73; Jerusalem, 74; Beirut, Smyrna, 76; Salem in the Lebanon, 77. KAISERSWERTH, THE REGULATIONS AT, AND THE DUTIES AND SERVICES OF THE DEACONESSES, 79; service, 79; nurses, teachers, visitors, 80; probation, 81; dress, expenses, 82; duties, quiet half-hour, 83; union, obedience, 84; consecration, 85; conferences, statistics, 86; emergencies, 87; wars, 89; Fliedner's death, successors, 91. Kaiserswerth Almanac, 86. Katherine Home, 163. Kempis, Thomas a, 38. Kilburn Orphanage, 160. King's Daughters, 253. Kloenne, Johann Adolph Franz, 46, 54. Krueger, Marie, 207.

Lads' Institute, 181. Lambert le Begue, 34. Lankenau, John D., 207, 208. Laseron, Dr. and Mrs., 157, 158. Laundry, 161. Layton, M. E., 226. Lectures, syllabus of, 196. Leonard, A. B., 224. Library, lending, 175. Life, the highest, 251. Lightfoot, Bishop, 15. Literature referred to, 10, 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 31, 33, 44, 47, 49, 55, 66, 68, 70, 76, 79, 110, 111, 120, 134, 142, 144, 146, 148, 150-152, 155-157, 164, 167, 175, 178, 181, 192, 194, 205, 212, 214, 216, 217, 221, 226, 232, 241, 245, 253. Littlejohn, Bishop, 215. Liverpool work-house, 147. London, 166, 238-241, 245, 256. See Mildmay. London Diocesan Deaconess Institution, 151. London Bible-women's Mission, 160. London West Central Mission, 163, 164. Loomis, S. L., 245. Los Angeles, Cal., 219. "Lost Way, The," 100. Love, Christian, 11, 13. Lucian, 22. Ludlow, John Malcolm, 20, 23, 37, 87, 148. Luke x, 5, 184. Luther, Martin, 40, 42.

McClintock & Strong, 23, 232. McGill, A. T., 217. MacMaster, 11. Makrina ordained, 29. Maine, Henry, 247. Malta, 182. Mann, W. J., 207, 211. Marbeau, M. 235. Marthashof, 99, 102. Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia Mother-house of Deaconesses, 87, 127, 210, 211. Matt. xi, 3-5, 257. Maxwell, Alice Maud, 200, 201. Medical mission, 179. Medical training, 186, 187. Mennonites, 44, 54, 59. Men's Bible-class, 175. Men's Institute, 180. Men's Night-school, 174. Meredith, Mrs., 160, 162. Methodism, German, 110. Methodist Episcopal Church, 107, 203, 220, 253, 257. Meyer, Consul, 207. Meyer, Lucy Rider, 220, 221. Middle Ages, 232. Middleburg, 42. Mildmay, 202, 253. MILDMAY INSTITUTIONS, 166: William Pennefather, Barnet, Conferences, 167; Mildmay Park, 168; missionary training-school and home, 169; deaconesses, 170; conference hall, deaconess house, 171; Pennefather's death, successor, 173; invalid kitchen, flower mission, 173; Dorcas room, men's night school, 174; lending library, men's Bible-class, servants' registry, 175; sitting-room, 175; garden, 176; orphanage, Scripture texts, 177; conference hall, parish deaconesses, 178; nursery home, cottage hospital, medical mission, 179; Bethnal Green, 180; convalescent homes, 181; nurses, railway mission, 182; deaconesses of all classes, 183; missionary training-school, 184; classes trained, 186; expenses, 188. Milwaukee, Wis., 73, 206. Ministrae, 19. Minna, convict, 57. Minneapolis, Minn., 226. Missionary training school, 169, 170, 184, 185, 186. Missions, 11, 12. Mohammedans, 75. Monks, 32, 41, 136. Monod, Sara, 120, 136, 138. Monod, W., 120. Moravians, 44, 45. Morley, Samuel, 159. Mother-houses, 64, 72, 74, 80, 86, 106. Mothers, 235. Mount Vernon, N. Y., 206. Muelhausen, 95. Muenster, Frederika, 56. Muttra, India, 227. Myrtha, Sister, 116.

Neal, Daniel, 142. Neander, 23, 24. Nectarius, Bishop, 28. Netherlands, 35, 37, 39, 42, 44. Neudettelsau, 103. New Orleans, La., 226. New York, N. Y., 226, 244, 245. Nicarete, deaconess, 25. Night-school, 174. Nightingale, Florence, 146-148, 234. Normal school, 64, 66, 68. North American Review, 12. Norway, 108. Norwegian Lutherans, 211. Nuns, 32, 37, 41, 151, 247. Nursery girls, 101. Nursery home, 179. Nurses, 68, 71, 80, 83, 89, 90, 93, 104, 112, 113, 127, 133, 182, 191, 208. Nursing sisters' institution, 146.

OBJECTIONS MET AND SUGGESTIONS OFFERED, 247: hard work and God's favor, 247; not nuns, 247; Roman Catholic sisters, 248; distinctive dress, 249; cut off from home life, 250; America favorable, 252; Methodist Episcopal Church favorable, 253; how become deaconess? 255; "do it," 257. Orleans, Synod of, 30. Olympias, 26, 27. Omaha, Neb., 211. Ordination. See Consecration. Origen, 30. Orphanages, 67, 73, 75-77, 159, 177, 206. "Outsiders," 164.

Palestine, 76. Paris, 232, 235. PARIS, DEACONESSES IN, 120: Sara Monod, W. Monod, 120; deaconess establishment, 121; reports, children, 123; creche, hospital, 125; convalescents' home, 126; house of correction, 127; moral results, 130; Commune investigation, 131; wounded, boarders, 132; preparatory school, nurses, 133; success, parish deaconesses, 134; prisons for women, 135; Mademoiselle Dumas, 136; branches, 138; parish deaconesses, 139; consecration, 140. Paris, Matthew, 37. Parish Deaconesses, 72, 80, 96, 103, 110, 134, 139, 191, 238, 254. Pascal, Jacqueline, 125. Passavant, W. A., 73, 205, 206. Passy, 126. Pastors, 245, 254. Pegran, Pasteur, 44. Pentadia, 26. Pennefather, William, 167, 173, 202. wife of, 173. 1 Pet. ii, 5, 40. iii, 4, 155. Pharmacy, 126. Philadelphia, Pa., 87, 127, 207, 210, 218, 226. Phoebe, 14, 22, 189, 205. Pilgrim fathers, 143, 144. Pittsburg, Pa., 73, 205. Plan for securing uniformity, 226. Plato, 10. Pliny, letter, ministrae, 19. Poles in Buffalo, 243, 244. Poor Men of Lyons, 39. Poor and Sick Friend, 66, 104, 152. Portsmouth, 153. Potter, H. C. 212. Prayer, 23, 83, 84, 118. Presbyterian Church, 202, 217. Presbyterian Review, 217, 219. Preparatory school, 133. Princess Mary Village Home, 161. Prison Gate Mission, 161. Prisoners, 55-58, 60, 70, 112, 135, 160, 161. Probation, 81, 118, 184, 187. Procla, deaconess, 26. Protestant Episcopal Church, 212. Protestants, 48, 105, 145, 151. Psa. lxviii, 11, 246. Publishing House, 66, 136. Pudentiana, deaconess, 30. Puritans, 142, 144. Pusey, Dr., 149.

Railway mission, 182. Recke, Count von der, 49. Rector, 106. Reformed Church, 42. Regulations, 79, 118, 193, 213. Reichardt, Gertrude, 63. Rest, 70, 71, 117. Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess Society, 228. Riehen, near Basel, 104. Rochester, N. Y., 73, 206. Rock River Conference, 221. Roman, J. Dixon, 211. Roman Catholic Church, 30, 34, 244, 248, 249. Rom. xvi, 1, 14, 115, 189. Rome, 30, 78, 232. Rue de Bridaine, 139. Rue de Reuilly, 120, 127, 132. Russia, 108.

Sabiniana, 25. Sachsenhausen, 112. St. Christopher's Church, 35. St. Gaul, 112, 115. St. Louis, Mo., 226. St. Loup, 104. St. Marie, 134. Salem, 70, 77, 117. Salisbury Home, 153. Salle d'Asile, 123. Savings Bank, 181. Schaefer, Theodor, 22, 27, 39, 42, 49, 95, 99, 146. Schaff, Philip, 23, 24, 30. Scheffel, 115. SCOTLAND, DEACONESSES IN, 189: Church of Scotland, A. H. Charteris's report, 190; three grades of women workers, 193; Deaconess Institution and Training-home, 195; syllabus of lectures, 196; consecration, seven years' experience or two years' training, 199; Presbyterian Churches of Great Britain, 202; office of deaconess made organic, 203. Scripture texts, illustration of, 177. Servants, 85, 99, 101, 102. Servants Home, 241. Servants' Registry, 175. Service, threefold, 79, 229. Shanghai, 109. Sieveking, Amalie, 47. Singing, 84, 85. "Sister," 149, 165. Sisterhoods, 47, 150, 157, 212, 215, 216, 248. Sisters of Charity, 93, 136, 145. Sisters of the Common Life, 37, 39. Sisters of the People, 163, 164. Sisters of the Sacred Heart, 237. Smyrna, 76. Soup Kitchen, 169. Southern Presbyterian Church, 218. Southey, 145, 146. Spaeth, A., 205, 207, 211. Spain, 108. Sparkes, Miss, 227. Sparta, 10. Spee, Count, 58. Spee, Countess, 59. Statistics, 86, 87. Stevenson. Dr., 148. "Stille halbe Stunde," 84. Strasburg, 93. Success and glory, 247. Superintendent, 72, 195. Support. See Expenses. Sweden, 108. Swedish Lutherans, 211. Switzerland, 104, 112, 235. Syllabus of Lectures, 196. Syria, 76.

Talitha Cumi, 75. Teachers, 68, 76, 80. See Normal. Theodosius, Emperor, 28. Thoburn, Isabella, 226. Thoburn, J. M., 5, 221, 222, 224, 227. 1 Tim. iii, 8, 17. iii, 8, 9, 79. iii, 11, 15. v, 9, 16. Tit. ii, 3, 16. Tottenham, 159. Training-school, 62, 70, 229. Turkey, 108. TWELFTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURIES, DEACONESSES FROM THE, 34; Belgium, Lambert le Begue, 34; Beguines, 35; Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life, Gerhard Groot, 37; Thomas a Kempis, 38; Waldenses, 39; Bohemians, Huss, 40; Luther, 40; Calvin, 42; Netherlands, 42; Damsels of Charity, 43; Mennonites, Moravians, 44; Zinzendorf, 45.

Uniformity, Plan, 226. United States. See America.

Valette, Pastor, 130, 139. Vermeil, Pastor, 100, 139. Vienna, 104. Virgins, 20, 21, 25. Von Stein, 48.

Wacker, Emil, 21, 40, 66, 231, 248. Waiting-school, 235, 236. Wakefield, Bishop of, 157. Waldenses, 39. Wars, nurses in, 89. Weiss, G., 110. Wesel, 42. Western Church, 30. Western New York, 216. Widows, 16, 20, 21, 144. Williams, Miss, 104. "Willows, The," 184. Wilmer, Bishop, 213. Winckworth, C., 102. Women, Old Testament, 24. Apostolic times, 13, 16. Early Church, 20. Methodist, 6. Women's Guild, 193, 200. Women Workers' Guild, 193. Wordsworth, 15, 239. Work, hard, 247. Wounded, 89, 131. Wurdemberger, Sophie, 103. Wurtemberg, 110. Work-house, 72, 147.

Young, Alexander, 144.

Zinzendorf, Count, 45. Zuerich, 104, 112, 115, 116.



Transcriber's notes: Obvious spelling/typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. The original book was published by HUNT & EATON at New York, and by CRANSTON & STOWE at Cincinnati. The copyright date was 1889. Occasional discrepancies between index and text (for example, "Harter" in the index but "Haerter" in the text) have been corrected to match the text. Some inconsistent mid-line hyphenations have been retained: "bedside" and "bed-side" occur once each "housework" and "house-work" occur once each "workhouse[s]" occurs twice and "work-house" occurs three times

THE END