THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH AND ITS WOMEN.
"Help those women which labored with me in the
churches."--PAUL, Phil. iv. 3.
The Universalist Church is much indebted to its faithful women. Taking
into consideration its comparative numbers, no other church in America
has been more signally favored in the genial and healthful influence
of its writers who have borne the honorable name of Woman. They have
been instrumental in spreading the doctrines of the primitive Gospel
and the moral bearings of their religion before the world in most
attractive and impressive forms, and have disabused the public in its
wrong estimate of the character and ability of the advocates of
Universalism and the tendency and influence of its principles.
Among those worthy to be remembered in this goodly company, who have
passed from the present life during the last half-century, we may
mention the gifted sister poets, Alice and Phœbe Cary, Mrs. Sarah
Broughton, Mrs. Julia H. Scott, Mrs. Sarah C. E. Mayo, Mrs. Charlotte
A. Jerauld, Mrs. Henrietta A. Bingham, Mrs. Elmina R. B. Waldo, Mrs.
Luella J. B. Case, and Mrs. E. H. Cobb.
Among the living we may note the names of Mrs. Catharine M. Sawyer,
whose contributions to our church journals are so well known; Mrs.
Mary A. Livermore, who in her past connection with our church work and
literature has gained such a high reputation with her voice and pen,
as well as in her deeds of benevolence and mercy during the war of the
rebellion; Mrs. Julia A. Carney, whose hymns and instruction books
have made her name so familiar in our Sunday-schools and homes; Mrs.
Caroline A. Soule, whose consecrated words and works have secured her
a name which the church of her love will hold in righteous estimation;
Mrs. Nancy T. Munroe, Mrs. Lathrop (formerly Mrs. Bacon), Mrs. E. M.
Bruce, Mrs. J. L. Patterson, Mrs. S. M. Perkins, Mrs. P. A. Hanaford,
Miss Carnahan, Miss Remick, Miss Minnie S. Davis,--but it is difficult
to know where to draw the line in this counting. Others might be
named, would space permit, who have made their contributions to the
literature of the church. The older and well known retain "their
wonted fires," and the new and younger are coming to succeed and honor
them. Some of our women are speaking our best and most practical words
in our churches, prayer and conference and missionary meetings; in our
Sunday-schools, conventions, and associations; in our pulpits, as
evangelists and pastors; in our educational institutions. If the
Universalist Church has not at this hour as brilliant a presentation
of Christian literature from the pen of its women as it had thirty
years since, there never was more of the practical and available
talent of woman in it than at the present time; never so much
organized effort on their part as now.
This effort seems to have taken new form and life since the Centenary
Year of the church came round,--1870. Previous to that date, the
history of many a new movement, many a new parish or church, had been
the history of woman's fidelity in the inception, progress, and
success of the enterprise. It was but natural, then, that in the
inspiration awakened by the approach of this centennial year, the
women of the church should be aroused to new and still greater effort.
And thus it was that the "Woman's Centenary Aid Association" was
organized at Buffalo, N. Y., in September, 1869. The organization was
effected, and the main work under it was to aid in the raising of the
proposed "Murray Fund," of $200,000. The total amount raised by that
Association for this object, in all the States and elsewhere,
deducting comparatively moderate expenses, and placed in the treasury
of the United States Convention for the Murray Fund, was $35,000.
Nearly 13,000 women thus became members of the Association. The fact
was a new and cheering manifestation. The "Christian Leader," a
Universalist journal of New York city, thus alluded to it:--
"If our women need no eulogy, we need the satisfaction of making a
warm, explicit confession of our admiration of their attempt, and
our gratitude for what they have done. They can well afford to
dispense with the acknowledgment, but we cannot afford not to make
it. It becomes us here to raise no question as to woman's fitness
for certain employments and political prerogatives, hitherto the
prerogatives of the rougher sex. But should we reach what some call
'extreme views' on the several points, and should our zeal bring us
onto the platform as a champion thereof, the sledgehammer we should
wield is, _the work of the Universalist women in their Centenary
Year_. God bless and make us grateful for our women!"
Since that time the Association has taken the title of the "Womans'
Centenary Association" (dropping the word "Aid" used in the beginning
in reference to its work in connection with the United States
Convention). It has much other work of its own now. Its tract
publishing and circulation, its Scotland Mission, its endowment of
women professorships in one of our colleges, its special gifts for the
aid of theological students, the helping of needy and worthy parish
organizations, establishing Sunday-schools in waste places, and
assisting to sustain them and other beneficent works, are included in
its ministries. Every year's report of its doings has spoken to the
public of the utility and effectiveness of its work.
In May, 1875, Mrs. Caroline A. Soule, the first President of the
Association, sailed from New York city for Scotland, on a mission of
observation, as a company of believers there had for some time
received aid and encouragement from the Association. She passed
several months in Scotland, preaching in Dunfermline, Glasgow,
Larbert, Dundee, and other places, and organized the "Scottish
Universalist Convention." She also assisted at the dedication of a
little church in Stenhousemuir, the only Universalist Church edifice
in Great Britain. Three years afterwards she went, by approval of the
Association, as a preacher and missionary. After preaching awhile in
Dundee and Glasgow, in 1879 she organized, in the last-named place,
the "St. Paul Universalist Church," and established a Sunday-school
and church library. Great numbers of tracts and many books (twenty
barrels of closely-packed matter) were circulated as helps in her
work. The rite of ordination was conferred upon her by the Scottish
Convention. During her work in Scotland she has proved, by her
fidelity, self-sacrifice, and persistence in her work during many and
severe discouragements, her qualifications for a Christian missionary
worthy to be recorded among the most devoted of any in the other
churches who have been strengthened and honored by the accomplishment
of devoted women in their missionary fields. Her work is a noble
beginning of that which may continue to be done by the Universalist
Church, if it shall possess a zeal commensurate with the magnitude of
that pre-eminent Gospel to be "preached to every creature," which it
is called of God to maintain. Christian Universalism and woman, "what
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."[36]
[36] For a more ample view of the position and work of the women of
the Universalist Church, we refer the reader to the volume recently
given to the public by Mrs. E. R. Hanson, entitled "Our Women
Workers." Chicago, 1882.