organization as we are Single efforts may be

extent may be done without such an advocating, and it is done without it. very effective, and much good may undoubtedly be accomplished without any society, with its rules and modes; but this is not the method in which activities are developed. Everywhere when anything for a common purpose is to be done, men at once band themselves together into some kind of corporation or society. They never stop to inquire whether it be not just as well to work single-handed and alone; but spontaneously, as it were, they consolidate their energies and means, as the best manner of reaching the general object. Only in this matter of woman's work in the Church, is there wanting such a system of coöperation and sympathy.

What we want, then, is a body of holy, single-minded, zealous women, who will agree to give up their entire selves to such work as was performed, for instance, by the ancient Deaconesses, or as they may themselves now occasionally perform,— visiting women who are sick and needy, caring for neglected and ignorant children, reading God's Word to those who will not or cannot read it for themselves, acting as sponsors for the baptized, calling at the Prison and Work House, teaching the improvident and idle how to be thrifty and industrious, reclaiming the wandering and fallen, turning enemies into friends, talking and teaching of Jesus the Saviour, constant and living examples of His Gospel and Life. We want such women to be united, to join together and form communities, dividing the work amongst themselves in such portion as may best fit each other, to set themselves apart exclusively to such work, at least during the time of their association, to allow no interruption to come in to hinder or stop their labors.

Does any one object that this is not proper work for women? Are women then to be debarred from doing aught for Christ? Are women aliens from the Commonwealth of Christ ? Are they denied all partnership in its self-sacrifices here, and its rewards hereafter? So far from there being nothing for women to do, there is an influence belonging to them with certain classes and individuals, which we cannot deny; and there are some departments of this work which they are not only best

qualified, but they alone are qualified to perform. To withhold their assistance is to rob the Church of Christ of a large portion of her energies, and to keep from her much of the glory which might accrue to her.

In this employment of women it is not proposed, as some object, to interfere with what are termed home duties. There are homes, where it would be wrong to ask for such a Deaconess as we have described;-where the woman is already doing her appropriate work. And there are also multitudes, who are spending their lives in vain;-who feel they are not doing all they are called upon to do ;-who are inwardly moved to engage more regularly and exclusively in their Master's work; and though it may be a trial to leave a happy home, and labor altogether among strangers, yet if this be their calling, no sacrifice will be irksome to them, but will be made cheerfully and thankfully. No woman in leaving her home would leave it with an irrevocable vow of never returning to it again. leaves it, that she may not be interrupted in the regular performance of her duty to Christ. And yet she may be called away from her Society by claims which she would not be right in neglecting.

She

Nor is it only as benefitting those to whom its members may minister, that we advocate the establishment of this Order. It will be of great benefit to the Deaconesses themselves. Looking at the matter economically, and practically, we notice the fact of the decided preponderance, in numbers, of women over men. In England it is more than half a million. Various duties and avocations, foreign trade and travel, &c., will always, of necessity, prevent large numbers of men from marrying. In our older States, the excess of the female over the male population will always be large; in the city of New York alone, the disparity amounts to eight or ten thousand, and, at this period of war, to several times that number. And yet, those women who remain single are not, as a class, among the least educated and refined, or the least qualified to adorn and grace a Christian home. What better employment for them than as Christ's ministers to the poor, and afflicted, and fallen? It will give them comfortable homes, and genial Christian society. It will furnish them the holiest and most interesting kind of work to

do. It will elevate their religious character. If their hearts are right in entering such a Society, it cannot be that such devotion to God, and such entire denial of self, will fail to bring its reward. God is not unrighteous, that He will forget such works and labor of love. There is always a satisfaction in the performance of duty, and surely such a labor in Christ's name most closely resembles the work which He came to do. Miss Frederika Bremer, in speaking of the Kaiserswerth Deaconesses, says, "I can with truth testify, that I never before saw such an assembly of cheerful, kind and peaceful countenance."

Nor is the benefit confined to the Deaconesses and those among whom they directly minister. Like physicians themselves, these nurses and visitors oftentimes have an influence over certain classes, in certain stages of the mind, which the clergy have not, and do not seem able to obtain. Such examples of constancy, humility and zeal, of high and holy humanity, of Christian obedience and loving self-sacrifice, in such an age as this, cannot but stimulate us all to like deeds of charity and faith. It would help the world on mightily. Each woman would then become a missionary for good. She may live in as perfect seclusion as she can, but she cannot engage in such work without being noticed by the world, and the world will feel that there is a reality in such a religion, and will be made the better for it. We have said nothing about the good that may be wrought on those whom they shall visit and nurse. Visited and nursed as they ought to be by Deaconesses whose hearts are full of the love of Christ, who can measure the influence wrought on those whose hearts are, under such circumstances, most susceptible of religios mpressions?

We do not enter here into the details of this subject, so far as they concern the practical management of this Order or Society. There are many questions, as to what rules are best; whether a distinctive dress should be worn,-whether Deaconesses should be paid directly or indirectly,--how the work should be divided among them; which may be very proper matters of consideration, but they are foreign to our main topic of argument. Let the necessity of this Order be first felt and acknowledged, and we can then easily settle upon the manner of its

organization and government. Men readily see difficulties in the way of any enterprise, when they do not wish well towards it. It certainly will not be hard to agree upon the mode of doing this work, when we shall have agreed upon the actual want of the work itself. The existence of the kind of work which women may do, may we not say, which women ought to do, is undeniable. Every large town and city affords its own variety; and we cannot deny that much, very much of the work, is now undone. And yet, there are women, who can do it, and wish to do it; the sympathy to encourage them, and a knowledge of the best methods of guiding and employing them, are sadly wanting. It is to awaken attention to the subject, that we have written; and if we shall but excite in earnest Christian minds a spirit of enquiry, and lead to its more complete development by others, we shall not have written in vain. No time is more fitting for this enquiry than the present, when so many of our countrymen are sick and wounded in camps and hospitals, and so many of their families left fatherless and friendless. No such opportunity has arisen in our generation for the practising of the golden rule of Christianity; and women now, if they will faithfully do the work, which is awaiting them, may be imitators of them who were last at the Cross and first at the Sepulchre, and may share with them the Saviour's benediction at the last,

ART. IV.-GRACE: THE CHURCH: THE SECTS.

It is an admitted fact of Divine Providence, that Spiritual gifts are vouchsafed to men outside the Church. Not only is this true as it respects individuals, but it is true of individuals organized into religious Societies which are not of the Church, that they are permitted in Divine Providence to do, at least to some extent, the work of the Church. Men are converted under sectarian ordinances, live religiously under the same, and die in Christian hope.

How then is all this to be explained? It assuredly is not to be explained by denying the facts, or by seeking to explain them away. To say that the Christianity of such a holy liver as Joseph John Gurney, or as Dr. Chalmers, is not a real Christianity, is to say that which is equally unwise and uncharitable. We doubt not, for a moment, that the religion of these good men would have been of a far higher and fuller order, had the grace given them been developed in them in connection with the higher gifts of the Church; but to insinuate that their religion was not that of a true and substantial Christianity, would be a dangerous error. The essence of the Christian religion in a man, consists in the devotion of his being to the Lord Jesus Christ: by every sign whereby we can judge in the case, pious Friends, Methodists, Presbyterians, have the feeling. They love the Saviour; they love His Word; they love those who love Him; they labor to do His will; they give to His cause, (many of them in a way which ought to shame the Church,) they could die for Him, and they do die trusting in Him. This is, assuredly, Christian religion. How do they come by it, seeing the Societies of which they are members are not of the Church? These organizations are, all of them, human contrivances, and therefore, once for all and forever, they are not of the Church.

We hold the Church to be the channel of Grace to men, and, with certain qualifications, indicated in Scripture and acknowledged in Providence, the sole, certainly the only authorized