// ,/Z; . oc 
 
 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 Presented by cj . O . CD\^ 
 
 BV 4423 .W3 1893 
 
 Wacker, Emil. 
 
 The deaconess calling 
 
THE DEACONESS CALLIN 
 
 
 tITS PAST AND ITS PRESENT.f 
 
 —BY— 
 
 EMIL WACKER 
 
 Bector of the Lutheran Deaconess House at Flensburg, 
 
 Translated by 
 
 E. A. ENDLICH. 
 
 . A. i^^A^* 
 
 i>JiiAil« MvMt 
 
 -^^^^^^fi^f^*- 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE MARY J. DREXEL HOME, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 1893. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1893 "" 
 
 by 
 
 THE MARY J. DREXEL HOME, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 — TO — 
 
 JOHN D. LANKENAU, 
 
 Tlie Friend and Promoter 
 — OF THE — 
 
 iMOilliS W0E1 II A\ 
 
 THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
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 llljj 
 
 "1 
 
 J 
 
 EACONESS CALLIN , 
 
 ITS PAST AND ITS PRESENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Origin and Katurs of the Ministry of Christian Mercy. 
 
 1. The word diaconate means service, or ministry. It is used 
 to designate, not every service, but only that which is done for the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, or churchly service. It does not even in- 
 clude all of this. The Kingdom of Heaven is variously served, 
 by word and deed. Modern usage inclines to limit the word 
 "diaconate" to the ministry of mercy in the christian church. Where 
 such a ministry is committed to women, as an especial life-calling, 
 we speak of the female Diaconate. 
 
 2. To serve, is to use our strength and ability for the welfare 
 of others. This may be done for life, or only for a time ; volun- 
 tarily or by constraint ; partially or entirely. If service is freely 
 given, it is the exercise of a love, whose essence consists in living, 
 not for ourselves, but for others. But genuine love is not to be found 
 in this world of selfishness and sin, and therefore no wholly genuine 
 service to God or man. The paganism of all times has held servi- 
 tude in small esteem ; paganism being the condition of the natural 
 man, who loves only himself, and instead of serving others, strives 
 to make all things serviceable to himself. Service was held to be 
 unworthy a free-born man ; and, as a yoke laid upon inferiors, was 
 left to women and slaves. Service has come to honor, only upon 
 the ground of divine revelation, and especially upon that of Chris- 
 tianity. All revelation of the Triune God is ministering love and 
 compassion. Of His judgments even, it is said that, while the season 
 of grace endures "mercy rejoiceth against judgment." (St. James 2, 
 13). The diaconate of divine grace and mercy began with the fall 
 of man in Paradise, and is completed in Christ. He who, for the 
 fallen, made "coats of skin and clothed them/' He it is, who in 
 
Christ invests the penitent Avith the *rarnients of salvation ; who 
 feeds the hnnirrv, and refreshes the thirsty with torjjiveness of sins, 
 with life and salvation. "God so loved the world, that He gave 
 His only-begotten Son." (St. John 3, 16). This is a service 
 withont a parallel. '* The Son of Man eame to seek and to save 
 that whieh is lost." (St. Matth. 18, 11). He is the Good Shep- 
 herd — the great deacon. It was He who said : " The Son of 
 Man eame not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give 
 His life a ransom for many." (St. Matth. 20, 28). In Him ap- 
 peared the prototype of the holy diaconate. Wherever men be- 
 lieve on His Name, serving ceases to be despised, is rather loved 
 above all things. Those who have been redeemed through His 
 ministry can nevermore forget His example, of which He said : "I 
 have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to 
 vou." (St. John 13, 15). By their works of ministering love 
 will He one day recognize His own. " Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto 
 Me." (St. Matth. 25, 40). In His kingdom, in His church, 
 those are greatest, who serve. He says of them : "If any man 
 serve Me, him will My Father honor," (St. John 12, 26). Even 
 though in this world our path of service lead us, as followers of 
 Christ, through crosses and humiliations, inasmuch as the disciple 
 is not above his Master, yet in truth, it leads to glory with Him. 
 " He rules," says St. Augustine, "who serves Him." 
 
 3. Ministering love is not in every case the exercise of mercy 
 concerning itself with the suffering. There is also a ministry of 
 love for worship, for beauty, for honor, for adoration. But inas- 
 much as the ministry of divine love toward us sinners is essentially 
 grace and mercy, so in this world of sin and misery, our ministry, 
 as followers of the Lord, will be chiefly a ministry of mercy, the 
 very conception of which was almost unknown to the heathen ; 
 while with it, Christianity stands or falls. In the Church of Christ, 
 mercy must have its home. The i^rophetic word and example of the 
 Saviour demand it. His own sacrifice, as our High-Priest, imparts the 
 needed strength. Those who have been so dearly ransomed by it, 
 must needs love Him, and in Him all for whom He has shed His 
 blood. Love becomes a new law to them, — new, because now it is 
 written in their hearts, not by the letter which killeth, but by life- 
 giving grace. " The love of Christ cdnstraineth us," writes the 
 Apostle, "because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were 
 all dead : And that He died for all, that they which live, should 
 not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for 
 them, and rose again." (2 Cor. 5, 14. 15). The merciful are ac- 
 counted blessed, because the mercy which they show, is an evidence 
 that they have obtained mercy. The opposite is true of the unmer- 
 ciful. (St. Matth. 5, 7 ; St. James 2, 13). 
 
4. The Christian Church must let her light shine before men? 
 that is, she owes it to them, to testify by word and deed, of the 
 mercy of God, their Saviour. And this testimony must be pre- 
 eminently one of deeds, "that they may see your good works, and 
 glorify your Father which is in Heaven." (St. Matth. 5, 16). 
 Especially is the duty laid upon the church, and the ability given 
 her, continually to exercise mercy toward her own members ; for 
 those who have become believers, "being many, are one body in 
 Christ, and every one members one of another." (Rom 12, 5.) 
 "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;, 
 or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." 
 (1 Cor. 12, 26). In the first christian congregation, "all that be- 
 lieved . . . had all things in common." (Acts 2, 44). The Chris- 
 tian Church, subject to the Lord, her royal Head, is one body, "and 
 He is the Saviour of the body." (Eph. 5, 23). It is needful 
 then, that the members, "Speaking the truth in love, may grow up 
 into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ : From 
 whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that 
 which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in 
 the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the 
 edifying of itself in love." (Eph. 4, 15. 16). 
 
 5. It follows then, that the Christian Church, in a matter 
 as closely concerning it, as does the exercise of ministering love'^ 
 must have its fixed rules. In the eyes of the world, as well as of 
 the congregation, it must strive to render the practice of mercy as 
 nearly comjilete as possible ; and this is accomplished in the same 
 proportion in which private and public, free and officially organ- 
 ized benevolence supplement each other. Here also the peculiar 
 gifts of woman for the ministry of mercy will find due recognition. 
 The Christian Church, beside other forms of the diaconate, cannot 
 dispense with the female diaconate, which is an officially regulated 
 service of mercy, exercised by women, for Christ's sake, among the- 
 poor, the sick, the wretched and the needy of every description, 
 within and without the congregation. Only when the Christian 
 Church abandons the faith, can she cease to strive after the most 
 thorough realization of the apostolic charge : "As we have there- 
 fore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them 
 who are of the household of faith." (Gal. 6, 10). 
 
 6. In contrast to christian charity stands modern worldly 
 philanthropy. Christianity alone has taught humanity to recognize 
 its oneness, and its common divine destiny. True humanity is 
 christian. But, in its estrangement from God, humanity perverts 
 the knowledge of self to its own heathenish self-glorification. It 
 apes christian mercy, even to its name and dress. Among its 
 endeavors, some are in themselves of value ; while it may be said 
 that its opposition to religion is as yet an unconscious one. Yet 
 
in its alienation from the faith, it ranks among the strongest errors 
 and forces in the kingdom of Antichrist. It is unac(|uaint('d with our 
 deepest misery, — sin, and where it appears to hel]), it often works 
 harm instead. It is either presumptuous self-love, or selfish good- 
 nature proceeding upon the maxim, that "one good turn deserves 
 another." Vanity and ostentation are frequently the guiding powers. 
 The Christian Church, in its war against Antichrist, dare not 
 suffer the contrast between its own exercise of mercy and tluit of 
 worldly philanthropy to be obscured. 
 
 7. In the christian exercise of merciful love, the principle ob- 
 tains, that "charity to the soul is the soul of charity." It ignores 
 no form of misery, least of all the misery of sin. It distinguishes 
 between the sinner and his guilt ; not allowing the latter to serve as 
 an excuse for leaving the former without help ; but realizing also, 
 that in order to aid the sinner, it dare not excuse his sin. With 
 every benefit rendered, it bears in mind the "one thing needful," 
 and endeavors to render help for time and eternity. An imperfect 
 copy of its divine original, it is alike humbled by this fact, and 
 stimulated to further effort. The fundamental traits of this diaco- 
 nate of mercy, as recognized in the example of Christ, to which it 
 strives to conform itself, are : holy compassion, humble obedience 
 and wdlling self-denial. 
 
 " For we have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with 
 the feeling of our infirmities." (Hebr. 4, 15). In holy compas- 
 sion, sparing the sinner but not his sin, He pitied the people, and 
 recognized it as His office, to save that which was lost. 
 
 And "though He w^ere a Son, yet learned He obedience by the 
 things which He suffered." (Hebr. 5, 8). He called it His 
 "meat, to do the Will of Him that sent me." In humble obedience, 
 that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. He followed not a self- 
 chosen path, but the path, appointed by His Father, to reach 
 His end. 
 
 " For the joy that was before Him," He "endured the cross, 
 despising the shame." (Heb. 12, 2). In willing self-denial He 
 gave Himself up to death, even the death of the cross, until the 
 time had come, when He could say : It is finished. Sanctifying 
 Himself for us. He completed His work, that we also might be 
 "sanctified through the truth." " (St. John 17, 19). 
 
 We then should look up to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of 
 our faith. The human Diaconate must be found walking in the 
 footsteps of the divine Diaconate, if it is not to prove vain, unprofit- 
 able and w^orthless. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ths Churchly Officers. 
 
 8. The Christian Church is built upon the loundation laid by 
 the Apostles. The ApoHtoJic Ojfice, as the office of the founders of 
 the Church, exists only for the beginning-, but continues eifective 
 in the Church, especially through the testimony of the Scriptures. 
 Bound up from the beginning with the apostolic office, was that 
 office which is permanently needed for the continuance and 
 growth of the Church, namely the office of the ministry. The 
 Church could not have come into existence without the office, to 
 which in her progress she is bound. The office of the ministry 
 includes the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the 
 office of the keys, and the preaching of sound, christian doctrine, 
 without which the sacraments and absolution cannot be understood 
 and spiritually appropriated. As the Saviour Himself instituted 
 the a]30stolic office, by calling the Apostles, by preparing them to 
 be His disciples, and by sending them forth, as He had been sent 
 by His Father, — even so the pastoral office rests upon His direct 
 commission. He has commanded His Church to baptize and to cele- 
 brate the Holy Supper, until His coming ; He has commanded, to 
 bind and to loose ; and to teach those who are baptized, to keep 
 His commandments. As regards other functions pertaining to the 
 pastoral office, a direct divine commission cannot be proven. 
 Neither has any fixed order been given by the Lord or by His 
 Apostles, for the election of persons to the office of the ministry. 
 No doubt it is proper that those already holding the office, should 
 confer it upon others. But as to the manner of doing it, and in 
 how far the christian congregation shall participate, there may be 
 various methods, none of which, over against others, can lay claim 
 to perfection. Xone can administer the pastoral office in the Church, 
 who have not been regularly called. 
 
 9. In addition to the office of the ministry, we speak of 
 churchly offices in a wider sense. Luther has translated the word 
 "diaconia" with "office" (Amt), "There are differences of ad- 
 ministrations (offices or diaconates) but the same Lord." (1, Cor. 
 12, 15.) The churchly diaconates are the practical exercise ol 
 spiritual gifts, incorporated into the congregational life. Every 
 Christian possesses natural gifts, which sanctified by the Holy 
 
— 10 — 
 
 Spirit, are made servicvaMt' to the kingdom of (lod. Of these 
 spiritual <rifts — cliarisinata — there is a great diversity. St. Paul, 
 in the twelfth chapters, both of Romans and First Corinthians, 
 mentions the most important. To these may be added the gifts of 
 preaching and teaching, tiie gift of deeper spiritual knowledge, the 
 gifts of administration, or rulership ; the gift of caring for souls and 
 the discerning of s])irits, tile gift of the exercise of mercy in its 
 various branches, "the gift of healing," of "divers kinds of ton- 
 gues", and others. The life of the Christian Church unfolds itself 
 abundantly and vigorously, in proportion as a plenitude of spiritual 
 gifts are operative within it. It is the duty of the Church, there- 
 fore, to awaken spiritual gifts, to perfect and organize them as 
 completely as possible. The offices or diaconates thus arising do 
 not rest upon the Lord's direct institution, but are developments 
 of the congregational life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 
 From the diversities in the relationship sustained by the diaconates 
 or ministries, to the one pre-eminent office of the ministry, have 
 sprung the various form of existing churchly offices. 
 
 10. The Apostles combined in all their fullness both the most 
 eminent spiritual gifts, and the churchly offices. As the Church 
 increased, however, the Apostles were soon obliged to limit them- 
 selves to the most important of their duties. The first office to 
 branch off was a diaconate. The duty of distributing the alms and 
 of caring for the poor became too burdensome for the Apostles. "It 
 is not reason, that we should leave the Word of God and serve 
 tables." (Acts 6, 2.) Thus, the laity co-operating, seven men 
 w^ere appointed to take charge of these matters. They seem to have 
 assumed further duties, such as preaching and teaching. The ad- 
 ministration of property and the care of the poor seem to have 
 been the chief, but not the only work assigned to them. We hear 
 later on, that in the churches the office of elders or bishops again 
 became separated from the apostolic office ; and their special function 
 seems to have been the administration of the pastoral office proper. 
 In addition, they had the oversight and government of the congrega- 
 tion, and the measure of their administrative ability seems to have 
 decided their election. Still later, when the churches grew more and 
 more numerous, an administrative office was formed, which extended 
 over a plurality of churches ; this office was again separated from 
 the eldership over local congregations. Thus arose a three-fold 
 group of churchly offices, the administrative ojfice, the office of the 
 inimstry, having in its stricter sense the management of the indivi- 
 dual congregation, and the office of the diaconate, embracing in its 
 narrower sense the various duties of church-work and trust. Each 
 office takes its name from the special charismatic gifts it demands, 
 and the authority it confers. The name "diaconate" finally, re- 
 mains only for more subordinate offices ; although we emphasize 
 
— 11 - 
 
 the fact, that administration, preaching, and the care of sonls, are 
 charismatic activities, and therefore diaconal. The bearers of the 
 office of oversight are called bishops, those.holding the office of the 
 ministry in individual congregations, are called pastors. Deacons 
 also may be entrusted with the ministerial office. There arise 
 various combinations of the diaconates among themselves, and with 
 the pastoral office. The New Testament already mentions one dia- 
 conate, to which women were appointed. 
 
 11. Church jjovernment has for its object, that the members 
 of the congregation shall enjoy, in as regular and thorough a man- 
 ner as possible, the services of the ministerial office. The diaconate, 
 in its various administrations and exercises of charity, is entirely 
 subordinate to it. The office of the ministry is and remains the 
 one, with which the Church stands or falls. By "the perfecting of 
 the Saints", into a "work of the ministry" is the "body of Christ" 
 built up, (Eph. 4, 12.) To become a "work of the ministry" 
 means, to experience the service of the ministry for our soul's sal- 
 vation. 
 
 The diaconate in all its branches has been fitly termed a ser- 
 vice at the doors of the sanctuary. Within, the ministry of the 
 word has its place. The diaconate, however, prepares the way for 
 its ministrations, or accompanies it, guarding and assisting it ; 
 gathers in the souls who are to benefit by the service of the sanc- 
 tuary, or watches over the souls who have experienced its benefits, 
 that the blessing may not be lost to them. It is always at the 
 threshold of the sanctuary, that this service awaits those who come 
 and go. In truth, it may be said of every diaconate, even though 
 furnished with the most eminent spiritual gifts, that it is nothing 
 but an auxiliary office, co- and subordinate to the one pre-eminent 
 office of the ministry. 
 
 12. The office of the ministry cannot be administered without 
 some charismatic gift. It can therefi)re be said of the call to all 
 churchly offices, without exception, that it can take place only 
 where the corresponding qualifications exist. To natural gifts must 
 be added an adequate training, and an inward, spiritual vocation 
 and preparation. At the same time such outward conditions as 
 come into consideration, must be tested — the measure of talent, 
 education and experience, the confessional standing, the general 
 suitability of the candidate, as far as it can be determined. The 
 inward and outward vocation culminates in the churchly ordination 
 by prayer and the imposition of hands, whereby the co-operation 
 of the Holy Spirit is the more assured, the more carefully and 
 orderly all things have been conducted. The Scriptures speak of 
 a "gift of God", which is imparted through ordination to a churchly 
 office. (2. Tim. 1, 6.) And as this gift can be "stirred up", so 
 also can it be "neglected". (1. Tim. 4, 14.) In no case is it ta 
 
— 12 — 
 
 be roii::ardo(i as something that is outside of the general conditions 
 of spiritual life. 
 
 13. Xot all the charismatic activities in the Christian Church 
 can be systematically gathered into offices. The Church must 
 "covet earnestly the best gifts", and above all things, must endea- 
 vor to work "in the more excellent way of love." (1. Cor. 12, 31.) 
 The more she does this, the more devoutly will her offices and or- 
 dinances be loved and cherished. But there are certain gifts of 
 grace, of so tender and private a nature, that they are Avholly be- 
 yond the scope of official classification ; an attempt at which would 
 rob them of their spirituality. It is enough, if we cite for instance 
 the gift of healing the sick, or the gift of especially strong 
 faith and spiritual communication. But apart from these, it is not 
 to be imagined, that in this world the charismatic agencies will 
 ever be fully covered by the existing offices within the Church. 
 Therefore there can be no doubt, that in the churchly life, the 
 free, unofficial exercise of spiritanl gifts is (dso Jegitiinate. The 
 apostle charges the Corinthians with regard to the house of Ste- 
 phanas. The members of this household are "the first fruits of 
 Achaia", and "have addicted themselves to the ministry of the 
 saints." To such, the christians of Corinth shall submit them- 
 selves, "and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth." 
 (1. Cor. 16, 15. 16.) According to the Scriptures, certain diaconates 
 thus rightfully existed, to which Christians, Avithout especial com- 
 mission from the Church "addicted themselves". These must have 
 within themselves the love of order and discipline, and of obedience 
 to the ministerial office. The less they are bound by any outward 
 tie, the more must they in their confession and works of faith, bind 
 themselves inwardly. Otherwise the fall under the condemnation, 
 " He that is not with Me, is against Me : and he that gathereth not 
 with Me, scattereth." (St. Luke, 11, 23.) It is a feature of true 
 churchly order, that while it permits freedom of charismatic activity, 
 it excludes all confusion and caprice. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The office of the Deaconess^ according to the Scriptures* 
 
 14. The Apostle Paul writes, that women shall "keep silence 
 in the churches". Thev are to "learn in silence with all subjec- 
 tion". (1. Cor. 14, 34. 35; 1. Tim. 2, 11. 12.) Anything else 
 would not accord with the relation of the sexes, as ordained by God, 
 nor with the position becoming to woman. She is therefore de- 
 barred from rulership within the Church, from public preaching 
 and teaching, from the ministry in its stricter sense, and from all 
 branches of the diaconate which might bear any unwomanly 
 features. For the rest, the Scriptures contain numerous testimonies 
 in justification of woman's right to serve the Kingdom of God, 
 voluntarily or in an official capacity. 
 
 15. Old Testament types of an organized official service of 
 women in the sanctuary, are those who "assembled at the door of 
 the tabernacle of the congregation". (Ex. 38, 1 ; 1 Sam. 2, 
 22.). The care of the tabernacle, and the sacrificial rites per- 
 formed there, gave sufficient reason for such service. These women 
 seem to have been unmarried. When Jephtha's daughter was offered 
 by her father as a sacrifice to the Lord, it probably means nothing 
 else, than her consecration to such celibate service in the sanctuary. 
 (Judges 11, 38. 39.) The "singing women", who are mentioned, 
 (2 Chron. 35, 25 ; Esra 2, (35 ; Neh. 7, 67 ;) were probably also 
 permanently employed in the sanctuary. Undoubtedly the Old 
 Testament was acquainted with what we would term an organized 
 churchly service of women. — Apart from their official character, the 
 Old Testament prototypes of the Deaconesses are those prophetic 
 women, in whom woman's most important spiritual gifts for the 
 service in the kingdom of Heaven appear to us to be embodied. 
 They are the four : Miriam, Deborah, Hannah and Huldah. (Ex. 
 15; Judges 4 ; 1 Sam. 1 ; 2 Kings 22) They prove that the 
 Lord, in individual as well as in general cases, equips women 
 with gifts of the Holy Spirit, needful for the service of His 
 Kingdom. 
 
 16. New Testament types of Deaconesses are the women who 
 ministered to the Lord during His life upon earth. Pre-eminent 
 among them all \s 3Iary, "blessed among women", Avho served Him, 
 as did no other. She is the mother, whose soul was pierced by the 
 
— u — 
 
 sword. As such, she i?« the exalted examj)le of that .^^piritiial dying, 
 bv which all natural gifts, all human relationship to Jesus must 
 needs be broken asunder and transi'ormed, before they can acquire 
 spiritual value. In the Sisters Mary and Marf/ia, of ]^ethany, is 
 reflected for all time the relation our service to Jesus nni.st 
 bear to His service to us, which is "the one thing needful". 
 The Gospels mention furtiiermore : Mari/, the mother of James 
 and Joses ; Salome, the mother of Zebcdee's children ; Mary Mag- 
 dalene, Joanna, the wife of Chusa, and Stisanmi. Of Mary Mag- 
 dalene, Joanna and Susanna, and of many other women, it is said 
 that "they ministered unto Him of their substance". (St. Luke 
 8, 3.) These believing women followed Jesus. Of some we 
 hear, that they stood beneath His Cross, and that they went to the 
 sepulchre, to anoint His body. They were of widely different so- 
 cial positions, and were indebted to Him for the peace of their 
 souls. But as in Him the had found the fulfdmentof Israel's hope, 
 so they doubtless had a dawning consciousness, that through Him 
 the temporal and social condition of Avoman was to be changed and 
 improved. Throughout the Orient, and in a measure throughout 
 heathendom, woman is regarded as a slave and a chattel. Even 
 in Israel, woman's lot was by no means "what C'hristianity has esiuc 
 then made it. This is proved by the statutes of the Hebrews with 
 regard to divorce. How fully, on the other hand, did our Lord 
 recognize the sacredness of marriage. (Matth 5, 31. 32.) How 
 deeply he appreciated the honor of womanhood. (St. Matth. 5, 20.) 
 His word, and the corresponding apostolic testimony (Gal. 3, 28 ; 
 Eph. 2, 25 — 30) have defined the position of christian womanhood, 
 which justifies our saying, that in an especial sense He became the 
 Savior of woman. Thus the believing women ot the Gospels 
 rendered to Him, the Head, that service which all christian women, 
 realizing their special debt of gratitude, should henceforward feel 
 impelled to render His members. 
 
 17. More than a mere prototype of the Deaconess is Tabitha. 
 (Acts, 9, 3(3.) The name signifies "a gazelle", and in accordance 
 with her name, she was swift in well-doing in the Church, "full of 
 good works and almsdeeds which she did." Although not regu- 
 larly holding the office of a Deaconess, she yet, in her voluntary 
 devotion, seems to have filled the position entirely. When she 
 died, the poor and the widows of Joppa were her chief mourners. 
 From this circumstance we may conclude that she was unmarried. 
 That, having died in Christ, she was raised from the dead by the 
 Apostle Peter, is only explained, when we recognize in the miracle 
 a direct testimony from the Lord, as to the value He attached to 
 such womanly ministry for the Church. That such special testi- 
 mony was needed, is clear trom the difficulty existing in the Christian 
 
— 15 — 
 
 Church, regarding the regulation of woman's service in tlie Church, 
 exercised as an exckisive life-calling. 
 
 18. A regular office of the diaconate of women is indubit- 
 ably mentioned in Romans 16, 1. 2. Phoebe was "deacon" 
 or servant of the church at Cenchrea, the port of Corinth. The 
 Apostel calls her "sister". This mode of address presupposes, and 
 arises from their christian unity of faith, a fact frequently for- 
 gotten, in our day. Phoebe's service in the Church consisted in 
 being a "succourer of many", doubtless in bodily as well as in 
 spiritual needs. The Apostle himself enjoyed her ministrations, 
 whether in weakness or sickness, or as a fellow-^vorker in the sav- 
 ing of the souls, cannot be determined, — it may have been both. 
 Phoebe was probably the bearer of the epistle to the Church at 
 Rome, an office with which, in the perilous times of the early 
 Church, believing women were on other occasions honored. The 
 apostle's reciommendation of Phoebe is to us of general and special 
 value for the cause of the female diaconate ; first, as an apostolic 
 iexihnony to the existence of a deaconess office at that early time ; 
 and secondly, as an apostolic recommendation, which enjoins upon 
 the Church of all times, to receive Deaconesses "in the Lord, as 
 becometh saints", and to assist them in whatsoever business they have 
 need of the Church. The name Phoebe — "the sunny one" — is a 
 beautiful reminder, of how the image of Christ, our sun, is to be 
 reflected in the humble ministry of this handmaidens. 
 
 19. The New Testament tells of Lydia "a seller of purple" 
 who, from the time of her conversion, began to serve the Lord 
 among His poor (Acts 16, 15). The deacon and evangelist 
 Philip, "one of the seven," (Acts 6) had four daughters, who lived 
 unmarried and possessed the gift of prophecy, no doubt that of 
 inspired testimony. (Acts 21, 8. 9.) Of Priscilla, the wife ot 
 Aquila, (Acts 18," 1—3. 24. 26 ; Rom. 16, 3 ; 1 Cor. 16, 19) it is 
 related that she with her husband ministered to St. Paul, as well 
 as to individual christians in the Church. The Apostle calls them 
 both his fellow-workers. Their service was given in voluntary, 
 but continued devotion, not only of their persons and strength, but 
 also of their home and substance. St. Paul, in his Epistles mentions 
 a succession of believing women, of some of whom he says that 
 they "laboured much in the Lord", (Rom. 16, 12) as Tryphena, 
 Tryphosa and Persis. Thus also Euodias and Syntyche (Phil. 4, 
 2. 3). who laboured with the Apostle in spreading the Gospel. 
 Besides these, Julia and Olympas are mentioned, the sisters of 
 Nereus. (Rom. 16, 15.) Of some of these women it is certain, that 
 their service in the Church was generally known and recognized. 
 Whether some of the women mentioned in the Epistles held an 
 office similar to Phoebe's, \ye cannot say. It is not alltogether im- 
 probable. At all events, these names are a weighty evidence for 
 
— 1« — 
 
 tlie intense need felt in the Church of female co-operation. It is 
 easy to understand, that many a g:erm and beginning of woman's 
 churchly ministry, either preceded or coincided with the nascent 
 organization of official service. 
 
 20. The passages in the Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy and 
 Titus referring to the election of widows are also of great im- 
 portance. (1 Tim. 5, 9.10; Titus, 2, :^>— 5.) The widows in 
 question were probably supported by the Church, and held a posi- 
 tion of honor in the congregation. At the same time, they were 
 obliged to take upon themselves certain labors and duties in the 
 congregation, such as the instruction of the younger women in the 
 christian faith, assistance at baptism and in the worship of the 
 congregation, the care of the sick, and so forth. All such service 
 was a necessary requirement of the church-life of that time. The 
 position and the service of the Avidows explain the strict directions 
 regarding their election. They must not be under sixty years of 
 age, "having been the wife of one man," "well reported," as women 
 and as christians, in practical and spiritual matters. In the election 
 of widows, the questions to be considered as to the essential re- 
 quirements of the office of Deaconesses, seem to have first been 
 generally formulated in the Church. The office of widows was 
 the form most readily available for such a churchly service, as that 
 with which Phoebe, although not a widow, was specially entrusted. 
 
 21. In reviewing what has been said above, we find in the 
 Old and New Testament : 
 
 a) Numerous types of the diaconate of woman, which abun- 
 dantly express the inner nature of the matter. 
 
 6) Various germs and beginnings of a female ministry in the 
 Church, from which its need, generally felt and, confirmed by the 
 Lord, is made evident. 
 
 c) In a single case, the definite, apostolically recognized ex- 
 ample of an organized deaconess office. 
 
 d) The rudiments of a form, in which the institution might 
 easily and simply find general entrance into the Church, — namely 
 the election of widows. 
 
 This is an important chain of evidences The deaconess cause 
 is securely established upon the sure foundation of God's Word. 
 Therefore those who labor in it, may well have an easy and cheer- 
 ful conscience. 
 
 "The Work is Thine. Lord Jesus Christ, 
 The work in which we stand." 
 
 22. The Scriptures likewise give us ample directions, as to the 
 requirements to be made of persons who are to serve in the 
 Church as Deaconesses. They are in the first instance, the same 
 
— 17 — 
 
 as apply to deacons. (Acts 6, 3.) Persons who are to be ordained 
 to the diaconate, must be 
 
 «) of honest report, 
 
 b) full of the Holy Ghost, 
 
 c) full of wisdom. 
 
 The first of these conditions demands that repenta,nt sinners, 
 if they have publicly suffered a loss of reputation, are yet, notwith- 
 standing their repentance, excluded from the churchly offices. The 
 second condition requires, that deacons be tried christians, expe- 
 rienced in spiritual matters. The measure of spiritual experience 
 varies. One who lives spiritually, will have experience. Finally, 
 the deacons mast be practically gifted and competent, possessing 
 insight and capability, each one for the office, to which he is ap- 
 pointed. More detailed directions are given in 1 Tim. 3, 8 — 10. 
 They must "be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, 
 not greedy of filthy lucre." Holding the mystery of the faith 
 in a pure conscience, they must strive to walk honestly and 
 uprightly, according to the christian faith and confession. Their 
 wives must equally enjoy the good report of a faithful christian 
 life. In order that it may be ascertained, whether the men to be 
 set apart for the office of deacons, fulfil these requirements, they 
 must first undergo a term of probation. 
 
 23. In the requirements made of the Deaconesses by the 
 Church, there is added to the three chief conditions of a blameless 
 reputation, a living christian experience, and practical skill, a fourth 
 — the unmarried state. Deaconesses must be either single women or 
 widows. This is necessitated by the nature of the work. A married 
 woman, whose duties lie in her home, cannot hold besides a regular 
 office in the Church. It may even under certain circumstances, 
 be advisable for a man who is a servant of the Church, to renounce 
 marriage. (1 Cor. 7, 7. 8. 28.) "But every man has his proper 
 gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that." As a 
 rule, and in peaceful times, a man is not bound through marriage, 
 but made freer for the Lord's service. On the other hand, if a 
 woman is to serve the Lord, constantly and uninterruptedly, in a 
 churchly office and calling, her single life must under all circum- 
 stances be taken for granted. (1 Cor. 7, 34. 35.) Of this, the 
 apostolic ordinance of the election of widows is a confirmation. 
 
 24. If we review the passages of Scripture, which more or less 
 bear upon the deaconess calling, the same chain of services and 
 labors of love, as those which in our day constitute the duties 
 of a Deaconess, may easily be deduced from them. To be sure, 
 circumstances in the early Church differed greatly from those of 
 the present time ; and the work is determined by the circum- 
 stances. In the early Church, other duties no doubt occupied the 
 foreground. To the Deaconesses was permitted a catechetical of- 
 
— 16 — 
 
 fico in the Cluirch, while the honiiletical offiee was closed to them. 
 Tiieir eatcehetical service was exercised especially in bchalt' of those 
 women who desired to become Christians. Instruction and educa- 
 tion seem then to have held the foremost place, — that wliich in our 
 day belonijs to the care of the sick and the j)oi»r. \\^hatsoever 
 claims the rioht of existence as a province (»f the female diaconate, 
 must at all times and in some manner, establish its validity on the 
 ground of the Holy Scriptures. And especially will tlie womanly 
 service, once rendered to the Head of the Church, evermoi'e remain 
 the standard for all service toward its members. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Deaconesses of the Early Church. 
 
 25. Our knowledge regarding the conditions and circumstances 
 of the early Church is very scant. During the first centuries the 
 Church, under the pressure of persecution, wa . forced to exist in 
 great seclusion; and this fact satisfactorily explains, why such 
 written records as have been preserved, fail to give us a clear 
 picture of its life. It is undoubted, however, that the need o 
 a definite form of woman's churchly ministry early asserted it elf; 
 and in accordance with the need, the institution took shape. The 
 period between the middle of the first and that of the second 
 centuries probably solved whatever difficulties existed with regard 
 to it. The origin of the ancient prayer of consecration of deaco- 
 nesses, handed down to us, seems to belong to this time. As to 
 the tradition, which ascribes it to the Apostle Bartholomew, there 
 is no certainty. The purport of the prayer is a refutation of the 
 objections and hesitations, which evidently were generally attached 
 to the order of a churchly ministry of women. The manner in 
 which the prayer solves these doubts, points to a very early period. 
 They raised the question, whether such an organized ministry 
 of women were not in opposition to the custom most carefully 
 observed in the early Church, of strictly maintaining for each 
 sex the position assigned it by God. The pagans had their 
 priestesses. This the Christian Church justly regarded as sinful 
 and unnatural. Tertullian and Epiphanius censure those heretics, 
 who misconstrue the saying of the Apostles, that in Christ there is 
 "neither male nor female" ; who permit women to teach publicly 
 in their churches, even investing them with the office of bishop or 
 presbyter. Their censure throws a light upon the early times. The 
 ancient prayer overcomes any objections, which may arise against the 
 ecclesiastical ordination of women, by its references to the creation 
 of man and woman ; to the women ot the Old Testament, who 
 served at the doors of the tabernacle, or were prepared by the Holy 
 Spirit for special duties ; and to Mary, the Mother of ur Lord. 
 Were the prayer not of so early a date, a reference to the apostolic 
 times, to Tabitha, to the writings of the Apostles, would not be 
 wanting. But its origin seems to lie so near to the apostolic age, 
 that the movements then taking place within the Church, may be 
 considered as contemporaneous. We therefore venture to conclude 
 
— 20 — 
 
 that this prayer affords us a glimpse into the very beginnings of 
 the deaconess office in tlie early Church. 
 
 26. As regards the meagre historical information we possess 
 upon the matter, it coincides closely with what we learn from the 
 apostolic writings. We see that the existing need of woman's ser- 
 vice within the Church, Avas at first remedied by the election of 
 Avidows. The Christian writers of the second and third centuries, 
 Polycarp, Ignatius, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, — 
 all make mention of the widows, who are designated as such, or as 
 "elders", "superiors," or "sisters". They were elected, installed in 
 their office, ranked among the clergy, held a position of honor in 
 the congregation, and received their support from it. Very re- 
 markable is their designation as an "altar of God", upon M'hich 
 gifts are offered, and from Avhich the sacrifice of prayer ascends on 
 high. They were to have reached the age of sixty years. Later 
 on, younger women were elected. Their office of honor in presid- 
 ing over the congregation of women, made their greater age a ne- 
 cessary condition. On the other hand, the work, among prisoners, 
 in teaching, in the service of the bishop, called for younger women. 
 The lowest age, at which widows were eligible, seems to have been 
 forty years. Tertullian relates, as an instance of absurdity, that a 
 M'Oman of twenty had been received among the widows. As the 
 requirements of the work became greater, the conditions originally 
 laid down by the Apostles for the election of widows gradually 
 receded. Not only were actual widows chosen, as in the olden time, 
 women who had been married and had reared children, but 
 also titular widows — or virgins. Ignatius sends greetings to the 
 virgins who were termed widows. Although in the election of 
 widows, woman's ministry w^ithin the Church was not the only ob- 
 ject, yet this of itself became more and more prominent. In addi- 
 tion, a class of women was gradually developed, who led a pre- 
 eminently contemplative life. The class of widows disappears, and 
 in its place we find, on the one hand the order of Deaconesses, and 
 on the other, the first beginnings of conventual life. 
 
 27. But in the earlier times there were not wanting followers 
 of Phoebe in the distinctive calling of the Deaconess. As in 
 Cenchrea, so elsewhere, a direct ordination of Deaconesses, uncon- 
 nected with the election of widows, was found advisable. This is 
 easily understood ; and an isolated instance, dating from the earliest 
 time, is recorded. The prefect of the Emperor Trajan, Pliny the 
 Younger, persecuted the Christians of Bithynia in Asia Minor. 
 Pliny wrote to the Emperor with regard to these Christians, and 
 his letter has been preserved to us. In it he relates what they 
 had confessed to him concerning their faith and worship. Pliny 
 writes further, that in order to learn the whole truth, he had 
 deemed it necessary to put to the torture tico maids, whom the 
 
- 21 — 
 
 Christians called servants, that is Deaconesses. "I could not ex- 
 tort anything from them," he adds, "beyond a very perverted and 
 boundless superstition " He therefore suspended his examinations 
 and submitted the matter to the Emperor. These statements of an 
 imperial officer show that soon after the year 100 A. D., Deaco- 
 nesses were found in the Churches of Asia Minor, and that their 
 service was bound up with the religious life of the congregation. 
 Outwardly their position was a lowly one. Pliny styles them maid- 
 servants (ministrae). Even when put to the tortures of the rack 
 they remained faithful to their Christian profession. 
 
 Whether the churchly ministry of women was exercised by 
 widows called in this capacity, or by Deaconesses especially ordained 
 to the office, is not in itself of great importance. In the apostolic 
 age as well, as later on, both forms were found, even the same 
 names seem often to have been used for both, Deaconesses beino- 
 spoken of as widows, and widows as Deaconesses. The institution 
 attained its growth in obscurity, until we find that form predomi- 
 nant, in which the churchly office of the Deaconess has its distinct 
 and independent position. 
 
 28. The book which'gives us the most complete information re- 
 garding the Deaconesses of the early Church, is the so-called "Apo- 
 stolic Constitutions", a collection of ecclesiastical instructions, which 
 were gradually formulated in the Greek-Oriental Church, and were 
 collected about the fourth century. Their contents as a whole, 
 have no claim to apostolic origin, and their ecclesiastical value is 
 contested, but their description of the congregational life is clear 
 and trustworthy. They state that about the year 300 A. D., widows 
 and virgins, living a life of self-renunciation, were commended, 
 as consecrated to God, to the benevolence of the Church. But they 
 no longer held a position of honor, as Superiors in the Church, 
 nor any churchly office. On the other hand, the various official ac- 
 tivities of the Deaconesses are frequently mentioned; and their impor- 
 tance for the Church strongly insisted upon. From the Apostolic 
 Constitutions and other contemporary and later writings, are gather- 
 ed the features, which complete the picture of the Deaconess ot the 
 early Church. 
 
 29. The official functions of the Deaconesses of the early 
 Church were essentially as follows : 
 
 a) The Deaconesses were the doorkeepers at the women's en- 
 trances to the churches. This service seems to date back to the 
 earliest times. Ignatius suffered martyrdom early in the second 
 century. In a letter bearing his name, he writes : "I greet the 
 keepers of the holy doors, the Deaconesses, who are in the Lord." 
 It was necessary, not only in seasons of danger and persecution, 
 but also for reasons of order and discipline, to guard the entrance 
 
— 22 — 
 
 to the asseni blades of the Christian Church. Tlio entraiu-cs fur men 
 had their doorkeepers also. 
 
 b) The T><(ico)i<'f<8<'f< assif/iicd to the irornen their phieen at wor- 
 ship. If feinaU' members of the congregation, who were poor or 
 strangers, came to the church, the Deaconess "was 'Svith all her 
 lieart," to find jilaces for them, as the deacons did for tiie men. 
 The Deaconesses seem also to iiave held a sort of presiding office 
 in the women's assembly. In the catacombs certain seats are 
 shown, which it is supposed, were appropriated to the Deaco- 
 nesses. AYlien it became more and more the custom for widows and 
 virgins to take the veil, that is, in self-imposed celibacy to lead 
 a life of contemplation, the Deaconesses had the oversight of 
 these women, and were responsible to the bishop for their proper 
 behavior. 
 
 c) A ministry of the Deaconesses at the Altar cannot be posi- 
 tively proven. Yet as early as the second century a Roman bishop, 
 Soterus, issued a decretal against the encroachments of women 
 in this province. A ministry of Deaconesses at the Altar can 
 only then be justified, when it confines itself solely to external 
 matters, to the care and cleansing of the vessels, vestments and 
 surroundings. The complaints referred to were no doubt caused 
 by an actual excess of zeal, although views not compatible with 
 evangelical simplicity and truth, gradually gained currency also 
 with regard to the pastoral office. 
 
 d) As at the Altar, so at the Sacrament of Baptism the service 
 of the Deaconesses must needs confine itself to externals. But 
 there was obvious need of such service, when adult women were 
 baptized. Baptism was usually performed by immersion in the 
 baptismal basin, and after disrobing, the candidates were anointed 
 on the forehead, eyes, breast, shoulders, back, hands and feet. When 
 women were baptized, the deacon anointed the forehead only ; the 
 rest was done by the Deaconess. It was she who placed a garment 
 upon the one to be baptized, assisted in the baptism, and saw to it, 
 that all was done with propriety and decency. 
 
 e) The service of the Deaconesses was also very necessary in 
 the instruction- of the femcde catechumens, and in the capacity of 
 missionaries in the women's apartments, to which men were not 
 admitted. The ability to teach, in a judicious and proper manner, 
 was a chief requisite in a deaconess of the early Church. It often 
 occurred, as in the case of the parents of the martyr Perpetua, 
 that while the husband remained a heathen, his wife and children 
 turned to the Christian faith. 
 
 /) It was the duty of the Deaconesses, to be present at the pa- 
 sioral conferences between the pastor and his female members. As 
 the Holy Spirit is the mediator between Christ and the Church, say 
 
— 23 — 
 
 the Apostolic Constitutions, so is the Deaconess the mediator bet- 
 ween the bishop and the christian women. 
 
 g) In seasons of per.sccution the Deaconesses, it seems, were 
 less exposed to danger, than men, in bringing bodily and spiritual 
 help and comfort to those in prison and under persecution. Thej 
 carried food to the starving, and read to them from the sacred 
 books. In peaceful times they ministered in various ways to the 
 sick, the afflicted, the bereaved, especially among those of their own 
 sex. "They understand," says Tertullian, "the manifold emotions 
 of the human heart, and all things, wherewith a woman can be 
 tried." When christian women were obliged to visit the public 
 baths, the Deaconesses accompanied them. They prepared the bodies 
 of women for burial, and in honor of the dead, rendered whatever 
 service is proper to women. 
 
 h) The Deaconesses seem frequently to have had a part in 'the 
 bringing about of marriages. Their advice was sought, and they 
 especially befriended orphaned girls. At weddings, they attended 
 the bride, as the deacon attended the bridegroom. They were, so to 
 speak, the feelers of the pastoral office in various relations, where 
 access was difficult to the deacons. If they often became the bearers 
 of important letters from the bishops, like Phoebe, when she carried 
 the Epistle to the Romans ov^r land and sea to its destination, it 
 was no doubt for the reason that they were less likely to attract 
 attention, than male messengers. It is supposed that for the same 
 reason, in times of persecution, they had charge of the most valuable 
 possessions of the Church, the sacred books. 
 
 The statement made in the Apostolic Constitutions that "we 
 have need of the Deaconesses for various purposes", is confirmed by 
 the foregoing. It is evident that the customs of the East demanded 
 in a greater measure a diaconate of the sort described, than did 
 those of the Western nations, among whom the intercourse betweern 
 the sexes was much freer. Obviously the strength of the female dia- 
 conate of the early Church did not lie where we recognize woman's 
 chief fitness for service, in the gift of rendering help in every des- 
 cription of need and infirmity (antilepsis). This was the result of 
 the general churchly tendency of that age, but in the end it became 
 fatal to the deaconess cause. 
 
 30. As for the conditions of admission to the deaconess call- 
 ing, the apostolic directions, as given in the Scriptures, especially 
 in Acts 6, no doubt remained in force. For the rest, no honest 
 class was excluded. We hear of Deaconesses from every rank 
 in life, rich and poor, descendants of consuls and senators, mem- 
 bers of distinguished families, and of the laboring class. Accord- 
 ing to the Apostolic Constitutions "a chaste virgin shall be chosen 
 as Deaconess". The conditions of age and life, which obtained in 
 the election of widows, gradually lost their force for the deaconess 
 
- 24 - 
 
 calling. "Modesty of behavior imparts to a maiden the dignity, 
 and a living faith the experience, which none acquire, merely from 
 being old." This was the rule also in the early Church. Olym- 
 pias in Constantinople became a Deaconess, when she was till a 
 verylyouthful widow. Macrina, the sister of Gregoiy of Nyssa, 
 was ordained as a young girl. Chrvsostom desired to ordain a 
 maiden, Nieareta, but she chose in preference the convent life. 
 These and oth(!r known cases prove, that in the selection of Dea- 
 conesses, the same principles were observed, by which we at the 
 present time are guided. 
 
 31. In proportion as the deaconess work became a part of the 
 life of the Church, and the systematic disposition and division of 
 churchly offices took shape, the fixed churchly form for the ordi- 
 nation of Deaconesses was developed. Repeated testimony certifies 
 that a regular ordination took place. It occurred at the chief ser- 
 vice. The candidate was invested with a veil, and Avith bowed 
 head stood, not knelt, before the altar. The bishop, with the lay- 
 ing on of hands, repeated the prayer mentioned above, which is as 
 follows: "Everlasting and merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who hast created men and Avomen for Thy service ; who 
 didst fill with Thy Holy Spirit Miriam and Deborah, Hannah and 
 Huldah ; who didst not disdain that Thine only-begotten Son 
 should be born of a woman ; \\'ho also, in the tabernacle and in 
 the temple, didst ordain Momen to be keepers of Thy holy 
 gate : look graciously down upon these Thy handmaids mIio have 
 been appointed for Thy service; grant them Thy Holy Spirit and 
 cleanse them from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, that they 
 may worthily perform the Mork committed to their hands, for 
 Thine honor and to the praise of Thy Christ, to Avhom, with Thee 
 and the Holy Ghost, be glory and adoration, world without end. 
 Amen." — Deacons aud Deaconesses assisted. The stole, a strip of 
 cloth typifying the yoke of Christ, was placed on the shoulders of 
 the candidate, with the words : "The Lord clothe thee with the 
 garment of His good pleasure." It seems that in some places a ring 
 and a chain for the neck Avere given the Deaconess. The ceremony 
 closed with the celebration of the Holy Communion in both kinds. 
 Afterwards the stole was removed, and not worn again. The con- 
 secrated Deaconesses were reckoned among the clergy, but possessed 
 no priestly rights whatever. 
 
 32. Regarding the Deaconesses' manner of life, we can do little 
 more than conjecture. A strict supervision was exercised. When 
 once they had become Deaconesses, they could not abandon their 
 calling, for instance in order to marry. Even at that early period 
 the principles began to assert themselves, wdiich afterwards 
 in the Romish Church were to govern marriage and ordination. 
 As a matter of course, the servants of the Church were bound, in 
 
— 25 — 
 
 their relations with men, scrupulously to avoid any appearance of 
 evil. Carelessness was punished, sometimes with life-long seclusion. 
 If the Deaconesses possessed property, care was taken that they ad- 
 ministered it properly. They were not peniiitted, to the exclusion 
 of legitimate claims, to enrich churches and institutions. For "if 
 any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own 
 house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." (1. 
 Tim. 5, 8.) This does not however forbid the Deaconesses, with 
 prudence and forethought, to exercise the most liberal beneficence 
 within the Church. They seem not to have worn a specified dress, 
 especially during seasons of persecutions, partly for the reason 
 that it would have served to attract attention. Later on, widows 
 are mentioned as having laid aside the lay habit, and assumed the 
 ecclesiastical dress. Whether this applies to nuns or to Deaco- 
 nesses, cannot well be ascertained. Doubtless the latter, in accor- 
 dance with the directions given by the Apostle, wore a dress, 
 "which becometh women professing godliness with good works." 
 (1. Tim. 2, 10.) A letter of St. Augustine intimates that black 
 was the color preferred. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Ths Rise and Declins of the Diaconate of the early Church. 
 
 33. The deaconess office, as described in the Apostolic Con- 
 stitutions, answered pre-eminently to the requirements of the 
 Greek-Oriental Church. As Phoebe, the deaconess of Cenchrea, 
 sprang from and belonged to the Greek Church, so the entire fe- 
 male diaconate of the early times, had its origin and its growth 
 there. The fourth century marks the period of its highest deve- 
 lopment. When Chrysostom, in 397 — 407, Avas bishop of Con- 
 stantinople, forty deaconesses labored under his direction. Among 
 them were women of noble birth, as Procula, Pentadia and Sylvana. 
 Prominent among them all was Olympias. She was born in the 
 year 368, the daughter of a highly distinguished family ; and in 
 her youth. enjoyed the friendship of the bishop Gregory of Nazianz. 
 After marrying a highstanding imperial officer, Nebridius, she be- 
 came a widow about the year 386. She was beautiful, devout, 
 and possessed of boundless wealth. The Emperor Theodosius 
 wished to give her in marriage to one of his kinsmen, but she re- 
 fused, giving as her reason, that if God had wished her to remain 
 married. He would not have called away her husband. Now, she 
 said, she desired to serve the Lord. The bishop Nectarius con- 
 secrated her to the deaconess office. When the Emperor, incensed 
 at her resistance, confiscated her property, until she should have 
 reached the age of thirty years, she thanked him, saying that he 
 had shown himself, not as an emperor only, but as a bishop, to- 
 ward her, by laying the troublesome administration of her estates 
 upon his own officials, thus relieving her of the care and anxiety 
 in properly using her riches. The Emperor, repenting of his 
 severity, soon afterwards restored her rights. She then exercised 
 so munificent a liberality, that her benevolence was likened to 
 a stream, whence all might draw, and which flowed to the ends 
 of the earth. She herself lived in the greatest simplicity. While 
 Chrysostom Avarns against the dangers besetting women who 
 lead a spiritual life, aa'Iio, having renounced the A'anities of Avorldly 
 dress, now seek by their very simplicity to excel and appear more 
 charming than all others, this danger, seems, in Olympias' case to 
 have been entirely overcome. Her outward simplicity was merely 
 the expression of her saintly simplicity of soul. Her benevolence 
 
— 27 — 
 
 and her ministrations were guided by the pastoral advice of Chry- 
 sostom, that excellent man and bishop. When, because of hi& 
 steadfastness in the faith, he was driven into exile, her path became 
 a thorny one indeed. Wise and 'faithful as she was, she became a 
 support to the adherents in Constantinople of the exiled bishop ; 
 in consequence of which she was traduced by his enemies, and even 
 annoyed with judicial proceedings. Chrysostom, from his place of 
 exile, wrote her many letters, seventeen of which are still extant. 
 They bear abundant testimony to his high appreciation of the 
 deaconess office, and to his faithful, pastoral care of the sisters. 
 On the other hand, they show how strongly the current of a mis- 
 taken work-righteousness, had begun to assert itself within the 
 church. Chrysostom died in exile in the year 409, with the words : 
 "God be praised for all things !" Olympias, admonished by him 
 to bear her cross with patience, was not permitted until the year 
 420, to enter into the rest prepared for the people of God. 
 
 As in the churches of the Greek-Macedonian peninsula, so in 
 those of Asia Minor the diaconate was established. The letters of 
 Ignatius mention the deaconesses of Antioch in Syria. Later 
 testimony is furnished in the lives of the great bishops of Asia 
 Minor, Gregory of Nazianz, Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. Macrina, 
 the sister of the two last-named, was a deaconess. Descended 
 from a noble, christian family, she, as the older sister, and as a 
 woman of high spiritual endowments, exercised great influence 
 upon the religious development and career of her brothers, and 
 after her father's death became her mother's support in times of 
 great sorrow. She was betrothed, but her lover dying, she re- 
 mained unmarried. Consecrated a deaconess, she served in her 
 calling ; but in later years, in company with other, like-minded 
 women, gave herself up to a more conventual and contemplative 
 life, subject to severe discipline. This inclination was favored by 
 the tendency of the time. Her death was very edifying, and mul- 
 titudes accompanied to her grave the sister of two of their most 
 eminent bishops, herself greatly distinguished for the sake of her 
 faith. 
 
 34. That the deaconess office was brought to Italy and 
 especially to Rome, seems to be proven by the mention of Phoebe 
 in the Epistle to the Romans, even though further evidences 
 were wanting. These indeed, are scant. The daughters of a Senator, 
 Praxedis and Pudentiana, gave their house and property to the 
 church, and were deaconesses. The Church of St. Pudentiana, 
 one of the most ancient in Rome, is said to be built ujion the 
 site of the sisters' house. They were buried together, near the 
 Salarian road. Daciana and Theodora were deaconesses, whose 
 tombs are in the catacombs. Other names are Lampadia and 
 Romana, who seem to have been superintending deaconesses. — 
 
— 28 — 
 
 The diaooiiate penetrated even into Gaul and Ireland, yet few de- 
 tails of its fate in those countries are preserved to us. It is said to 
 have been l)rought to Irehuid directly from the East. Whether 
 St. Bridii;et, a contemporary <jf tiie Irish ajMjstle Patrick, Avas a nun 
 or a deaconess, is uncertahi. It appears from her history, almost 
 entirely obscured however by mytiiical additions, that she received 
 churchly consecration, and spent her life in the service of the 
 church and in works of mercy. She died about the year 520, and 
 is buried near the altar in the church at Kildare. In Germany, 
 the regular deaconess-work of the early church does not seem to 
 have found an entrance. 
 
 . 35. In reviewing the above notices upon the spread of the fe- 
 male diaconate in the early church we are struck by the fact, that 
 the broad channel, which it evidently made for itself in the Greek 
 church, became noticeably contracted in the West. If we look 
 aright, it is not because the form assumed by the diaconate in the 
 East, was unsuited to Western conditions. Woman's special 
 gift for the service in the church, the gift of "antilepsis," of 
 rendering help, has its field both in the province of education, and 
 in the relief of the manifold ills of the body. The diaconate of 
 the Greek-Oriental Church was indeed acquainted with the latter 
 form of female ministry ; but it seems not to have especially in- 
 sisted upon, or to have officially developed it. On the other hand 
 the educational features became more prominent, and in a manner 
 which no doubt, greatly resembled the present missionary work of 
 women in India. Most particularly was the deaconess' partici- 
 pation in churchly ordinances encouraged, in accordance with 
 the ecclesiastical conditions of the East. In proportion as the 
 church became the church of the people, by the fact that infant 
 baptism took the place of missionary baptism, a re-organization of 
 the diaconate became necessary ; in the West such a re-organiza- 
 tion would not have become imperative, owing to the freer mutual 
 relation of the sexes. For this however, the church-life no longer 
 possessed sufficient vigor and spontaneity A two-fold tendency 
 then asserted itself, which could not fail to become increasingly 
 disastrous to the diaconate. 
 
 36. The first to make itself felt was the hierarchical tendency 
 of the ecclesiastical office, and of the entire clerical life. We can- 
 not commend it, leading as it did to the radically false position of the 
 Romish priesthood, to the celibacy of the clergy, and to many other 
 errors of the Romish church. In one point this tendency however, 
 cannot be condemned, namely in its opposition to woman's partici- 
 pation in the churchly service in its stricter sense. Under the 
 conditions prevailing in the Orient, and as a makeshift, it might 
 in the beginning have been permitted ; but if the chief strength 
 of the female diaconate of the early church, actually lay in its 
 
— 29 — 
 
 functions at the worship o± the congregation, it was a mistake, and 
 could not bear the test of time. A touching of the hem of the Lord's 
 garment is the most that can be permitted to women. And extreme 
 tact and discretion are required, to prevent even the small minis- 
 trations that may be allowed, from outraging churchly pro- 
 priety. Without any idea on the part of deaconesses of bold 
 intrusion into the province of the pastoral office, — the position 
 held by them, as described by the Apostolic Constitutions, was 
 sufficient to make a change imperative. The female diaconate of 
 the early church approached too near the ''altar ;" withdrew too 
 far from the "doors ;" it took upon itself too much of the ministry 
 in the church, at the expense of the ministry in the congregation. 
 Doubtless, here lies the cause of its decline, which could have been 
 avoided only by a radical re-organization. But that the latter had 
 become impossible ; that in this respect the church-life was no lon- 
 ger sufficiently pure and strong, may be chiefly attributed to the 
 prevailing tendency of spiritual life, which we usually designate as 
 a ffdsely ascetic renunciation of the zvorld, and mortification of the 
 flesh. 
 
 The unregenerate man is self-righteous. Therefore it is easy 
 to conceive that notwithstanding the clear testimony of God's 
 word, the christian life is «.'ontinually in danger of lapsing into 
 work- and self-righteousness, however refined. Where this ten- 
 dency is changed into a seeking after genuine spiritual righte- 
 ousness, in conformity with the divine law, it is aided by the con- 
 stant realization of sin and grace, as experienced by St. Paul. But 
 it is only too ready, to be(!ome externalized into ordinances and 
 achievements, by means of which, even in the times of Old Testa- 
 ment Judaism, it succeeded in maintaining its ascendency. When 
 the tendency to work-righteousness became increasingly predomi- 
 nant in the early church, it sought at first to satisfy itself by the ex- 
 ercise of outward renunciation. Thus originated the life of the hermit 
 and of the monk. Persons bound themselves by vows, to renounce 
 marriage, wealth and their own desires. They endeavored to over- 
 come the resistance of nature by mortification of the flesh ; over- 
 looking the fact, that outward renunciation differs wholly from in- 
 ward sanctification. At all events, the form taken by monasticism 
 was, and continued to be alltogether unevangelical. We admit that 
 the convents of old were productive of much good, and that a 
 withdrawal from the world, in view of the rude and stormy con- 
 dition of society, was in a measure justifiable. We are even in- 
 clined to believe that a certain cultivation of the associated life, 
 within judicious limits, is at all times of great importance for the 
 church ; and cannot, without loss, be entirely dispensed with. Yet 
 the monastic tendency, which in the olden time commended itself 
 to women especially, could not fail to prove the grave of the 
 
— 80 — 
 
 female diaconatc. In the same measure, as the latter in its true 
 form led its members abroad, into the life of the conr^regation, the 
 monastic life became its ruin. And yet it was precisely the asso- 
 ciative feature of conventual life, which in the fidlness of time, 
 became the protecting- envelope, out of which the female diaconate 
 blossomed into new life. It was not the outward form of convent 
 life which was at fault, but rather the false ascetic principle which 
 governed it, and which caused the diaconate of the early church, 
 unable to adapt itself to changed conditions, to perish rapidly. 
 
 37. In the East, the diaconate reached its highest develop- 
 ment during the fourth century, after which it fell into decline. 
 In the AVest, being less deeply rooted in the life of the church, its 
 decay was more rapid. We occasionally meet with indications of 
 the suspicion with which deaconesses came to be regtirded. Their 
 mode of life did not offer the same safeguards as did the seclusion 
 of the convent ; therefore the age-limit, at which they were entitled 
 to churchly ordination, was set forward. It has even occured, 
 that deaconesses, who married after their consecration, w(u-e pun- 
 ished with death. As early as the middle of the fourth century, 
 an isolated decree of the council of Laodicea forbade the ordination 
 of deaconesses. Such prohibitions were repeated in the fifth cen- 
 tury by Galilean provincial synods ; to be effective, of course only 
 within their own restricted limits. In Gaul itself we hear of the 
 ordination of a deaconess, as late as the sixth century. Yet these 
 prohibitions are significant indications of the general drift of 
 opinion. When the churchly ordination of deaconesses was dis- 
 continued, their calling became a mere private affair. And so it 
 happened, that after the eighth century the female diaconate came 
 to be practically unknown in the West. In the tenth century, the 
 priest Ambrose, in JNIilan, wrote a letter in which he asks the 
 meaning of the term presbyteress or deaconess, occuring in an 
 episcopal decree. He knew nothing whatever of the office. In 
 the East, notwithstanding the occasional early instances of opposi- 
 tion to the ordination of deaconesses, the diaconate sustained itself 
 longer. In Constantinople there were deaconesses in the twelfth 
 century, and there still exists in that city a church, known as the 
 "Church of the Deaconesses." In other centers of the Greek- 
 Oriental church, the diaconate seems at that time to have wholly 
 disappeared. A famous teacher of canon-law in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, Balsamon, writes that in former times deaconesses had been 
 acknowledged by the canons, and even had access to the altar ; 
 while herefrom, he adds, women are debarred, by reason of their 
 sex. In the holy congregation of the capitol, Constantinople, 
 deaconesses continued to be elected, without however, being per- 
 mitted access to the altar. They met together on frequent occa- 
 sions, and presided at the churchly assemblies of women. These 
 were not ordained. 
 
_ 31 — 
 
 38. Notwithstanding the disfavor of the times, various memo- 
 ries of the early diaconate have survived. In the convents, the 
 sister who has charge of the cleaning of the church, and guards 
 the door, is called the "deaconess." And in certain commtniities, 
 which, on account of divergent doctrinal views seceded from the 
 orthodox church, the office itself continued in force. The Jacobites 
 of the Syrian church, under their leader Jacob Baradai or Zanzalus, 
 about the middle of the sixth century, rejected the doctrine of the 
 twofold nature of Christ. The diaconate was preserved among 
 them, essentially the same as in the early church. Their patriarch 
 Michael, in the twelfth century, gave the bishops renewed permis- 
 sion to ordain deaconesses, because they were needed. The same 
 Avas the case among the Nestorians, a community which separated 
 from the church under Nestorius when in the year 431, the council 
 of Ephesus rejected his doctrine of the separation of the two na- 
 tures ot Christ. Regulations for the ordination of deaconesses, 
 compiled l)y this sect about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 are still in existence, and closely resemble those of the early church. 
 The deaconess is to be taken from a convent, is to be forty to sixty 
 years of age, and well recommended. The ordination prayer is 
 recited by the bishop, who places his hands upon the head of the 
 candidate standing before the altar. It is an imitation of the 
 ancient prayer of consecration, with a strong flavor of work-righte- 
 ousness. The ceremony closes with the admonition to the newly- 
 eonsecrated deaconess, to guard herself against pride. 
 
 More important than these petrified remains, seems to us a 
 little branch springing from the Germanic church, otherwise al- 
 most untouched by the ancient diaconate, and which greets us as a 
 blossom prophecying a new Spring-time for woman's service in the 
 church. 
 
 39. In the middle of the seventh century there ruled in 
 Alsace a duke Attich, who commanded his first-born child, a 
 daughter, reported to have been born blind, to be ])ut to death. 
 The mother rescued the child, and secretly placed it in a convent, 
 where it was baptized, and, it is said, after baptism became see- 
 ing. The little one received the name Odilia. Hugh, one of her 
 later-born brothers, meeting her, after she was grown to Moman- 
 hood, he ventured to introduce her to their father, who then resided 
 in the Castle of Hohenburg. In his anger, the duke struck his 
 son so violently, that he died soon after. Th(>n the duke's hard 
 heart was softened. He did not a second time repudiate his daugh- 
 ter. To be sure, she was not of a mind to please her father. Her 
 heart was aflame with the love of Jesus. Instead of yielding to 
 her father, who wished to give her in marriage to a princely suitor, 
 her heart was set upon a life wholly devoted to the service of the 
 Lord. After long resistance, her parents finally yielded. Odilia 
 
— 82 — 
 
 then gathered around her at Hohenburg believing maidens for 
 mutual improvement in christian knowledge, and for works of 
 charity. Their number increased to one hundred and thirty. Her 
 parents took an ever livelier interest in her efforts. Odilia was 
 under the guidance of Scottish and Irish missionaries, who, more 
 than was generally the case, had kept aloof from Romish influence. 
 This may explain why she, altiiough a daughter of her time, yet 
 found no satisfaction in the self-righteous asceticism, the merely 
 contemplative life of the convent. She gave her sisters no rules. 
 " We should bind no one but ourselves," slie said, ''and be mind- 
 ful of those who come after us." Mortifications of the flesh and 
 severe penances were not practised, for "not that which enfeebles 
 the body, but that which purifies the soul, should be our aim." 
 The requirements of holy charity furnish sufficient bodily labor, 
 exercise and discipline. The foundation Hohenburg became 
 wealthy. Many of the poor, the sick and infirm being unable to 
 climb the hill, Odilia established a colony at its foot, from whence 
 the sisters could, without great lossof time visit the sick and needy, 
 A hospice, a hospital and an almshouse, together with a church 
 and a home for the sisters were built here, and in contrast to 
 Hohenburg, the settlement was named Niedermuenster, Odilia 
 superintended her sisterhood for forty years. She nursed her 
 parents, and was the comfort of their old age. Many of her kins- 
 people also entered tlie service of the church, and founded institu- 
 tions in her spirit. On December 13th, 720, after receiving the 
 Holy Communion in both kinds, she fell asleep in Christ, sur- 
 rounded by her sisters. Her death took place in the Hall of St. 
 John, at Hohenburg. She was afterwards canonized, the pope 
 appointing her patron-saint of Alsace, and placing her foundations 
 under Benedictine rule. For this she is not answerable. A few 
 miles from Strasburg, the ruins of "Odilia's Convent" are still to 
 be seen. 
 
 Odilia was not a deaconess in the sense of the early church, 
 nor yet a nun in the sense of the Romish Church, of that or of a 
 later day. Compared with the Irish Bridget, she seems as a flower, 
 compared to the bud. On the other hand, her work seems a pro- 
 phecy of the form in which, centuries later, a new future was 
 granted to the churchly ministry of women ; corresponding alike 
 to the needs of the church, to the Word of God, and to woman's 
 capability, A german, princely woman, following Jesus, Odilia 
 stands outside of the more and more strongly marked opposing 
 tendencies of the church, — half-way between the female diaconate 
 of the past and the present ; a genuine deaconess figure, springing 
 like a flower from the deep soil of the church, ever and indestruct- 
 ibly the same. 
 
CHAPTER VI. I 
 
 Ths Renewal of Woman's Ministry in the Romish Church. 
 
 40. In ^evie^villg the history of the female diaconate, the 
 corresponding' developments in the Romish Church should un- 
 doubtedly be considered also. They have directly and effectively 
 influenced the modern protestant form of the diaconate. A correct 
 appreciation of the latter will therefore be impossible, without a 
 knowledge of the former. 
 
 As a matter of fact, after the early centuries, during and after 
 the Middle Ages, women were prac^tically excluded from the 
 charitable work of the Church. The passages of Scripture, especially 
 of the New Testament, which refer to the female diaconate, cite 
 as its center, the exercise of mercy, which is in harmony with the 
 manifest abilities of women. But, as we have seen, even the female 
 diaconate of the early Church, in its later development, no longer 
 possessed this center. The exercise of mercy fell more exclusively 
 to the share of the bishops and their deacons. Later on, their 
 place was taken by the monastic, and afterwards by the chivalrous 
 and civic orders, specially organized for the care of the sick and the 
 poor. That in all ages devout women have practiced mercy, that 
 they have used their gifts in the education of children, in the re- 
 lief of suffering and destitution, is certain. It was this gift that 
 led to an activity like Odilia's, which yet, as an exceptional instance, 
 stands out the more prominently from the general tendency of the 
 time. This tendency absolutely discountenanced all public and 
 churchly ministry on the part of unmarried women, whether in 
 the immediate service of the sanctuary, or in the exercise of mercy 
 (antilepsis). From the close of the early period to the end of the 
 twelfth century, this state of affairs seems to have formed the rule. 
 Then a change began to take place, A^•hich very gradually led to 
 fixed and generally acknowledged organizations. Our chief interest 
 in the history of woman's ministry in the Romish Church, lies in 
 the progress and consummation ot this change. 
 
 41. If we ask, why women in the Medieval Church were ex- 
 cluded from all public activity, not only from the service of the 
 sanctuary in its stricter sense, but also from the churchly exercise of 
 mercy, we do not find that the reason lies in the principles of con- 
 ventual asceticism and renunciation of the world. If it did, monks 
 
— 34 — 
 
 Would have heen similarly debarred. The <i;ro\ving pn-doininence of 
 work-riiyhteousness prevented the exercise of mercy in the j)ro|)er 
 spirit, l)ut to the work itself this tendency was rather favorable 
 than otherwise. While this tendency alike prevailed in the convents 
 of monks and of nuns, and throuirhout these centuries the form 
 unitini"; convent life and charital)le activity, so eminently conj^enial 
 to woman's nature, Avas yet not discovered, — the reason nuist be 
 songht in the conditions of the age. Marriage or the con- 
 vent were the two alternatives o})en to women. The unmarried 
 woman was relegated to the convent; and convent-life, although 
 not of necessity, excluded women from all public activity. The 
 times were too disordcrlv, the manners too rude, for Christian young 
 woman to go abroad unhindered and witliout danger. So long as 
 the fact that she was a member of a closely compacted association 
 was insutheient to protect her ; so long as sv>cIusion behind high 
 walls was necessary, so long the condition of society forbade a 
 pul)lic, churchly activity on her |)art. 
 
 4'2. In the Middle Ages it was only women of high degree, 
 who, protected by power and rank, first vcnttired out into the 
 world with deeds of charity. Among the names handed down to 
 us is that of Ida of Herzfeld, of Frankish descent, who lived 
 Avith her husband, Count Ekbert, in Saxony, near the river Lippe. 
 After she became a widow, she wore the veil, but without entering 
 a convent, and gave herself up wholly to a life of charity and 
 praver. The church at Herzfeld, which she founded, and after 
 which she was named by the i)eoj)le, was the scene of her activity. 
 Here she built a cloistered walk, and in it she had placed the stone 
 sarcophagus, which Avas one day to be her own T^vice each day 
 this was filled with gifts, which she herself, with the assistance of 
 a devoted priest, distributed to the needy and destitute, who came 
 from far and near to share her bounty. She died nl)out the year 820. 
 Another name is more familiar, — that of (iueen Matilda, the Avife 
 of Henry I., and the mother of the Emperor Otho the Great. She 
 Avas of the race of the Saxon Duke Wittekind, and was born about 
 the year 890. She Avas educated in the convent of Hcrford, under 
 the supervision of her grandmother, who in her widowhood had 
 taken the veil. She married about 909. In the course of her 
 happy, God-fearing married life, sh^ and her husband founded the 
 church and abbey at Quedlinburg, where they lie buried side 
 by side. She was a widoAV for more than thirty years, and ex- 
 perienced many of life's greatest joys and deepest sorroAVS. Numer- 
 ous foundations owe their origin to this pious and unweariedly 
 active Avoman, especially nunneries, Avhich she endeavored to con- 
 vert into "walled castles and nurseries of a holy christian life in a vio- 
 lent and tempestuous age." There the innocent Avere to find a refuge, 
 the needy help, the suffering consolation. From them a higher 
 
-- 35 — 
 
 intellectual and spiritual culture was to radiate throughout the land 
 Convents and schools were to be identical. The royal lady sought 
 strength in prayer for her manifold and far-reaching activity, and 
 was a touching example of industry and labor. Everywhere, 
 at home and on journeys, she sought out the poor, assisted the 
 traveller, visited the homes of the sick, and herself instructed her 
 servants, especially in the art of reading. If during the day she had 
 been unable to accomplish any handiwork, she reproached herself, 
 since "if any would not work, ■ neither should he eat." Beside her 
 eager care for the highest good, she was not wanting in fidelity to 
 her earthly household ; and in her humility and her dignity, was 
 the object of the reverent admiration of her contemporaries. She 
 died in the year 968. 
 
 We sec IVom these isolated examples, how Christian women 
 were drawn by their own hearts to the service and imitation of Him, 
 who first loved them. But if the Church was to be able to meet 
 with general rules this bent of woman's mind, it was necessary 
 that the times should change. Only toward the end of the twelfth 
 century do we find distinct indications, that a new era is actually 
 at hand. 
 
 43. Souls were more than ever attracted to convent life, as a 
 harbor of refuge, and a means of certain salvation. In proportion 
 to the growing degeneracy, justification by means of works and of 
 mistaken, self-righteous penances assumed more definite shape. Per- 
 sons were also permitied to connect themselves with the monastic 
 life after the freer manner of the so-called Tertiaries, whose ad- 
 herents lived in seclusion in the midst of the world. This order 
 of Tertiaries found great favor, especially among ^vomen. And 
 quite as a mattter of course, women living according to this rule 
 came to practise such works of mercy as were consistent with 
 asceticism. All this is significant. This re-organization of the life 
 of christian women, which gradually came about, was by no means 
 confined to those of the higher classes, although it is mostly with 
 these that history makes us acquainted. — The Duchess Hedwig of 
 Silesia is said only once in forty years, during an illness, to have 
 eaten meat. She daily fed thirteen beggars, often upon her knees. 
 She cleansed and kissed the sores of lepers, and was distinguished 
 by her patience, calmness and peace of soul After the death of 
 her husband, she entered a convent which she had founded, and of 
 which her daughter was the abbess. She died in 1243. — The 
 daughter of her sister, Queen Gertrude of Hungary, was St. Eliza- 
 beth, Landgravine of Thuringia, whose figure is surrounded by a 
 halo of poetic traditions. More than all others, she became to the 
 German people the embodiment of woman's calling, which consists 
 in serving the Saviour by works of mercy toward the least of His 
 members. 
 
— 86 — 
 
 Elizabeth was born at Prcsbiirji; in lliint^ary, in t lie year 1207 ; 
 at the a^e of four years she was betrothed to the son of the Land- 
 grave Herman of Thuringia, and taken to the Wartbnrg, near 
 Eisenach. The AYartburo;: was then a center of courtly (uilture, of 
 poetry and ])leasure. Thus Elizabeth urew up amid brilliant 
 surroundings, and was a haj)py child ; but even in her childish 
 play, the serious bent of her character unconsciously asserted 
 itself Her betrothed, the Landgrave Ludwig, succeeded his father 
 in 1216. Five years later, the youth of twenty was married to 
 Elizabeth, then fourteen years of age. liudwig sympathized with 
 the seriousness of his humble, pious wife, and their marriage was 
 a very happy one. P^lizabeth inaugurated an increasingly lavish 
 exercise of mercy, and soon became the refuge of all the needy and 
 suffering. Her charitable activity reached its climax during the 
 prevalence of a famine. She also built a hospital at Eisenach, for 
 twenty-four patients. Her confessor, Conrad of Marburg, then 
 Grand Inquisitor of Germany, gradually gained great influence 
 over her. The Landgrave permitted her, with reservation of liis 
 own rights, to vow absolute obedience to the confessor. She be- 
 gan to subject herself to severe tortures, which, later on, Conrad 
 inflicted with his own hands. But all these shadows cannot obscure 
 the image of her exquisite humility, piety and compassion. She 
 had three children. In the year 1227, Ludwig died in Italy, while 
 preparing a crusade. When the tidings reached her, Eliza!)eth 
 exclaimed : "Dead is to me also the world, with its joys and j)leas- 
 ures." Much trouble was in store for her. Her husband's brother, 
 Henry Raspe, seized upon the sovereignty, and banished her and 
 her children. Fear of the usurper made her everywhere unwel- 
 come, and she wandered about in great poverty, until her brother- 
 in-law, at her petition, granted her the castle of Marburg on the 
 Lahn as her widow's seat and property. Here she lived from 
 1229 to 1231, wearing the gray habit of a Tertiary Sister. She oc- 
 cupied a humble cottage, and with her own means founded an 
 almshouse and hospital in Marburg. Urged by Conrad, she parted 
 from her children, and became a model of the severest self-mortifl- 
 cation and austerity. As early as 1235, she was canonized, and a 
 splendid church was erected to her memory. This pro\es, how 
 deeply the public sentiment was touched by such unreserved sur- 
 render and devoted following of Christ's example. Even though 
 many features of her piety were false and exaggerated, the motive 
 wascertainly genuine, — the faith and the love, the humility, and the 
 longing wholly to yield herself to Chiist, and to serve Him among 
 His lowliest members. Such an example could not fail to And 
 followers. St. Elizabeth therefore belongs to the history of the 
 female diaconate, although she had no idea of a deaconess office. 
 She marks the beginning of a period, from which we may practi- 
 
— 37 — 
 
 cally date a re-organization of the life of christian womanhood, 
 and of woman's service in the Church. That this period had in 
 fact arrived, is proven by the establishment of the Beguine Houses. 
 44. At Liege, in Belgium, there lived a priest, named Lam- 
 bert, and surnamed "le begue", the stammerer. He preached forcibly 
 against the moral depravity of the age, to which the clergy fre- 
 quently granted immunity. He owned a small garden outside of 
 the city, where he built a number of little houses, in the midst of 
 Avhich, in 1184, a church was erected, and consecrated to St. 
 Christopher. The whole establishment was given over to a com- 
 munity of pious women. After many persecutions, suffered be- 
 cause of his preaching, he died in 1187, and is said to have been 
 buried under the high-altar of St. Christopher's. It has of late 
 been questioned, whether the name and origin of the B^guine 
 Houses are really to Ijc traced to him. At all events, during the 
 12th and 13th centuries, these houses greatly multiplied through- 
 out Belgium and the Netherlands ; southward, along the Rhine, 
 and also in France and Italy. In Germany they do not seem to 
 have extended farther northward than Hamburg. The crusades 
 made many widows ; these, and many unmarried women sought 
 refuge in religious communities. In many cases they took the 
 vows of obedience and chastity, without binding themselves for 
 life. The novel feature of this period is, that such a free form of con- 
 vent life had become safe for women. The Beguines lived separately 
 in small houses built closely together, their doors marked with a 
 cross. Often such houses formed an extensive colony, placed 
 under the superintendency of a priest, who was assisted by 
 a "matron". The Sisters at first wore no distinctive dress, but later 
 on a brown, bluish-gray or black habit and a veil, were worn. 
 Some Begnine Institutions were obliged to earn their own support, 
 — others were wealthy. In addition to handiwork of all kinds, 
 they were employed in the instruction of little children ; in nurs- 
 ing the sick, for whom they frequently founded their own hospitals ; 
 in the dressing of the dead ; as peace-makers in quarrels, and in 
 rendering such assistance as they were able, to the priests in their 
 pastoral work. Their church-life w^as zealous and earnest. Dur- 
 ing the period of their highest development, they accomplished a 
 vast amount of good. They were permitted to separate from the 
 community in order to marry, and retained the use of their property. 
 Their manner of living was free from the rigid asceticism, which 
 often governed the convents. A considerable resemblance between 
 them and the diaconate of our day is unmistakable ; with this ex- 
 ception however, that the associative, religious life and conventual 
 contemplativeness are not with the deaconesses, as they were with 
 the Beguines, the foremost object in the formation of the Sisterhood. 
 To the Beguine Houses corresponded similar coummunities of men, 
 
— 38 — 
 
 who were called lioghards. In tlie course of" time, the I^ogiiine 
 IIoiisi s became the ohjoets of suspicion and ])erseciiti(>ii. The 
 nuiHi'i'ies cast envious eves upon tlieir prosjx'rity ; an<l the age 
 Avas such, that the Beguines tliemselves could not withstand the 
 prevalent religions demoralization. Laziness, mendicancy and un- 
 ruly behavior aj)peared among them ; they gave themselves uj) to 
 great spiritual pride ; and all manner of" heresies and peculiar 
 notions found a ready entrance in the secluded houses. It is easy 
 therefore, to understand the disfavor in which these conunuuities 
 were held by the j)opes. In the Netherlands they accepted the 
 Kcformation, and have continued to the present time, — but their 
 numbers are fast diminishing. If we ask why they repeatedly be- 
 came the objects of frequent and severe ecclesiastical censure, 
 it is certain that the preponderance of the meditative life, as well 
 as the lack of discipline, were the causes of their decay. Yet a 
 strong, wholesome leaven must have dwelt within these com- 
 munities, otherwise they would not have enjoyed so prolonged an 
 existence. 
 
 4'). To the improvement of morals, without which the Be- 
 guine communities would have been im[)ossil)le, was added, in the 
 14th and loth century, a reformatory tendency. A new, spiritual 
 life seized upon many souls, and formed a strong contrast to the 
 misrule and corruption, Avhich everywhere, in the convents, among 
 the clergy and congregations, made itself felt. This movement also 
 led to a renewal of woman's churchly life, with which the Beguinc 
 Houses were undoubtedly connected. Again it is the Netherlands, 
 to which attention is directed. In 1840 there lived at Deventer a 
 priest, Gerard Groot. After experiencing a thorough conversion, he 
 sought, by the austerity of his life and by his jjreaching, to awaken 
 a desire for holiness and discipline. He too had to endure much 
 hatred and persecution, especiall}' from the w^orldly-minded clergy. 
 His life-work was continued in a brotherhood, to which was after- 
 wards added a sisterhood. Like the B6guines, the "Sisters of Com- 
 mon Life", took no life-long vows. They differed from the former, 
 in that a less degree of independence in the conduct of their own life, 
 was permitted to the individual Sisters. They had home and purse 
 in common, supported themselves by handiwork and teaching, and 
 also engaged in sick-nursing. Obedience, humility and kindliness 
 were the virtues they aimed at. Sometimes their numbers Avere 
 very large, and during the first half of the fifteenth century they 
 had eighty-seven houses, which Avere governed by rectors. The 
 book "Of the Imitation of Christ", Avhose author is Thomas a 
 Kempis, bears Avitness to the spirit in Avhich the Sisters vieAved the 
 associated life. This little book has come to us from one of these 
 communities. 
 
 The Brigittine order, Avhich originated in Sweden, seems, in 
 
- 39 — 
 
 the beginning at least, to have had some affinity with the Sister- 
 liood of the Common Life. Bridget, the daughter of a prominent 
 Swedish official, was born in tlie year 1302, and grew up amid 
 surroundings of varied mental and spiritual culture. 8he was ex- 
 ceedingly gifted, — worldly-wise and strong-willed, poetic and 
 enthusiastic. From her eighth year, she fancied that she saw- 
 visions, and heard the voice ot the Lord, whose death npon the 
 cross moved her deeply. She married ; became the mother of eight 
 children ; was for a time grand mistress of the royal conrt ; made 
 numerous pilgrimages with her husband, one of Avhich extended to 
 Italy ; and, after she became a widow, lived in a convent, without 
 taking the vows. She was very learned, and revered as a prophetess 
 by tlie people. Her favorite wish Avas to found an order for the 
 renewal of the -Scandinavian Church. The king aided her in 
 her undertaking. A convent was established at Vadstena, and 
 Bridget's daughter became its first abbess. The rules of the order 
 Bridget fancied she had received from the Lord Himself, and she 
 obtained their confirmation in Rome, whither she journeyed with 
 her son and daughter. She afterwards made a pilgrimage to Jeru- 
 salem, and on her return died at Rome, with the words : "Lord 
 Jesus, unto Thee I commend my spirit." The order founded by 
 her sought to promote popular ])reaehing, education, and pastoral 
 care of souls ; it also endeavored to exert an iniiuence by means of 
 devotional books, among others, by the translation of the Holy 
 Scriptures. The order, which also included monks, enjoyed great 
 prosperity, which was followed by a speedy decline. The Brigit- 
 tines were indeed nuns, but their characteristic feature was, that 
 their communities recognized it as their prime object, to exert an in- 
 fluence upon the christian people. The attempt is scarcely to be 
 considered successful, the usual style of convent life soon becom- 
 ing predominant. But in itself the undertaking was significant of 
 the spirit of the time. Xeither the Beguines nor the Sisters of the 
 Common Life, so decidedly as Bridget, claimed general influence 
 as the object of their associated life. 
 
 It is noticeable that the reformatory current, returning, more 
 directly than was usual in the Church, to the word of God, became 
 a power in shaping woman's life in the direction of her cooperation 
 in the Avork of the Church. We meet with germs and seeds, for 
 whose continued growth the soil was as yet not sufficiently prepared. 
 The Church before the Reformation is the Catholic Church, from 
 which the reforming element has not yet separated itself, and Avhich 
 therefore, in virtue of that element, is justly claimed by Protestants 
 as well as by Romanists. 
 
 46. Let us cast a glance backwards. Monasticism and the 
 hierarchy had undone the diaconate of the early Church. Yet it 
 bore within itself the seeds of destruction, lacking as it did, the 
 
— 40 — 
 
 ability to renew itself in conformity with new requirements. It 
 h;ul swerved from the line of healthy development. Its chief 
 streniith lay, not where alone it must lie, in the exercise of mercy, 
 and in the various manifestations of womanly charity (antilepsis). 
 The })astoral office, however jealously it guards its rights, will 
 scarcely, in a rightly constituted diaconate, see competition, but 
 rather an important auxiliary. As the conditions then were, the 
 deaconess cause of the eai'ly Church went to ruin. The striving 
 after christian perfection insisted upon renunciation, rather than 
 upon the exercise of holy charity ; although it would seem obvious 
 that asceticism and renunciation of the world woidd include the 
 exercise of mercy, as the healthiest of all means for the subduing of 
 the uriregenerate man. Hereto was added the growing insecurity 
 of public affairs, during the agitated periods attending the decay 
 of the ancient culture and the opening of a new era. We have 
 seen that, as soon as the times and manners improved, new begin- 
 nings of woman's churchly activity appeared. And now indeed its 
 final direction was given it, which could be no other than the care 
 of the sick and the helpless of every description. Under the breath- 
 ing of the reforming spirit, the narrow sphere of woman's conven- 
 tual life was broadened, and it became the sheltering home of mi- 
 nistering, merciful love. It is significant that, simultaneously with 
 the Sisters of the Common Life, an association was organized, solely 
 devoted to the nursing of sick women. It was a society of Ter- 
 tiarian women, established in 1395, at Foligno, which did not how- 
 ever acquire a very wide-spread popularity. Its members were 
 known as Daughters, or Sisters of Mercy ; they also called them- 
 selves after St. Elizabeth. Thus we see, that primarily in the 
 Church of Rome the transformation has been accomplished, which 
 was a condition of the renewal of woman's ministry. Neverthe- 
 less, two hundred years again elapsed, before this Church had per- 
 fected that form of woman's churchly activity, which, in its essential 
 features, exists to this day. It is possible that the negative attitude 
 of the reformation exerted an obstructing influence,. On the 
 other hand, the reformatory spirit, even where it did not cause the 
 Church, in repentance and change of life to submit itself to the 
 Word of God, and renew its conduct and doctrine, yet every where 
 called forth an increased vitality. The great means of power, 
 which the Romish Church possesses in her orders and organiza- 
 tion, at the given time placed themselves at the service of practi- 
 cal endeavor ; and this Church has ever understood how to utilize 
 whatever the period offered, for her purposes. Without doubt, the 
 form which Romanism has adopted for woman's public churchly 
 ministry, is a pattern for all times. It is the form of the close com- 
 munity, without cloistral seclusion, which grants to unmarried 
 women protection, a freedom sufficient to employ her abundant 
 
— 41 — 
 
 gifts in the service of humanity. In making this statement, it is 
 needless to emphasize, that Ave by no means agree with the spirit 
 which in the Romish Church penetrates the form and essence of 
 woman's ministry, shaping and controlling its details. 
 
 47. Vincent de Paul, the founder of the Romish order of the 
 Sisters of Mercy, is among the most remarkable personages in the 
 Church-history of all times. The son ot a peasant, he was born on 
 April 24, 1576, at Pony in Gascony, and at the age of twelve was 
 placed with the Franciscan monks for instruction. He studied at 
 Toulouse and took holy orders. His inclination to self-sacrificing 
 works of mercy early became apparent. An inheritance coming to 
 him, he at once gave three-fourths of it to the man who paid him the 
 sum, and who was in need of money. When he was captured by 
 pirates and carried as a slave to Tunis, he by his conduct prevailed 
 upon his master, a renegade, to return to the Christian faith. The 
 hearts of high and low inclined to him. He went to Rome and to 
 Paris. He became court-preacher to the Queen; then parish- 
 priest ; afterwards tutor in a noble family, and again parish-priest. 
 He fell into doubts, which he overcame ; and in all the vicissitudes 
 of his life continued always the same, a man in whom the love of 
 Jesus was noticeable in a rare degree. After he had vowed to the 
 Saviour to devote his life to the service of the poor, he developed 
 an ever increasing activity in this direction. The familv of the 
 Count of Gondy, of great wealth and piety, whose son he had edu- 
 cated, aided him in his labors. Abundant means flowed into his 
 treasury, and many souls were awakened. When one dav in the 
 pulpit, he asked assistance for a poor family, money was offered in 
 such abundance, that it became necessary to introduce some sort of 
 system in its distribution. He then founded an association of wo- 
 men for personal, continuous care of the poor, — a sort of Women's 
 Society (confrerie de la charite). Associations of this description 
 quickly multiplied. Vincent concerned himself especiallv with the 
 prisoners and galley slaves, for the sake of one of whom, it is said 
 he once allowed himself to be put in irons as a prisoner. He also 
 waged an. effectual war against mendicancy. For pastoral work 
 among the poor and humble, he founded a society, the ''mission- 
 priests", in whose training and guidance he demonstrated his own 
 eminent, practical gifts, himself ever the most humble and self- 
 denying of them all. His influence grew equally in times of war 
 and peace, extending to ever wider circles. He died on September 
 27, 1660, and seventy-seven years later was canonized bv the pope. 
 His most famous and influential foundation was that of the order 
 of the Sisters of Mercy. 
 
 It very soon showed itself, that the women's associations were 
 not able to carry on a really thorough and systematic oversight of 
 the poor and destitute, although — or perhaps because — it had be- 
 
— 42 — 
 
 came the i'ashion, to engai^re in these duties. Many an enthusiastic 
 beiiinniiiii; liad jn'oved but a ilanie of straw; and many a hij^h-born 
 ladv soon loft the exercise of her cliaritable duties to her maid. 
 Vincent perceived tliat what was chiefly needed, was not hirge 
 numbers of women, l)ut rather the absohite self-surrender of indi- 
 viduals. The [)ious widow of Count Legras had for some time 
 devoted herself to the care of the poor, to whom she brouj^ht 
 bodilv help and spiritual comfort. Vincent made her acquain- 
 tance, and, after proving her ability, induced her to become the 
 su])erior of a sisterhood (1625). This sisterhood was confirmed in 
 1G3;> by the arch-bishop of Paris; and its members, called from 
 their dress, the "grey Sisters" (soeurs grises) soon s])read over 
 many towns of France and other countries. According to the rules 
 laid down bv Vincent himself, the Sisters were to see in every suf- 
 ferer the Saviour Himself They must rise at four in the morn- 
 ino- twice each dav engage in silent prayer, render willing service 
 to "those alflicted with loathsome diseases, and submit with uncon- 
 ditional obedience to their superiors. They were not to be nuns, 
 nor bound by life-long vows ; but after a five years' probation, 
 were to take a vow of obedience, to be renewed each year. They 
 were to come and go, wherever they were needed. The hospitals 
 were to be their convents; the sick-wards their cells; their chai)el, 
 the parish-church ; their cloisters, the streets of the town ; their 
 vow obedience ; their grille, the fear of God ; their veil, holy mo- 
 desty. 
 
 48. According to the rule of the order established by Vincent, 
 the Sisters of Mercy remind us in many respects of the diaconate 
 of the early Church, in so far as the latter numbered among its du- 
 ties the exercise of mercy. The rules, however, did not remain as 
 orio-inally made, but were altered in later times, to conform with 
 the'^monastic ideal. A rule of the order, approved in our century 
 by the pope, provides that the Sisters shall rise daily at four, — on 
 one day of the week an hour later. At half past four, morning 
 prayer is said. From four to seven, from eleven to twelve, from 
 two to three, and from eight in the evening, the Sisters observe a holy 
 silence amono- themselves. The day begins with the hearing of mass ; 
 then follows*^ breakfast, after wliieh each one goes to her work. 
 At half-past eleven is self-examination. At noon they dine, three 
 quarters of an hour being allowed for this meal, during which, and 
 also durino- supper, one of them reads aloud from an edifiying book. 
 At two there is a short lecture, at three adoration of the cross ; at 
 half-past four, evening meditation and self-examination, at five, 
 supper. This rule, given for a certain diocese, probably does not 
 apply in all its particulars, to the entire order, although similar 
 directions are everywhere in force. It is difficult to understand; 
 how the Sisters,with such cutting up of their time, can accomplish 
 
— 48 — 
 
 nuich. Yet they have devolo})edan activity, which is truly surpris- 
 ing. The power of adaptability, peculiar to the Romish Church 
 is no doubt, in a high degree ])eculiar also to this order. 
 
 Vincent lived to see his sisterhood possess m Paris alone 28 
 Houses. The growth of the order has subsequently progressed in 
 a similar manner. Its importance, notably in France, cannot be 
 overestimated. In that country, the care of the sick underwent a 
 complete revolution. Even a scoffer like Voltaire was obliged to 
 confess, that nothing on earth was greater than the sacrifice of phy- 
 sical advantages, youth and olten noble birth, made by the weaker 
 sex, for the sake of relieving human misery, the sight of which 
 is so humiliating to our pride, so offensive to our luxurious senses. 
 Nevertheless, during the French revolution, a persecution broke 
 out against the order. The Sisters were made to endure tortures 
 of every kind, di^honor, and inexpressil)le brutality. Some were 
 beaten to death amid the jubilations of the populace. The order 
 was entirely abolished; and in consequence, the hospitals became 
 scenes of revolting lawlessness. This continued, until Bonaparte 
 restored order, and in 1808, at his mother's suggestion, again 
 placed the order in possession of all its rights. At present, the 
 activity of the Roman Catholic Sisters engaged in the service of 
 mercy, is more ^yide-spread than ever. There exist, in Roman 
 Catholic countries, more or less independent branches of the order, 
 among them some, whose members are not permanently bound by 
 vows of any sort, as the Ladies of Mount Calvary, a society of 
 widows, devoted to the care of the sick. Convent rules predominate. 
 Various female orders, as the Franciscans, have, after the example 
 of the Vincentines, included the care of the sick and destitute 
 among their duties, and furnish a large contingent of workers. A 
 prominent community of Sisters, Avhich has great influence in 
 Germany also, is that of the Sisters of St. Charles at Nancy, named 
 in honor of St. Charles Borromeo. A German sisterhood ot this 
 order has existed in Westphalia since 1808, and was founded by 
 Droste Vischering, the Archbishop of Cologne. Approximate sta- 
 tistics place the present number of Vincentines at 28,000 ; of Fran- 
 ciscan nursing Sisters at 22,000 ; the Sisters of the Holy Cross at 
 6000 ; the Sisters of St. Charles at 5000 ;— more than 60,000 Sis- 
 ters thus being at the disposal of the Romish Church in the service 
 of mercy. 
 
 49. The fields of labor of the Sisters of Mercy and kindred 
 orders are the care of the poor and sick, and the instruction and 
 training of little children and young girls. Certain orders 
 include both branches, others devote themselves to either one or 
 the other. 
 
 A short sketcliof the order of the Charles-Sisters, whose Mother- 
 house is at Nancy, will serve to acquaint us with their manner of 
 
— 44 — 
 
 living and working. Tho order is under the superintendency of* a 
 Sister Superior General, elected for three years, of a Vice-Superior, 
 a Procuratress, a Mistress of Novices, and a pastor aj)poiuted by 
 the bishop. The following persons are excluded from admission 
 as j)o»tulants or probationers of the order : Widows, divorced wo- 
 men, women in weak health, orphans without property, girls who 
 have been supported from the poor-fund, the children of humble 
 parents, and girls who haxe been servants. The age for admis- 
 sion is not under eighteen, nor over twenty-four years. These 
 are under the immediate control of the Mistress of Novices, and be- 
 sides the cap, wear no distinctive dress Their fare is meager, 
 and the discipline to which they are subjected, is very harsh, in 
 order to quench any false enthusiasm and exaggerated expectations. 
 Such duties especially are assigned to them, as cause horror or 
 loathing, and no relief or relaxation is permitted. Those who are 
 found worthy, are admitted as novices, wear the habit of the order 
 and a white veil, and receive practical training in the stations out- 
 side of the Motherhouse. In the third year of their novitiate they 
 return to the Motherhouse, and it is decided, whether they shall 
 remain. It is said that out of a hundred novices, as a rule only 
 twenty-five are received into the order. 
 
 Those about to be received, must in addition, make consider- 
 able pecuniary sacrifices, first as postulants and novices, and finally 
 on the occasion of their consecration, which demands at least 1000 
 francs, while frequently very large sums are paid over to the 
 order. These moneys furnish the order with the means to carry 
 on its work among the poor, the sick, and the little children. In 
 spite of the difficulties attending admission, the applications are 
 said to be very numerous. The consecrated Sisters wear a black 
 veil. They take the convent vows before the bishop or his vicar, 
 and, according to the views of their Church, are bound for life. 
 The civil law permits an obligation for five years only, but this 
 immunity is rarely claimed. Besides the veil, the Sisters receive 
 a ring and a consecrated medal. They are passive instruments in 
 the hands of their superiors. Sometimes they are recalled to the 
 Motherhouse, and labor in its branch institutions ; in the St. Char- 
 les hospital, with beds for two hundred patients ; in St. Julien, 
 where orphans are educated, and three hundred old and infirm per- 
 sons are gratuitously cared for; in the Foundling Asylum, Avith 
 four hundred children, who remain until the age of sixteen or 
 eighteen under the supervision of the Sisters; in the asylum for 
 four to five hundred invalids, whose ailments exclude them from 
 the hospital ; in the Almshouse and parish ; in the Insane Asylum 
 with five hundred patients, who are received at a nominal price. 
 The activity of the order is enormous. We cannot calculate the 
 influence exerted by one sisterhood like that of St. Charles ; and what 
 
— 45 - 
 
 can not be the result of the combined activity of" the Roman 
 Catholic female orders. 
 
 The Sisters of Mercy are the pioneers of Roman C'atholic mis- 
 sion-work among- the Protestants, as well as ainoni^; Mohammedans 
 and heathens. They know how to gain, in a high degree, the con- 
 fidence of all classes, and command for every kind of work the 
 most suitable persons. Within their own Church also, the impor- 
 tance of their Avork is very great. By their care of the poor and 
 sick they serve the general good ; by their edu(>ational activity they 
 exert a wide-spread influence, especially among women of the 
 higher classes. — The order of the Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart 
 of Jesus was established about the year 1800. The founder. 
 Mother Barat, lived to see her sisterhood, principally devoted to 
 the education of young girls of the higher classes, numbering 
 before her death, 3500 memliers, with seventy convents in al- 
 most every civilized country. We can readily understand the at- 
 tention given by the pope and the highest circles of the Romish 
 Church, to an order of this description. Indeed, we of the Prote- 
 stant faith can only feel deeply shamed, when we see how among 
 the Romanists, high and low seem equally to realize the value of 
 woman's co-operation in the service of the Church. Bavaria alone, 
 a small Roman Catholic kingdom, is said to have as many nuns, 
 as the entire Protestant Church has deaconesses. . To be sure, 
 forces are there enlisted, whith which it is impossible to compete 
 upon Protestant soil; and this must not be overlooked in our 
 estimate of the above facts. 
 
 50. In the Romish Church, the Kingdom of Christ has be- 
 come, what it avowedly desires not to be, — a kingdom of this world, 
 a political power of the first rank. This position has been attained 
 by adaptation to the pagan under-current in the life of man- 
 kind, and by the perversion of the Gospel of Grace into a more or 
 less refined work-righteousnes.'-. Woman's ministry in the Romish 
 Church also bears this impress. The vow of the Romish Sister, to 
 follow the so-called evangelical counsels, — that is, to remain un- 
 married for life, to live in poverty, and to yield unconditional 
 obedience to her superiors, is a yoke, which it would be permissible 
 to lay upon others, or to take upon ourselves, only if God's Word 
 expressly directed it. 
 
 But it is absolutely contrary to the Word of God, that a 
 human being should thus arl)itrarily dispose of himself or others. 
 The Romish Church teaches, that a person, by following these 
 counsels, acquires a higher degree of perfection ; that in addition to 
 the crown of life, he gains for himself a S])ecial little crown, and is 
 moreover able to l>e useful and serviceable ta relatives and friends 
 in the matter of their salvation. It is obvious, how great a tem- 
 poral power lies in such a binding of consciences, as is thus prac- 
 
— 4<) — 
 
 tised by these orders uj)<»n tlieir nienibers. Of tliis tliov are liilly 
 aware, and ^lory in it, over against Protestants. It is no less clear 
 that, as the natural man is constituted, thousands are enticed by 
 the allurements of work-righteousness, whose ears are deaf to the 
 Gospel of Grace. 
 
 An inscription on the grave-stone of a Sister of Mercy in the 
 Zillcrthal testifies to the fact, and whosoever will ask these iSisters, 
 will hear it corroborated, how deeply the thought of an expected 
 eternal reward penetrates their service. No proof is needed, to con- 
 vince us, that faith, bound in the ^A'ord of God, cannot, in a Avorldly 
 sense, equal this. And yet it is faith alone, built upon the foun- 
 dation of the pure Word and Sacrament, which ])ossesses the ])ower 
 to animate with a true purpose the outward and modern form of 
 woman's churchly ministry, whicli in its principal features origin- 
 ated in the Catholic Church previous to the Reformation. A re- 
 newal of the female diaconate in the spirit and in truth, was not 
 possible upon Romisli, but only upon Protestant soil. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Th£ Protestant Renewal of the Female Diaconate. 
 
 51. The Reformation of the Church, Avhich took place in the 
 16th century, was a return to the unchanging foundations of chris- 
 tian doctrine and life. The sole standard of christian doctrine is 
 the Word of God, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Whatso- 
 ever contradicts this standard, must perish. The sole source of 
 christian life is justifying faith. Whatsoever does not flow from 
 this source, is not genuine christian life, not genuine christian 
 morality, not genuine christian service. Wherever that faith 
 gained the mastery, Avhich knows no other doctrinal standard, save 
 the Word of God; no justification, save that granted by grace for 
 Christ's sake, witlnmt the works of the law, — there the rubbish of 
 mistaken Romish traditions could not survive. The ancient foun- 
 tains of life gushed forth ; new life-germs burst their l^uds — a 
 spring-time of regeneration had come to the Church. 
 
 The question is an idle one, whether the cause of the diaconate 
 was among the subjects seized by the reformatory movement. Every 
 age has its own problems to solve, every individual his own duties. 
 Each one of us cannot and must not meddle with all. Consciences 
 bound by God's Word could not remain strangers to a subject, to 
 which' that Word renders such abundant testimony. But under the 
 pressure of circumstances it might easily occur, that a matter like 
 the female diaconate did not for a long time enter the liorizon of 
 the men, whose fort-most office and duty bound them to the questions 
 which were to determine the christian and ehiirchly life. 
 
 52. Itisremarkable, that certain of the pre-reformatory move- 
 ments proposed the immediate restoration of the female diaconate 
 of the early Church This purpose was pursued in a manner differ- 
 ing from those churchly agitations, in which the breathing of the 
 reformatory spirit was felt, and which led to a re-organization of 
 the associated life, as for instance in the communities of the Bretii- 
 ren and Sisters of the Common Life. For while here no rupture 
 with existing conditions was contemplated, there was in the cur- 
 rents which actually ushered in the Reformation, a lively conscious- 
 ness, that without a radical change, no genuine renewal of the 
 churchly life was possil)le. It is significant that, disregarding 
 existing circumstances, it was here deemed practicable to return 
 
— 48 - 
 
 directly to the biblical diaconate of tiic early Ciiurcii. Hero lay 
 at once the strength and the weakness of' these attempts. The 
 WaUlensians, the reforming- party in .Southern France and Pied- 
 mont, who are traced back to Peter Waldus, and became promi- 
 nent in the second half of the 12th century, appointed deaconesses 
 in their congregations, according to tiie S('riptural directions. The 
 same was the case among the Boliemian-Moravian Brethren, who 
 in consequence of the movement inaugurated by Huss, separated 
 from the llomish Church. Among the latter, the endeavor to con- 
 struct and order the churchly life to conform with the apostolic 
 congregation, went hand in hand with a deep and strong grasp of 
 the saving faith. Since about 1457, they appointed Parish-dea- 
 conesses, in addition to the elders of the congregation. They were 
 to constitute a female council, consisting of older women, whose 
 dutv it was, as mothers in the House of God, to look after and 
 advise the married women, widows and young girls. They were 
 to settle disputes, see to it that no one was falsely accused, and 
 especially, that chastity and discipline M'ere not neglected. Where 
 they saw any wrongdoing or impropriety, they were to examine 
 into it, and admonish the guilty persons. 
 
 These attempts failed to acquire any great significance for the 
 Church ; but they prove the close connection between the female 
 diaconate and the Reformation. 
 
 53. The one thing needful, in order that the service of Christ 
 might be revived in the Church in apostolic truth and purity, was 
 the liberation of souls from the delusion of work-righteousness. 
 Here lies the chief and permanent significance of the work of the re- 
 formers also in behalf of woman's ministry in the Church. The 
 immediate restoration of the female diaconate did not lie within 
 ,the scope of their activity. All tiie reformers, and pre-eminently 
 Luther himself, never wearied of insisting, that "good works do not 
 make a good man, but a good man makes good works," whereby the 
 fallacy of meritorius achievements, the prevalence of which had 
 brought about an inconceivable degree of despotism, was destroyed 
 root and branch. He only is righteous and devout in the sight of 
 God, who in faith possesses Christ, "made unto us wisdom, 
 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Only in so 
 far as we have faitli in Christ, believing that by His blood alone we 
 are cleansed from sin, only in so far can there be with us any 
 question of good works. "Faith is a living, active, busy, power- 
 ful thing, working without ceasing." — "Faith is a living, confident 
 trust in God's grace, — so certain, that a thousand deaths could not 
 shake it. And sucii knowledge and confidence in Divine grace, 
 which is effected by the Holy Spirit in faith, makes us joyful, 
 fearless and glad toward God and all creatures. Thus without 
 com])ulsion, we become willing and glad to do good to all men, 
 
— 49 — 
 
 to serve all men, and to suifer all things for the love and to the 
 praise of God, who has shown us such mercy ; therefore it is im- 
 possible to separate works from faith ; yea, as utterly impossible, 
 as it is, to separate the light and flame of the fire." 
 
 The modern female diaconate, wherever it deserves to be called 
 evangelical, rests upon the rock of these fundamental gospel 
 truths. Yet this preparatory reformation of life and doctrine by 
 no means exhausts the influence, especially of Luther, in this 
 direction. The royal spirit of this prophet of the Germans pos- 
 sessed the gift, with a marvellous perception of the truth, to grasp 
 the smallest, as well as the greatest matters. Although he took no 
 steps towards organization in the province of the diaconate, yet 
 there is no lack of testimony on his part, which defines his posi- 
 tion with regard to it. And we do not hesitate to attribute to 
 these utterances of Luther an exceedingly great importance for the 
 female diaconate. 
 
 54. Luther, as was to be expected, recognized woman's gift in 
 the service of Christian love and mercy. The female sex, he says, 
 has of itself, more than the male, the inclination to take pity on others. 
 And it is notably among devout women, that this gift appears. 
 "Women who love godliness, are wont to have especial grace, 
 wherewith to comfort others, and relieve their pain." This remark 
 refers equally to the care of souls and of bodies. Luther also 
 highly appreciated woman's educational gifts. In one instance he 
 urged a parish to employ female teachers in its schools for girls. 
 Bugenhagen also, in his church-orders for Brimswick, Hamburg 
 and Luebeck, advised the Senates to employ devout women, obe- 
 dient to the Gospel, as teachers for girls. In all this, there is no 
 word of deaconesses. The actual deaconess institution remains out- 
 side of the horizon of Luther and his fellow-laborers. Yet we 
 have cause to rejoice in this expression of their opinions. But we 
 consider other remarks of Luther as still more important for the 
 matter ; these refer partly to the diaconate iu general, partly to 
 monastic associations. 
 
 As regards the diaconate in general, it was Luther's wish, that 
 an office for the administration of church property be associated 
 with the pastoral office. "After the office of the ministry, there is 
 within the Church no higher office, than this administration, by 
 which the church property is rightly and honestly managed, so 
 that needy christians, who are unable to gain their own livelihood, 
 may not suffer want, but receive assistance." This suggestion of 
 Luther's was subsequently complied with, by a regulation of the 
 oversight of tlie poor, which, however, gradually became mostly 
 v State or municipal office, in more or less close connection with 
 the Church, or entirely separate from it. The election of the 
 Seven, (Acts 6,) and the remembrance of the charitable work 
 
— 50 — 
 
 of the Clmrcli <tf' all times, could nut fail to direct Luther's at- 
 tention to this matter, which appeared to him hoth necessary 
 and practically feasible. On the other hand, he did not con- 
 sider a more comprehensive organization of the diaconate j)()ssible in 
 his time. "It were Mell, if we had the right kind of people to be- 
 gin it, could it be begun in this manner, that a city be divided into 
 four or Hve parts, and to each ])art be assigned a pastor and several 
 deacons, who would supply that district with ])reaching and alms- 
 giving, visit the sick, and see to it, that none suffered want. But we 
 have not the men lor it. Therefore I fear to undertake it, until our 
 Lord God shall make christians." Here the entire province of the 
 diaconate, as a personal office of rendering bodily and s})iritual 
 aid, is placed beside the office of the ministry, to relieve the 
 latter, that it may the more unhindered give itself to preaching and 
 prayer. Had such an arrangement been practicable, christian 
 women would no doubt have found their place in it. But lAither 
 did not venture upon the undertaking ; the times and conditions 
 seemed unpropitious, and the individuals were lacking. His clear, 
 unprejudiced mind here also remained true to itself. But if the 
 congregation, as such, cannot furnish the individuals, the question 
 arises, whether they cannot be found elsewhere. This brings us to 
 Luthers' position with regard to conventual associations. 
 
 He had broken the spell of monastic vows and traditions, and 
 had recognized that the whole doctrine of the evangelical councils, 
 and the condition of Christian perfection to be attained through 
 their observance, by nieans of adherence to the vows, was nothing 
 but "unbelief, blasphemy and contempt of the Gospel." He knew 
 too, what a miasma of immorality and ignorance had prevailed in 
 the convents. Thus he waged war upon monasticism, and was al- 
 most inexhaustible in fresh attacks. It was not the form of the 
 conventual association, which he combated, but the false Romish 
 spirit which animated that form. Where God's Word and the 
 Gospel are held supreme, there the life in convent-form has Luther's 
 approval, and he even acknoAvledges that it may be of signal bene- 
 fit to the Church. In the year 1532, the Senate of the City of 
 Herford proposed to abolish the Brothers' and Sisters' houses there, 
 and compel the inmates to relinquish their calling and distinctive 
 dress. Luther then w^rote to the Senate : "You doubtless know 
 that needless innovations in divine things are very dangerous. Now, 
 inasmuch as these brethren and sisters lead an honest life, and 
 have an honorable, well-conducted community ; moreover as they 
 faithfully honor and obey the pure doctrine — which they were the 
 first among you to receive — it is my friendly petition, that your 
 worships will not jiermit them to suffer anxiety and bitterness in 
 this matter, and will allow them furthermore to wear their clerical 
 habit, and practise all praiseworthy customs, not contrary to 
 
— 51 — 
 
 the Gospel, for such convents please me beyond measure. Would 
 to God, all convents were thus, then all cities and lands would be 
 well served." To the prior and reformer of the Brotlier's House 
 at Herford, Montanus, and to one of the brethren, Luther wrote : 
 ''Grace and peace ! I received your letter and Gerhard's, and have 
 written to the Senate of your city in this matter, that it may pro- 
 tect and defend your Society. For your conduct of life, which is 
 lived and taught purely according to the Gospel of Christ, pleases 
 me exceedingly, and I wish that there had been, and were now more 
 such monastic institutions. I dare not wish much, but if all things 
 were thus, the Church were fully blessed, even in this life. Your 
 habit and other praiseworthy customs, heretofore observed, are no 
 detriment to the Gospel, but rather an aid against the unrestrained, 
 lawless christians of our day, who are well able to destroy, but not 
 to build up." Luther acknowledged that convent life afforded 
 protection, saying that men like Bernard of Clairvaux did not 
 enter the monastery in order to become rigliteous and holy, 
 but because they were righteous and holy before, and might there 
 live apart from the world. Luther appreciated the associated life, 
 because it permits more fixed habits of devotion. But he doubt- 
 less considered how great a practical use it could have for the 
 Church at large. Yet, after the experiences heretofore made in the 
 convents, he did not venture to establish organizations like those 
 he recommended to the people of Herford. He probably did not 
 think former monks and nuns proper material, with which to be- 
 gin the work. They were not in his eyes, the "christians," of 
 whom he said that God must first make them, if the true diaconate 
 were to be arrived at. 
 
 Luther's unprejudiced appreciation of the associated life ap- 
 pears very significant. We find with him the germs of all the 
 fundamental views, which afterwards asserted themselves in the 
 protestant renewal of the female Diaconate. In our day, to be 
 sure, an understanding is often lacking of the connection between 
 these same fundamental views, and that which had become a mat- 
 ter of history in the Church before the Reformation. It might 
 prove profitable, to the Diaconate as well as to our church ly life, 
 if such an understanding were more general. 
 
 55. Luther and the men of the Reformation prepared the soil 
 for anew growth of charitable activity within the Church ; but they 
 did not reach noteworthy practical results in this direction, especially 
 as regards the female Diaconate. There was no lack of women, in 
 whose lives the justifying faith expressed itself in all its strength 
 and beauty, yet the idea did not present itself of a churchly office 
 and calling. Little more was accomplished during the period im- 
 mediately following. Some of the isolated attempts to re-awaken 
 the deaconess-work were a continuation of the pre-reformatory 
 
— 52 — 
 
 movement, while others were of a different character. But none 
 of thom led to any abidinon results. 
 
 The societies of the Beguines and of the Sisters of the Com- 
 mon Life seem not to have been considered ; the reason perhaps 
 being, that it is much more difficult to put new life into old and 
 stiffened forms, than to create new. Another and more probable 
 reason is, that these communities existed for the greater part in 
 countries, where the influence of the Swiss reformers Avas predomi- 
 nant. The Reformed Church, in its anxious dread of Roraanistic 
 leaven, has in a great measure lost its touch with the historic past of 
 the Church. Its ordinances claiming to be derived directly from 
 the Scriptures frequently transplant to the present the conditions 
 of biblical times in a wholly legalistic manner. In regard to con- 
 gregational organization, it has gone to work more zealously, than 
 the Lutheran Church, aud in its congregational orders, the female 
 diaconate, having Scriptural authority, has been kept in view. But 
 there was in most cases no understanding of the associated life in its 
 relation to the old-time convent-life, and therefore no learning from 
 the past. The attempt was made to realize the female Diaconate, 
 as directly proceeding from the congregational life, and to establish 
 it in the midst of the latter. The consequence was, that no organiza- 
 tions, with strength to sustain themselves, were effected. The fact 
 was overlooked, as it frequently is to this day, that the congrega- 
 tions of the established churches of our time are not to be compared 
 with the congregations of the apostolic age. The latter, compared 
 with the congregations of our. present State Churches, would be 
 more of the character of modern religious associations, where all 
 the members are personally acquainted with each other and held 
 together by one bond of unity and under one discipline. If in the 
 modern congregation, the single Christian woman is publicly to ad- 
 minister a churchly office, without sacrificing her womanly delica- 
 cy, without feeling herself alone and unsupported, she must be pro- 
 tected by a close association, which yet is broad enough to fulfill 
 its purpose. A man like Luther would have understood this les- 
 son, taught by experience, had his attention been directed to the 
 female Diaconate, as such. But this was not the case ; and the 
 Lutheran Church did not advance beyond him in this matter, but, 
 as regards appreciation of the associated life, soon failed to follow 
 him, and strayed into the reformed path. Wherever therefore, 
 after the Reformation, woman's churchly ministry has been advo- 
 cated, the appreciation of the associative form in its historical con- 
 nection with the past has been wanting, — with a single exception, 
 to be referred to later. However just an estimate may have been 
 formed, on the Lutheran side, of the associative form, a true, prac- 
 tical understanding of the matter was not reached. Thus the 
 actual course of the matter is sufficiently characterized. 
 
— 53 — 
 
 56. Among the Reformed, Henry Robert de la Marck, prince 
 of Sedan, in the Netherlands, in the year 1560, began an undertak- 
 ing which, however, was misunderstood in his own church, and 
 therefore failed to take root. He did not confiscate the property 
 of secularized convents, but used it to establish, besides otiier 
 educational and benevolent institutions, a sisterhood of ''Virgins of 
 Mercy." These, living either in special institutions, or in their 
 own homes, were to devote themselves to the relief of the destitute, 
 the sick and infirm. Rejecting convent vows, they were yet to be 
 bound by certain rules of the house and sisterhood. This attempt 
 seems to us the most important one made in this direction. But 
 upon the soil of the Reformed Church, it appears almost as the 
 accidental inspiration of a thoughtful, influential man, abruptly 
 begun, and speedily disappearing, without leaving a trace behind. 
 
 Quite different were the efforts, wholly in accordance with 
 reformed characteristics, to found a Diaconate within the Church. 
 The General Synod of the Reformed Church of the Lower 
 Rhine and the Netherlands, held at Wesel in 1568, proposed 
 that in larger cities, besides the appointment of deacons for 
 the care of the poor, "women should lawfully be won for this 
 work." A later Classis-synod, held at Wesel in 1579, occupied 
 itself expressly with the restoration of the deaconess- office. The 
 question is asked, in case it is found advisable to restore the office, 
 "whether widows only shall be chosen, or married women also, with 
 the consent of their husbands ; whether only persons of sixty years 
 shall be appointed, or persons under that age, according to the 
 directions of St. Paul (1. Tim. 5). This question is to remain open 
 until the next Classis-meeting, in order that the congregations may 
 reflect well upon the matter. As regards those who are already 
 called, they shall continue in their calling, until such time as the 
 Classis shall have come to a decision. If any desire to be relieved 
 of their office, they shall be so relieved." The beginning is thus 
 made, without a strict adherence to 1. Tim. 5, which passage they 
 understood to mean, that the widows there mentioned, were 
 to be regarded as deaconesses. In the resolutions of the Classis 
 of 1580, it is said : "In the fifth article of the previous acts con- 
 cerning the restoration of the deaconesses, the brethren have de- 
 clared, that if this office, which has fallen into disuse in the Church 
 of God, be re-established, it shall be done as it was in the begin- 
 ning of the Church, and as it is described by St. Paul, namely 
 by electing widows and unmarried women. As regards age, the 
 brethren are of opinion, that women lacking four or five years 
 of sixty, may be received, provided they possess the other quali- 
 fications demanded by St. Paul, but that we keep as near as pos- 
 sible to the age fixed by him. And the brethren deem it advisable, 
 
— 54 — 
 
 that the coiiiiiijji; Synod he rciniiKlcd, as to whether this office shall 
 also elsewhere be renewed." 
 
 Everv feature of these resolutions is characteristic, — their 
 leii^alistic adherence to the Scriptures, no less than the total al)sence 
 of all (jucstioning, as to whether something might not be learnt from 
 the past. It is obvious, that no satisfactory progress was made in 
 this wav. At first, widows and married women were chosen by 
 ballot These were entirely de|)endent in their activity, upon the 
 deacons, and seem to have been elected for one year only. Soon 
 afterwards, the election of married women was recognized as un- 
 biblical. But it would soon have come to nothing if their labors 
 had been at all arduous. The duties of these women however seem 
 to have been very limited ; indeed, the entire enterprise was of 
 small value. Later on, the circumstance that the prescribed age 
 of sixty vears was not adhered to, caused difficulties. Finally it 
 seems to have become the general practice, to appoint married 
 women, and that to a very limited extent, — perhaps only in the 
 town of Wesel, in the "Netherland congregation," which consisted 
 mostlv of dutch fugitives, and was separate from the regular town- 
 parish. Here this sort of female Diaconate existed until 1610. 
 As early as 15<S1, a Synod at Middelburg opposed the re-introduc- 
 tion of the deaconess office, "because of certain inconveniences that 
 might arise from it." No great acuteness is needed, to see that 
 married women cannot be deaconesses, while the position of 
 isolated unmarried women as parish-deaconesses was scarcely ten- 
 able as a permanent arrangement. About the year 1600, an Eng- 
 lish reformed congregation in Amsterdam, of about three hundred 
 members, employing two pastors and four deacons, had, in addi- 
 tion, a deaconess, an aged widow, elected when she was sixty, who 
 served for many years, and was an ornament to the congregation. 
 It is related of her, that wdth a birchen SMntch in her hand, she 
 kept order among the young folk in church ; that she helped with 
 word and deed the poor, the sick, and especially the young girls 
 and married women of the congregation, and that, as a mother in 
 Israel and a true christian, she received willing obedience from all. 
 Such exceptions may occasionally have occurred. But they only 
 confirm the result, that in the manner attempted in the Nether- 
 lands, and perhaps among the puritans in England, a female Dia- 
 conate, as an abiding congregational institution, is not practicable. 
 Our experience to-day would doubtless be precisely the same, were 
 we to expect the Diaconate to issue directly from the congregation. 
 It is a matter of surprise, that in some quarters, this is not even 
 now understood. 
 
 57. In the Lutheran Church there was no such abrupt and 
 legalistic return to the Scriptures, as among the Reformed. There- 
 fore the Diaconate of the early Church remained at first quite out 
 
5.') 
 
 of the question. Circumstances were not calculated to bring it near 
 to men's minds ; and so it essentially continued, until the begin- 
 ning of our century. A church-order of ]Minden, of the year 
 1530, claimed woman's service in the care of tlie poor, but no men- 
 tion is made of a regular Diaconate. On the other hand, atnong 
 Lutherans, two cases of convent - reconstruction are reported, 
 which might have proved promising, had the Diaconate as such, 
 and on a scale embracing a wider circle of congregations, received 
 attention. But nothing of this is observed. Those attempts 
 in which we again recognize Luther's unprejudiced views of con- 
 ventual life, when purified according to evangelical principles, are 
 germs possessing abundant vitality, like the undertaking of Henry- 
 Robert de la Marck. But these germs, for various reasons, found 
 the soil unprepared for their development. 
 
 The convent at Kappel, near Siegen, held to the Lutherarr 
 faith, according to which its rules were framed. The superior or 
 dom'ma conferred upon the canonesses their individual offices, secu- 
 lar and spiritual. Two of these were assigned to every sister. 
 The spiritual offices were those of the preceptor, the precentor, 
 the deaconess, who distributed the alms, the catechist and the 
 sacristan. To these corresponded the secular offices of cellarer, 
 stewardess, mistress of the kitchen, gatekeeper, the teacher of han- 
 diwork and the domina's attendant. The convent devoted itselt 
 chiefly to the education of little girls, and was famed for its piety 
 and discipline. It probably existed until the beginning of the ] 7. 
 Century, when a Roman Catholic Count drove out the canonesses. 
 An actual continuance of convent forms does not appear here. In 
 the old convents the church-sister had been called the deaconess^ 
 here it was the almoner. This indeed seems a short step in ad- 
 vance, — but it is without meaning for the deaconess cause. 
 
 The Lutheran Convent at Walsdorf in Nassau was further ad- 
 vanced in its development. On September 16, 1562, Count Philip 
 of Idstein sent to the Convent of Benedictine nuns at Walsdorf, a 
 copy of the Augsburg Confession, a number of copies of the 
 Bible, and Luther's Catechism. On December 5, 1608, Count 
 Ludwig, through the Superintendent Tobias Weber in Idstein, pub- 
 lished a constitution prepared by the latter for the convent. The 
 worship in the convent was to be evangelical "according to God's 
 Holy AVord, as contained in the Old und New Testaments, and as 
 explained to us in the three Symbols, the Ap jstles', the Nicene 
 and the Athanasian Creeds, furthermore in the unaltered Augsburg 
 Confession, together with its subsequent Apology, the Smalcald 
 Articles, and both Catechisms, the large and small, of that godly 
 man Luther." Preaching, the administration of the most holy 
 sacraments, catechization and other godly exercises shall be at- 
 tended to by a pastor, in obedience to the superintendent's instruc- 
 
— 0(3 — 
 
 tions, until a regular pastor be appointed for the institution. 
 Chapters from the Holy Scri[)tures shall be read daily by the 
 Sisters in turn, until a regular reader be a})pointed. The Seripture- 
 lessons shall be ehosen aeeording to a fixed order, and appropriate 
 to the festival seasons of the Church. 
 
 Young women desiring admission to the convent, must be of 
 devout behavior, and must have reached their eighteenth year 
 that thev may justly appreciate the great responsibilities of their 
 calling. Their entrance must be entirely volimtary, without 
 any coercion whatever. Every Sister is free to leave the con- 
 vent at any time, or to embrace the opportunity of an honorable 
 marriage. Every Sister must undergo a probation of one year, 
 and after its favorable conclusion, is consecrated by the superinten- 
 dent. At this ceremony, Scripture-passages, referring to the un- 
 married and associated life, were read, and the candidate, w^ith a 
 hand-clasp, promised the pastor to live a })ious, chaste and godly 
 life in union with the convent. The following prayer of conse- 
 cration was used : "Our heavenly Father, Who hast for many years 
 preserved this house of worship, and hast finally granted it grace, 
 that Thy Word is preached in it, pure and unperverted by human 
 doctrines, and that Thy service is performed in it according to Thy 
 law and testimony, — we pray Thee through Jesus Christ, TJiy dear 
 Son, our Lord, that Thou wouldst bless the good work, which 
 we have this day begun, and grant that it may redound to 
 the glory of Thy Holy Name, to the building up of this 
 church and convent, and to the temporal and everlasting welfare of 
 us all." The Sister paid two hundred florins to the institu- 
 tion for her support, a part of which was refunded to her, in case 
 she left the convent. — The abbess received her instructions from 
 the superintendent. — Not more than eight young women were to be 
 received, and their duty was to be the education of "little-school- 
 maidens". These paid twenty florins annually, and were instructed 
 in grayer, reading, writing, arithmetic, and all house and handi- 
 work, such as spinning, sewing, knitting, lace-making, preparing 
 linen, butter-making and gardening, that they might grow up as 
 children of God, "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
 works." The offices were similar to those at Kappel. The "pre- 
 ceptor" gave the Bible-lessons, the "school-mistress" superinten- 
 ded the pupils, the "deaconess" looked after the poor within and 
 without the precincts of the convent, the "catechist" taught Lu- 
 thers small Catechism, the "stewardess" had charge of the income 
 and expenditures, the "mistress of the kitchen" superintended the 
 cooking, and the "gate-keeper" watched at the little window of the 
 convent portal. Some taught fine, some coarse handiwork. A 
 steward was appointed for the management of the farm. The Sis- 
 ters wore a habit of black woollen stuff, and a veil. The door of 
 
- 57 — 
 
 the convent was to be always locked, and the abbess herself carried 
 the key. The Sisters might receive visitors only by permission, 
 these must conduct themselves properly, and leave before evening. 
 Inasmuch as idleness is the beginning of all evil, each Sister 
 shall, praying and working faithfully, fulfil her duty. 
 
 All this was excellent, well-planned, and certainly far superior 
 to those foundations for women of nobility and others, that 
 were reconstructed from Roman Catholic convents. Yet there 
 was in it no trace ol the actual diaconate, which was not even 
 thought of. The institution did not enjoy a very long life. In the 
 winter of 1624, the last inmates, with their Abbess Marie von 
 Klingelbach, died of the plague. 
 
 58, While the renewal of the diaconate was not accomplished 
 in the period immediately succeeding the reformation, the follow- 
 ing age was even less propitious. The thirty years' war, with its 
 distress, laid waste all churchly life. Germany was filled with 
 ruins, all national energy was paralyzed, innumerable blossoms 
 were trampled under foot. It was impossible that a matter of so 
 tender a nature, as woman's ministry in the Church, could thrive. 
 The succeeding years continued unfavorable. The administra- 
 tion of the established Church hardened more and more into a 
 bureaucratic form. The care of the poor fell into the hands of the 
 state, and the charitable activity of the Church was forced into the 
 background. The doctrinal discussions did not abate, and often 
 claimed exclusive possession of the minds of the clergy. Worst of 
 all, the congregational life, as such, was without self-reliance and 
 free activity. Thus it remained, until the Lord Himself ushered in 
 the hour, when the female diaconate in the Protestant Church should 
 obtain its rights ; and with them, that form and development, for 
 which the Reformation had laid the foundation, and prepared 
 the way. 
 
 It must be mentioned, that in two Protestant communions, 
 whose paths lay apart from the general churchly development, the 
 deaconess cause obtained, if not a vigorous growth, yet a permanent 
 organization. The one of these communions is that of the Menno- 
 uites in the Netherlands ; the other, that of the Moravians. The 
 founder of the latter. Count Zinzendorf, proposed to the synod of 
 Marienborn, held in 1745, that deacons and deaconesses be appoin- 
 ted, after the manner of the early Church, the former to preach the 
 Gospel, and assist in the administration of the blessed sacraments, and 
 in the visitation of the sick, and the latter to aid those of their own 
 sex in all cases of need. They would thus be continuing what their 
 fathers, the Bohemian-Moravian brethren, had begun. To be sure, 
 the question here was of woman's ministry to a very limited ex- 
 tent, not of the diaconate as an independent life-calling. The or- 
 ganization existing among the Mennonites offered valuable sug- 
 
— 58 — 
 
 gestions to Flicdner, during his travels in the Netherhmds, when 
 the thought;? began to stir within him, whieh h'd to the renewal 
 in our eenturv, and on an evangelical l)asisof'the female diaeonate. 
 
 59. In (iermany, a new awakening of the religious life suc- 
 ceeded the wars of liberation. The ancient treasures of the Church, 
 for which a rationalistic generation of pastors had well-nigh lost 
 all appreciation, were again brought to light. And then it was, 
 that the hour of its resurrection upon an evangelical basis came to 
 the female diaeonate. Wo maycimtidently assert that this period, 
 more than any previous one, had been prepared by God. Many 
 influences co-operated. Not only was the clergy stirred by a new 
 spirit, but from among the laity likewise, new impulses and signs 
 of life proceeded. In the Protestant Church, the harsh opposition 
 to all forms of a pre-reformatory origin had abated. The 
 new breath of life, which penetrated all conditions of life, was felt 
 also in the Romish Church. Both sides showed an inclination to 
 learn from each other. In France the Sisters of Mount Calvary, and 
 in Germany the Sisters of Mercy, whose society was founded in 1808 
 by the Archbishop Droste von Vischering, were not bound by mo- 
 nastic rules. They took no vows, — the doctrine and example ot 
 Christ were to be their only rule. Their Superior was to be their 
 ''Mother", and so she was called. In England a bishop of London, 
 Dr. Julius, recommended the founding of a protestant association ot 
 Sisters of Mercy. Especially was this idea advocated by various 
 prominent personages in Germany. It is unmistakable, how the 
 Lutheran appreciation of historic associations here asserted itself. 
 At the same time the reformed spir/t also manifested itself, which 
 supposed it possible to transfer the scriptural practice directly to the 
 present. It is, however, especially noticeable, that in all these at- 
 tempts, worn-out paths were avoided. It was a season of new life, 
 of new beginnings, endeavoring after a fashion of its own, to com- 
 prehend and realize its aims. The deaconess work may in a measure 
 be characterized as a result of the nearer approach of the confessions 
 toward each other. Even to-day, in the tangle of countless 
 unionistic misunderstandings, it is shown, how great a blessing 
 attends this approach, if the vital point of churchly organization, 
 confessional loyalty, remains untouched by it. 
 
 60. The Rev. John Adolf Francis Kloenne, of Bislich, near 
 Wesel, afterwards of Calcar, where he died in 1834, had fought in 
 the wars of liberation, and as pastor took the liveliest interest in 
 the efforts for spreading the Bible on the Lower Rhine ; and also 
 in the labors of a missionary league, which afterwards became a 
 building-stone in the construction of the Barmen Mission Society. 
 Stimulated by the activity of the women's associations during the 
 war, he soon after its close published a pamphlet : "The Revival of 
 the Deaconesses of the early Church in our Women's Asso- 
 
— 59 — 
 
 ciations." He deplores that these associations, whose labors had 
 been so abundantly blessed should cease without resulting in a 
 lasting institution, after the pattern of the diaconate of the early 
 Church, as presented to us in Romans 16, and by the church- 
 fathers. He projrosed a plan, whicli had suggested itself to him. 
 The women of a parish should unite to form a society, under the 
 management of a superintendent, for the care of the poor and sick. 
 After two years, one-half of the number withdrawing, others are 
 to be elected to serve in their places. These deaconesses, under the 
 authority of the presbytery, rank equally with the deacons. Thev 
 are the holders of an office of honor, whicli can be declined only 
 for the weightiest reasons. The project was immature. It over- 
 rated the congregational powers, and underrated the demands to be 
 made upon deaconesses. It is significant that this plan, which did 
 not wholly advocate the direct adoption of the methods of the early 
 Church, expected to realize the idea of the female diaoonate on the 
 basis of an association. 
 
 Kloenne submitted his plan to certain influential persons. 
 Minister von Altenstein, w^ith hearty recognition of his purpose, 
 wrote him, that only after such societies, through the efforts of the 
 clergy, were once at work, would it be possible to determine the 
 position the congregation was to occupy toward them, and whether 
 the female diaconate was capable of renewal in this way. Princess 
 William of Prussia (formerly Princess Marianne of Hesse) wrote, 
 that she herself had often desired an arrangement of this kind ; but 
 she justly considered the voluntary assumption of such a calling as 
 more promising than election by the congregation ; she also per- 
 ceived the incompatibility of the deaconess calling with the duties 
 of married women. Bishop Eylert told Kloenne that his words 
 were assuredly not spoken in vain, but that such an idea presup- 
 posed a high order of congregational life. A physician. Dr. 
 Guenther, of Duisburg, called attention to the importance of the 
 matter especially from a pastoral point of view, adding that a simi- 
 lar institution was in force among the Moravians. These various 
 replies did not promote the plan ; for while they approve, they also 
 criticize Kloenne's idea. Yet the sympathy accorded him indicated 
 that the fulfillment of his wishes Avas not far distant. But it was 
 not to be brought about in the manner proposed by him. 
 
 61. A nearer approach to a realization of the idea was made 
 by two other persons, both of whom were, as it seems, uninfluenced 
 by Kloenne. These were the Minister vom Stein, and the Ham- 
 burg patrician's daughter, Amalie Sieveking. 
 
 Incited by the activity of the Sisters of Mercy, Stein earnestly 
 assured Minister von Bodelschwingh, who visited him at Nass- 
 au, that it was among his greatest desires, to see established in the 
 Protestant Church an institution similar to the Sisterhood of Mercy. 
 
— 60 — 
 
 He opened negotiations with a pastor Stein in Frankfurt. 
 Through von Bodelschwingh, Miss Sieveking in lianihurg hoard ot 
 Stein's idea, and wrote to him. He replied, tliat his knowh'dge of 
 the Sisters of Mercy was only superficial ; but that ho had l)een im- 
 pressed by their contented ness in the quiet and blessed work ot 
 well-doing, to which the discontent of aging, unmarried women ot 
 the upper and middle classes, whose idle lives left them only empti- 
 ness and bitterness, formed an offensive contrast. The question 
 suggested itself, why similar institutions were not to be found 
 among protestants Benevolent institutions and charitable women's 
 societies indeed existed. But an enduring, fixed association, like 
 that of the Sisters of Mercy, with its many excellent features, was 
 lacking. The resolve, which Amalie Sieveking had communicated 
 to him, of founding a Protestant Sisterhood of ]\Iercy, he pro- 
 nounced in the highest degree praiseworthy and useful. 
 
 Amalie Sieveking relates that in her eighteenth year she first 
 heard of the Sisters of Mercy. That the thought had flashed 
 through her brain like lightning, whether she were not perhaps 
 destined to organize a similar institution in our Protestant Church. 
 The more dearly she loved her Church, the more painfully she felt 
 its lack of the fair adornment of an active, organized charity. Prom- 
 inent men, like Gossner, vora Stein, and others, encouraged her. 
 But she felt, that she must beware of self-chosen paths, and 
 waited for divine guidance. She recognized as such the break- 
 ing out of the cholera in Hamburg, in the autumn of 1831. She 
 entered the cholera hospital as nurse, and published an ap- 
 peal to women, to join her in this work of mercy. None came, 
 and the matter was at an end for the time. Her thoughts then 
 turned to the organization of a women's society for the care of the 
 sick and destitute in her native city. This society was called into 
 being through her efforts, and became of great importance. When 
 Fliedner, in later years, tried to enlist her for the deaconess calling, 
 first for Kaiserswerth and then for Berlin, she was unwilling to 
 relinquish the work in which she was engaged, and which the Lord 
 had assigned to her. 
 
 What Stein and Miss Sieveking desired, was precisely that 
 which afterwards came to pass ; this recognition should not be with- 
 held from them. It is true, the path which led to the establishment 
 of the Protestant female diaconate, was not that of mechanical imita- 
 tion. Only the free, creative power, inherent in a living faith, could 
 accomplish lasting results. Yet the form, in which woman's 
 ministry in the Church has been realized among us, is no other 
 than that adopted by the M^omen's associations before the Reforma- 
 tion. It is this form, which Vincent de Paul developed upon the 
 Roman Catholic, and Fliedner upon the Protestant basis, each in 
 
— 61 — 
 
 his own original manner, and in a totally different spirit, but prac- 
 tically with one and the same purpose in view. 
 
 62. A year before the opening of the first Deaconess Mother- 
 house, Count Adalbert von der Recke-Vollmerstein, a man of high 
 repute in Christian charitable work, the founder of a reformatory 
 near Duesseldorf, and of an idiot asylum in Silesia, believed that 
 a Protestant diaconate was possible, as an institutional and as- 
 sociative organization, but not as a direct emanation from the con- 
 gregational life. In the Spring of 1835, he began to issue a 
 periodical, entitled : "The deaconess, or the Life and Work of the 
 Servants of the Church, for Instruction, Education and Sick- 
 nursing." Only one number appeared. In it, the author states 
 that twenty years ago, he had already felt the need of deaconesses, 
 and had frequently urged the matter. He wished the female diaco- 
 nate to exist as a churchly office, its activity to be enlisted for institu- 
 tions of mercy of every description, most especially however, for 
 Christian congregations, and also for mission-work among the hea- 
 then. The receiving and training of deaconesses demanded an 
 institution, a "Deaconess-Convent", which he proposed to establish 
 near Duesseldorf He planned every feature after the pattern of 
 the early Church, yet adapted to the needs and conditions of the 
 present. For larger districts he suggested an abbess, and under her 
 arch-deaconesses and deaconesses. He submitted his plan to the 
 crown-prince, Frederick William, who replied on November 6, 
 1835 : "Your ideas regarding the revival of the order of deaco- 
 nesses in our Church I have welcomed with true delight. Such a 
 revival has for many a year lived in my imagination as a longedfor 
 ideal ; as one of the many things greatly needed and yet lacking in 
 our Church ; as a want, such as the absence of a nose for example, 
 would be to the human face. I especially agree w^ith the view 
 that the office should be lormally recognized as a churchly 
 office. But this must be sanctioned by the Church herself, 
 and from her the order of helpful women must receive its 
 citizenship. This I would advise you first to secure, and by no 
 means to proceed with the official consecration, before such recog- 
 nition is obtained. Two paths seem to me open ; whether both 
 should be followed at the same time, I will not now decide. The 
 first would be, to make application to the Rhenish Church, or 
 perhaps to that of Berg, to recognize by a resolution the order of 
 deaconesses, as a branch of the church-administration ; the second, 
 to request the Church to petition His Majesty for the re-introduc- 
 tion of this order." 
 
 It is clear, from the ideas of the count and crown-prince, both 
 of whom remained warm and faithful promoters of the work, that 
 the question was ready for immediate solution. The path was marked 
 out. The hope of incorporation with the congregational life of the 
 
— (52 — 
 
 established Chuivli avus no doubt preinaturo. Moreover, such mat- 
 ters are not arranged by the authorities, or according to a fixed |)ro- 
 grani, but arc subject to growth. The Lord had prepared the soil, as 
 it is i>roved by the personages whose utterances have been (pioted ; 
 and He luid already chosen the man, who was to plant the grain of 
 mustard-seed. 
 
 68. George Henry Theodore Fliedner, the son of pastor Flied- 
 ner, was born at Epstein, in the Taunus, on January 21, 1800. He 
 was a sturdy child, of quiet disposition and manner, and of fair 
 mental endowments. His father once said jestingly of the seven- 
 year-old child : ''This is my dear little fat boy ; one of thei^e days 
 he will become an honest brewer." The child, blushing and iu 
 tears, crept away ; for like his father and grandfather, he wished 
 to be a clergyman. In the lessons which the father himself gave 
 his children, he made rapid progress, studied with ease, and was a 
 great reader, without being a close student. When, on Whitsun- 
 day, 1813, he was confirmed, his new clothes gave him more to 
 think of, than the solemnity of the occasion. But times of sorrow 
 soon followed, which proved decisive for him also. The cossacks 
 came to Epstein, and with them plague and famine. Pastor Flied- 
 ner fell ill. The daughters of the house were forced to dance with 
 the officers, while their father lay dying. When the cossacks left, 
 after plundering barns and store rooms, the indignant Theodore 
 could not deny himself the satisfaction of flinging a piece of wood 
 from the open barn door, after the last unwelcome guest. Shortly 
 before Christmas the father died, leaving his wife with eleven 
 children. By the aid of friends and relatives, Theodore and his 
 brother were sent at New Year, 1814, to the gymnasium at Id- 
 stein. He was obliged to practise great economy, and shrank from 
 no work. His favorite reading was travels and the biographies of 
 eminent men, which incited him to emulation. By Easter of 1817 
 he was ready to enter the University of Giessen, in order to study 
 theology. He supported himself by giving lessons and by copying, 
 in addition to such help as he received from others. He was of a 
 cheerful disposition. With two florins in his pocket, he made a 
 journey on foot to Nuremberg and Wuerzburg. He kept aloof from 
 the immature political aspirations of his fellow-students ; his prac- 
 tical common-sense beiup; his safe-ffuard. Nor did the rationalism 
 
 .... 
 
 of the theological professors succeed in blinding him. He held fast 
 to the miracles and the resurrection of our Lord. At that time 
 already he was interested in the writings of the reformers, and put 
 to shame by their faith. His practical mind was active in various 
 ways. He collected directions for children's games, household 
 remedies for man and beast, instructions regarding harmful plants, 
 and so forth, for country people. These were beginnings, which 
 afterwards, in the management of institutions and little children's 
 
— 63 — 
 
 schools, bore valuable fruits. From Giessen he went to Goettingen. 
 He was still, although of a candid, seeking spirit, without deeper, 
 spiritual lite. Repeated journeys on foot contributed materially to 
 his culture. He travelled as far as Bremen and Hamburg, and 
 visited the Harz mountains. At Halle he saw August Herman 
 Franke's Orphanage, which left a powerful impression upon his 
 mind. After a year's study at the Theological Seminary of Her- 
 born, having reached the age of twenty, he passed his examination 
 with credit. The acquaintance with several earnest christians, one of 
 them a professor at Herborn, and another a young land-owner, ex- 
 erted a lasting influence upon him. Fliedner then went to Cologne, 
 as private tutor in a refined and cultured family. There he was ob- 
 liged to acquire polish of manner. He was eager and faithful in 
 his duties, and prayed diligently with liis pupils. He preached 
 occasionally, became a member of the Rhenish Bible-Society, and 
 came visibly nearer to God. In the autumn of 1821, he was ap- 
 pointed pastor at Kaiserswerth, ^'chiefly," he writes, ''because I 
 was a Lutheran." Kaiserwerth on the Rhine is a Roman Catho- 
 lic town, to whose former importance the ruins of an ancient strong- 
 hold still bear witness. The little Protestant congregation was 
 Lutheran and Reformed united. On January 18, 1822, Fliedner 
 arrived, unnoticed and on foot, so as to cause the poor congre- 
 gation no expense. His sister kept house for him. The congre- 
 gation was in a precarious state, and its very existence seemed 
 threatened by the bankruptcy of a manufacturing establishment. 
 Fliedner could have had a better parish, but he was daily growing 
 in earnestness, and did not wish to prove himself a hireling. He 
 therefore resolved to secure the continuance of the congregation by 
 undertaking a collecting tour. He began with great trepidation in 
 Elberfeld. A pastor of the town, who received him kindly, told him, 
 that for this work, beside trust in God, three things were needful, 
 namely "patience, impudence, and eloquence". Fliedner soon per- 
 ceived that the Lord was granting him success, and decided to ex- 
 tend his journey to Holland and England. God blessed his tire- 
 less activity, and the future of his congregation was made secure. 
 Fliedner himself, through his intercourse with many active chris- 
 tians, attained to a more and more positive faith, and by the in- 
 spection of numerous institutions of mercy, received a strong 
 stimulus. He wrote Kloenne an account of the deaconesses of the 
 dutch Mennonites. 
 
 64. Fliedner's life, thus far, was God's school, in which he 
 was being trained for his real life-work. Although he was zealous 
 and successl'ul in the fulfillment of his pastoral duties, and taught 
 a number of pupils besides, yet the sraallness of his parish left him 
 time tor outside work. He first took jjity on the prisoners. After 
 the example of Elizabeth Fry in England, he began to examine 
 
- 64 — 
 
 into the condition of the prisons, and to hold services in the gaol 
 at Duesscldorf. The first German Prison Association was formed, 
 in whose interest Fliedner made several journeys. In })ursuance 
 of this work he met his first wife, Frederica Muenster, who was 
 laboring in the reformatory at Duesselthal. He married her in 
 1828, and she became to him a true and faitiiful help-mate. By 
 the opening, in 18.32, of an asylum for discharged female convicts, 
 the beginning was made of the Kaiserswcrth Institutions. The 
 first inmate, Minna, was temporarily lodged in the summer house 
 of the parsonage garden. The means were mostly obtained by col- 
 lections. The little summer house became the cradle of the Kai- 
 serswcrth Magdalen Home, and of all the institutions established 
 there. 
 
 This first undertaking of Fliedner's was followed, three years 
 later, by a second, with which especially his name will forever more 
 be connected. It is the Kaiserswerth Deaconess Motherhouse. Oc- 
 tober 13, 1836, was the birthday of the modern female diacouate 
 upon evangelical basis. 
 
 For a long time the condition of the destitute sick had troubled 
 him He had visited many hospitals. Sometimes the portals were 
 of glistening marble, but the patients received insufficient care, the 
 nursing staff being depraved by drink and immorality. Should 
 not Protestant christian women be able and willing to nurse the 
 sick ? Had not the women of the apostolic age exercised the diaco- 
 nate ? Had not women during the wars of liberation abundantly 
 proved their fitness for this work ? Fliedner was persuaded, that 
 the talent only required to be awakened, and individuals would 
 not be wanting. Institutions must he established, in ivhich unmarried 
 women should be trained, for the care of the poor, the sick, and the 
 prisoners, and associated together in a close community. 
 
 Fliedner's ideas, as we see, were practical, fixed without hesi- 
 tation or deviation upon what was attainable, — undeterred even by 
 the ideal of a direct imitation of biblical and apostolic types. With- 
 out much examining and theorizing, his clear, dispassionate glance 
 found that method, for which the past history of the Church 
 had prepared the way. His thoughts gave him no peace. His 
 wife's courage was even greater than his own. It i?eemed un- 
 advisable to make the beginning in the little town of Kaiserswerth. 
 But wherever he approached the clergy of more important places, 
 his request was denied. He thus became assured, that the Lord 
 meant to lay this work upon no other shoulders than his own. 
 
 In the Spring of 1836, without having any money in hand, 
 he purchased the largest and finest house in Kaiserswerth. Through 
 his efforts, the Rhenish-Westphalian Deaconess Association was 
 organized. God provided both friends of the cause and ])ecuniary 
 means. An unmarried woman, Gertrude Keichardt, a physician's 
 
— 65 — 
 
 daiiti'liter, offered her services as dedconess. But before her arrival 
 the institution was ojDcned, on October 13, with the scantiest furnish- 
 ings, without patients, but amid heartfelt praise and thanksgiving. 
 On October 22, Sister Gertrude, the first deaconess, came. Patients 
 soon arrived, and other Sisters applied for admission. About a 
 month after the opening of the House, Fliedner, who Avas absent 
 on a collectino; tour, wrote to the little band of Sisters : "Your 
 labor of love is continually before my eyes. — I pray daily, and 
 many dear friends with me, that the faithful Shepherd and Saviour 
 may daily and hourly strengthen you in body and soul, to serve 
 Him, without growing weary, among His poor and suffering. Oh, 
 how sweet a burden and toil, to wash the wounds of Christ, and to 
 aunoint His body for burial. A¥ho would not gladly, with Mary 
 Magdalene and Salome, have done this, counting herself blessed, 
 to render this service to His most holy body? Yes, — what Christian 
 would not willingly have washed the blood from His tortured 
 body on Calvary, and dried it with her hair ? And now, my dear 
 Sisters in the Lord, your work among the sick is the same as was 
 that of Mary Magdalene and Salome, if you perform it, looking up 
 to Him, in love to Him and in faith." Communications regard- 
 ing his business matters, practical advice and commissions con- 
 clude the letter. The instruction given by Fliedner to the Sisters 
 was in the same spirit. Even at that early period a detailed 
 house-order and rules of service were prepared for the Sisters, 
 treating with equal care the spiritual and technical aspects of 
 the calling. It became the basis of that house-order, after which 
 the orders of most of the newer Motherhouses are patterned. It 
 embodies the fundamental principles of the Protestant deaconess 
 work of our day, and is replete with wisdom and thought. In 
 January, 1838, the first outside station was undertaken, — the 
 municipal hospital at Elberfeld. The members of the royal 
 household, and especially the crown-prince of Prussia aided the 
 work. The Lord opened the hearts of high and low throughout 
 the land. Among them all, and more than all, Fliedner's wife 
 was his chief helper. In regard to rules, dress, and other regula- 
 tions, the right method had to be found ; and her clear insight, 
 sanctified by religion, preserved him from mistakes. To the 
 domestic virtues of cleanliness, order, simplicity and economy, 
 she united a large-hearted tenderness toward all who needed help, 
 and again, with almost masculine energy, knew how to resist the 
 abuse of ministering love. To the deaconesess she was at once a 
 mother and an example, and her name deserves to be more frequently 
 mentioned, than it is, in connection with the protestant renewal of 
 the female diaconate. 
 
 65. After the beginning had been made, the work grew from 
 year to year. In 1842, the Seminary for teachers of little children's 
 
— (i() — 
 
 scliools was added. Fliedner possessed excellent gifts for the 
 management of little ehiklren. Later on he asso<.'iated with him- 
 self the young teacher, J. Ranke, who was equally calculated to 
 promote this important branch of charitable work. Fliedner also 
 obtained an assistant in his pastoral office. The Publication- 
 House of the Deaconess Institution was established, the Kaisers- 
 werth Almanac made its appearance, and later on the "Friend of 
 the Sick and Poor" was issued. An orj>hanao:e was founded • 
 Deaconess Houses were opened elsewhere, mostly with the co- 
 operation of Fliedner and the Kaiserswerth Motherhonse. In the 
 midst of all this success, God's hand lay heavily upon Fliedner's 
 family. His brothers and his children died; but the heaviest 
 blow of all ^ras the death of his faithful wife, on April 22, 1842. 
 "She died first, of all the deaconesses," Fliedner wrote, *'as like 
 a mother she M'alked before her spiritual daughters in life, so in 
 death she preceded them." The Lord provided for Fliedner's 
 family and institutions a fitting successor in Caroline Bertheau, of 
 Hamburg, whom Fliedner married in May, 1843. She too, pos- 
 sessed the inestimable gift of being a friend and guide to many, as 
 she continues to be, in her old age.*) Fliedner was trying to 
 secure a Superior for the Deaconess House about to be established 
 in Berlin, when he made her acquaintance. Of his two marriages 
 he said : "Twice I experienced that, while I was seeking something 
 for the Lord, I found what was best for myself." 
 
 The secret of Fliedner's comprehensive activity was his faith, 
 a great capacity for work, and an untiring energy. He was always 
 cheerful and good-humored. His large family of children grew 
 up, while their father spent nearly half of his time in travelling ; 
 and the Lord helped abundantly, above all that he asked or 
 thought, both in the home and in the institution. In 1846, the 
 Seminary for Elementary Teachers was opened, where afterwards, 
 teachers were also trained for high-grade schools for girls. Thus, by 
 degrees, woman's gifts for the service of God were developed and 
 utilized to their full extent. The buildings for a multitude of 
 institutions were provided, for numerous officials and for the 
 gradually enlarging farm. The Lord never failed to furnish the 
 means as they were needed, and Fliedner's own family was not al- 
 lowed to suffer w^ant. Fliedner's faculty for putting the right per- 
 sons in the right places, manifested itself more and more amid the 
 excessive burden of work. He used to say humorously : '-Any 
 one can do everything himself; but to set others to do it, is an art." 
 This art he thoroughly understood. In many institutions, all the 
 arrangements are fitted to the capacity of one person, — this is a 
 great source of weakness. While Fliedner was the moving spirit 
 
 Mrs. Fliedner d e.l, A,Dril 1892, aged 81. 
 
— 67 — 
 
 of the multifarious institutional activity, he at the same time knew 
 how to make the others do without him. This was not the least 
 of his talents. 
 
 In the beginning of 1 848 he resigned his pastoral office, in 
 order to devote himself wholly to the deaconess cause. The Asylum 
 for Insane Women was opened ;" and to the numerous outside sta- 
 tions of the Kaiserswerth deaconesses, were added new ones, in 
 other continents. Fliedner also took a number of Sisters to the 
 United States, where however, owing to peculiar social conditions, 
 the success of their work has been slight. In the East he was 
 more fortunate. The king of Prussia placed the necesarry means 
 at his disposal, and in the Spring of 1851, Fliedner repaired to 
 Jerusalem with four Sisters, among them the first teaching dea- 
 conesses, who were afterwards followed by many others. Nursing 
 and the christian training of young girls are the chief branches 
 of the deaconess mission in the East. Besides Jerusalem, the 
 Kaiserswerth Sisters have other fields of richly blessed activity, in 
 Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, Beirut and Cairo. To 
 Fliedner, the multiplying stations meant constant increase of work. 
 His literary activity grew in equal proportion, although his prin- 
 cipal work' continued to be the training, placing and superintend- 
 ing of the deaconesses. His journeys grew more frequent. Col- 
 lections had to be made, stations and branch institutions organized 
 or visited, and the work promoted in other ways. In the mean 
 time the building operations at Kaiserswerth proceeded almost 
 without interruption. Among the important buildings erected 
 during the later years were a Health Station, and a House of Eve- 
 ning Rest for the Sisters. Although much contempt had to be 
 endured, a full appreciation of his services was not lacking. In 
 the autumn of 1855 he received from the University at Bonn the 
 degree of Doctor of Divinity, the only distinction which gave him 
 pleasure. 
 
 QQ. Fliedner's last years showed that the Lord had broken the 
 strength of the active, untiring man, and led him into the silence 
 for which he had so often longed. Partly to relieve a pulmonary 
 trouble, he made a second journey to the East ; but he returned 
 without improvement. The Loi'd permitted him to remain for seven 
 years longer. Sleeping, and spending many hours ot the day in a 
 cow-stable, delayed the progress of the disease, without curing it. 
 He dictated in a low voice, and contiuued uninterruptedly busy, 
 even though he could no longer preach or travel. His son-in-law. 
 Pastor J. Disselhoif more and more supplied his place. Fliedner 
 lived to see the twenty-fifth anniversary of the deaconess-work. The 
 numerous Deaconess Motherhouses, which h;ul meanwhile come into 
 existence, began at regularly returning intervals, to send their re- 
 presentatives to a general conference held at Kaiserswerth. A union 
 
— (58 — 
 
 of these resulted, which has been productive of much good. Tlie 
 last ])nildiuii- be<i:uu i)v Fliedner was a deacouoss school at Hildeu. 
 
 ( )u September ] 2, 1<S<)4, the Kaiserswcrth lustitutious cele- 
 brated their anniversary, and Fliedner consecrated ninet<'en Sisters 
 to the deaconess calling. With tottering steps he reached his home 
 after the ceremony. On the morning of October 3, he took leave 
 of his family. The next morning he rose from his bed with the 
 words : "It is time ; I must be going." At 2 o'clock, in the after- 
 noon he fell asleep. His watchward was : "He must increase, 
 but I must decrease." A great man in the Kingdom of God; 
 steadfast and childlike in his faith, clear and instructive, impres- 
 sive and stimulating in his speech ; as mild and kindly, as he was 
 firm and decided ; of a gentle and serious mind ; of great strength 
 of conviction and of untiring energy ; ruling by serving others; 
 a master in the art of asking and thanking, — he labored more than 
 most men, and died, trusting in grace ahnie. "Conqueror of death 
 — victor," were the last words whispered by his dying lips. His 
 grave was made in the midst of a colony of institutions of merciful 
 love, erected to the glory of Christ. Xot only are the Kaiserswcrth 
 Institutions, which at his death numbered 425 deaconesses, his 
 living monument, but the entire modern female diaconate as iceU, 
 whose spiritual father he became, by the grace of God. 
 
 The coat of arms of Kaiserswerth represents a grain of 
 mustard-seed, springing up under the rays of the sun. If we bear 
 in mind the beginning, in the summerhouse of the parsonage garden ; 
 if we remember the many futile attempts to renew the diaconate of 
 the early church, in conformity with the needs of modern congre- 
 gational life ; if we remember the problem which awaited solution, 
 and realize the measure of genuine practical und spiritual wisdom, 
 with which it was solved ; if we finally consider the growth which 
 this work has enjoyed, both at home and abroad, we must confess : 
 "This is the Lord's doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes." 
 
 Among the evidences of life in the Church of modern times, 
 there is, beside the mission-work among the heathen, none more 
 important, than the renewal of the female diaconate on the basis of 
 the reformation In order the more clearly to recognize this fact, 
 a presentation of the protestant deaconess work, in the entire ex- 
 tent of its present activity is required. For this purpose, we will 
 direct our attention first to the Motherhouses, then to the Sister- 
 hoods, and finally to the Fields of Labor of the deaconesses. 
 
 -^^^i^^^^^^i<^ 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Ths Deaconess Motherhouses. 
 
 67. After Fliedner had prepared the way, the deaconess work 
 speedily established itself in the protestant chnrch, and we are now 
 able to review the first half-century of its progress. It is note- 
 worthy, that with very slight deviations, it has followed the line 
 marked out by Kaiserswerth. This is especially true of the prac- 
 tical aspect of the work. We may therefore conclude, with a 
 reasonable degree of certainty, that its fundamental principles were 
 not arbitrarily chosen, but inspired by God for our time. Incom- 
 pletenesses may still adhere to this form — yet criticism is easierthan 
 improvement. Thus far it has not proved advisable, nor productive 
 of more generally satisfactory results, to deviate in any essen- 
 tial particulars from the path marked out by common experience. 
 
 The number of Motherhouses organized upon the model ot 
 Kaiserswerth. and represented at the General Conference, is 57.*) 
 The first decade, 1836 — 1846, after the establishment of the first 
 Motherhouse at Kaiserswerth, witnessed the organization of the 
 Motherhouses in Berlin (Elizabeth Hospital), Paris (Rue de 
 Reuilly, 95), Strasburg, St. Loup (Switzerland), Dresden, Utrecht, 
 Berne — eight in all. During the second decade, 1846 — 56, were 
 established the Motherhouses in Berlin (Bethany), Stockholm, 
 Rochester (U. S.), Breslau, Koenigsberg, Stettin, Ludwigslust, 
 Riehen near Basel, Neuendettelsau, Stuttgart, Augsburg — twelve 
 in number. The third decade, 1856 — (5ii, produced the sixteen 
 Motherhouses at Halle, Darmstadt, Zuric, St. Petersburg, Spire, 
 Hannover, Craschnitz, Hamburg (Bethesda), London (West- 
 bourne Park), Dantsic, Copenhagen, Cassel (Wehlheiden), Hague, 
 Mitau, Posen, Sarata. Between tlie years 1866 — 76 were established 
 the Motherhouses at Buda-Pest, Frankenstein (Silesia), Riga, Ber- 
 lin (Lazarus Hospital), London (Tottenham), Reval, Helsingfors 
 (Finland), Altona, Bremen, Christiania, Wiborg, Bielefeld, New- 
 Torney near Stettin, Brunswick, Frankford a. M., Flensburg, 
 Paris (7, Rue Bridaine), — seventeen in number. Finally, during 
 the fifth decade, 1876 — S6, were founded the four Motherhouses 
 
 *) Since tire above was written, their number has increased to 63, with 90O0 
 Sisters, and 2800 fields of labor. 
 
— To- 
 il! Berlin (Paul Gerhardt Hoiiso) Xowawes, Gallnciikir .lici), and 
 Arnlu'ini. The minihei' of Sisters in these Motliei'lHiiiscs was, at 
 the the time of" tiie oOtli anniversary, ().")()(), tiie fields of hihor 
 1\)2'). IJesides the ahove-nientioned Houses, there arc several, 
 Avhieli thus tar have not been represented at tiie General Gonfeivnce 
 in Kaiserswerth ; for the reason that in some eases the principles 
 and deveh)pment of the work do not in essential details coincide 
 with the views of the above mentioned Motherhouses ; in the 
 ease of others, the Conference, which meets only once in tiiree 
 years, has not assembled since their organi/ation, and their admis- 
 sion has therefore not yet taken place. 
 
 Of the 57 Motherhouses belonging; to the (General Conference, 
 33 are German ; Switzerland has 4, France 2, Holland 3, Den- 
 mark 1, Norway 1, Sweden 1, Russia 7, Austro-Hungary 2, Eng- 
 land 2, America 1. In America, the cause is slowly taking 
 root ; a second Motherliouse is however in course of ereetion 
 in Philadelphia. In England, in addition to the two Houses above 
 cited, one of which is High-Church, the other dissenting, there are 
 various other deaconess institutions, wliose regulations seem to differ 
 widely from those of Kaiserswerth. In Switzerland and in Scan- 
 dinavia the work has made great progress. In Holland, Fin- 
 land and the Baltic Provinces of Russia, it has also met wnth much 
 appreciation. 
 
 68. As regards the history of the individual Motherhouses, it 
 can only be considered here, in so far as it is characteristic for the 
 general development of the work, and therefore of immediate 
 interest. 
 
 Kaiserswerth is and Avill remain the Motherhouse of all 
 Motherhouses. It embraces all branches of the female diaconate, 
 with the single exception of church-ornamentation. In addition 
 to all varietres of siok-nursing and parish-work, Kaiserswerth has 
 cultivated the educational features of the diaconate in every pos- 
 sible direction. In Kaiserswerth itself, ten daughter institutions 
 are connected with the Motherhouse, among them an Asylum and 
 Magdalen Home, a Little Children's School, with a Seminary for 
 teachers of such schools, a Hospital, an Orphanage for girls, a 
 Seminary for teachers of elementary and high-grade schools, a 
 Sanatorium for Protestant insane women, a Preparatory Deaconess 
 School, a Home for feeble and invalid single women and widows, 
 and a high-grade school for girls, Kaiserswerth furthermore 
 possesses fourteen branch institutions in different parts of Ger- 
 many, and eleven outside of Germany ; among these lieing servants' 
 training schools and lodging-houses, one German and several 
 foreignelementary schools for girls, rest-stations for the deaco- 
 nesses, &c. As regards enthusiastic delight in the work, the most 
 varied practical efficiency, carefulness and self-denial of the deaco- 
 
— 71 — 
 
 Dess service in each and every direction, Kaiser swerth is and will 
 continue to be the mother-soil, upon which, and in contact with 
 which, the workers in the deaccmess cause receive continually 
 new strength. This is an experience which moves to gratitiide ail 
 who from time to time visit Kaiserswerth, either during the General 
 Conference, or for the purpose of learning, at other seasons. 
 
 The Elizabeth Hospital in Berlin was founded by Gossner, 
 the gifted pastor of the Bohemian congregation in that city. 
 From the Roman Catholic communion, to which he in his youth 
 belonged, he had brought with him an appreciation of woman's 
 ministry in the Church, especially in the care of the sick. Very 
 soon in the course of his far-reaching activity, he undertook the 
 training of protestant sick-nurses, or Sisters of Mercy, whom how- 
 ever, he did not wish to have called deaconesses. Gossner was a very 
 independent man. Everywhere, and in all things, he insisted upon 
 Scriptural truth, but he had little understanding for fixed forms, 
 and even dreaded them. As in his missionary efforts, so in his 
 deaconess House, he himself was the living rule and standard for 
 all things. This led to disastrous consequences, especially after 
 his death. For a long time the Elizabeth Hospital was unable to 
 obtain an established Sisterhood. Only since the House, in 1867, 
 was led into the path of the Kaiserswerth order, has it enjoyed, 
 inwardly and outwardly, a continued and prosperous growth. The 
 history of this House may .serve as an instructive example for 
 more or less intelligent attempts at the independent organization 
 of Motherhouses. 
 
 The Deaconess House at Strasburg in Alsace was called into 
 life by Pastor Haerter, — a man, in whose thoughtful mind a deep 
 yearning after heavenly things was joined to the liveliest, practical 
 appreciation of the needs of the Church on earth. His watchword 
 was : "For me to live is Christ ; to die is gain." The Strasburg 
 Motherhouse, with the motto of its foimder, retained also his idea ot 
 the closest possible union with the Church. This has been expressed 
 in the arrangements of ' the Motherhouse, in which the Kaisers- 
 werth order is adhered to, based upon the most strictly "constitu- 
 tional" foundation. The result has been, that this House, in its 
 model organization of parish-work at Muelhouse in Alsace, has 
 been permitted to become a j)attern for all Motherhouses. 
 
 The Deaconess House "Bethany" in Berlin is a foundation of 
 the noble-hearted King Frederick William IV., who while still 
 crownprince of Prussia showed a warm interest in churchly things, 
 including the deaconess- work. Worthy of its royal founder, tlie 
 entire style of the house is upon a generous scale. The administra- 
 tion is a sort of "female monarchy." In Bethany, hospital-nursing 
 especially has been brought to a very high degree of perfection. 
 In regard to the principles, by which the position of the dea- 
 
— 72 — 
 
 coness in the ('ono;rc'gati()n is regulated, tliis House also, through 
 its standing and influence, has become tvj)ieal. 
 
 Finally, we will mention two Motherhouses, which are 
 distinguished from those above-mentioned by tlie tact that the one 
 originated upon strictly Lutheran, the other upon decidedly Re- 
 formed soil. These are the Houses at Neuendcttelsau and Jk'rne. 
 
 The Deaconess House' at Xeucndettelsau is a foundation of 
 the eminent pastor W. Loehe, who as one of the mightiest preachers 
 and most exquisitely gifted liturgists of all time, was especially 
 called to set before our century in a vivid manner, the glory of 
 the Lutheran Church and her confessions. The deaconess work in 
 Neuendcttelsau began with a society for the jiromotion of the fe- 
 male diaconate, without however making experiences similar to 
 those of the Elizabeth Hospital in Berlin. Loehe soon gave to 
 the undertaking a firm, institutional construction, whose funda- 
 mental rules became the same as those of Kaiserswerth. In addi- 
 tion, Loehe's personal characteristics and talents greatly contributed 
 to the enrichment of the deaconess- work. His original idea was, in 
 a reformative manner, to direct the life of christiau Avomanhood 
 generally into nobler paths. This idea he endeavored, within the 
 narrow bounds of the deaconess House, to realize as far as possible. 
 In Neuendcttelsau, in addition to practical efficiency, the mental and 
 spiritual culture of the Sisters received most careful nurture. To 
 this end served the regular preaching and instruction, the rich, 
 liturgical form of worship, and the emphasis laid upon noble sim- 
 plicity and sanctified beauty of form in all the relations of woman's 
 life. Neuendcttelsau is the first Deaconess Institution, in which 
 the psalmody again found a home. While in Kaiserswerth, church- 
 ornamentation is not practised, I^oehe, by this branch of the 
 service, established for the beautifying of the sanctuary, and for 
 the jov and honor of the Church, has woven into the deaconess life 
 one of its loveliest blossoms, and has convincingly proven, that in 
 woman's ministry to the body of the Lord, Mary, with her box of 
 precious ointment, must forevermore keep her place. It may be 
 characterized as Loehe's abiding merit, that he firmly established 
 the female diaconate upon God's Word, and greatly promoted its 
 fine appreciation of details, as well as its christian ideality. 
 
 In contrast to Neuendcttelsau the Deaconess House in Berne 
 came into being almost out of touch with the Church and 
 the pastoral office. The peculiarities of republican Switzerland, and 
 of the reformed faith, do not forbid the adoption by this and other 
 strictly Reformed Motherhouses, ot the practical organization of 
 Kaiserswerth. The House in Berne owes its origin to a noble 
 circle of patricians, Avho first caused the establishment of a Wo- 
 men's Society. When this society endeavored to obtain for its 
 purposes a hospital, there was a difference of opinion, as to whether 
 
— 73 — 
 
 it should be "constitutionally or monarchically" governed. A highly 
 gifted member of the society, Miss Sophie Wurstemberger was in 
 favor of the latterform. She had for years striven to "break through 
 the rigid orthodoxy" prevailing in her aristocratic home, and "to 
 penetrate to the enjoyment of full grace". When she found herself 
 alone in her views, she withdrew from the association, and through 
 her connection with Baron Bunsen, was induced to visit London. 
 During her journey she became acquainted with 'Fliedner and 
 Kaiserswerth ; and had frequent intercourse with Elizabeth Fry. 
 In the meantime, the dispute among the ladies in Berne had 
 been settled, by their agreeing, after continued prayer, to leave the 
 decision entirely to the Lord, and to ascertain His Will "by draw- 
 ing lots". This decided in favor of the "monarchy", which was 
 accordingly offered to Miss Wurstemberger upon her return. Being 
 left wholly without encouragement from her relatives, the beginning 
 was very trying to her; but in the course of time, her path became 
 smoother. Her devotional exercises in the hospital made a strong 
 impression upon the patients. "Many had never heard the Lord 
 so earnestly proclaimed. His Spirit acted powerfully upon the 
 hearts of many of the sufferers. Many found peace, and thence- 
 forward walked in communion with the living Saviour." Yet it 
 was not until three years later (1845) that the first probationers 
 entered. In ten years the Sisterhood numbered only seven. After the 
 marria^ of Miss Wurstemberger with Mr. Dandlicker, of Berne, 
 the House made rapid strides, both, as housefather and housemother 
 placing their considerable fortunes at the service of the Institution. 
 At present, as regards the number of its Sisters, it ranks as fourth 
 among all the Motherhouses. It is incorporated, but still con- 
 tinues to be governed as a large private family, at whose head stand 
 the housefather and housemother, and in which the pastoral office, as 
 such, has as yet not found a place. 
 
 69. This short sketch of the history of six among the oldest 
 Motherhouses, is sufficient to characterize in general the methods, 
 by which the deaconess cause in the protestant churches reached 
 its present extent and importance. Each individual Motherhouse 
 has its own peculiarities, and these are conditioned in a great mea- 
 sure by the personal character of the individual who first exerted 
 an enduring influence upon its development. The locality must 
 also be taken into account, whether city or country, whether a 
 large town or a small one, as well as the closer or more distant re- 
 lations to municipal or churchly organizations. National pecu- 
 liarities and the political life also exert at times a very perceptible 
 influence. Most especially does the confessional position of the 
 individual houses express itself in the life and habits developed 
 there. In addition, it must be taken in consideration, whether the 
 management inclines to the "constitutional," or more strictly 
 
— 74 — 
 
 "inoimiN'liical" order. We will he pardoned for thus expressing 
 it, as we have no better or more accurate term. For the rest, it 
 must he said, that in the Motherlionses the ])iactical recjuirements 
 are far more potent and inHuential, than any statutory j)rovisions. 
 
 As a matter of fact, and excepting outward titles, the manage- 
 ment in all Motherhouses is almost identical, and is shared between 
 a male and female 'superior. All deaconess houses are excluded 
 from the Kaiserswcrth Union, whose administration is solely in 
 the hands of either a man or a woman. It is one of the funda- 
 mental rules of the Motherhouses, that in the government of the 
 house, man and woman, as divinely ordered, must su})plement each 
 other; because only where this is the case, a healthy diaconate is 
 possible, and those conditions are supplied, without which the fe- 
 male diaconate would possess small value for the churchly com- 
 munity. In reviewing the different Motherhouses in all their 
 diversity, we wall find 1;hat Kaiserswerth is everywhere to be recog- 
 nized as the model. Beside Fliedner, of the first importance to 
 the deaconess cause, Loehe stands prominent ; his influence is 
 unmistakable in most of the houses belonging to the Lutheran 
 Church. Finally, the example of "Bethany" in Berlin may be 
 quoted here, as w'ell for its general activity as for particular features, 
 introduced by its rector, Pastor Schulz. If w^e consider these three 
 Institutions as types, we can readily recognize in the individual 
 houses the prevalence of one or the other, without detriment to the 
 predominant importance of the oldest house. 
 
 70. We will, in the first place, examine more closely the or- 
 ganization of the Motherhouses. With very few exceptions, the 
 persons entrusted with the immediate management of the house 
 are a pastor and a deaconess. Whether both have equal authority, 
 whether one is subordinated to the other, how and to what extent 
 they are answerable to other managers, are points upon which, as 
 has been said above, divergences exist. The titles also vary. The 
 clergyman is either merely the pastor of the institution, or at the 
 same time superintenderat, rector or inspector. The deaconess who 
 superintends the household, especially in North German houses, 
 and in those of a Lutheran character, bears the title of "Superior" 
 ("Oberin" and "Fran"). In the South, the title of "superintend- 
 ing Sister" is often preferred. The proper relation between these 
 tw^o persons must not be that'of actual subordination on either side ; 
 least of all would the subordination of the man to the woman be 
 justifiable, this being contrary to God's Word. The most suitable 
 arrangement is, to assign to each of the superintending persons an 
 independent province ; while upon common territory, the male voice 
 should give the decision, unless there is an insuperable difference of 
 opinion. Experience shows that, upon thewdiole, the gifts of both 
 
liy — 
 
 so supplement each other, that the adjustment of opinions results as 
 a matter of course. In detail, fixed rules cannot be laid down. 
 Both are answerable to God, and bound to work together in 
 harmony. The special province of the pastor, superintendent or 
 rectt-r is the churchly, spiritual and intellectual care of the house, 
 the theoretical instruction of the Sisters, the consecralioh of deaco- 
 nesses, the business transactions with outside authorities and asso- 
 ciations, and the preparation of such periodicals and reports as are 
 published by the house. Tlie duties assigned to the female superin- 
 tendent or superior, are those of housemother and immediate su- 
 perior of the Sisters. She has charge of the Sisters' practical edu- 
 cation for their calling ; she is responsible for the management of 
 the household ; she supervises and regulates the work of the Sisters, 
 the placing and the care of the sick, and enforces the observance 
 of the rules of the House. She will also keep the books and 
 accounts of the House, while the pastor has the right of re- 
 vision. Both together decide upon the admission, induction, 
 consecration and dismissal of probationers and deaconesses ; upon 
 the stationing of Sisters, upon the regulations and instructions to 
 be adopted for the Sisters and the House, upon the undertaking or 
 relinquishing fields of labor. The medical education of the Sisters, 
 as well as the medical treatment of the sick in the hospital which 
 must be connected with the Institution, for the training of the Sisters 
 is usually entrusted to a specially appointed physician. The Board 
 of Directors represents the House in its property-holding capacity, 
 and appoints the pastor, the Sister Superior and the physician. By 
 this power, which of course includes that of dismissal, the board of 
 directors preserves a sufficient influence upon the inner development 
 of the House. Where the board seeks by its resolutions to regulate 
 the actual domestic management and work, such a procedure will 
 either render the administration much more difficult, or it will 
 prove to be more a semblance than a reality. The existing church 
 authorities may be given a certain measure of influence in the 
 Board, which will not fail to be more or less noticeable in the 
 character of the House. As already intimated, even in those 
 Motherhouses, whose printed reguhitions ma>' difl'er essentially 
 from the above, the division of labor will practically be pretty 
 much the same. In the interest of christian truth, however, 
 and to avoid temptations and inconsistencies, the letter of the 
 written law must not be undervalued in this connection. If 
 the early beginnings of certain Motherhouses made it imperative 
 that man and wife should at first hold the positions of house- 
 father and housemother, this is by no means to be regarded as a 
 rule, but as an exception, which cannot be of continuance. That the 
 persons in authority should bear parental relations to the Sister- 
 
— 7fi — 
 
 hood, is clearly a matter of course. To deduce from it a title, must 
 as a rule he cousidered a mistake. 
 
 71. luasmuch as tiie deaconesses of our day couie forth from 
 Motherhouses as above described, they dlfcr from the dcaeone.sseis 
 of the curly Chureh. These came directly frcmi the coni>;regation, 
 and in their ministry usually remained identified with the congre- 
 gation, from which they had sprung;. The present deaconesses, on 
 the contrary, are sent out from their Mothcrliouses to the places 
 where their services are needed ; and even though they labor at a 
 distance, yet they continue in close connection with the Mother- 
 house. They receive from it the instructions, by which their general 
 service is regulated, and as it sends them out, so it recalls them. 
 The individual parish or institution, in which they are to labor, 
 negotiates with the Motherhouse, and receives from it the deaco- 
 nesses, without individuals being named. The contract is made 
 for the "Sister", not for the person. The majority of the Mother- 
 houses have originated and are supported by voluntary christian 
 charity, by associations and corporations, which have little or no 
 official connection with the authorities of Church and State. As 
 matters are in the existing State-churches, a change in this direction 
 is not desirable. It is questionable, whether the Motherhouses could 
 endure it, were the voluntary character of their work of faith and 
 charity taken away. This is not in contradiction with the develop- 
 ment of an active system of reciprocity between the church authori- 
 ties and the Motherhouses. The more fully the Motherhouses, as 
 free institutions, enter into organic union with the Church, the 
 more gratifying and profitable will their labors be. 
 
 The question has been asked, whether the female diaconate ot 
 the present day, in the form in which it has been realized by means 
 of the Motherhouses, is to be understood as a churchly office. The 
 question has been answered in the affirmative by Kaiserswerth and 
 other Motherhouses. Fliedner is termed the restorer of the Diaconate 
 of the early Church, or of the "Apostolic Diaconate". Protest has 
 been entered here, especially on the part of the Lutheran Mother- 
 houses. An office is a legally ordered condition, in which strictly 
 prescribed duties and privileges counterbalance each other. Such an 
 office was the diaconate of the early Church ; and the position of 
 our deaconesses, in parishes and institutions, often approaches very 
 nearly to such an official standing. But upon the ^vhole, the dea- 
 conesses of the present time are not office-holders of the Church. 
 They cannot be, if for no other reason, than that their appointment 
 and installation into public, official connections never refers to 
 the individual, as such. It must be conceded that, practically 
 viewed, the modern female diaconate is and desires to be no other 
 than was that of the early Church, in so far as it observed the lines 
 laid down by the Word of God. It is therefore questionable. 
 
— I i — 
 
 whether we have the right to extend the idea of the office in the 
 churchly sense, beyond tts legal acceptation. If the question is 
 answered in the affirmative, then the voluntary, officially or- 
 ganized service, rendered by the Motherhouses through their 
 members, may likewise be termed a scriptural office of the 
 Church, to which the deaconess knows herself to be firmly 
 bound in the Lord who called her. For the rest, our Mother- 
 houses, like the household of Stephanas (1. Cor. 16, 15), have 
 voluntarily "addicted themselves to the ministry" of cnarity ; 
 and this conditions the outward standing of our deaconesses. The 
 only exception in favor of a complete, organized incorporation of 
 deaconesses into the official church organization, seems to be found 
 in the Church of England, especially where it is under ritualistic 
 influence. In England, the deaconess cause has found favor, es- 
 pecially in high-church circles, while the dissenting elements seem 
 averse to it. Among the former it appears to be loved as "a catholic 
 institution", while among the latter it is avoided for the same reason. 
 The one mistake is calculated to produce the other. It remains to 
 be seen, whether the English deaconess institution, standing under 
 immediate episcopal guidance and management, will have a 
 successful future, and whether the Rome-ward tendency will not 
 bear disastrous fruits. It is not to be imagined how, in other 
 protestant communions, the Motherhouses could exist otherwise 
 than as based upon voluntary effort. The associated activity must 
 replace what the official church-life lacks in energy of faith and 
 mobility. Yet all this renders the more apparent the essential dif- 
 ference, in regard to the official, churchly institution, between the 
 female diaconate of the present, and that of the post-apostolic 
 period. 
 
 72. In' observing this difference, it cannot be denied that in a 
 general way, the method of the early Church was the more 
 ideal. On the other hand, the Motherhouses have their own ad- 
 vantages. Practical experience, to which thus far no sufficient 
 contrary experience has been opposed, leads us to consider the form 
 of the Motherhouses as the only one, in which in our day a public 
 churchly ministry of women can exist. We have previously shown, 
 how the consideration of history leads to the same result. And 
 inasmuch as this form is for us the only one possible, it likewise 
 follows, that it is the best. The advantages of the Motherhouses 
 can be briefly enumerated. They are more or less the outcome of 
 the special form of christian and churchly community of faith and 
 calling there attainable. 
 
 The Motherhouses are small, religious communities within nar- 
 row limits, in which, upon the basis of voluntary union among their 
 members, the churchly life is able to unfold itself in greater purity, 
 richness and consistency than in the larger public congregations, 
 
— 78 — 
 
 which are formed upon au entirely different phni. The confessions of 
 the Church obtain unreserved recojrnition. The beauty of worship, 
 the frequency and variety of the services, the abundant ])r(achinjij 
 of the Word, tiie efficacy of the ordinances, and many otlier 
 treasures from the wealth of a more believintr ])ast, here rec(Mve 
 loving nurture These small communities are thus able to afford a 
 churchlt/ trainiiu/, such as is not easily found elsewhere. It would 
 scarcely be necessary to insist upon the great value of this feature^ 
 were it not, that many protestant communions have lost the realiza- 
 tion of the educational power, inherent in a carefully conducted 
 and richly developed worship. 
 
 Special weight must furthermore be placed upon the healthful 
 influence of religious association, for which the foundation is laid 
 in the Motherhouses. All good and genuine association exerts an 
 educational and refining influence. Therefore the Christians of all 
 times have sought to establish closer communities. But we would 
 fall into the most dangerous error, if we thus externalized the pri- 
 vacy of personal faith, by trying to establish without further pre- 
 paration visible "Communions of Saints". In addition to the 
 churchly union of confession, worship and sacrament, it is the 
 Christian communion of work and calling, which alone affords 
 a wholesome center for a union of faith. Both are found side 
 by side in the Motherhouses. Sectarian narrowness, which makes 
 a carrieature of the community, and undisciplined laxity, which 
 robs the community of its strength, are equally absent. All 
 matters are judged by the Word of God, and to it all the members 
 are subject. Such association is an invaluable means of personal^ 
 spiritual progress, and Christian development of cliarader This, to 
 be sure, is not what many imagine, being above all, no life of mere 
 religious enjoyment. 
 
 It is furthermore clear, that the Motherhouses, as religious 
 working associations, afford the opportunity of a practical and theo- 
 retical training for the deaconesses, which would otherwise be unat- 
 tainable. Such training is indispensable in our day, if the female 
 diaconate would lay claim to the general confidence. This is pri- 
 marily true of the care of the sick, yet it is equally the case in 
 other relation.s. In the Motherhouses, a tradition of service is de- 
 veloped. One Sister learns from another. The physician, the Sis- 
 ter Superior, the pastor, impart to the deaconesses a technical educa- 
 tion, which is the result of continuous, diligent labor, of careful ob- 
 servation, experience and practice. Without places of education, 
 wholly devoted to this object, there can be no adequate training 
 of deaconesses. 
 
 As regards the utilization of the various gifts of the deaconess- 
 es, the Motherhouses offer exceptional advantages. In the Sister- 
 hood, each individual is not called upon to serve in every branch 
 
— 79 — 
 
 of the calling, but each one can be placed where, according to the 
 measure of her ability, her efforts will be most successful. Many 
 an one, whose unaided efforts would avail little, in connection 
 with others accomplishes excellent results. In the community of 
 the Motherhouse, the one-sided employment of a special faculty is 
 avoided. To one, whose strength has for a long period been strained 
 in one direction, change of work is a relief. Accurate acquaintance 
 on the part of the superiors with the individual persons, and a va- 
 riety of duties, unite to secure to the work the most abundant re- 
 sults, and to tlie worker tlie longest possible period of usefulness. 
 When a Motherhouse has the good fortune, to see represented 
 among its members women of all ranks and all degrees of education, 
 reflecting on a small scale, tlie whole of Christian womanhood, the 
 Sisters will find in this variety a richness and mutual stimulus, 
 whicli cannot be too highly estimated. There they can learn how 
 in C'hrist "the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by 
 that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working 
 in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto 
 the edifying of itself in love". (Eph, 4, 16 ) 
 
 Besides the advantages cited, and chiefly concerning inner 
 affairs, the fact must be emphasized, that the Motherhouses afford 
 the deaconesses outward proiedion and support, over against the 
 world ; and a quiet, peaceable and yet spiritually active retreat in 
 times of incapacity or old age. The dress likewise, which char- 
 acterizes the Sisters as members of the House, and as upon an equa- 
 lity among themselves, is a ■ protection, as well outwardly as 
 against all secret enemies of the personal and associated life. 
 And as it outwardly equalizes the Sisters, diflering so widely as to 
 birth, education and talents, so it affords them the most elfective 
 introduction and recommendation amid the various relations into 
 which they are brought by their service. Therefore this dress is 
 copied by preterence by the secular trained nurses, a circumstance, 
 which, although inconvenient to the deaconess cause, yet certainly 
 indicates a recognition of its value. 
 
 Finally, it may be emphasized, that the Motherhouses, by their 
 firm and well-developed churchly organization, and the discipline 
 observed in them, are alone able to offer those guarantees, without 
 which the church, as such, can have little interest in the female 
 diaconate. Indeed, if the ministry of the deaconess in the con- 
 gregation is to become an abiding and uniformly operative institu- 
 tion, it must be borne up by an organization like the Motherhouse, 
 and not by individuals. Moreover, by the fact that the Mother- 
 house holds itself responsible for its members, and these remain 
 bound to it, the work is raised so far above any possible vicis- 
 situdes, that it continues, even though individuals should cause 
 trouble, or have to be excluded. Woman's public ministry in the 
 
— 80 — 
 
 cluircli is of so delicate a nature, that without the institution of the 
 Motherhousos, the ciinrch of our time could certainly neither foster 
 nor preserve it, and indeed, could never iiave secured it. 
 
 73. While tiic indispensablenessof the Motherhouse is obvious 
 both from the historical and practical point of view, it remains our 
 duty to examine the objections which are made against this form 
 of the female diaconate, occasionally even by persons a])parently 
 competent to judge. We can best do this, by considering, more 
 carefully than has been done hei^etofore, the differences hrfireoi jtro- 
 tesfant deaconesses and Homan Catholic sisfcrs of mercy. IStrangely 
 enough, the objections against the jNIotherhouses seem to be made 
 with more or less direct reference to the Romish church. 
 
 The princijial reproach made to the deaconess houses, is that 
 they are an imitation of the convents of the sisters of men^v. So 
 much is true, as is proved by our presentation of the matter, that the 
 public ministry of woman, both in the Romish church and in t5ur 
 own, is based upon a common form, which originated in the 
 church before the Reformation, — that of a voluntary, close associa- 
 tion, sanctioned by the church. Does this furnish cause for re- 
 proach ? We think the contrary. We have heard how Luther 
 approved of this form of the associated life, — when it accorded to 
 the Word of God the place which belongs to it. And we do not 
 hesitate to say, that it is a defect in our protestant church-life, 
 that this form has been neglected among us. As a result, almost 
 the entire burden of the work of the church has been laid upon 
 the clergy. Many other matters . have had to suffer neglect, or 
 perish. While, in recognition of these needs, a remedy has been 
 sought in the so-called lay-activity and the christian associations 
 for inner mission-work, it remains a burning question, whether 
 these forces, instead of building up the church, will not exert a 
 disintegrating and destructive influence ? As far as we can see, 
 the solution of the problem lies mainly in the free, churchly asso- 
 ciations of the deaconesses' and deacons' institutions. If the free, 
 associative activity of the church is to furnish a reliable diaconate, 
 this activity must culminate in the formation of closely-compacted 
 communities, carefully organized according to churchly principles. 
 These communities, as circumstances now are within our church, 
 must, in essential matters, create for themselves a fixed churchly 
 organization. Experience shows that the road leads to the goal, 
 and that the way has been prepared. We hold, that the formation 
 prompted by faith, of free religious communities, should be pro- 
 moted and favored ',by the church authorities. If a church is 
 unable to give place in her midst to these voluntary organizations, 
 or in some way to incorporate them with herself, it indicates a sad 
 state of spiritual impotence and want of adaptability. There 
 should be no doubt in the matter, where church affairs are judged 
 
— 81 — 
 
 from a churchly, and not from a political point of view. This, 
 however, is to us protestants, from force of habit, more difficult 
 than we ourselves know. 
 
 But, say some, in the communities of the deaconess Mother- 
 houses a Romanistic spirit of work-righteousness may easily gain 
 ground. Attention is called to the fact, that the pietistic and 
 methodistic tendencies of modern belief, in connection with the 
 zealous performance of good works and slight insistance upon 
 doctrine, actually produce various dangerous phenomena. It is 
 possible. In the deaconess Motherhouses, which are regulated 
 more strictly than any existing associations, upon churchly 
 principles, such extravagances will be least observed. This as- 
 surance we can confidently give. The solicitude, with which 
 the faith and confession of the Reformation are cherished, the 
 united and unreserved submission to the Word of God, and the 
 habit of discipline, resist at every step the stirrings of self-righteous- 
 ness. Ask, if anywhere in the Motherhouses, any practice openly 
 contradictory to God's Word can maintain itself? Were any such 
 thing discovered, its removal would be immediate. But we may 
 safely trust, that in the Motherhouses themselves all eyes are open, 
 and nothing is more feared, than an unevangelical spirit. This is 
 true in great things and small. But, they urge, even though 
 doctrine and confession be beyond reproach, yet the very separa- 
 tion, incident to the associated life, is a dangerous feature, opposed 
 to the evangelical spirit. Even the dress of the Sister suggests 
 that of a nun. How easily may iwt a spirit of caste be fostered, a 
 Romanistic sense of a condition of higher perfection, than is attain- 
 able in every day life? We have heard of the "deaconess vanity", 
 and. not always without justice, — but it will be conceded that 
 without the prescribed dress, the close association would be im- 
 practicable. But we have furthermore shown, that without the asso- 
 ciation, the deaconess, as a class, would be impossible. And if we 
 desire to retain the class, the class-spirit dare not be rejected. 
 Among teachers and pastors, not to speak of secular professions, a 
 certain esprit-de-corps is regarded a» inevitable, as well as desirable. 
 Deaconesses also must know, what they are, if they are to know, 
 what they are not. This spirit has no affinity with presumption 
 or vainglory, but it is highly salutary for discipline and self- 
 restraint For the rest, all of us are everywhere only human. As 
 regards the isolation from the world, which the Motherhouses are 
 said to promote, there are many features in the churchly conditions 
 of the present, which|itwere pleasanter not to contemplate. Smaller 
 communities, in which a more active religious life prevails, have at 
 such times easily become the homes of spiritual pride. If to the 
 pressure of circumstances is added a certain narrowness of mind, 
 and hostility on the part of the larger communities, this danger 
 
— .S2 — 
 
 becomes almost fatal. But in the religious life aiul in tlio calling of 
 the deaconess everything unites to counteract such a danger. The 
 light of the Word penetrates into every iiiding-[)lace. Tlie calling 
 itself, s))ii-itMally viewed, is a school of liuinility as no other. The 
 Mothcrhouses owe to the Church to which they belong, all their 
 treasures of spiritual life and churchly custom. The fact that here 
 these treasures are often found gathered together in great ]irofiision, 
 and by diligent use are ke])t bright and free from dust, tends solely 
 to increase the resjxmsibility, which the Mothcrhouses feel as 
 debtors to the Church. And what do they desire further, than to 
 serve the Church ? This is possible only when, in the midst of 
 the Church, and as its members, they vemain actively in touch 
 with it. 
 
 The deaconess Houses founded upon the doctrines of the 
 Reformation, exclude, in their teachings as well as in their life, 
 whatever tends to Komanism — work-righteousness, as well as mo- 
 nastic vows, — whatever goes beyond God's Word, and whatever is 
 contradictory to it. Therefore we may ignore the reproach of a 
 Romanizing tendency ; while we commend the associative form, 
 adopted by them, to the Church, as especially worthy of its care. 
 Many pastors are dissatisfied, that the deaconesses who labor in 
 their parishes, continue in a measure subject to the authority of 
 their Motherhouse. The cause may partly be, that the pastors, 
 through the unfortunate necessity of having to do all their work 
 unaided, have unlearned to rejoice in a division of churchly 
 labor. It ought to be self-evident, that, as regards the training, the 
 spiritual requirements and the work of the deaconess, outsiders 
 should be content to claim a less degree of experience, than is pos- 
 sessed by the directors of a Motherhouse. As a matter of fact, the 
 Motherhouses represent a province of practical Christianity, which 
 does not reveal itself to the casual glance ; into which experience 
 alone permits a deeper insight ; which offers problems, such 
 as do not elsewhere occur, — a province, in which the most ex- 
 perienced have still much to learn. Outsiders, in proportion to 
 their own spiritual advancement, should appreciate this ; and, un- 
 deterred by jealousy and idle questionings, be content, if the female 
 diaconate fulfils its purpose, as a humble and reliable auxiliary 
 to the pastoral office. 
 
 One more objection must be met, which, although of a dif- 
 ferent nature from the above, is, also frequently with an eye to the 
 Roman Catholic sisters of mercy, made to the deaconess houses. 
 It is, that the deaconesses accomplish less than the Romish orders, 
 or at least do not enjoy the same degree of general popularity. 
 This reproach is made by the very persons, who, if the occasion 
 offers, with great protestant self-consciousness, accuse the Mother- 
 houses of Romanizing tendencies. Both accusations show in reality, 
 
— 83 — 
 
 that the Motherhouses stand firmly upon the ground of their 
 churchly confession, and in their statutes give the widest possible 
 miluence to the Word of God. The sisters of mercy are very 
 numerous, and for proselyting purposes, their most capable repre- 
 sentatives are sent out into the Protestant districts. The Romish 
 Church moreover, in accordance with its habit of adaptation 
 to the natiu'al man, permits to the sisters of mercy a sort of service, 
 which in many respects, and in the light of God's Word, appears 
 unsuitable for deaconesses. As regards the work, the Protestant 
 Sisters, in certain Roman Catholic circles, curiously enough, enjoy 
 the same preference as is frequently accorded the Romish Sisters by 
 Protestants. We admit that the dearth, especially of educated 
 Sisters ; the numerous difficulties, churchly and otherwise, that 
 have to be encountered ; the criticism and prejudices to be met by 
 the Motherhouses, from believers and unbelievers in their own 
 Church, do not make it easy for them to maintain their posi- 
 ion over against the sisters of mercy. Yet, with confidence and due 
 humility, we may affirm, to the glory of God, that hitherto they have 
 very, successfully maintained this position, not only as regards the 
 true ministry in the Gospel spirit, but also as to practical efficiency. 
 It is certain that spiritual work is not made easier in this world by 
 taking the Word of God seriously. The Romish orders, owing to 
 their vows, and to their general conception of the matter, escape 
 many of the difficulties which beset our Motherhouses. At the 
 same time, true faith need fear no competition from error or from 
 unbelief. 
 
 The double reproach, that on the one hand the deaconess 
 houses resemble too much the convents of the sisters of mercy, 
 and yet on the other hand, are not equal to them, may spring 
 from ignorance, but certainly not from faithful love to the Church, 
 the pure Word and Sacraments. Where this love is found, united 
 with proper insight, the peculiar dangers and difficulties will not 
 be ignored, with whicdi the Motherhouses have actually to contend, 
 The publiG churchly minidry of ivomen certainly is not, and never 
 will he, among the simplest churchly problems. For this very reason 
 we should find great cause for gratitude in the abundant success 
 and blessing, which the Lord has accorded to this work, after it 
 had been guided into the right path. And with the occasion 
 for gratitude is offi^red that of more faithful intercession and co- 
 operation. 
 
 74. We have compared the advantages of the Motherhouses 
 with the objections urged against them, and have shown, how the 
 deaconesses of to-day differ from those ot the early Church, and 
 from the sisters of mercy of the Romish Church. The question now 
 suggests itself, how do the Motherhouses of the different Protestant 
 Churches stand toward each other. The answer is both easy and 
 
— 84 — 
 
 difficult ; difficult, inasmuch as the great unity of principle and 
 practice which binds together the Motherhouses, must not be 
 obscured by the answer ; and yet easy, for the reason that 
 the doctrinal differences are and remain unmistakable, notwith- 
 standing the levelling tendency of our time. We have already 
 called attention to the fact, that the Motherhouses embody a union 
 which is sound, because there is in it no thought of a weakening 
 of the churchly confession. On the contrary, with all their com- 
 munity of interests, the Motherhouses show themselves very sensi- 
 tive to confessional differences. They may be classified into three 
 principal groups, — the Reformed, the United and the Lutheran 
 Houses. In the United Houses, the tendency toward eitlier the 
 Lutheran or Reformed Church is clearly perceptible. Sometimes 
 the doctrinal view is more Lutheran, while the worship is more 
 Reformed, as is the case for instance at Kaiserswerth. The strictly 
 reformed type, Calvinistic or Zwinglian, is very rare in our day. 
 Yet the spirit of the reformed belief is the same as it was from the 
 beginning. The Scriptures are understood in a more legalistic man- 
 ner, the "spiritual, inner life", with works as its outward expression, 
 is strongly emphasized, in contrast to which the means of grace, and 
 especially the sacraments, recede into the background. In its various 
 deaconess Houses the Lutheran Church has abiding-places of the 
 most faithful love and devotion to its spirit. The thoroughness of its 
 teachings, the scriptural and conservative practice ot Lutheranism, 
 exclude all methodistic and pietistic tendencies. In order to avoid 
 the development of a one-sided over-activity, a very thorough in- 
 tellectual and spiritual education of the deaconesses is insisted 
 upon. Loehe said that the deaconesses must be among the most 
 cultured of their sex. The assurance that in the multiplicity of the 
 work the one thing needful will not be lost sight of; and that 
 the practical service will evermore remain true to its purpose, 
 — a service for Jesus, and not mere philanthropy — is found, 
 among Lutherans, in union with the Church, rather than in the 
 subjective "spirituality" of individuals. These few hints may 
 suffice. We rejoice heartily in the communion of ministering love 
 in faith, which unites the protestant Motherhouses, while it in no 
 wise impedes the cultivation and expression of churchly character- 
 istics. Only a very superficial observer will deny that the character 
 of a deaconess community is greatly influenced by the latter. May 
 the different Motherhouses faithfully and carefully strive with each 
 other in the faith for that pre-eminence which is alone permitted in 
 the Church, and among the followers of the Lord— pre-eminence 
 in the humilitv and self-denial of ministering love. (Matth, 20, 
 26. 27.) 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Dsaconess Sisterhoods* 
 
 75. The Deaconesses of a Motherhouse form a community, a 
 Sisterhood. The name of Sister, by which Christian custom 
 addresses the deaconesses, beautifully expresses the communion of 
 faith, in which they stand. Used originally toward the female 
 members of the Ciiurch, and still customary in certain religious 
 circles and among the Moravians, this form of address has, in our 
 Motherhouses as well as among the Roman Catholic orders, become 
 the customary one. A simpler and more suitable name for the deaco- 
 ness cannot be imagined. Together with the prescribed dress, this 
 name wipes out all differences of birth and position, and is so con- 
 venient, that it has been adopted by the secular associations for sick- 
 nursing. Among these however, it is robbed of its original, purely 
 religious meaning. The general use of the name has also rendered 
 it more difficult, in public life to distinguish the deaconesses of the 
 Church from the professional nurses, who stand solely upon the 
 ground of secular philanthropy. May the name of Sister ever re- 
 mind the deaconess, that in all her labors she desires to serve the 
 Lord alone, in whom, by the communion of faith and baptism, all 
 are called as members of His Body, to the communion of one ser- 
 vice, and one household. 
 
 76. In order to gain an insight into the classification and or- 
 ganization of the Sisterhoods in our Motherhouses, we will follow the 
 steps, by which the deaconess becomes a regular member of the 
 community. To be sure, these steps are not in all Houses precisely 
 the same; but the diiferences, mostly of name and form, are so 
 slight, that they scarcely need to be considered. We distinguish as 
 steps upon the w^ay, the entrance into the 3Iotherhouse, the period of 
 probation, the novitiate, and the consecration as deaconess. The 
 term "novice" originated in the Romish Church. In some Houses, 
 the Sisters who are no longer probationers are called "assistant 
 Sisters"; but there is no reason why they should not more correctly 
 be termed novices, that is, beginners in the deaconess calling. In 
 some Houses, all Sisters are called probationers until their conse- 
 cration. And such they are in reality. But it is obvious, that the 
 first year after their entrance is in an especial sense to be regarded as 
 the actual season of probation. As a rule, a Sister does not receive 
 consecration, until she has labored in the calling at least three Or 
 
- 8G — 
 
 iour vt'iirs. During the time between the close of her actual pro- 
 bation and her consecration, the Sister is a novice. In some Mouses, 
 the first weeks of the year of probation are regarded as a preliminary 
 probation. If any young women, preparatory to their admission 
 as probationers, wish to acquaint themselves more closely ^vith the 
 deaconess work, and desire an ojij^ortunity and guidance in testing 
 themselves, their own strength and the demands of the calling, 
 the jSIotherhouses will cheerfully receive them as boarders on very 
 reasonable terms. In this position they share the work of the })ro- 
 bationers, yet their duties can be lightened, without infringing 
 the rules of the House, and especially of the "probationers' hall", 
 the sleeping apartment of the probationers. If they decide to re- 
 main, the time of their previous stay may, in its due proportion, 
 be deducted from their term of ])robation. 
 
 77. The terms of admission for probationers to the Deaconess 
 Motherhouses ai'e essentially the same everywhere. Single women, 
 unmarried or widowed, desiring to become deaconesses, must not, as 
 a rule, be under eighteen or over thirty-six y^ars of age. Excep- 
 tions may of course occur. Among Avomen of considerable mental 
 culture and energy, the elasticity of mind, which adapts itself to 
 the requirements made by the Motherhouses of its members, is 
 usually greater, even at a more advanced age. Yet it is scarcely 
 advisable, to go beyond the fortieth year. If the habit of physical 
 labor is wanting, the mental vigor and activity at a riper age should 
 be all the greater. Some Houses have established special prepara- 
 torv deaconess schools for girls under eighteen. Much may be said 
 both for and against these. Young aspirants are best placed in 
 christian families, notably in pastor's families, wdiere they have 
 opportunities of receiving instruction. The advantage of this ar- 
 rangement is, that young girls will not enter the institutional life 
 too early ; that they will become better acquainted with the ordinary 
 conditions of life, and better able therefore, to examine themsel- 
 ves. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to find families, who 
 are able and willing to render the Motherhouses such a service ot 
 love. In individual Motherhouses, the establishment of prepara- 
 tory deaconess schools thus becomes unavoidable. 
 
 The question as to the age most suitable within the above 
 limits for entrance into the deaconess calling, is difficult to answer. 
 There are some natures, who at a very early age possess the neces- 
 sary clearness, decision, and devotion to the Lord's service. There 
 are instances of absolute self-surrender, which are exceedingly 
 precious. Some undecided natures, by long waiting, become ever 
 more irresolute and hesitating. On the other hand, there are softie, 
 who require a long time to ripen inwardly, and to gain the strength 
 needed for any great resolve. The sage advice : Not too old and 
 
— 87 — 
 
 not too young, says little. God's guidance will always prove itself 
 the best wisdom. 
 
 It is often the case, that the measure of i)hysical strength, re- 
 quired for the deaconess calling, is overrated. Generally, a 
 physician's certiticate, that the aspirant is not afflicted with any 
 chronic ailment, which would unfit her for the work, is sufficient. 
 Chlorosis and nervous troubles, both of them the root of many dis- 
 orders, are often effectually overcome by the deaconess' life. It often 
 seems simply marvellous, what results can be accomplished by 
 apparently very delicate women, if only they are willing. 
 
 As regards the mental and spiritual requirements to be made 
 of applicants for admission to the deaconess House, the foremost 
 condition is an absolutely blameless reputation. If the good name of 
 a woman has suffered, her relations toward the Lord, in the matter 
 of faith and repentance, may be tlie right ones, but for the deaconess 
 calling she has become impossible. The question, whether persons 
 of illegitimate birth can become deaconesses, must be decided in 
 every individual case. The exact measure of education to be de- 
 manded of a probationer, cannot be determined. Some knowledge 
 of woman's handiwork and an ordinary school education are desir- 
 able, yet intelligence and industry supply much that is wanting in 
 this direction, A deaconess cannot have learned too much, cannot 
 be too well educated. Yet sometimes those, who originally stood 
 upon a very low plane of education, have in a few years made 
 astonishing progress. Intercourse, the duties of the calling, study, 
 and above all, the christian community, and the abundant religious 
 life, co-operate in the advancement of the deaconess. The chief 
 requisite however is, that the proper christian condition of heart 
 should have been attained. 
 
 As a matter of course, the members of a Sisterhood will al- 
 ways differ greatly as to spiritual maturity. Therefore no fixed 
 measure of advancement in this direction can be exacted of those 
 about to enter. Those alone will find enduring satisfaction in the 
 deaconess calling, who labor in faith; not for the sake of wordly 
 support, to obtain honor among men or merit before God, but con- 
 strained by the love of Christ. It is not impossible, however, that 
 a Sister whose entrance was prompted by wrong motives, may in 
 time acquire the proper position toward her calling. Sometimes 
 the mistaken motive lies on the surface, — a craving for activity, a 
 fanciful view of the diaconate, dissatisfaction with her position in 
 life, make a change seem desirable, — while in reality, it was the 
 Lord, whom her soul was seeking, and now receives peace in find- 
 ing. The human heart is often a mystery to itself, but the Lord 
 knows, how to bring hidden things to light. His ways are 
 wonderful, and the means innumerable, by which He draws souls 
 to Himself. Friends, relatives, meetings apparently accidental. 
 
— 88 — 
 
 temporal sorrow, a sermon, a church festival, a lecture, an impres- 
 sion from earliest youth, a report, a hnoi^, — the most insi<rnificant 
 occurrences have proved sufficient. Thr()U<:;ii such means tlie Lord 
 has seized upon a soid, led it into the deaconess Mouse, and then 
 drawn it to Himself. But often the heart remains untouched, and its 
 hard, unbelieving worldlincss gradually reveals itself. A deaconess 
 House, standing upon the right foundati(Hi, and having the right 
 spirit, will have strength to cast out such elements as have no place 
 there. Either a soul is drawn into the spiritual communion of the 
 service, or a separation from the conununity takes place, the person in 
 question going of her own accord, or receiving her dismissal. Ex- 
 perience in all Christian institutions teaches, ^'that the Lord layeth 
 up sound wisdom for the upright." One who comes, believing herself 
 to have recognized the Lord's Will, and placing her trust in the grace 
 and power of Him, whose strength is made perfect in weakness, 
 will assuredly not be put to shame. In the calling itself, those who 
 serve are led from degree to degree, and *'if they use well the office", 
 a "good degree" is promised them. (1. Tim. 3, 13.) Truthful- 
 ness, and willingness to be taught, openness and simplicity, humi- 
 lity and a taste for the associated life, as well as a cheerful tempera- 
 ment and love of work are necessary qualifications of a true deaco- 
 ness. In short, an inner vocation is needed, if a deaconess is to 
 advance to a position in which she contributes to the glory of God, 
 to the profit of her associates in the work, and to the welfare of 
 those committed to her care. If she possesses a living faith, she 
 will soon become assured of this inner vocation. Where such cer- 
 tainty is wanting, it can be arrived at during the season of probation. 
 Not by speculating and questioning will irresolute natures ac- 
 complish anything, but by trying. An aspirant should enter upon 
 her probation with firm, calm and modest determination. This is 
 merely a trial, not a decision, and the entering upon it in a right 
 spirit, may at the outset be regarded as a favorable indication ; for 
 "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble". 
 
 78. Frequently those who desire to enter a deaconess House 
 as probationers have to overcome many difficulties and prejudices, 
 before they can carry out their purpose. Parents, relatives, friends 
 try to dissuade them. Parents or guardians refuse their consent. 
 As reo-ards the parents' consent, this is to be positively in- 
 sisted upon, as a condition of admission. The Romish Church says 
 in such cases, that we must obey God, rather than men. But there 
 is no evidence, that God desires any one, against their parents' 
 wishes, therefore in violation of the fourth commandment, to enter 
 the service of the Church. "Honor thy father and thy mother" is 
 God's unequivocal command. And if it is God's Will, that a son 
 or a daughter should serve Him in His Church, He will see to it, 
 that it can be done, without breaking the fourth commandment. If 
 
— 89 — 
 
 the desire of a young woman to be a deaconess, is from God, is 
 genuine and sincere, she must pray, and quietly wait. The Lord 
 will grant what she asks, and human opposition will not continue 
 forever. It has been said by some protestants, that the mere consent 
 of the parents is not enough — that it must be cheerfully given ; but 
 this is certainly going too far. The honor which we owe our parents, 
 merely bids us not in defiance of their wishes, to go our own way. 
 But where father and mother perhaps stand aloof from the faith, 
 or cannot understand the matter in question; where their horizon 
 is a limited one, or they are filled with the prejudices of their time 
 and position, — in such a case, children are not debarred from the 
 service of the Lord in mission- or deaconess- work, because the 
 parents do no more than merely consent. Children are not bound 
 by the fourth commandment, to demand their parent's uncondi- 
 tional acquiescence, or to sit in judgment upon the spirit in which 
 their permission is granted; but only to have a care that no dis- 
 respect to their parents adheres to their entering the service of the 
 Lord. 
 
 The task of removing the prejudices, which stand in the way 
 of a young girl's entrance into the deaconess House, would be- 
 long above all to the pastors, if these were not often themselves 
 influenced by the same prejudices. We have here to deal with a 
 state of affairs, which stands in close connection with the conditions 
 in our Church. The great superficiality and unbounded subjectivity 
 of many so-called believers, the wide-spread unbelief, the lack of 
 decided doctrinal churchliness, and thorough churchly training, the 
 often purely worldly tendency of mind, even where the Church 
 and her affairs are concerned, — all these unite to prevent the dia- 
 conate from being fully understood in wider circles. Lectures and 
 writings upon the subject do not go far. The best means of dissi- 
 pating prejudices is a practical acquaintance with the diaconate, an 
 experience of its attendant blessings, and the contemplation of the 
 peaceful joy and humble gratitude, which animate the service of the 
 Sisters. But at least, of pastors and educated Christians a thorough 
 familiarity with the matter, even without practical observation, 
 might be expected, and a willingness to oppose with decision the 
 current objections. The Church needs an organized service of mercy, 
 which, in so far as it is exercised by women, demands an unmarried 
 life. This does not contradict the Scriptural idea of marriage, but 
 merely opposes that over-estimation of marriage, which is very gen- 
 eral in our day, and is justified neither by the Word of God, nor by 
 experience. Whenever it has asserted itself with especial prominence, 
 it has been an indication, that the religious life was inactive, and the 
 spiritual interests at a low ebb. We shall return to this subject 
 later. If the female diaconate is a calling desired by the Lord^ 
 and needed by the Church, it is always a serious mistake, when 
 
— 90 — 
 
 parents prevent tluir daughters from obeying the inelination which 
 draws them to this service. That it is too arduous, that it necessitates 
 great physical strength, that coarse work, and even an excess ofit, is 
 demanded, that it is injurious to the health, that it shortens life, or 
 draws lines too narrow for evangelical liberty, — all these are preju- 
 dices which we cannot dispel, wiiile peo])le insist upon retaining 
 them, but which a careful and candid examination will easily over- 
 come. It would lead us too far, were we to eutcr more fully into this 
 question. The Sisters renounce a life of unrestraint and caprice, 
 — that is certain. For the rest, they are free, in spite of their re- 
 straint, and find abundant opportunities to develop their talents and 
 their individnalitv, which would not be possible Avithout freedom, 
 with mechanical training and legal constraint. Most matried women, 
 if they conscientiously fulfill the duties of their calling, are far more 
 bound than a deaconess. The assertion, that deaconesses become 
 estranged from their families, is also incorrect. So much is true — 
 the associated life and the calling of the Sisters is not so openly 
 displayed to fathers and brothers, mothers and aunts, as is the every- 
 day life of the family. For the rest, the deaconess can be to 
 her family all that it is possible to be, in connection with a life- 
 calling, by which she no longer belongs to her parents' house, but 
 to the household of the Lord. Believing parents will learn that 
 spiritual sacrifices, like that of Hannah, when she returned to the 
 Lord's service the child she had asked of Him, enrich, instead of 
 impoverishing a household. It should be to us a source of deep 
 humiliation, that so few families among us, even the religiously 
 inclined, seem to have any conception of the glory of the New 
 Testament "sacrifice of praise", offered in gratitude for mercies 
 received. AYe need not say, that where God has given a daughter a 
 life-calling elsewhere, she has no right to exchange it for one of her 
 own chosing, even though it be' that of a deaconess. We would not 
 be standing upon Gospel-foundation, if Ave advocated self-chosen 
 paths, and self-chosen "spirituality". Yet parents, who would at 
 anytime consent to the niarrige of their daughter, have scarcely the 
 right, as Christians, permanently to oppose her purpose of devoting 
 herself to the service of the Lord in His Church. 
 
 79. If the path of the young girl or widow has been smoothed 
 for her entrance into the deaconess House, she must make ap- 
 plication to its immediate superiors. This must be accompanied 
 by a certificate of baptism, a physician's certificate, the Avritten con- 
 sent of her parents and guardians, a short sketch of her life, pre- 
 pared by herself, and a sealed testimonial from her pastor. As to 
 further preparations to be made, she will have to inform herself. 
 During the actual year of probation, she provides her own cloth- 
 ing, etc., but receives her board, together Avith her aprons and caps. 
 Besides the necessary underclothing;, footwear, and suitable dark 
 
— 91 — 
 
 dresses, she must bring with her a Bible. In almost all Mother- 
 houses there is a dearth of Sisters, and an earnest hel})er is always 
 welcome. For less robust persons, it is advisable, to enter in the 
 Spring, rather than in the Autumn. 
 
 80. The deaconess House, in its various branches and in its 
 hospital, offers ample opportunity for the training of the pro- 
 bationer. This training is obtained by practical exercise in 
 sick - nursing, together with theoretical instruction of various 
 kinds. 
 
 The trained superintending Sisters introduce the probationers 
 to their work, and while working with them, giVe them the neces- 
 sary directions. As a rule, the Motherhouses require all probationers 
 to go through a course in nursing. Even if a Sister is afterwards 
 employed exclusively in teaching, or in the household, her training 
 as a nurse will always be valuable to her. Times and circumstances 
 will not be wanting, when she will be called upon to exercise her 
 skill. Through the training in the care of the sick, the education of 
 all the deaconesses receives a uniform character, which brings the 
 Sisters Avho do not nurse, into full sympathy with the far greater 
 number of nursing Sisters. More than any other, this branch of 
 the work proves a test of the true deaconess spirit. Not all dea- 
 conesses can have eminent talents for nursing. Various gifts 
 and abilities are useful and necessary for other purposes as 
 well. But no deaconess will pass through her year's probation in 
 the hospital without signal benefit. If possible, a Sister should have 
 become familiar with every form of nursing, and should thoroughly 
 understand those duties which are taken tor granted in tlie care ot 
 the sick, such as keeping the sick-room in order, etc. Many good 
 workers have to re-learn familiar duties, because the care of the 
 sick demands greater exactness and attention, than are called for 
 in ordinary cases. It is easier than might be supposed, to 
 become accustomed to witness serious operations and great suf- 
 fering. The ability to afford relief in distress is a powerful aid in 
 overcoming the stumbling-blocks, which to a nervous, sensitive 
 nature seem insurmountable. There is much to learn in the service 
 among the sick, and all the forces of body and mind are enlisted in 
 the work. Hereto is added the instruction. 
 
 The probationers are instructed in the catechism of the Church, 
 and in biblical knowledge. The former, especially, is indis- 
 pensable. The relation of these studies to the deaconess call- 
 ing will make old things appear new ; and nothing else so 
 effectually leads the probationers into the spirit of the house 
 and religious community, of which they desire to become mem- 
 bers. Of equal importance with the study of the catechism, 
 is that of the female diaconate as to its Scriptural foundation 
 and history, and its present inward and outward form. The pastor 
 
— 92 — 
 
 of the insatution gives this instruction. Probationers who are de- 
 ficient in the eleinentarv brandies, must be a(lvan('ed in these. 
 Singing is especially cultivated. It is well, if" a fixed course can be 
 arranged for the probationers, so that for instance, tiiey are practi- 
 cally employed during the forenoon, and study in the afternoon ; 
 but usually the numbers are too small, both of workers and 
 teachers, to admit of such a complete and systematic arrangement. 
 There can be a superabundance of theoretical study. Deaconesses, 
 if they are faitliful, learn continually and in every direction, 
 through their religious life and their calling, — and this is the best 
 school. The medical instruction given the probationers by the 
 superintending physician dare not encourage any half-knowledge 
 or self-conceit. The requirements of sick-nursing are alone to be 
 considered, and this object is most effectually attained, if the Sisters 
 not only have become thorough and capable in the duties of their 
 calling, but have learned to maintain a judicious reserve in all 
 things not pertaining to their office. 
 
 81. It is easily understood, that the varied activity, the mul- 
 tiplicity of new impressions, the often wholly unaccustomed mode 
 of life, make great demands upon a probationer. To many there 
 come seasons of disappointment. They expected a vigorous advance- 
 ment of their religious life, and now, tired and sleepy in body and 
 mind, in spite of divine services and spiritual activity, they ex- 
 perience a greater inner dryness than ever before. Perhaps they 
 mistook a meditative sentimentality for genuine faith, and must 
 now learn that their faith was a broken reed, upon which they can- 
 not lean. Or their imagination pictured the life of the religious 
 community as a lovely idyl, — a paradise, as it were, without the 
 serpent. Now they must learn, that where poor sinners dwell closely 
 together in the light of God's Word, the miseries of sin become very 
 evident. The most promising spiritual growth is often hidden under 
 these and similar experiences, but meanwhile the probationer is 
 unaware of it. Frequent disappointments occur also in the pursuit 
 of the work. Perhaps she has overrated her strength ; others 
 progress more rapidly ; and if the motives which prompted her 
 entrance, were unworthy ones, this knowledge will add to her 
 sorrow and pain. But very often the probationers proceed on their 
 way Avithout many troubles, and the deaconess life is entirely con- 
 genial to them. From the greater ease or difficulty of the beginn- 
 ing we can draw no conclusions as to the future. A hard beginn- 
 ing often indicates the earnestness of a strong character, to whom 
 the Lord in the end awards a most happy result. A probationer 
 must above all things be entirely frank toward those who are guid- 
 ing her education. If we discover that our clothing is on fire we 
 do not hide it, but uncover it, that it may be quenched. It does no 
 harm, if a Sister makes mistakes. A bishop once wrote to a young 
 
— 93 — 
 
 pastor, that he hoped he would make many blunders. His opinion 
 was that honest and conscientious natures, by their very errors, would 
 learn to avoid error. Insincere natures hide their faults, and these 
 of course retrograde, instead of advancing. A sin, which cannot, 
 under any circumstances be tolerated in a deaconess community, is 
 falsehood in any form. A Sister who lacks truthfulness will sooner 
 or later be forced to relinquish her calling, 
 
 82. In addition to the pastor and Sister Superior of the 
 House, and those deaconesses who have the superintendency of the 
 outside stations, an older deaconess is usually appointed for the 
 special supervision and training of the probationers. She is call- 
 ing the training Sister. She is chosen by the Sister Superior, and 
 must act entirely in her spirit and according to her directions. 
 
 When the time arrives for the probationer to be received 
 into the novitiate, all the novices and deaconesses employed 
 in the House, are entitled to a voice in the matter, the respon- 
 sibility thus being shared by all. The Sisterhood must answer 
 for its members, all fur each, and each for all. Therefore the 
 sense of unity and of common responsibility must be carefully 
 cultivated. 
 
 With the introduction of the probationer into the novitiate a 
 little festivity is connected. Too much must not be made of it, for 
 the novitiate is still a period of proba^tion. Especially must the 
 ceremony not partake of a public character, or in any way resemble 
 a consecration. 
 
 83. The novice is acquainted in general with the duties and 
 obligations of the deaconess calling, and her promotion is considered 
 a testimony to her inner fitness, as well as to her possession of the 
 needed outward skill. This expectation must be verified on her 
 part by faithful work and good behavior, within the Sisterhood, 
 and in the diflFerent fields of labor, to which the Motherhouse may 
 send her. As a rule, she no longer receives special instruction. 
 She herself must now continue her education, by her life in the 
 calling, and by faithful devotion to it. A deaconess must be able 
 to stand upon her ow^n feet. It is only by a comparatively indepen- 
 dent participation in the duties ol the House, that the capabilities of 
 a Sister are fully awakened, and her probation is brought to a certain 
 conclusion, such as is necessary for her consecration. The duration 
 of the novitiate varies greatly. A longer time is needed to gain a 
 thorough acquaintance with those of a reserved nature ; and very 
 young novices must not be surprised if the end of their probation 
 is not hastened. Many circumstances are to be considered. The 
 greater the experience gained by the Motherhouses, the rnore im- 
 portant will be to all without exception the principle "lay hands 
 suddenly on no man". 
 
— 94 - 
 
 84. We have now reached that period in the life of the dea- 
 coness, which is only second in ini])ortan('e to her entrance into the 
 JNIotherliouse — her co)ii^ccr(tflun. Tiiis in a certain sense corresi)onds 
 to tiie ceremony of ordination to the pastoral office. According to 
 Lutheran, that is, Scriptural jjrinciples, we dare not over-estimate 
 the latter, — the comparison is therefore not presumptuous. The 
 consecration of a deaconess, as well as the ordination of a pastor, 
 is the outward confirmation of an inward call. The Sister has 
 had the opportunity for years, to prove herself as to her inner vo- 
 cation for the deaconess life; and this inner vocation muiit be her 
 first consideration. To this is added the outward call. As she 
 has proved herself, so the Motherhouse has proved her. The pastor 
 and director of the Motherhouse now declares to her, that he is ready 
 to consecrate her to the deaconess calling, and that she, on her part, 
 must declare her readiness to be consecrated. If both sides have 
 the full assurance, in the sight of God, that all is well prepared 
 and considered, both inwardly and outwardly, the consecration may 
 take place, with the certainty that the Lord Himself will pronounce 
 His Yea and Amen. This Yea and Amen finds itsexpression in the 
 consecration at His altar. There the inward and outward vocation 
 of the deaconess meet. The Sister voirs, before the altar of the 
 Lord, that she will, as a deaconess, serve Him, her Saviour, in His 
 Church and according to His Will. With the laying on of hands 
 and prayer, she receives the -blessing, in the Name of the Lord. 
 Throughout the transaction, she is dealing with the Lord. He must 
 be sensibly present to her. Her vow is the answer to His call, 
 of which she has become inwardly sure, — and His blessing is His 
 answer. The inward and outward vocation are thus in full har- 
 mony, as far as this is possible with poor sinners. The inwardly ex- 
 perienced call becomes a spoken vow and confession ; the audible 
 confirmation and blessing, an inward seal. Without any admix- 
 ture of unscriptural ideas it may be said, that in this ceremony an 
 actual gift is imparted to the one consecrated. For the certified 
 vocation assures the heart of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and 
 of His aid in all the duties of the calling. If any one knocks, it 
 shall be opened unto him; if any one asks, it shall be given him. 
 The "Yea" of the Lord is an assurance, that the Sister, according 
 to the measure of her receptivity, will not lack the grace and gifts 
 needed in her calling. In so far we may say that a communication 
 of the Holy Spirit is connected Avith the laying on of hands and 
 prayer at the consecration. 
 
 85. By her consecration the novice becomes a deaconess, and 
 is definitively received into the Sisterhood of the Motherhouse. 
 The Motherhouse henceforth provides for all her needs, even though 
 she become incapacitated for work. Consecration thus, by the bind- 
 ing of each individual Sister in her own conscience, forms the tie 
 
— 95 — 
 
 which binds the community of Sisters among themselves.^ It is ne- 
 cessary to give more detailed attention to this matter, so important 
 for the entire deaconess cause ; and here the vote of the deaconess 
 is first to be considered. 
 
 We cannot recognize the Romish doctrine of the so-called 
 "evangelical counsels" of poverty, chastity and obedience, and of 
 the justifiableness of a vow which binds the person to them for 
 life." We firmly maintain, that the one vow of a Christian is the 
 baptismal vow, and that no special vow is justified, which is not 
 in some way included in the vow of baptism. Whatever we, as 
 protestant Christians, promise with regard to any special office or 
 calling, is nothing further than the application of the baptismal vow 
 to the individual case. Yet this does not preclude, that the indi- 
 vidual case be fully secured in its rights by a special vow, de- 
 manded and taken Vith reference to it. Such a special vow 
 continues in force, while we, by the Lord's Will, continue in the 
 office or calling which demanded it. Our baptismal vow onl} 
 is binding for life. It does not become Christians, to bind them- 
 selves otherwise. No Christian has arbitrary power over his own 
 life, but is forevermore bound to the Will of God. 
 
 Certain vows bind us, as before God, to the civil and churchly 
 administration. Inasmuch as the deaconess work rests wholly upon 
 voluntary action, these administrations have nothing to do with the 
 consecration of deaconesses. The deaconesses remain free in their 
 calling, they voluntarily promise themselves to the Lord's service. 
 No outward force compels them. Yet they do not possess their 
 freedom, to use it "for an occasion to the flesh". They are bound 
 to the Lord, inwardly and spiritually, to serve Him, as long as 
 He desires, as deaconesses. He only can absolve them. To earthly- 
 minded persons this means little ; to the spiritually-minded, it means 
 everything. 
 
 86. What is the purport of the special vow, which the deaco- 
 ness takes at her consecration ? We emphasize, in the first place, 
 that it includes the vow to remain unmarried, because this is a con- 
 dition of the deaconess life. Marriage is a right, and a gift of God. 
 All prohibitions of marriage are devil's doctrine, as the apostle 
 expressly states. (1. Tim. 4, 1 — 3.) On the other hand, single 
 life may also be a gift and a right, which can be denied to no one. 
 Any-one may voluntarily renounce marriage. It is an indication 
 of the pagan under-current in human life, when the notion again 
 and again asserts itself, that life without marriage is a failure. 
 God said, it is not well for man to be alone. And He gave him 
 woman as a helpmeet. The sexes supplement each other. This is 
 surely, pre-eminently but not exclusively, true of marriage. It is a 
 fact, that St. Paul (1. Cor. 7) commends single life. He takes for 
 granted, that pars jns have the gift of living unmarried ; otherwise 
 
— m — 
 
 marriage were better. But where the gift exists in persons, it leaves 
 them greater freedom and independence to surrender themselves to 
 the Lord, and to serve the kingdom of Heaven, With this com- 
 mendation of single life, the apostle does not desire to "put a rope 
 on any man's neck". Single life is no holier, no more pleasing to 
 God, than marriage. It permits greater liberty of movement, and 
 insures freedom from the anxiety which "careth for the things of 
 this world". But the gifts ditfer. Those wiio have not the gift 
 of living unmarried, will, humanly thinking, be best promoted in 
 their spiritual life by a christian marriage Neither is holier than 
 the other, but each is a diiferent gift. Upon this territory mys- 
 teries abound. To many persons the possibility of marriage is 
 practically denied. Men are often not able to marry until late in 
 life; many women not at all. And if we were at greater pains to 
 learn the will of God, and to secure our everlasting salvation, the 
 opportunities of forming a suitable marriage would be even rarer. 
 The union of a believing woman with an unbelieving man no doubt 
 often becomes the ruin of her religious faith. Mixed marriages, 
 and all marriages which preclude a true, spiritual communion bet- 
 ween man and wife, are undesirable. Marriage brings its own 
 cross to all who enter upon it; but it may also become one of the 
 most fearful spiritual temptations. Where God has not granted to 
 a christian person the gift of living unmarried, and has likewise 
 withheld the opportunity of marriage, He has Himself thereby set 
 a task to that person. A christian will sooner or later discover, it 
 not here below, then hereafter, that in this also the Lord had a 
 gracious purpose in His behalf. While in this relation sin has a 
 fearful power, destructive to body and soul, yet the golden wonder- 
 threads of grace are very visibly interwoven with the rest. If a 
 young woman, either because she has the gift, or because God's 
 guidance has led her, serves Him in the single state, her ric/ht to do 
 so dare not in any case be disputed. The above suggestions will 
 fully prove this assertion. 
 
 87. A right includes a duty. All cannot perceive the beauty 
 and honor of unmarried life according to God's Will, "save they 
 to whom it is given". (Matth. 19, 11.) A deaconess should seek 
 to grasp it, and pray without ceasing, until it is given her. 
 Purity of heart may be a gift of nature, or a gift of grace, ob- 
 tained by prayer. Even though it be the former, it must become 
 the latter. Where it exists, it must be guarded Avith prayer and 
 faithful vigilance. Even where it is a gift of nature, it may be 
 quickly lost. It is greatly endangered by spiritual pride. The 
 fall from the heights of spiritual self-exaltation, mostly leads to the 
 depths of fleshly pollution. For the rest, the service of the deaco- 
 ness provides effective weapons for the war, which purity has to 
 wage in this world of impurity. Among these weapons we w^ould 
 
— 97 — 
 
 reckon especially tlie truth and clearness regarding human rela- 
 tions, which are given by God's Word, and confirmed by experience ; 
 and furthermore, the true, spiritual fast of constant work, stimulat- 
 ing and absorbing all her faculties. If with it all, as the chief re- 
 quisite, the deaconess truly stands luider the influence of the Gospel 
 of peace, carefully avoiding all fanciful affectation and self-delusion, 
 she will discover that the Lord causes a bright light to shiue upon the 
 humble path of maidenly devotion to His service. The more dis- 
 passionate and calm the soul whicli beholds this light, the more 
 beautifully, as an unquenchable star, will it rise within her. 
 
 88. What then, with the Scriptural view of unmarried life, is 
 to be thought of a deaconess, who relinquishes her calling for the 
 purpose of marrying ? As a matter of course, she is not bound 
 outwardly by any tie. Nor can the possibility be denied, that in 
 leaving her calling and entering upon married life, she may be obey- 
 ing God's will. It would be a perversion of the Gospel, if other 
 views became prevalent in the Motherhouses. If any attempt were 
 made, by human ordinances to restrict the evangelical liberty of the 
 Sisters, which the Son of God has purchased for them with His 
 blood, they would do better, to shake the dust from their feet. But 
 we dare not, unadvisedly, after the manner of those who have no 
 understanding of the questions concerned, speak of the marriage of 
 deaconesses, as though there existed no calling to which they were 
 bound in the Lord. If it was His will, that a young woman should 
 become a deaconess; if, after careful trial and examination, the 
 inward and outward vocation, as in the sight of the Lord, re- 
 ceived His confirmation by her consecration, it is not likely, that 
 He will soon afterwards desire something different for her. It 
 is more probable, that in devoting herself to the calling, the 
 Sister now desirous of leaving did not go carefully to work, and 
 that she did not take her vow before the Lord's altar as seriously 
 as slie should have done. It is not for us to judge. But 
 this we may say, that a Sister should examine herself, and faith- 
 fully endeavor to learn the will of God. If she fails to do so, 
 it will be her own fault, if there rests upon her forsaking her 
 calling and upon her marriage, the stain of fickleness or unfaith- 
 fulness. If she is acting conscientiously, the deaconess will in such 
 a case, before she makes a decision, seek the advice of the Superiors 
 of the House, and in accordance with the fourth commandment, 
 take heed, lest she take counsel with flesh and blood, rather than 
 with the Lord. Other circumstances will also suggest themselves 
 for examination. After all things have been honestly and carefully 
 considered, and the Sister decides upon going, no obstacle will be 
 put in her way, even though the superiors may not fully approve her 
 decision. Her going will be without reproach, and she will be able 
 to continue in friendly intercourse with the Motherhouse. The 
 
— i)« — 
 
 human heart often follows strange paths. When we have really 
 sought to know and to do the will of (Jod, His blessiug rests upon 
 all our efforts, whether they are easy or difficult. The experience 
 of the Motherhouses shows that the chapter of deaconess-marriages, 
 besides a few bright pages, contains many dark ones. It is not a 
 false doctrine of marriage and single life, but only the carefully 
 developed doctrine of the christian calling; it is not J^omish, but 
 truly evangelical, if deaconesses do not liglitly abandon a calling, 
 to which in voluntary self-surrender, they permitted themselves to 
 be consecrated before God's altar. They are free, and are to re- 
 main so. It is their treasure and their glory, that they may 
 so continue. But they are not as such who use their liberty as 
 a "cloak for maliciousness", or who, because they serve of their 
 own free will in the House of God, may therefore do as they 
 please. 
 
 In many Motherhouses, the Sisters at their admission, give the 
 solemn promise, not to leave, before communicating their intention 
 to the Superiors of the House. This is only as it should be, for the 
 Motherhouse has to answer for its Sisters, and it has the right to 
 demand that they do as much for the Motherhouse. All this 
 receives in the consecration its confirmation as from God. There 
 is in it no idea of constraint, or enslavement of consciences. 
 
 89. The obligation to remain unmarried is not expressly men- 
 tioned in the vow of a deaconess, being a condition of the calling 
 itself. She promises to serve the Lord as deaconess, so Ipngas He 
 desires it ; and she remains unmarried, while she is a deaconess. 
 That she binds herself to the service, according to the rules of her 
 Motherhouse, and by this to the Motherhouse itself, must be ex- 
 pressed and emphasized ; likewise that she binds herself, as a deaco- 
 ness, to serve in accordance with the rules of the Church. If the 
 Motherhouse is a Lutheran one, its rules will be those of the Lu- 
 theran Church. If it belongs to another confession, the obligation 
 is to that one. The form in which this obligation to the confession 
 and churchly rules is expressed, differs greatly in different Houses, 
 and in some may be omitted almost entirely. In this case the obli- 
 gation to the Motherhouse, and therefore to its churchly character, 
 will be brought into so much greater relief. We consider it the 
 only suitable proceeding in the consecration, to make separate men- 
 tion of the Motherhouse and of the Church. 
 
 Inasmuch as the deaconesses serve according to the rules ot 
 their Motherhouse, their entire institutional life is fitted into the 
 frame-work of obedience. This affords them great strength and 
 comfort. Of course, no obedience is here meant, which would bind 
 them to men rather than to God. It is scarcely likely that any- 
 thing will be required of deaconesses, that is contrary to God's 
 Word, If it were, they must obey God, rather than men. But 
 
— 99 — 
 
 women will not be qualified for wholesome service within the 
 Church, unless they walk in well-defined and decided paths of or- 
 der and obedience. 
 
 The fact that the deaconesses are bound to the rules of the 
 Church, affords them support and protection against the sub- 
 jectivity and arbitrariness which often prevail in churchly mat- 
 ters. The Sisters are removed from all partisanship in the Church, 
 if they are simply and firmly bound to the churchly confession. All 
 their books and prayers, all that, for instance, in their attendance 
 upon the sick, they may read to these, must of course be ip harmony 
 with it. Only such books are to be used by the Sisters, as-are, so to 
 speak, of a churchly-classical character. Extemporaneous prayer 
 cannot be forbidden the deaconesses in their ministrations in private 
 houses, but it must be limited to exceptional cases, where it is ur- 
 gently desired. For the rest, a deaconess must know what agrees, 
 or does not agree with the confession of her Church, in worship, 
 preaching and doctrine, at confession, baptism and the Holy Com- 
 munion. With sects and conventicles she has nothing to do. Where 
 the proper rules are wanting, or are not observed, the deaconess 
 must keep them in her mind and heart, and work in their spirit. 
 In so far as it does not conflict with these rules, she must, where- 
 ever she is placed, simply yield to existing conditions. In many 
 cases it is not churchly authorities, but private persons, municipa- 
 lities or societies, who place the Sisters. The Sisters must treat 
 these managers with respect and obedience. To this their instructions 
 from the Motherhouse bind them. These instructions regulate 
 the service of the Sisters, and guard its character as a churchly dia- 
 conate. The Motherhouse must see to it, that the instructions fur- 
 nished by it fully define the duties of the deaconess toward itself, 
 the Church, the individual parish and the local managers, and that 
 they are unreservedly obeyed. 
 
 It may, under certain circumstances, appear desirable, that a 
 deaconess be permitted to leave one Motherhouse, and enter an- 
 other. The Motherhouses have an agreement among themselves, by 
 which the transfer of a Sister from one to the other can only 
 take place, on condition that the INIotherhouse she leaves, does not 
 object. The proper transfer demands, that the House to which 
 she belongs by her consecration, does not dispense her from her ob- 
 ligation, but transfers it to the other House. A re-consecration in 
 such a case would be absurd. A deaconess continues to be faithful 
 to the promise made at God's Altar, even though the one Mother- 
 house hands over to another its right to her service. Re-consecration 
 of a deaconess who has wilfully broken faith cannot conscientiously 
 be permitted. In no case can she be received into another Mother- 
 house, until she has obtained forgiveness for her breach of faith, 
 and is again at peace with the Motherhouse she had forsaken. 
 
— KiO — 
 
 Neither in another Motherhouse nor in hor own, in case her service 
 there is resumed with tlie i)roinise(I taithfuhiess, can there be any 
 (juestion of a re-consecration. Of course, no Motherhouse can sanc- 
 tion the transfer of one of its deaconesses to another House, if it 
 necessitates a change of confession. 
 
 90. In most Motherhouses the day of consecration is preceded 
 by a season ot preparation. During this time the vSisters to be con- 
 secrated are instructed by their pastor as to the significance of the 
 consecration, and are prepared for it. The ])ublic services, the morn- 
 ing and evening devotions of the household, — all will have a bear- 
 ing upon tlje act about to take place. The Sister Superior also 
 gives instruction to the candidates. In addition, these have abun- 
 dant time allowed them, to examine themselves, and to study the 
 Word of God; while to all the deaconesses in the ^Motherhouse, 
 this is a season of spiritual renewal. In the Romish Church, cer- 
 tain times are set apart for spiritual exercises, for spiritual retreats, 
 which are greatly lauded, because of their profitable results. The 
 seasons of preparation in our deaconess Houses have little affinity 
 with the Romish convent exercises. But this may be said of them, 
 that they are usually very rich and precious days to the Sisters. 
 The desire has often been expressed, that all the older Sisters of the 
 Motherhouse might from time to time be permitted to enjoy 
 such periods of spiritual quiet and meditation. The ordinary vaca- 
 tions and rests do not answer the purpose. While we are resting, 
 God should be at work within us. But this requires earnest pre- 
 paration and care. Unfortunately their numbers are too limited, 
 to admit of regularly reccuring spiritual as well as physical vaca- 
 tions. They are therefore obliged to help themselves as well as 
 they are able. The Lord does not fail to provide seasons, when 
 He approaches them in peculiar ways ; such as He gives to all 
 christians, to arouse them to meditation, self-examination and 
 prayer. These are the best seasons of preparation, — better than 
 any that can be arranged by man. 
 
 91. The preparation closes on the eve of their consecration 
 with a service of confession and absolution for the candidates. 
 With the consecration is connected the full morning service and 
 celebration of the Holy Communion. We still consider this 
 ancient custom appropriate from a churchly standpoint. The 
 sermon is followed by a short address to the Sisters, the pastor 
 standing at the altar ; whereupon each is called by name, and 
 the question is put, which embodies the vow of the deaconess. The 
 wording probably varies in the different Houses. In the one in 
 which the author is engaged, it is asfollows : 
 
 ''Having been instructed from the Word of God, how to 
 minister in the Church of Christ, I now ask you before God 
 and His holv angels, as well as before the Christians here 
 
- 101 — 
 
 assembled, — is it your purpose, according to the rules of our 
 Lutheran Cluirch and of your Motherhonse, in humility, obe- 
 dience and faithfulness, out of gratitude to your Saviour, to serve 
 as deaconesses in His Church, as He may give you grace, — 
 if so, answer yes, and give me your hand in confirmation of your 
 promise". 
 
 The question is put to the Sisters, all standing, by the pastor of 
 the House ; they make reply, and give him their right hand. 
 It is not to be considered good churchly order, that they should 
 also give their hand to the Sistei* Superior. For having given 
 it to the pastor, the Sisters bind themselves to the rules of 
 the Motherhouse, and therefore to obedience to the Sister Superior. 
 After the profession, the Sisters kneel on the steps of the altar, and 
 the consecration follows in these words : "May Jesus Christ, the 
 great Shepherd aricl Bishop of your souls,- seal your profession with 
 His gracious and almighty Amen ! And I, as an ordained minister 
 of the Church, in virtue of my office in this House, aud according 
 to the measure of its authority, receive you into the Sisterhood of 
 our deaconesses, and commit to you their office and ministry in the 
 name of Jesus! (laying on of hands) May the blessing of the 
 Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be upon you, make you 
 faithful unto death, and oive you the crown of eternal life. Amen." 
 Then follows, again with the laying on of hands, the ancient 
 prayer of consecration for deaconesses, which on sound scriptural 
 ground, expresses in strong and concise terms, what in this im- 
 portant moment is to be asked, and surely is asked effectually, 
 in behalf of the Sisters, for their whole life in the calling. 
 After the Lord's Prayer, the pastor and the older deaco- 
 nesses, gathered around tlie newly consecrated Sisters, salute them 
 with the greeting- of peace, and with the words : "May the beauty of 
 the Lord our God be upon you, and may He establish the work of 
 your hands upon us." The ceremony closes beautifully with the 
 responsive recital by the pastor and deaconesses of the 121. Psalm, 
 the newly consecrated Sisters reciting the first two verses. The Mag- 
 nificat, a short hymn, and the celebration of the Floly Communion 
 for the Sisters just consecrated, brings the service to its culmination 
 and conclusion. In most Houses the Sisters at their consecration 
 receive, as a mark of their calling, a small silver cross. Less suitable 
 seems to us the gift of a ring on this occasion, although no Sister 
 must be censured, if a ray of bridal happinees enhances the 
 joy of her consecration. But at the same time, any notion that 
 the consecration of a deaconess signifies in a special sense a be- 
 trothal to the Lord, must be avoided. All christians, who by 
 saving faith in Christ desire to live and to die unto Him, are 
 betrothed unto the Lord. Deaconesses are the same as all christians, 
 except that, like every body else, they have their special calling. 
 
— 102 — 
 
 This being- a calling to serve in the J louse of the Lord, they receive 
 their consecration at His altar. That on such a day the Mother- 
 house, as well as the friends and relatives of a Sister should en- 
 deavor to give her pleasun- hy evidences of loving synij)athy, is 
 very natural. 
 
 d'2. The association of deaconesses in a Motherhouse may be 
 variously constituted. Circumstances are not everywhere the same. 
 It would seem a matter of course, that a Sisterhood, bound 
 to the confession of the Church, cannot receive a pastor or 
 director, without having had an opportunity of expressing an 
 opinion in regard to his appointment. Managers who should ignore 
 this privilege, would greatly endanger the continuance of the Sister- 
 hood. The right of suffrage need not be granted the Sisters, al- 
 though even this might not be inappropriate, if the election were 
 carefully conducted upon religious principles. The choice of a Sister 
 Superior has nothing to do with the vow of the Sisters. — It is a very 
 desirable and practical arrangement, to have an independent trea- 
 sury, managed by the Sister Superior in the interest of the House 
 and Sisterhood, whose members, beside the necessaries of life, re- 
 ceive from the Board of Managers, a small allowance of pocket 
 money. By this independent treasury greater freedom of action 
 is permitted the Superiors of the House, and this is really ne- 
 cessary, if the Sisterhood, although not publicly and legally, yet 
 privately and actually, exists as a congregation. By such an ar- 
 rangement, the churchly relations of the House, which cannot be as 
 fullv appreciated by the managers, as by the members of the house- 
 hold, would be greatly benefited. Many other advantages will be 
 secured bv it for the House, and for those under its care. 
 
 93. The life of the Sisterhood represents on a small acale a 
 w'orld in itself, of whose many interests and relations outsiders can 
 scarcely form a correct idea. In the distribution of labor, many 
 Sisters are unavoidably subordinated to others; yet this does not 
 interfere with the actual equality of all. Such a supposition must not 
 be tolerated, as little as the notion, that in thesight of God any one 
 form of labor is more important than another. Each field of labor, 
 each member of the whole, has its own use. The Sisters are called 
 to the service of the household of God in the church, and nothing 
 more is asked ot them, than that they be found faithful. The more 
 fullv a Sister becomes one with the Sisterhood, the more will its 
 united interests become her own, and the richer her life will be. It 
 is difficult, to realize the multitude of interests which meet to- 
 gether in the Motherhouse. Members of the Sisterhood are stationed 
 throughout the land, and the ties which bind them to the life of the 
 church, are becoming more and more numerous. Private and public 
 needs touch the heart. The work provides new duties, new points of 
 view, new problems and new impulses, in inexhaustible fulness 
 
— 103 — 
 
 To this is added the constant activity within the Sisterhood itself. 
 We seethe growth and progress, the spiritual and technical advance- 
 ment of individuals. The diversity of relations and positions inci- 
 dent to the calling, sharpens the perception. The heart is touched 
 by sickness, by recoveries, by death. Contact with persons of 
 all classes, jonrneys, and the interchange of experience, often with 
 members of other Motherhouses, increase knowledge, broaden the 
 thoughts and enlarge the horizon. As the Motherhouse provides for 
 the bodily and spiritual nourishment of the Sisters, so it is careful 
 to educate them in the perception of what is suitable, beautiful and 
 lovely in a christian sense. Churchly and family festivals are ce- 
 lebrated with much love and devotion ; nor are the anniversaries in 
 the life of individuals disregarded. Deaconess Houses should de- 
 light in holding festivals, and should understand how to conduct 
 them. God has given to most Sisters a love ot flowers. They 
 should therefore learn, in an intellectual and spiritual sense, to see 
 with joy and gratitude the flowers of His own planting, which the 
 faithful God permits to grow in the path of their life. With an 
 appreciation of these things, and especially of that whi<!h always 
 remains to us human beings the most interesting of all, the 
 mental and spiritual growth of individuals, — we can understand 
 that amid such fullness of life the hearts of the deaconesses must 
 continue young and fresh, and that they are like trees planted by 
 the rivers of water. 
 
 94. The deaconess calling, as such, does not endano-er life : 
 neither is it a protection against contagion and danger. Many 
 Sisters live to a great age. All Sisters would rather be called 
 away from their work, than bear the cross of long years of inac- 
 tivity before their departure. But this burden the Lord may lay 
 upon the very one, to whom it seems hardest. Many a Martha must 
 be educated to the quietness of a Mary. Many a one is called upon 
 to serve her fellow Sisters by the example of her patient cross-bear- 
 ing. Older Motherhouses have to provide a place of rest for the 
 deaconesses who have become incapacitated for work. This must 
 be near enough to the Motherhouse, to allow a full participation 
 in its life, without the inmates being disturbed by its activity. 
 
 Among the most painful experiences of a Sisterhood is to see 
 one of its members dismissed on account of unfaithfulness or wrong- 
 doing, perhaps eveu bringing dishonor upon the community. When 
 on the other hand, the Lord calls to her rest a Sister who has labored 
 faithfully, there is sorrow indeed, but also gratitude and glad- 
 ness. The deaconesses who are faithful in their service, often, 
 amid the troubles and manifold trials into which their calling leads 
 them, attain a surprising decision and steadfastness of faith ; and 
 experience shows that upon their sick and dying bed, the Lord, 
 according to His promise, refreshes them abundantly. Their de- 
 
— 104 — 
 
 sire is, to continue in the service, or to depart, as their Saviour 
 wills. The deatii-hed of a deaconess is to the whole community 
 a visitation of the Lord, in the strictest and sweetest sense of the 
 Mord. At the bier of a departed Sister, rcstinji; from her labors, in 
 her white sliroud, the myrtle wreath u])on her head, and the 
 cross upon her breast, every true deaconess will earnestly renew 
 the prayer of her consecration day, for faithfulness unto death. 
 
 A rare but precious day in the life of aged deaconesses comes 
 when the Lord permits them to celebrate their jubilee, — the twenty- 
 fifth anniversary of their service. Thejubilee of the fiftieth anniver- 
 sary is among the possibilities, but has not yet occurred in the history 
 of our work. On the occasion of the jubilee, a ring, as a symbol of 
 tried faithfulness, in addition to the Jubilee-Bible, is a suitable gift. 
 A ceremony at the altar is one of the features, but must in no wise 
 partake of the nature of a re-consecration. A true deaconess on 
 such days, as throughout her life and in death, will ever- 
 more gratefully and humbly praise and acknowledge the mercy of 
 her God, in that the lines have fallen unto her in pleasant places, 
 and that she has indeed a goodly heritage. 
 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Fields of Deaconess Work* 
 
 95. In order to convey an adequate idea of the importance of 
 the female diaconate to the Church of our day, we must glance at 
 its fields of labor. We can take as a starting-point the typical 
 ministry, which women exercised toward the Lord Himself in the 
 days of His earthly life. The comparison could easily be carried 
 out. Childhood and youth, food and raiment, bonds and dishonor, 
 suffering, death and the grave, furnish points of resemblance. There 
 was not lacking, on the part of the women who believed in Him, a 
 ministry to His joy and honor, as well as to His needs. It will be 
 simpler however, to proceed from the reality, as we see and ex- 
 perience it. Woman's gilt in the service of the church is that of 
 rendering help (antilepsis), especially within the provinces of nursing 
 and teaching. The problems correspond to the conditions of the 
 age. In general, the ministry of women within the Church, is not 
 "Home-Mission- Work", which is a service necessitated by the pe- 
 culiar and extraordinary needs of the Church of our day. At all times 
 and in all situations, the Church has needed the diaconate, both male 
 and female. Even though she has not always possessed it, especially 
 the female diaconate, in a definite form and in a public capacity, 
 yet surely in no age has the gift of believing women been entirely 
 hidden, nor can it be said, that there has ever been a time, when 
 its exercise was not needed. The idea of Home Mission Work in 
 our day is a vague one. In reality, only the Church's mission among 
 its emigrated members, corresponding to the work of the Church 
 among the heathen, is propei'ly to be called Home Mission Work, 
 in distinction from Foreign Mission Work. 
 
 But we have to accept the idea of Home Missions, as it has 
 shaped itself in our day. And here it is the special churchly needs 
 of the present, which have called forth a variety of activities here- 
 tofore unknown. The female diaconate also has its share in these 
 labors, and in so far as this is the case, it may be described as a 
 branch of Inner Missions. But as this applies by no means to the 
 entire field of labor of the Sisters, this distinction is best omitted al- 
 together. The idea of the diaconate fully answers to the sphere ot 
 duties, with which we have to deal, and is far preferable, because 
 of its ancient churchly significance and clearness. 
 
— 10(5 — 
 
 i)(j. AliioDg tlic labors of the deaconesses, niirsin;/, and 
 especially the care of the sick — has in modern times obtained great 
 proniinenec. This is doubtless in accordance with woman's gifts. 
 We will therefore first consider nursing, in so far as it chieHv 
 or exclusively deals with sick-nursing. Under this head must be 
 reckoned the care of the sick in Hospitals and Infirmaries, of the 
 inmates of Homes for the Aged, Insane Asylums, Institutions 
 for the Blind, &c. 
 
 A second group of deaconess labors may be described, primarily 
 as edacdtiottal. Here may be classed the service of deaconesses in 
 Day-Nurseries, Little Children's Schools, Homes for Girls, In- 
 dustrial and Servants' Training Schools. 
 
 A third group may be characterized as a combination of 
 nursing and teaching, using the word "nursing" in the wider 
 sense of woman's activity in the household. Here the Sisters have 
 to deal with persons, whose social position demands protection, 
 or whose moral and mental condition is endangered. The service 
 of deaconesses in servants' lodging-houses and hospices, in refor- 
 matories, asylums, and prisons, comes under this class. 
 
 All the work here mentioned is done in Institutions. Neces- 
 sary as these are, and important as is the division of labor they 
 permit, yet the mosi comprehensive development of the dea- 
 coness activity lies elsewhere, namely in the work of the parish. 
 Here too, nursing and teaching, both to be understood in their 
 widest sense, go hand in hand. Among the sick and the poor lie 
 the Sisters' chief duties. Associated with the pastoral office, their 
 ministry is directly incorporated into the congregational life. 
 While the diaconate of the present day cannot dispense with the 
 support afforded by the institutional life, it is in the parish- 
 work that its real nature manifests itself most freely and fully. 
 As one of the branches of parish-work, may be mentioned private 
 nursing. 
 
 If to these fields of labor we add, what must be taken for 
 granted in connection with them all, namely all manner of service in 
 the management of the house and farm, and if we remember, that there 
 is also a ministry of beauty and honor, which in the deaconess life 
 takes various forms, and in the department of church embroidery 
 has matured some of its choicest fruits, we have surveyed the en- 
 tire territory of woman's present ministry in the Church. We 
 turn to the separate branches, in the order indicated, whose impor- 
 tance in themselves and in connection with the Church will be 
 briefly presented. 
 
 97. The care of the sick in hospitals is the result of neces- 
 sity. During epidemics, when sickness multiplied, or care and shelter 
 had to be provided for homeless strangers, who were taken ill, the 
 
— 107 — 
 
 hospital has at all tunes baen a necessity ; the more so, the greater 
 the number of sick, and the more dangerous the nature of their dis- 
 ease. It was christian charity, whicih founded the hospital system. 
 In the 4th century, the distinguished teacher of the christian 
 Church, Ephraira the Syrian, placed beds for the sick and starving 
 in the colonnades at Edessa ; while Basil the Great, Bishop of Ce- 
 sarea in Cappadocia, founded an entire colony for the sick, for 
 strangers and the poor, and especially for lepers. Small houses, 
 such as were elsewhere occupied by private families, were built side 
 by side. In the Middle Ages the civic and knightly orders for 
 the care of the sick, began to build palatial hospitals. The hospital 
 of the Holy Spirit in Rome, and the labors of the order of the same 
 name, caused hospitals of the Holy Spirit to be established all over 
 Europe. In recent times the hospital work, partly from an en- 
 larged philanthropic humanity, and partly owing to the progress in 
 medicine and surgery, has advanced in a manner heretofore un- 
 known. The care of the sick by religious organizations had a 
 prominent share in this development. Yet the best hospital 
 system, affording its patients abundance, of light, air, and 
 every other requisite, together with the most excellent medical 
 skill, is incomplete, without proper nursing. Without it, many 
 forms of treatment cannot be carried out at all. The service 
 of paid nurses, male and female, has often been the worst con- 
 ceivable, chiefly because these were not trained to the work. A 
 great improvement has taken place in this respect. Such dreadful 
 conditions as in former times prevailed in hospitals, have be- 
 come impossible. Professional nurses are now regularly trained, — 
 at least in so far as persons are found willing to receive such train- 
 ing. These do not seem however, to be very numerous. Genuine 
 sick-nursing can only be prompted by the self-surrender of merci- 
 ful love, born of faith. This conviction is becoming more and 
 more general, being the result of experience, and to it may be 
 ascribed the fact, that the hospital doors have been opened wide to 
 the deaconesses. The care of the sick, and the hospital manage- 
 ment of the Sisters, who do not work for pay, recommends itself 
 also from an economical point of view. And as the number of 
 hospitals is constantly increasing, smaller ones being established 
 in small towns, the number of Sisters engaged in hospital 
 work is very large, in proportion to their total number. 
 
 The care of the sick in the larger hospitals is classified ; cer- 
 tain departments being appropriated to children or adults, to men 
 or women, to internal diseases or surgical cases. The erection ot 
 hospitals for special forms of disease has also been inaugurated. In 
 smaller hospitals, the classification of patients is of course less com- 
 plete, and the work of the Sisters is rendered more difficult. It is the 
 duty of the deaconesses, in every kind of nursing, to satisfy, to the 
 
- 108 — 
 
 best of their 5il)ility, not only all nudical and economical require- 
 ments, but also the demands of christian truth and charity. The 
 care of" the sick is practised bv the Sisters sinii)ly tor its own sake, 
 and not as a means of proselytinj::, which latter is on ])rinciple to 
 be condemned. It is a deviation from evangelical truth, when, as 
 is sometimes the case in our day, over-si)iritual, so-called believers, 
 are indifferent to an imitation of Christ in the path of bodily 
 helpiuo- and healing. Inasmuch as the Sisters render their ser- 
 vice, as servants of Christ, and in distinct union with the faith, 
 ordinances and ministry of the church, the ol)jcctiou is unfounded, 
 that their labors in behalf of the sick are not d stinguished from 
 a service of secular philanthropy, or from mere medical aid. It is a 
 matter of regret, that the hospital service withdraws so many Sis- 
 ters from the immediate parish-service, but that cannot be reme- 
 died. Yet the hospital work, in its importance for the church, 
 must not be undervalued. The requisition of Sislers for the hospitals 
 furnishes a strong and valuable testimony to the faith, which alone, 
 notwithstanding its labor and unrest, its trials and dangers, sustains 
 the strength and cheerfulness needed in the service among the sick, 
 and preserves to the Sisters their womanly delicacy, together with 
 firmness and unaffected simplicity. The duty is also laid upon 
 the Church, to provide spiritual -care for the sick in the hos- 
 pitals. Deaconesses are to be neither physicians nor pastors. Yet 
 we may say, that precisely in the hospitals, a spiritual care 
 of the sick can be effected only by the nurses. This is true, not 
 onlv of hospitals, for which no pastor is appointed, but also 
 of those, which have their pastor. While in the congregation 
 the pastor is acquainted with the sick in their ordinary r^ircum- 
 stances, those in the hospitals are removed from their accustomed 
 surroundings ; the visiting pastor does not easily learn to know 
 them, and is further embarrassed by the fact, that usually a number 
 of patients are lying together in one room. The care of souls among 
 the sick rests upon a knowledge of their personality, of their disease 
 and other conditions. All this is most readily disclosed to the 
 nursing Sisters, who are constantly about the patients ; they 
 form an indispensable link between the pastor and the sick ; and 
 what is of greater value, than all direct pastoral influence, they fill 
 the hospital, the scene of such manifold forms of wretchedness, 
 with the living atmosphere of Christianity. Wherever deaconesses 
 are at work, there is a christian house-order, there God's Word 
 dwells, there is prayer, and beautiful, spiritual hymns are heard. 
 Although the Sisters never attempt to fbrcetheir religion upon any, 
 their silent labors in behalf of the sufferers speak even to those, whose 
 ears are perhaps closed to spiritual comfort. We may best summarize 
 the importance of the hospital work of the deaconesses, by saying 
 that necessity calls for it, and love commands it, and that it 
 
— 109 — 
 
 practically fulfills, in the best manner possible, an undeniable duty 
 of the Church. 
 
 98. What has been said of hospital-nursing, is generally appli- 
 cable to the work in Infirmaries, or Asijfums for Incurables. Akin 
 to these are the Homes for the Aged, in which the old and infirm 
 may pass the ev^eniug of their life in quietness and peace, whether 
 they themselves, the parish, or the beneficence of dece.isad founders 
 defray their expenses. The work of the Sisters demands far less 
 technical skill in such institutions, than in the regular hospitals. 
 In regard to the faith and h^ve which must animate their ministra- 
 tions, the demands are everywhere the same. In the hospital, pa- 
 tients come and go ; the diseases in their course often excite a deep 
 interest ; different stations impose different duties. Among old 
 people and in infirmaries, the service is the same, day by day. Chronic 
 patients, who perhaps have suffered for years, have to learn and 
 exercise faith and patience in a very trying school. The weakness of 
 old age necessitates quietness and waiting on the Lord. Oftentimes 
 old people relapse into second childhood. The duty of the nurse 
 is, to deal with them in unwearying patience and cheerfulness, yet 
 with the gravity which their nearness to eternity demands. The 
 Sister in the children's ward of the hospital deals with the rising 
 generation ; the Sister in charge of the aged, with the dying genera- 
 tion. Both here and there, although in a widely different manner, it 
 is necessary to become a child among children. Infirmaries and Old 
 Peoples' Homes are harbors, where the ships of life are brought to 
 anchor, mostly in such a state, that it is easy to see, how wind and 
 wave have buffeted them Often the result of a long life is 
 nothing, or less than nothing, either for time or eternity. Faith 
 can transfigure a dying bed, and the weakness of old age ; and we 
 often see the sunset glory, which precedes the dawning of a blessed 
 eternity. But when the heart has not turned to the Lord in the 
 years of its strength, it is seldom that old age repairs what was 
 lost in youth. Yet true to His promise, the Lord carries and de- 
 livers with souls, even to their old age The service of the deaco- 
 nesses in Infirmaries and Old Peoples' Homes is therefore dif- 
 ficult and yet gratifying. They see, even more rarely than is usually 
 the case, the fruitVjf their labors in the Lord's service. On the other 
 hand, if the latter years of the aged and suffering are made pleasant 
 through their efforts ; if those, who perhaps all their life-long were 
 strangers to the Word of God, now, being brought under Christian 
 influence, live, as it were, under one roof with the Word of Life, 
 their labor is not in vain. And this is made manifest even here 
 beloAv. Without this care, given in the Name of Jesus, especially to 
 the aged and infirm, and then to the sick in our hospitals, it would 
 scarcely be })ossible for the Church to minister properly to these 
 her members. In this respect also, the diaconate does not 
 
— no — 
 
 cease to be an auxiliary office, in a special measnre indispensable to 
 the niinistrv of the Word. 
 
 99. The c(irc of the J/wa/u', just the same as general hos[)ital 
 work, is suitable for deaconesses, only that the lines of service are far 
 more closely drawn. Whoever has seen the beautiful Institution for 
 Insane Women at Kaiserswerth, and knows how important for men- 
 tal sufferers is the quiet, steady influence of truly religious persons, 
 can only regret that the female diaconate has not been more gene- 
 rally enlisted in this service. There are among women many 
 sufferers from mental aberration, who are not fit subjects for ordi- 
 nary hospital treatment; are not far enough advanced to be placed 
 in an Insane Asylum, and yet cannot remain with their families. 
 The deaconess hospitals are ready to serve such people, wherever 
 they are able. Far more could be done, if there were special in- 
 stitutions for the proper treatment of such persons. It would su- 
 rely be of advantage, if among female sufferers of this class, the 
 aid which the deaconess is able to give to the efforts of pastor and 
 physician, could be made more generally available. 
 
 As regards the care of the blind, deaf and dumb, and others si- 
 milarly afflicted, it does not seem likely that this will ever become 
 an extensive branch of the deaconess work; since it requires pe- 
 culiar technical ability adapted to the purpose, as in the case of the 
 blind and deaf-mutes. It is different with the institutions for 
 epileptics and idiots. Only in modern times a livelier interest has 
 been taken in making provision for persons suffering from physical 
 defects, and also of epileptics and idiots. 
 
 The causes of epilepsy have thus far baffled scientific research. 
 This grievous disorder is usually aggravated where the patient re- 
 mains with his family, while in institutions the number of cures 
 is larger. Institutions for epileptics demand a numerous stall' of 
 nurses. In the case of epileptic women and children, deaco- 
 nesses are the chosen nurses. Calm and strong natures quiet the 
 patients, and relieve the anguish of their condition. The devotional 
 life, abundant opportunities for work, and the exercise of all the 
 faculties form the basis of the treatment. 
 
 Incurable epilepsy often leads to idiocy. This seems to be a sort 
 of mental paralysis, by which the bodily organs of the intellectual 
 life more or less refuse their service. Here too, limits will con- 
 tinue to be set to human knowledge. The work in Idiot Asylums, 
 especially in those for children, is largely educational. The 
 abler pupils sometimes become useful members of society, and 
 the greater number learn something. The task requires great 
 patience The strengthening and training of the will-power by 
 unwearied repetition is the proper mode of treatment. Woman's 
 gifts are most available in these cases. She renders her service 
 to such as continue to be irresponsible children, even after they 
 
— Ill — 
 
 reach years of maturity. Among idiots, the emotional side of human 
 nature seems to be the most capable of development ; and they are 
 therefore surprisingly susceptible to christian training and belief 
 The experience is often made in institutions of this kind, that the 
 Lord looks with special favor upon these unfortunates. The Sister 
 who with the necessary self-discipline, clearness, and faithfulness in 
 small things, relieves the misery of these poor in spirit, will 
 receive much gratitude and affection, and will realize, far 
 more frequently than elsewhere, that her labor is not in vain. 
 
 In order to labor among the insane, among epileptics and idiots, 
 the mind of the nurse must be so self-controlled, and at the same time 
 so clear and sharp-sighted, that she can look without flinching into 
 the prison-depths of mental darkness. One who cannot keep her 
 own nerves and thoughts under restraint, is not the proper person 
 for the care of those whose mind and nerves are disturbed. Tne 
 Church, in her ministrations to this class of afflicted ones also, walks 
 in the footsteps of her Head and Saviour, and constantly experiences 
 anew, what is written in St. Matthew 17, 14 — 21. 
 
 100. In the foregoing pages we have already touched upon 
 services, which are also educational, pertaining, to be sure, to the 
 education of the sick. We will now consider the actual iLiorh of 
 education of the deaconess, among those in good health. Even 
 though, as in the case of babies, its principal feature is the care of 
 the body, yet the education of the child is the real and foremost ob- 
 ject in view. The first branch of the deaconess' educational work 
 to be considered, is the Day Nursery. 
 
 Day Nurseries were called into existence in 1844, through the 
 efforts of Marbeau, an official in the municipal government of Paris, 
 and have come into very general use in France. In other countries 
 also, especially in Southern Germany, they have made themselves a 
 home. They are an expedient for the mothers who are obliged to 
 work away from their homes, — an institutional substitute for the 
 placing of little children in the care of more or less objectionable 
 individuals. Any one really acquainted with the needs which the 
 Day Nurseries are intended to meet, knowing the great mortality 
 among infants, and the truly horrible conditions which often ex- 
 isted and still exist in private nursing establishments, and having 
 any conception of the disorder of the foundling-houses, will not 
 attach much weight to the objection urged against Day Nurseries, 
 that they are an unnatural institution. Mothers are certainly the 
 persons appointed by God, to take care of their children ; but if it 
 is unavoidable, that the mother must go out to work, provision 
 must be made for the proper care of her little children. The state 
 
— 112 — 
 
 and the coinmiiiiity have a share in this ohlitj^ation. But if", as is 
 generally the ease, nothing is done by either, and the Cluireh, with 
 equal responsibility, likewise holds aloof, voluntary christian 
 ehai'ity must endeavor to remedy the want. The deaconesses 
 may regard their participation in the work of the Day Xurseries 
 as a religious duty toward the poor mothers and their babies. 
 This duty is to be performed for the sake of Him who for 
 us lay in a manger, trom which the Day Nurseries abroad have 
 taken their name (Krippe, Creche). In the management of 
 Day Nurseries, care must be had, that they are not made subser- 
 vient to the mother's laziness and sin. The age of admission is 
 from SIX weeks to two years. As a rule, only children of legi- 
 timate birth are admitted. If exceptions are made, the case must 
 in every instance be examined into. The children must be brought 
 and called for by their mothers. If the latter are employed at home, 
 they must, if possible, keep their children with them. It indicates 
 a sound condition of aifairs, if the attendance at the Day Nursery 
 is fluctuating. The mothers must be urged to great cleanliness 
 and care with regard to their children. It' possible, they must 
 continue to nourish their babies, and must therefore visit them se- 
 veral times a day. The deaconesses employed in the Nursery, 
 share with the mothers the responsibility for the children, in sick- 
 ness and health, and must therefore endeavor to gain their confi- 
 dence. Inasmuch as the earliest years of childhood are of the very 
 greatest consequence in the development of the individual, the Sis- 
 ters in the Nursery have a very important educational work to per- 
 form. The careful training and feeding of the little children, al- 
 though very important, is but a part of their duty. The Nursery 
 must be a cheerful place, and the Sister must rule as a mother, 
 tenderly and strictliy, in play and in discipline. The quieter 
 and gentler she is, the kinder, the more interested and prompt in 
 her attention to the children, the quieter and gentler will these be- 
 come. A child-loving heart is needed for the task, and a prayerful 
 spirit, which continually brings the little ones to Jesus, and is con- 
 scious that in serving them, she serves Him The task of a Nur- 
 sery Sister, notwithstanding its simplicity, is yet a very difficult 
 one, demanding for its success much grace fi'om God, and great 
 faithfulness in small things ; but possessing, according to the Lord's 
 Word, a beautiful promise. 
 
 101. From the Nursery we come to the Little Children' x School 
 (Warteschule)', which is closely related to it. Here, children from 
 two to six years old, are received. In families where both parents 
 go out to work, children at this age also, are in danger of being 
 neglected. Many a mother cannot, even if she is able to be at 
 home, take the proper care of her little ones. The children, left 
 to themselves, run about the streets. If the older ones are to take 
 
— 113 — 
 
 care of them, they are obliged to miss school, without much gain for 
 the little ones. In many families, an utter lack of discipline is the 
 rule. Even though the parents had the time, they lack the ability 
 to be what they should to their children. These grow up without 
 prayer. The mother cannot relate the sacred stories, which touch 
 so closely and tenderly the childish heart, — because she does not 
 know them herself. The precious years of childish development 
 pass by, without the child's capacities being awakened, and without 
 its learning cleanliness, order and obedience. These considerations 
 led to the establishment of Little Children's Schools. 
 
 The first beginning was made by a devout young girl, Louise 
 Scheppler, of Bellefosse in Alsace, the servant of Pastor Oberlin, 
 of Waldbach in the Steinthal, The Steinthal (Stone Valley) in 
 the Vosges mountains, was inhabited by a poor and degraded 
 population. Oberlin's faithful labors wrought in them a complete 
 change, in material as well as in spiritual things. Valuable aid in 
 his work was rendered him by the young woman, who on June 11, 
 1779, at the age of sixteen, entered his service. Oberlin had 
 recognized her peculiar talent, Avhen he saw her, as a little girl, 
 devote herself to the care of a frightened hen and her chickens. 
 After the death of his wife, she took charge of his household, al- 
 though then only twenty years of age, and raised his seven child- 
 ren. To the sick and needy of the entire parish, she brought help 
 for body and soul. She fe ired no weather, no exertion, no distance. 
 But most especially were the children of the parish the objects of 
 her compassion. She gathered them in, employed them, told them 
 of the Saviour, and possessed the rare gift of permanently winning 
 the aftection not only ot larger girls, but of little children. Her 
 school finally numbered nearly a hundred pupils. The French 
 Academy awarded her the Prize of Virtue of 5000 francs, all ot 
 which she devoted to charity. She herself chose the text of her 
 funeral sermon from St. Luke 17, 10 : ,,When ye shall have done 
 all those things which are commanded yoti, say : We are unprofit- 
 able servants : we have done that which was our duty to do." She 
 died in the year 1837, and her name shines among the most promi- 
 nent in the history of the female diaconate, although she wore no 
 deaconess dress. The idea of little childrens' schools seemed at that 
 time to pervade the atmosphere. In Germany, and especially in 
 England, beginnings were made, independent of the work in Stein- 
 thal, The plan first obtained general acceptance in England, then in 
 France, and finally in Germany. It was Fliedner especially, who 
 established the standard regulations for these schools, and wath his 
 assistant Ranke, carried them to perfection.. The Kaiserswerth 
 Seminary for teachers of little children's schools, has become an 
 unsurpassed model and a nursery for this branch of the work, 
 in so far as it is carried ojii by the Deaconess Houses. Two 
 
— 114 — 
 
 M(jtherhouses, of very recent origin, almost exclusively adopted 
 this form of the work. All deaconess Houses, to some ex- 
 tent, furnish Sisters for this department, and some have semi- 
 naries for the training of such teachers. There are, to he sure, 
 other training-institutions for this })urj)ose, which have little or no 
 connection with the deaconess work. 
 
 The objections urged against tliese schools, are in part similar 
 to those made against the Nurseries. Surely, the home, of which 
 a faithful mother is the soul, and helievingly and sensibly fulfils 
 her duty, is the best place for the little ones. But, as we have al- 
 ready observed, such homes are rare, not only among the poor, but 
 among the well-to-do. The need for little children's schools reaches 
 far beyond the need for Day Nurseries. When it is said, either 
 that they blunt the children's mental faculties, or force them pre- 
 maturely, this reproach applies only to badly conducted schools. 
 It is certainly unpardonable, that persons wholly untrained for the 
 work, are still here and there permitted to support themselves by 
 managing Little Children's Schools. The argument, that a mother, 
 without previous training, takes care of her children, does not ap- 
 ply in this case. Many mothers are, unfortunately, by no means 
 equal to their high calling; and besides, the ability to control five 
 children is not sufficient for fifty. In order to maintain peace, 
 order and happiness among so many, an adequate education and 
 previous training are needed, in addition to the necessary natural 
 gifts. The Little Children's School must be a play-school, a 
 nursery on a large scale. The children learn by playing, and by 
 play their faculties are awakened. They must be trained to good 
 behavior and cleanly habits, and above all, must be taught the be- 
 ginnings of the knowledge of the Divine Word, in a motherly, not 
 in a schoolmasterly manner. The children are not to be estranged 
 from their natural condition in life. 
 
 The Little Children's School thrives best in connection with 
 parish-work, under the Judicious guidance of the pastor. The dea- 
 coness thus employed renders to the church and to the community a 
 service, which is well calculated, to bring an abundant blessing to 
 parents and children. A Sister, to conduct such a school with success, 
 must possess a motherly heart, the gifts of song and story-telling, 
 a cheerful and patient manner with children, a mind not pre- 
 occupied with personal concerns, a spirit trusting in Christ, an in- 
 ventive faculty for devising all sorts of games and occupations for 
 the children, and finally, the gift of order and discipline, not only 
 in regard to her charges, but for her own person. She must also 
 know how to gain and cultivate the confidence of the mothers, and 
 must visit the children in their homes, especially if they are ill. 
 A Women's Aid Society can render the Sisters valuable assistance, 
 but must not embarrass lier by a many-headed supervision. Suitable 
 
— 115 — 
 
 festivities, on churchly and patriotic occasions, must not be omit- 
 ted. The christian Little Children's School must be a scene of 
 really fresh and happy child-life, tree from any religious aifecta- 
 tion, simple and ti'ue in work and play, — then the Angels of God 
 will love it, and daily bring it light from the children's heavenly 
 Father, whose face they evermore behold, as the Lord has said. 
 
 102. As circumstances are in our time, a more extensive co- 
 operation of deaconesses in the province oi\female education is not 
 for the present to be expected. In the Romish church it is very 
 different. As far as we know, only a small number of Kaisers- 
 werth Sisters are as yet employed in public elementary schools for 
 girls. No doubt this would be different, if the tie between 
 church and state were loosened. The higher female education has 
 only of late years been taken in hand by the state. Heretofore it 
 was mostly a private affair. For this reason probably, some of 
 the older Motherhouses have acquired an extensive activity in this 
 province, — notably Kaiserswerth, which even has a Teacher's 
 Seminary, also Strasburg, Neuendettelsau and Dresden. It is evi- 
 dent that in this direction the Deaconess Houses might have a great 
 mission for the church. Female education will always thrive best 
 in privacy. Therefore the best public schools for the higher edu- 
 cation of girls, will never wholly crowd out the private schools. 
 The deaconess schools, — and this is their pre-eminent advantage, — 
 have as their background the rich, religious life of the Mother- 
 house. The entire course of female education can therefore be the 
 more refined and higher in its aims, in proportion as it is removed 
 from fashionable folly and nervous restlessness. The religious con- 
 sistency to be airqed at in education, can be strictly maintained ; and 
 the cultivation of the intellect will not gain the ascendency over the 
 cultivation of the heart. Ample opportunity is offered for the train- 
 ing of the practical faculties. The simplicity of living makes it pos- 
 sible to do the work on such reasonable terms, that the home education 
 of young girls, if the same results are to be reached, is not cheaper, 
 but rather more costly. We may incidentally mention, that through 
 the educational work, many excellent elements are added to the sister- 
 hoods of deaconesses, which would otherwise remain aloof from it, 
 and that the life of the Motherhouse is greatly enriched by this 
 activity. A detailed consideration of this matter would exceed the 
 limits of our subject. 
 
 103. Two further branches of female education have, through 
 the needs of our time, fallen to the share of the deaconesses, in 
 some cases to a considerable extent. First to be mentioned, is the 
 training of servant-girls in institutions established for that purpose, 
 and for the most part managed by deaconesses. They also conduct 
 Industrial Schools, whether as modest branches of the parish-work, 
 or as independent institutions. The training of girls for domestic 
 
— IK) — 
 
 service is necessary, because in the families of many working- people, 
 especially in large cities, the growing girls, while they attend 
 school, have no opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of such 
 duties. The same is true of sewing, knitting, etc., which are indeed 
 taught in the public schools, but not in a manner calculated to meet 
 reasonable requirements ; even the slight dexterity needed by 
 every housewife, is frequently not acquired. It is not our purpose, 
 however, to enter upon the extensive domain of the servant ques- 
 tion. No proof is required to convince us, that the deaconesses 
 engaged in the practical training of girls, have a very important 
 field to cultivate within the church, one which bears many thorns 
 and thistles, but also much precious fruit. For this work the 
 Sisters need chiefly a large measure of experience, by which alone 
 the necessary educational gifts are brought to their full develo])- 
 ment. They scatter their seed, like all husbandmen of Christ, and 
 must wait in patience until it receives the morning and the eve- 
 ning rain. 
 
 We cannot recognize Sunday-school work as a special branch 
 of the deaconess activity. It is to be recommended only to a 
 limited extent, and only if they are in a position, to give the child- 
 ren continued attention during the week. This is rarely the case. 
 Deaconesses who are wholly occupied with their calling, and fre- 
 quently change their stations, can usually do little in this direction. 
 They also need the Sunday-rest for themselves. But even if they 
 have time and strength for this work, it is not to be considered as 
 an actual duty, incident to their calling. 
 
 104. We have mentioned above a third group of deaconess- 
 work as a combination of niwaing and teaching. Nursing is not only 
 the care of the sick, but includes woman's entire activity in the 
 household. The more the work enters into the congregational 
 life, the more will it partake of this twofold nature; subject, to be 
 sure, to innumerable gradations, one or the other feature becoming 
 more prominent. We have first to deal with institutions. 
 
 The dangers, to which servant girls without positions are ex- 
 posed, especially in the larger cities, have caused the establishment 
 of servants'' Inns or Lodging-houses. These are frequently managed 
 by deaconesses, often in connection with servants' training-schools. 
 Christian charity has an urgent call in behalf of girls, who 
 stand alone. If the christian inns are a great benefit to all who are 
 obliged to live among strangers, this is most especially true in the 
 case of solitary women, servants and working-girls. Where it is pos- 
 sible to secure the services of a deaconess in a ladies' hospice, she 
 will find it a congenial and profitable employment. The latter, of 
 
— 117 — 
 
 course, cannot, in point of importance, be classed with the servants' 
 inns. Properly manao;ed, these become gathering-places for re- 
 spectable girls. Families will prefer their agency in procuring 
 servants. The superintending deaconess has an opportunity of 
 exercising a silent and often very far-reaching influence upon the 
 conditions of service. The lodging-house offers to the girls whole- 
 some Sunday-enjoyment, and by its means seeks to preserve them 
 from the dangerous pleasures of the world. If possible, it watches 
 over their religious life, and induces them to attend a suitable 
 place of worship. A knowledge of human nature ; foresight and 
 forbearance, such as can be exercised only by a heart resting 
 in grace, and enlightened by the Word of God ; a thorough, 
 kindly, untiring sympathy with the girls, which never ob- 
 trudes, and yet is ever ready to serve them, — these are some of the 
 requisites for the work in the lodging-houses. All that the diaco- 
 nate is able to effect within this province, will not remove the existing 
 great evils, but will often ameliorate them ; and — a chief considera- 
 tion — it shows that the church, the woman seeking her lost piece 
 of money, has carried her lighted candle also into this portion of 
 her vast hou&e. The latter is true, in an even greater measure, of 
 the labors which may be designated as rescue-work among those 
 who are morally and spiritually endangered. 
 
 105. The Houses of Refuge and Asylums for neglected children, 
 as they have been developed by men like Joh. Falk, Zeller, 
 Wichern and others, offer to deaconesses a field of labor only in so 
 far as they deal with girls. Neglected girls are fewer in number, 
 than neglected boys. Separate institutions for girls, although rare, 
 are desirable. Where they exist, they wdll find it to their ad- 
 vantage, to procure from the deaconess houses the persons needed for 
 their management and for the education of the children ; if for no 
 other reason, than that the uniform continuance of the work is thus 
 secured. The education of oryjAa/i ^rir^*, and the superintendency 
 of the places known as "Girls' Homes", where poor girls receive 
 food, instruction and employment out of school hours, are akin to 
 the work in the Rescue-Houses, but differ from it as regards the 
 moral condition of the children. Whether the agency is to be 
 of a preventive and protective nature, or proposes the actual 
 rescuing of more or less depraved children, — the chief object is, if 
 possible, to make the Gospel of Peace a power within their hearts. 
 Not restraint and severity, but love born of the experience of grace, 
 is the first means of education. To this must be added of course an 
 energetic training in discipline, order and industry. For this very 
 reason it is difficult to find persons adapted to the work. The value 
 in God's sight of each individual human soul must be vividly 
 realized by the deaconess who is called to it. She must have ex- 
 perienced baptismal grace within herself. She must influence less 
 
— 118 — 
 
 by words, than by her example ; above all, she must not talk 
 too much. And she must be able to pray ; then her sowing in 
 hope will in due time bring its fruits. 
 
 106. The task set before the deaconesses in the M<i(/(hiJcn 
 Asylums, among the fallen of their sex, is a particularly difficult 
 one. The warfare against immorality and unchastity demands 
 these asylums ; and Fliedner's eiforts in this form of charity be- 
 came the cradle of the modern diaconate. A discharged female 
 convict was his first charge. Through Fliedner and through 
 Helding, of Steenbek in Holland, the Magdalen Asylum was first 
 established upon a large scale. It is more and more recognized 
 and acted upon, that the Church cannot and dare not keep aloof 
 from this work. Experience teaches, that deaconesses, if they are 
 the right persons for this work, are equipped with a hidden power, 
 over against these most miserable of their sex. Very similar to 
 the work among the fallen is that in F.emale Penitentiaries, which 
 however the Motherhouses have only in isolated cases found an 
 opportunity of untertaking. The Sisters laboring among such 
 deeply fallen girls and women, must learn with a clear eye and 
 a steadfast heart to fathom the abysses of sin. Illusions are use- 
 less. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and falsehood have 
 wrought the desolation. A foundation upon which to stand must 
 first of all be secured, in God's eternal truth, and in strict insistence 
 upon truthfulness. But afterwards, the labor of truly compassionate 
 love in Christ, among these souls who, oppressed by the fearful 
 misery of sin, have learned to look about them for deliverance, is by 
 no means hopeless, even though many relapses occur. A chief means 
 of rescue is severe physical labor. And a Magdalen Asylum must be 
 able, by such labor, almost entirely to support itself. The deaconess 
 must be capable of superintending the work ; she must be candid 
 and straightforward in her intercourse with those under her care ; 
 with patience exercise love and severity, and in the face of so much 
 sin and uncleanness, pray the more fervently through the blood 
 of Christ, for a clean heart. If she is sustained in her efforts by 
 the faithful co-operation of the pastoral office, which in this field 
 she can least of all dispense with, the female diaconate will here 
 show itself like unto Deborah, gaining the victory, where man 
 alone would despair of success. Would that church and state, as 
 regards prisons, would more than heretofore realize, that for 
 the work at the outposts in the warfare against the kingdom of 
 darkness, God has bestowed upon woman gifts to be used in His 
 service. 
 
 107. Whatever practice a deaconess is able to acquire, in the 
 various offices entrusted to her, will be found useful, when she 
 is called upon to undertake the work of a parish. The Mother- 
 
— 119 — 
 
 houses fitly designate this as the crown of their labors. By a 
 parish we understand a congregation, with official organization. 
 Even though the parish-work may be under the management ot 
 societies or magistrates, it yet belongs to the Church, inasmuch as it 
 can and must exist, only in subordination to, and in harmony with 
 the pastoral office. Otherwise it would not be a diaconate. Ol 
 course this does not exclude, that the community at large is like- 
 wise benefited, and that the deaconesses yield due submission to their 
 special boards of managers. But they do this as servants of the 
 churchly community ; as called to serve the Lord among His 
 members, and therefore owing obedience to the pastoral office, and 
 to the rules of the Church. 
 
 Parish-work is a service among the sick, the infirm, the weak 
 and poor, and the helpless in body and soul, such as are tound in 
 the families of a congregation ; the same, to whom, with word and 
 deed, the pastoral office is called to minister. But the shepherds in 
 the church can often fulfil these duties only to a limited degree. 
 Therefore they need the co-operation of the diaconate, — all the 
 more if the parish is large, and the conditions difficult. In 
 very large parishes, a service of deaconesses alone is not sufficient ; 
 a service of deacons must be added. But for the first and more 
 urgent needs, and in parishes of moderate size, the former will 
 answer; the deaconesses of course, must be in numbers correspond- 
 ing to the magnitude of the work. They are the aids of the pastoral 
 office ; and the more they are able to work in harmony with it,. 
 the more will it affijrd them support and guidance, and the more 
 cheerfully will they perform their duties. Inasmuch as the in- 
 terests of the municipal authorities or private societies, who call the 
 deaconesses to the parish, are directed to the care of the sick and 
 destitute, who are at the same time the objects of pastoral care, the 
 Church can only rejoice, to see the parish- work thus established. 
 A conflict of interests is scarcely likely to occur. Nor will the 
 interests ot the physician in charge be likely to conflict with those 
 of the pastor and other promoters of the work. The municipal care 
 of the poor cannot without loss dispense with churchly and vo- 
 luntary co-operation. And again the latter cannot do without the 
 former, which steps in where the diaconate and christian charity 
 cannot help, without becoming untrue to themselves. Thus the 
 service of deaconesses in the parish, when once it is introduced, 
 usually develops simply and naturally, in accordance with the 
 various demands made upon it. Indeed, the inward vitality of the 
 diaconate, and the need of it, are so great, that its progress is not 
 hindered by the indifference or resistance of one or the other party. 
 Following their quiet path of humble, kindly ministry, the Sisters, 
 often to their own surprise, pass easily and without hindrance 
 over many prejudices. Mulhouse, in Alsace, furnishes a splendid 
 
- 120 — 
 
 example, where the demands of the pastoral office and the re- 
 ligious life, of a hioh state of industrial advancement, of an ex- 
 tensive municipality, of a careful observance of sanitary laws, are 
 harmoniously m^t by a generally developed system of parish-work 
 by deaconesses, rich and poor alike sharing in its blessings. Other 
 similar examples might be cited, but none are (tarried out so syste- 
 matically in every direction. The deaconesses here form the con- 
 necting link between ri(!h and poor, without dispensing the former 
 from personal co-operation in the work. It must not be overlooked 
 that such parish-work, in addition to its spiritual importance, and 
 its immediate benefit as an evidence of practical Christianity, con- 
 tributes largely to the solution of the social ])roblem. It is only 
 to be regretted, that the ready co-operation of many cannot 
 always be secured, for by it alone considerable results can be 
 attained. 
 
 The deaconesses eniployed in a parish need practical wisdom 
 and active energy. They must, with common-sense, circumspection 
 and kindness, discriminate between truth and falsehood ; must 
 distinguish real from mistaken help ; they must be able to act with 
 readiness, and yet with forethought, and be prepared to face the 
 deepest misery, the most pitiable depravity. They must be equally at 
 home in the kitchen, at the wash-tub, by the sick-bed, and in the 
 managers' offices. They must procure assistance, where their own 
 strength is not sufficient, as for instance in night- watching; but must 
 at all times themselves set the example. They see much sorrow, 
 wretchedness and danger. They dare not despond with the faint- 
 hearted, nor become excited with the restless, and yet they must be 
 able to weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that do re- 
 joice. They must learn to ask, without being importunate; they 
 must, with ready tact, assist the physician, and adapt themselves to 
 difficult situations among rich and poor. They must be communica- 
 tive and yet discreet ; motherly toward the children, the poor and the 
 sick ; able to pray, and without intrusiveness and self-importance, to 
 serve souls by jaithful intercession and heartfelt words of comfort. 
 "Blessed wonder-workers" some one has called them. There is no 
 faculty of christian womanhood, which does not find employment in 
 this work. May the Lord grant that persons be found in increasing 
 numbers, who count it grace, in humility and faithfulness to strive 
 to fulfil this office so necessary and precious. Not every deaconess 
 can be a parish Sister. Of none can it be said, that she meets every 
 requirement. But each may ask the Lord, if it be His will, to pre- 
 pare and strengthen her for this service. And each may rejoice, if 
 the Lord permits her to be a helpmate of truth, a successor to the 
 parish deaconess Phoebe, whom St. Paul commends, as having 
 been a succourer of many, and of him also. The female diaconate 
 within the congregation stands upon a foundation, which, unlike that 
 
— 121 — 
 
 of the institution, is an altogether natural one, and prevents the 
 growth of one-sided notions. To be sure, the order and protec- 
 tion of the institution are lacking as well. The parish deaconess 
 must carry order within herself. She is fortunate, if she enjoys 
 the protection and advice of the pastor's family, congenial in love 
 and faith. For the rest, the Lord Himself will be her best Pro- 
 tector, whose angels, according to His promise, will guard her in 
 all her ways. 
 
 108. The first aim of parish-work is to aid the poor. But the 
 deaconesses must also be prepared to render help in the homes of the 
 wealthy, in times of need. This service is termed private nursing. 
 The parish-Sister, even when she is laboring for the rich, is in a 
 position to benefit the poor; for it is the wealthy who must fill her 
 hands with gifts for the needy. In well-ordered parish-work there 
 must be no remuneration for the Sister's services. Least of all 
 must the managers endeavor to obtain from private cases an increase 
 for their treasury. The Sister's service belongs to the poor, and if 
 the rich show their gratitude for assistance rendered, their gifts 
 must be at her disposal, to be used in behalf of the poor. Other- 
 wise the main artery of parish-work is cut oif. The Sister must 
 have money in her hands, and the managers should rather aid 
 her in procuring it, than use her labor for the benefit of their own 
 treasury. 
 
 Private nursing is undertaken by the Motherhouses through- 
 out the land. In many cases it affords the only means, by which 
 country parishes experience the blessings of the female diaco- 
 nate. In many large country parishes, a deaconess service could 
 easily be established with two Sisters, conabining the parish-work 
 with a school for little children. Experience has shown, that it is 
 not advisable to send out less than two Sisters. The Lord, we are 
 told, sent out His disciples, two by two. If the necessary good will 
 existed, mu(3h might be thus accomplished, and the deaconesses, 
 especially in country parishes, would prove a blessing to the people, 
 and a great help to the pastor. Until that time comes, and even then, 
 small and remote villages would not be greatly benefited, and there- 
 fore private nursing is the one service the Motherhouses can render 
 such congregations. Great care must be exercised in the sending out 
 of private nurses. It is not an easy matter. In a parish or institu- 
 tion a Sister is of service to many, while in a private family she 
 may be claimed for a long time by a single patient. If the number of 
 ot Sisters in the Motherhouses were larger, this would be of no con- 
 sideration, but at present the matter is attended with many difficul- 
 ties. Private nursing is not without its peculiar dangers, especially 
 to less experienced Sisters. They are often exposed to adverse in- 
 fluences, without having help or advice within reach. But whether 
 the matter is difficult or otherwise, it does not lessen the obligation, 
 
— 122 — 
 
 which must he admitted to exist in such cases. Of course the in- 
 dividual instances must he examined into. The eases of real need 
 are those which require help. The deaconesses must not consider 
 their own personal comfort. Where tiie Motherhouses, often at the 
 expense of much trouble and great sacrifices, practice private nurs- 
 ing, the Lord will not fail to send His blessing. This experience 
 is made in various ways, and contributes in a large measure to the 
 success of the deaconess work. 
 
 109. From the review given above of the deaconess activity 
 in our time, observant readers will gather, that familiarity with 
 household duties is everywhere a preliminary condition of the work, 
 and sometimes these duties constitute the actual work. The dea- 
 coness serves her Saviour and His church in the household, as well 
 as elsewhere, and such service is not without its immediate spiritual 
 side. The sister comes in contact with all sorts of personalities, 
 and, if she serves in the spirit of prayer, may by her example fur- 
 nish a testimony of deeds, which will not fail to reach the heart. 
 Deaconesses must understand simple book-keeping. Much is often 
 entrusted to them, and they must be ready at all times, with minute 
 care, to render an account of their stewardship. 
 
 It remains to show how, closely linked with the service which 
 the sisters render the poor and needy, there is a service of honor 
 and beauty. Sisters, when they are instrumental in bringing chil- 
 dren to baptism, must be able, in an attractive and fitting manner, 
 to prepare the christening dress and table. When they have nursed 
 a sick person until the end, they must know what is proper in the 
 care of the dead. They must be able to teach their charges, to 
 celebrate the christian festivals. Especially will Christmas time 
 give them abundance of work. But other festivities also have their 
 churchly and popular features, which the deaconess must be able to 
 present and explain to those imder her care. Musical skill, where 
 the gift has been granted, belongs to the duties of the service in 
 almost every field of labor. Indeed whatever helps to give the 
 service a gracious and lovely form, has its value, — only womanly 
 vanity must remain out of the question. 
 
 Church-embroidery , the adornment ot the sanctuary, has become 
 a special branch of work for individual deaconesses. All deaco- 
 nesses should, if possible, possess an appreciation of what is beauti- 
 ful and appropiate in the House of God. It is essential therefore, 
 that deaconess houses be enabled, with loving care to beautify their 
 holy places, and the order of their worship. It is by no means 
 optional, to do this or to leave it undone. The perception of what 
 is beautiful and suitable in a churchly sense is notably cultivated, 
 when within the Motherhouses a work-room is established for 
 churchlv ornamentation, in so far as this lies within the limits of 
 woman's skill. Here the draperies for altar, pulpit, font and lee- 
 
— 123 — 
 
 tern are made. A Motherhouse has reason to rejoice, if it possesses 
 a sister with an artistic gift for this work, who can at the same 
 time be spared for it. This work also is a service to the Body of 
 our Lord ; and it is an honor to a Motherhouse if it is permitted 
 thus to serve the Church. It will prove a source of pleasure and 
 profit to all the sisters. The preparation of commmiion-icafers is 
 also a suitable service for the deaconess houses. And the ties which 
 are thus formed between the houses which render such service, and 
 the altars and churches throughout the land, are not without im- 
 portance. 
 
 110. Short as has been our sketch of the fields of labor ot 
 the deaconesses, it is sufficient to convince all who wish to see, how 
 deeply the deaconess work has entered into the life of the church. 
 In times of public calamity, during epidemics or wars, the female 
 diaconate has taken its place in the front ranks of those who devo- 
 ted themselves to the relief of the suffering. This will continue the 
 same in the future, and the power of such testimony will never 
 fail. The danger cannot be wholly ignored, that the service ot 
 the deaconesses, instead of remaining a service of Christ, a churchly 
 service, might deteriorate into mere philanthropy, as salt that 
 has "lost its savor." It is the more to be feared, in proportion as 
 the service of the sisters is valued and desired by the world. But 
 so long as the firm and intimate union between the Motherhouse 
 and the ministry of the pure Word and Sacraments is maintained 
 and carefully cultivated upon all their fields of labor, the danger 
 will not be great, or where it exists, will be overcome. It is cer- 
 tain that the female diaconate cannot stay the growing defection 
 from the faith among protestant christians. That is not, and cannot 
 be its calling. But even though itwere nothing more than the'renewal 
 of a phase of genuine christian womanhood is it was in the early 
 days of the Church, it would be a great and prophetic calling, similar 
 to that of Huldah, as described in 2. Kings, 22. It is difficult to read 
 clearly the signs of the time within the Church. Light and shade are 
 strangely mingled, as perhaps at no other time, and the evening 
 shadows are lengthening. But whatever may come, this is certain, 
 that on the Day of the Lord it will be asked, what place in the life 
 of the Church was held by the works of love, performed as an 
 evidence of faith towards Him who first loved us. If God has 
 granted, that in the tissue of our churchly present, the threads of 
 the female diaconate shall shine more and more brightly, we^will 
 gladly receive this as a kindly and hopeful sign, that the old age of 
 the Church is to be like its youth, — that Church which the Lord 
 knows as His own and against which the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail. It is not for us to ask what may be God's thoughts in the 
 
— 124 — 
 
 future, with regard to the deaconess work, but to pray that in the 
 deaconesses and their callino;, the Woixl of Christ may through 
 grace be abundantly fullfilled : 
 
 „I am the true vine, and ray father is the husbandman. Every 
 branch in Me that bcareth not fruit He taketh away : and every 
 branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth 
 more fruit. 
 
 „I am the vine, ye are the branches : He that abideth in Me, 
 and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for vnthout Me 
 ye can do nothing/' 
 
THE MARY J. DREXEL HOME AND PHILADELPHIA 
 M0THERHQU2E OF DEACONESSES. 
 
 More than forty years ago the first efforts were made in the 
 Lutheran Church in this country to transplant the Deaconesses 
 from Kaiserswerth to America. The Rev. W. A, Passavant, pas- 
 tor of the English Lutheran Church in Pittsburg, Pa., and found- 
 er of numerous charitable institutions, hospitals and orphans' 
 homes in Pittsburg, Rochester, Pa., New York, Chicago, Milwau- 
 kee, and Jacksonville, called to this country the Rev. Theodore 
 Fliedner, who arrived in the summer of 1849 with four Kaisers- 
 werth Sisters, who took charge of the Pittsburg Infirmary, one of 
 whom is still living at Pittsburg. 
 
 In 1884 another colony of German Deaconesses was trans- 
 planted from the Fatherland to American soil. This time the 
 movement originated with the leaders of the German Hospital in 
 Philadelphia. Its President and chief benefactor, Mr. John D. 
 Lankenau, with his friend, Consul Charles H. Meyer, after 
 repeated attempts to induce Kaiserswerth or some other pro- 
 minent Motherhouse in Germany to give up some Sisters to the 
 Hospital, at last succeeded, through the assistance of the late Rev. 
 Ninck in Hamburg, in bringing over an independent community 
 of seven Sisters from Iserlohn, Germany. They arrived on the 19. 
 of June, 1884, and at once took charge of the Hospital work, in- 
 troducing, as President Lankenau testifies, "a more healthy system 
 of management, and inaugurating a complete renovation of the old 
 system of nursing." It was not long after the introduction of the 
 Sisters into the Hospital that Mr. Lankenau, and the friends who 
 sympathized and co-operated with him in this cause, came to the 
 conviction that if the work of Deaconesses was to take firm foot- 
 hold among us and become permanently established, steps should 
 be taken as soon as possible toward founding a separate Mother- 
 house, where probationers could be received and trained, and where 
 disabled and aged Sisters could find a home in the evening of life. 
 This Motherhouse was to be separate from the German Hospital 
 and in organic union with the Evangelical Lutheran Church, to 
 which the Sisters belonged. 
 
 Mr. Lankenau had for many years matured a plan for an old 
 people's home in memory of his wife, Mary Joanna Drexel ; in the 
 
— 12G — 
 
 execution of this plan the Motherhoiise of Deaconesses was to be 
 eonnectod with the Marv J. Droxel Home, both instil utions being 
 combined arcliitecturallv, in one maii-niHcont bnikliny; and boino: 
 
 111 ' 
 
 placed nndcr one government, a si)ccial Board of Directors, in which 
 the German Hospital Board is represented by three members and 
 the General Council of the Evangelical Lutiieran Church in North 
 America by at least three ministers. On the 11th of November, 
 1886, the corner-stone of this Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadel- 
 phia Motherhouse of Deaconesses was laid, and on the ()th of De- 
 cember, 1888, the building was consecrated to the service of the 
 Triune God. On the same day Ilev. August Cordes, formerly as- 
 sistant of Rev. Ninck in Hamburg, was installed as Rector of the 
 Motherhouse. 
 
 The first Oberin (Sister Superior) Marie Krueger, having died 
 in November 1887, Wanda von Oertzen succeeded to her place in 
 June 1888. Rector Cordes having resigned in June 1892, the 
 Rev. Karl Goedel of Weinsheim, Germany, was called and on 
 July 9th 1893 was installed as pastor of the Mary J. Drexel Home 
 and Motherhouse of Deaconesses. 
 
 The work of the deaconesses at present covers the following 
 fields : 
 
 1) The German Hospital in Philadelphia with about 150 pa- 
 tients on a daily average, 50,000 nursing days per year, and about 
 28,000 visits in the dispensary during the same time. Some 25 
 Sisters, including probationers, are on duty in the Hospital work. 
 
 2) The Children'' s Hospital, in the western wing of the Mary 
 J. Drexel Home, since its opening in May 1889 has nursed 1011 
 sick children. The dispensary was visited in 1892 — 93 by more 
 than 5600 little patients. Three Sisters and several associates have 
 charge of this work. 
 
 3) The Old People^ s Home on the second and third floors of 
 the West wing of the Mary J. Drexel Home which was opened in 
 November 1889, with room for 40 inmates, is now filled. Two 
 Sisters have charge of this station. 
 
 4) Parish Work has been done thus far in three German Lu- 
 theran Congregations, St. Paul's, Philadelphia, Zion's, Philadelphia, 
 and St. James', Altoona, Pa. At present only one Sister is en- 
 gaged in this work, in Zion's Congregation, Philadelphia. 
 
 5) In a few instances Sisters have been sent out for private 
 nursing in peculiarly urgent cases, but, owing to the small number 
 of Deaconesses, it has thus far been impossible to engage regularly 
 in this work. 
 
 6) On the 16th of September, 1890, a (rirfe' aScAoo^ was opened 
 in the fourth story of the Mary J, Drexel Home. Through this 
 institution the Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deaconesses has under- 
 taken to do its share in the Christian training of the future mothers 
 
— 127 — 
 
 of our nation. The school is attended by some forty pupils, from 
 10 to 18 years of age, the majority of whom are boarders in the 
 house. Their instruction and training is in the hands of most com- 
 petent teachers under the supervision of the pastor, the Rev. Karl 
 Goedel. An experienced Deaconess acts as manager and directress 
 of the school. 
 
 7) The Day Nursery and Children's Home in Germantovm. 
 The Ladies' Aid Society of the Mary J. Drexel Home, in October, 
 1890, opened a day nursery on Cayuga Street, Germantown with 
 two inmates, whose number afterwards increased to twelve. This 
 institution has now been changed into a Children's Foster Home, 
 admitting children from one to four years, and, if possible, keeping 
 them as inmates as long as practicable. Two Sisters are in charge 
 of this work. 
 
 8) The Kindergarten. For several years Kindergarten- work 
 was done with the convalescent children of the Children's Hospital. 
 This has now been enlarged into a regular Kindergarten and infant 
 school, receiving children from outside. The attendance has al- 
 ready reached the number of thirty. 
 
 9) The Evening School. In the fall of 1892 this school was 
 opened for boys who had formerly been inmates of the Children's 
 Hospital, with ample provisions for their instruction, culture and 
 entertainment. The school is well attended and shows the grate- 
 ful attachment of the former patients to the place where they were 
 cared for in the days of their suffering. 
 
 10) The Hospital in Easton, Pa., a young but rapidly growing 
 institution, incorporated in July 1890 and under the management of 
 a Board of Ladies, is in charge of two of our Deaconesses. During 
 the last year 1892 — 93 108 patients were treated there. 
 
 11) The Old People's Home in Allegheny, Pa. On September 
 10th 1893, this institution, recently established by the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio, was taken in charge by two Sisters 
 from the Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deaconesses. 
 
 The Philadelphia Motherhouse aims to adapt, as nearly as 
 possible, the principal features of the Deaconesses' work in Ger- 
 many to this country. The foundation of the whole work is to be 
 unity in the faith and love to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Sisters 
 seek no earthly gain, and do their work witliout wages ; but in 
 giving themselves fully up to this work, they are assured that they 
 will be well provided with all the necessaries of life. They have a 
 comfortable home, enjoy every summer a vacation of three or four 
 weeks, which they spend either in the homes of their relatives or in 
 the beautiful seaside home which Mr. Lankenau built for himself, 
 and to which he invites the Sisters who are in need of the refreshing 
 and invigorating sea-breezes. If disabled by sickness or old age, 
 the Motherhouse is the home of the Sister, so that she enjoys abso- 
 
— 12« — 
 
 Ijute immunity from the cares of this world, so far as human pro- 
 vision may free any one from them. 
 
 The Sisters are divided into full-consecrated Deaconesses, and 
 Probationers. The time of service before the consecration generally 
 covers a period of four years. During this time there is a regular 
 course of instruction for the Sisters, both theoretical and practical, 
 which is intended to prepare them, as well as possible, for the 
 various duties of their office. The Pastor of the Motherhouse, who 
 must be a clergyman of the I^utheran Church, is the pastor of the 
 Sisters. He conducts the services in the beautiful chapel of the 
 home on each Lord's Day, and also a daily Vesper service through 
 the week, in which the inmates of the Home participate. 
 
 There are at present in connection with the Philadelphia 
 Motherhouse 38 sisters, including jjrobationers and five aspirants. 
 
 The Motherhouse of Deaconesses in Philadelphia has always 
 been ready and willing to the best of its ability to assist the Deaco- 
 ness cause in other places and among other churches. In 1887 and 
 1888 the Rev. E. A. Fogelstroem, Swedish Lutheran pastor in 
 Omaha, sent five young women to be trained in Philadelphia for 
 the Deaconess Institution which he established in Omaha under the 
 name Emanuel Deaconess Home. One of them, Sister Bothilde 
 afterwards also visited the deaconess institutions in Stockholm and 
 Kaiserswerth. In April 1891 she was consecrated in Omaha. In 
 September 1893 there were 15 young ladies in the institution : 5 
 Deaconesses, 6 Assistant sisters, 3 probationers and one aspirant. 
 They work as nurses in Emanuel Hospital and in Bethesda Hos- 
 pital, St. Paul, Minn., also as parochial teachers in Swedish Lu- 
 theran Congregations, thus representing a fair and prosperous 
 beginning of this great cause among the Swedish Luthei-ans of 
 this country. 
 
 The General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
 America also, through its Committee on Deaconesses, has sent 
 several young ladies to the Philadelphia Motherhouse to be trained 
 for the work. 
 
 The Deaconess House in Dayton, Ohio, which is undenomina- 
 tional, has at present several of its sisters in the Mary J. Drexel 
 Home for the purpose of giving them a thorough education and 
 preparation for their service. This house was established in 1890 
 in connection with the Cincinnati Deaconess House. But after- 
 wards it received its Sister Superior from Rev. von Bodelschwingh, 
 Bielefeld, Germany, and is making rapid progress under its 
 present management. 
 
 The Norwegian Lutherans have for a number of years, been 
 active and successful in the Deaconess work. At the solicitation 
 of the Norwegians' Seamens' Mission in Brooklyn, Sister Elizabeth 
 
— 129 — 
 
 Fedde, M'ho had been a deaconess since 1872, M^as sent to this conn 
 try in 1888. Having begun the work in Brooklyn she was, in 1888, 
 called to JVIinneapolis, to take charge of the institution, which had 
 been established there chiefly through the efforts of Rev. M. F. 
 Gjertzen. After a short absence however, Sister Elizabeth had to 
 return to Brooklyn, to reconstruct the work, which had there been 
 commenced. Now the Norwegians have in Brooklyn a hospital 
 with accommodations for 33 patients and a Deaconess House. The 
 property is owned by the Norwegian Aid Society with Consul Boers 
 as its president Nor lias the Norwegian Deaconess work in Min- 
 neapolis been less successful. It is now in charge of Sister Inge- 
 borg from the Motherhouse in Christiania, Norway. The number 
 of sisters is twenty, of whom three are at work in St. Lukes' Hos- 
 pital, Grand Forks, three in the Orphans' Home at Beloit, and three 
 in the hospital at Hillsboro, N. D. 
 
 ^iUatiSjss 
 
THBLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. ORIGIN AND NATURE OV THE SERVICE OF CHRISTIAN 
 
 MERCY 5 
 
 II. THE CHURCHLY OFFICES 9 
 
 III. THE DEACONESS CALLING ACCORDING TO THE SCRIP- 
 
 TURES 13 
 
 IV. THE DEACONESS OF THE EARLY CHURCH 19 
 
 V. THE SPREAD AND DECAY OF THE DIACONATE OF THE 
 
 EARLY CHURCH 26 
 
 VI. THE RENEWAL OF WOMAN'S CHURCHLY SERVICE IN 
 
 THE ROMISH CHURCH 33 
 
 VII. THE PROTESTANT RENEWAL OF THE FEMALE DIACO- 
 NATE 47 
 
 VIII. THE DEACONESS MOTHERHOUSES 09 
 
 IX. THE SISTERHOODS OF DEACONESSES 85 
 
 X. THE FIELDS OF LABOR OF THE DEACONESSES 105 
 
 APPENDIX 125 
 
Date Due 
 
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