AMERICAN MISSIONARY WOMEN.
It will be seen by the list of names that I have obtained records of the Female Missions
sent out by four of the great denominations of American Christians. From the Methodist Episcopal Church the names were not furnished, I regret to say, as that large branch of the true
Church owes much of its prosperity to its pious women. In the last Annual Report — thirtysecond, 1850 — of the Methodist Missionary Society, there arc the names of life-subscribers and
of those who have given bequests. Of the latter the largest was made by a woman — Mrs. Frey.
widow of the Rev. Christopher Frey, gave $2516.71, and more than one-third of the eleven
thousand life-subscribers are women.
Great Britain has the oldest Protestant Missionary Societies, and sends many female helpers: but their names were not accessible to me. I hope some one among their own people will give the Record of such heroines who do honour to the British nation. The Sketch of Mrs. Wilson (see page 555) is one of the holiest records of British Christianity in India. Has any man done there a greater work for the cause of Christ than did that self-educated woman? The pious daughters of England only want suitable education and encouragement, and they would go forth by hundreds and gather the poor little heathen children into schools, and carry messages of the Saviour's love to the miserable heathen mothers. Teaching the ignorant and ministering to the sick of their own sex must be the work of educated Christian women.
As yet, how meagre are the means for the training of Female Missionaries! Though female teachers havo much the largest share in the gratuitous labour of Sunday-schools in our country, and write two-thirds of the books for children and youth, yet there is not one liberally-endowed seminary for young women in the United States ; while for young men there are one hundred and twenty-five colleges. A change in this system is now imperatively needed. Three-fifths of the human race aro still in heathen darkness. One-half of these are females, who can never be reached by the ministrations of men. Ought not the missionary's wife who is sent among heathen peoplo to be able to instruct her own sex wherever she goes ? Does she not need as careful and complete an education as her husband — that is, to be instructed in the languages, moral and mental philosophy, physiology, and every sort of knowledge pertaining to the human nature, which, at its very source, is put by God himself under her forming care?
One important department of a mother's duty is to preserve the health of her family, and so train her son that he shall go forth to his allotted task of "subduing the world " with a sound mind in a sound body.
How can she do this, uuless she understands the laws of health ? Medical science belongs to woman's department of knowledge; and never will it be well with the world till she is permitted, ay, encouraged, to study it, and become the physician for her own sex.
To pious, intelligent women, thus prepared, what a mission-field for doing good would be opened ! In India, China, Turkey, and all over the heathen world, they would, in their character of physicians, find access to the homes and the harems where women dwell, and where the good seed sown would bear an hundred-fold, because it would take root in the bosom of the sufferer, and in the heart of childhood.
That the practice of midwifery by men should ever have become tolerated among Christian nations, is one of those monstrous anomalies in right reason as well as custom, which, if we did not know existed, we could never believe. In this respect, heathen women are superior to those of Christian America. It is devoutly to be hoped such an humiliating reproach may soon be removed. Man-midwifery is unscriptural and unnatural ; and good men will unite in the efforts now making to give this branch of medical practice to the care of educated women, who may make their profession of great service in the cause of missions abroad as well as of Chris tian morals at homo. Two public seminaries for the education of these physicians are already incorporated — one at Boston, under the care of "The Female Medical Education Society," which has had about sixty students ; the other is " The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania," located at Philadelphia, which has received about forty students. Thus, over one hundred American females are now pursuing medical studies with the view of becoming physicians for their own sex and for children. God grant them success!
Christ commissioned women to teach the Apostles of His resurroction from the dead; Apollo was instructed by a woman; deaconesses were appointed in the churches; Timothy owed his faith to his female teachers, and the "Elect Lady" was addressed by the holiest among the Apostles, as worthy of great honour for her Christian character. Such were the women of the New Testament!
