THE MORNING COMETH.
The death of her brother-in-law, Tell Meuricoffre, in the spring
of 1900, and the death of his wife in the autumn of the same year,
were a great sorrow to Josephine Butler, increasing the feeling of
loneliness that so often comes to the aged; but amid all her weakness
and loneliness in these last years, hope, illimitable hope, was the
dominant note of her soul, as she looked forward to the “smile and the
‘good morning’ with which God would greet her” on the other side.
[Illustration: _Elliott & Fry, Photo 1900._ 290
[Handwritten] I remain yours affect. Josephine Butler]
To the Editor of the _Shield_.
_April, 1900._
You ask me for a few words on the character and career of my
brother-in-law, the Chevalier Tell Meuricoffre, who fell asleep on
Thursday, March 22nd. It would hardly be possible for me to write of
him impersonally, while even as a sister, to whom he was very dear,
it is not quite easy. But I will try. I cannot speak of him in any
direct connection with the cause which your paper represents, for he
never came personally to the front in our work, though in sympathy
he was with us and with his dear wife, my sister, who has been for
several years a member of our International Committee, and some of
whose published letters reveal a deeper insight than I have ever
observed in any other person into the intimate relations of our
question with the spiritual life of individuals and nations. Mr.
Meuricoffre’s was a very full, varied and most useful life. Swiss by
parentage, he was born and lived almost all his life in Naples, where
he fulfilled some of the highest citizen functions in a manner to
attract the esteem of his fellow-citizens of every nationality and
creed. Now that he is gone a thousand testimonies are pouring in to
his sterling worth, and to the affection he had inspired far and wide.
He was the head and support of the Swiss Protestant colony in Naples—a
very numerous society—and the promoter of countless good works, such
as the International Hospital, which he created for the reception
of strangers arriving in Naples, who did not find any such safe or
good treatment in the other hospitals of the city. Truth, purity,
uprightness, singlemindedness, and a most munificent generosity were
among his characteristics. _Noblesse oblige_ seemed to be his motto.
He did not let his left hand know what his right hand did. Besides his
public acts of benevolence, he aided privately numbers of individuals
and families whose needs or misfortunes were a secret to all except
himself. He was the most open-handed of men. He and my husband were
great friends, and in several points they resembled each other. If
the world were more largely peopled with such men as these two, we
should not have needed, dear Editor, to maintain so continuous and
arduous a struggle as we have had for justice and mercy at the hands
of men. Mr. and Mrs. Meuricoffre used to spend a part of each summer
at their beautiful Swiss home on the borders of the Lake of Geneva;
and it was here that many delightful family gatherings took place,
assembling from Italy, England and France. We have golden memories of
those times, where we (from England) used sometimes to rest, in order
to prepare ourselves for approaching conferences of the Abolitionist
Federation in Switzerland. Some of your readers may remember Mr.
Meuricoffre’s presence at the conference in Berne in 1896, and my
sister’s words spoken in the sacristy of the large church at Colmar,
the year before, when she pleaded for the poor child victims in Italy.
The occasion of the Colmar meeting, referred to in the above letter,
is described in the following extract from a journal kept by Josephine
Butler in 1895.
This week at Colmar was altogether sweet. My darling Hatty made a
lovely impression on all our friends. I shall never forget her words
spoken at a preliminary meeting in our _salon_ at the hotel, where
arrangements for the week were discussed. One saw there was a tendency,
in the preparing of certain resolutions, to drop to a lower standard
in the proclaiming of principles (in order to disarm opposition, it
was said). Her few words spoken very gently, but firmly, led the whole
company up to the higher standard—that of Christ; and our old and
valued friend, Professor Felix Bovet, thanked her for recalling them to
that standard. At one of our early morning devotional meetings, which
were held in the sacristy of the large Protestant Church, her voice
went to my heart, and to that of many, as she stood up and prayed for
poor Italy, and for Naples especially, asking God to send some of His
inspired teachers and workers there. But most of all there dwells in
my heart the memory of that early morning when, before going to the
sacristy, I went to her room. I had been ill and exhausted all the day
before. She kneeled down, half dressed as she was, and drew me down
beside her, and putting her arm round me, and drawing me close to her
side, she poured out her soul in such a loving petition for me, weeping
as she prayed, and yet with such firm faith and loving assurance as
people only have when they feel God very near, and realise His will
to grant what is asked. Her voice sounded to me like that of some
ministering angel, pleading pleading face to face with God—a voice
trembling with emotion and yet steadied by the sense of the dear and
awful presence of the Christ to whom she spoke. And her prayer was
large and far-reaching, embracing those dearest to us, and “the little
ones, the lost lambs of Jesus.” Wonderful strength and health were
given to me for the remaining days at Colmar.
In 1901 she published _In Memoriam, Harriet Meuricoffre_, consisting
mainly of letters from her sister, which are written with a delicacy
of literary style, and reveal the extreme sweetness of her character.
The following extract from one of these letters shows how these two
sisters were more than sisters—heart-friends: “How I wish I was near
you; not that I could do anything, but I sometimes feel as if my
intense love for you might almost surround you like the vapour which
forms itself around the human hand, and enables it to plunge into
molten metal at white heat, and not be scorched. I feel sure that God
will keep you all through these days, and give you strength for each
hour. At what hour have you meetings for prayer? It is so sweet to
draw near to Him early in the morning before all the rumbling, and
shouting and dust come between heaven and earth. Every morning, my
best beloved, I will be holding you up to Him, between six and seven
o’clock. Let a quick little thought of this cross your mind while
dressing. My whole heart is with you, and will be, every day and all
the days.”
* * * * *
In 1903 she published _The Morning Cometh: A Letter to my Children_,
under the pseudonym of “Philalethes.” This little book, like _The Lady
of Shunem_, is a Bible study, chiefly on those passages which point
to the larger hope and the restitution of _all_ things. We give three
extracts from it.
I’ve heard within my inmost soul
Such glorious morning news.
In the course of the last twenty years or so, and especially in that
of the last five or six years, a flood of light has been poured upon
the meanings of the sacred writers, and most of all on the text of the
teaching of Christ and His Apostles. This light has come gradually to
me, and to many, like new life. Up to the time that this light shone
out fully, it has seemed that we had all received only _half_ a gospel
of glad tidings; now it is a whole gospel, for which thousands have
been waiting; and the joy it brings is great, and will be greater, the
more we enter into and are made to understand the love of God and His
divine purpose for the salvation of all. “The Larger Hope,” as this new
light is sometimes called, and which might be called the Illimitable
Hope, is rapidly becoming more clearly seen and joyfully accepted.
The unscriptural teaching concerning eternal punishment has created
thousands of atheists, sceptics and defiant scoffers at Christianity,
and has made many just-minded and tender-hearted people very unhappy,
bringing the grey hairs of many in sorrow to the grave—in sorrow for
a lost world—or a lost child (supposed through false teaching to be
lost, but _not_ lost). Having conversed of late years with a few of
such sorrowful persons, and with some who have been driven by false
representations of the character of God to the verge of a complete
and final rejection of all faith in Him, I have seen the relief it
has brought when the other side has been set before them. I have
seen countenances light up as with a new hope, and the man or woman
addressed like one who has thrown off a burden of years, and who now
begins to breathe freely, delivered from an intolerable oppression.
* * * * *
There is a story, told by an American poet, of an explorer who was
rowed down the River Amazon one night from sunset to sunrise, the dark
river gliding with a serpent’s stillness between forests of giant trees
wound round with snake-like creepers. Suddenly at midnight a cry, a
long despairing moan of solitude arises, a cry so full of agony and
fear, that the heart of the traveller stands still as he listens. The
oarsman starts, drops his oar, crosses himself and whispers, “The cry
of a lost soul.”“Nay, a bird perhaps,” the traveller says. “No, señor,
not a bird; we know it well. It is the tortured soul of an infidel, an
accursed heretic, that cries from hell. Poor fool! he shrieks for ever
in the darkness for human pity and for prayer. May the saints strike
him dumb! Our Holy Mother has no prayer for him; for having sinned to
the end, he burns always in the furnace of God’s wrath.” The traveller
made no answer to the baptised pagan’s cruel lie, which lends new
horror to the deepening shadows as the boat’s lamp burns dim, and the
black water slides along without a sound or a ripple. But lifting his
eyes to the strip of the starry heavens visible between the dark walls
of forest, he sees the cross of pardon (the beautiful constellation,
the Southern Cross) lighting up the tropical sky, and he urges aloud
his strong plea: “Father of all, Thou lovest all; Thy erring child
may be lost to himself, but never lost to Thee. All souls are Thine.
Through all guilt and shame, perverseness of will and sins of sense
Thou forsakest not. Wilt Thou not, eternal source of good, change to
a song of praise the cry of the lost soul?” And a sense of peace and
assurance fell upon the soul of the traveller as the first streak of
dawn summoned all nature to her morning song of praise.
* * * * *
You and I have been together among the Alps, in the early hours of
the dawn, when all nature was freshly baptised with the dew of the
morning, and such an exquisite purity was in the silent air, that we
seemed to be breathing the heavenly ether of a new-born earth. And we
have together looked upon those pure, snow-covered peaks, those fair
sentinels of heaven, in the evening glow, bathed in the rose and gold
of the setting sun; appearing at the last moment of farewell to the
day, as if lighted by some light from within themselves. At such times
we have felt that it was hardly possible to imagine anything more
beautiful, more awful in grandeur and purity than this. May it be that
we shall see these same familiar features renewed in the times of the
new heavens and the new earth?—all that tends to decay and death, all
storms, violence and destructive forces done with for ever, and this
beautiful earth again such as we have seen it and loved it at its best,
but infinitely better and more beautiful than its present earthly best.
Its present unrest, the violent and terrifying forces working within
its bosom are, it may be, the travail pangs which will usher in the new
earth.
To the Editor of the _Shield_.
_January 1st, 1905._
I feel impelled, in spite of much physical weakness, to send a message
of New Year’s greeting, through your organ, to such of my old friends
and associates in our Crusade who are still living, as well as to the
younger generation of workers, many of whom I have never seen.
I believe we all realise that we are living in troubled times, both
as to our own land and to the world in general. I do myself realise
it deeply. Yet no note of discouragement is allowed by “the God of
Hope” to sound in my soul. I say this emphatically—and my friends may
believe that this hope has not its source in any natural buoyancy,
for I am suffering much. I should like just to reiterate the old
everlasting truth that “Jehovah reigns.” It is my belief that His
presence among us will be felt in proportion as evil and perplexity
increase on all sides. He hears the bitter cry which is arising from
earth. The “distress of nations” spoken of in Scripture is _His_
distress who bore the sins and the griefs of the whole world. Do
not, dear friends, think of Him as far off, and of His earth as a
“God-forsaken planet.” It is still always His earth, and at a time
when faith seems to decay, He will arise in His majesty and love. “He
saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no Intercessor;
therefore _His own arm_ brought salvation.”
I am with you, my dear old and young companions in arms—with you in
spirit and in sympathy at this season and always.
This year she was able to welcome a great moral victory for the
Abolitionist cause. For the Extra-Parliamentary Commission, appointed
by the French Government in 1902, though originally not counting more
than three Abolitionists among its seventy members, formally
condemned the system of the _Police des mœurs_. It remains however to
be seen what the French Chambers will do with the matter.
The following letter is a specimen of the touching manner, in which
she mourned the loss of her friends, as one by one they passed away.
To a friend.
_March, 1905._
It would be difficult for me in my present circumstances of weakness
to write, as it has been suggested, the story of the life and work of
my dear late colleague, Margaret Tanner. Others, I trust, will give
the facts of her long and faithful career. But I cannot refrain from
writing to you a few words from my heart, about her who has so lately
been called to her rest, and to the higher service which, I believe,
is granted in that rest to those who have faithfully served God on
earth.
She and I have been allied in work since the autumn of 1869. It is a
long retrospect, and many memories crowd upon me as I look back on
our special work of the Ladies’ National Association. We have always
worked in perfect harmony, although differing markedly in natural
character. To speak honestly, as one conscious of faults, which were
however overruled (for we were educated in the work itself to which
we were called), I was too impetuous, impulsive and sometimes rash.
The keen sense of injustice which possessed both her and me, was apt
at times to fill me with bitterness of soul. She, on the contrary,
was always calm, steady, equal, gentle—a true representative of the
Society of Friends. I think I never heard her say an unkind word of
anyone, or pass a harsh judgment on persons who were unjust and cruel,
although abhorring the injustice and the cruelty. She was very humble,
and wonderfully self-effacing. With all her gentleness, she had the
utmost firmness, never wavering in the least in principle; and her
grasp of principle and her sense of justice were allied to a lifelong,
tenacious perseverance in duty, and in devotion to our cause to the
very end. She would say that she owed much to me. Few people guess how
much I owed to her, to that firm, quiet individuality. She was full
of pity for the outcast and oppressed, and in this we were wholly
one. Her memory is very sweet and fragrant to me; and I am full of a
grateful remembrance of the influence which her character has had on
me.
I recall many visits I made to Durdham Park, where she lived much,
and worked with her sisters. The drawing-room meetings we held there,
and the traditional beautiful hospitality of Friends, are a bright
and peaceful memory to me. There was inspiration in those meetings,
and they were fruitful in practical results. Lastly, may I say that
I noted with reverent love the spiritual ripening of the character
of that dear friend, towards the close of her long life of faithful
labours. Her love for me was deep and tender, and mine for her. The
last time I saw her, the light of Heaven was on her aged face, which
bore the marks of the patience which had had its perfect work.
What follows is part of the message sent by Josephine Butler on the
occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the Federation, meeting at
Neuchâtel in September, 1905.
The inception of our work, which has grown so wonderfully, began
very much earlier than anyone knows. You will be surprised perhaps,
when you know all. What I have to tell you illustrates two truths,
which are, to my mind, confirmed by the inner history of all vital
evolutions of which we know anything in the past history of the human
race. The first of these two truths or principles is, that in order
to produce a movement of a vital, spiritual nature _someone must
suffer_, someone must go through sore travail of soul before a living
movement, outwardly visible, can be born. This was so in the greatest
movement of eternity—the evolution of the Christian faith. To that end
Christ suffered, as we know (in a measure) to what a degree; but the
depth and infinitude of His suffering we cannot know. It is what the
Greeks called “The unknown and unknowable agony.” Scripture speaks of
the “travail of His soul.” In an infinitely smaller measure I believe
that the evolution of any vitally good principle, or truth, must be
and always is preceded by suffering, by travail of soul.[17] It is not
all who join in the vital movement who need to suffer; by no means.
Their sufferings are less probably, as time goes on. The truth visibly
born into the world carries with it the conviction and intellectual
adhesion of a multitude of good and just persons. There is still labour
and strain, and weariness and disappointment, and inward conflict to
be borne by those who join the good cause; but not often, I think, the
long, silent period of conception and child-bearing which precedes the
actual appearance of the living child in the world. This has a close
connection with much that Christ said about the hidden life of the seed
sown in the Kingdom of God. The smallest of seeds, He said, falls into
the ground, remains long concealed there, apparently dead, unseen by
any. But in time it appears an infant plant, and, as He said, becomes
the greatest of all trees, so that the birds of the air rest in its
branches.
[17] See pp. 13-16 _supra_.
The second truth which, I think, is illustrated by our experience is
this: a movement which is of God, of divine origin, and which is rooted
in the will of Him who is the God of Justice, is and must be _preceded
by prayer_. It must have its origin in His own inspiration. Therefore
I feel that, in one sense, my own answer to the question,“Was our
movement a Christian movement at the beginning?”—my own answer must
be, “Yes, it was,” but not in the sense in which it is understood,
or _misunderstood_, by some, such as Dr. Fournier, who think that a
number of “women and clergymen,” a great party of orthodox Christians,
sprang up in England, in the name of religion, to lead this movement.
It may seem a paradox, but it must be stated truly to my inner circle
of friends, that this movement was born of God, secretly inaugurated by
years of silent prayer—prayer offered in the name of Jesus; and that at
the same time it was far from being a movement patronised by Christians
at first. Indeed the Christian churches were only very slowly and
gradually gained to the condescension of looking at the question.
Bishops and clergy, and ministers of different denominations poured
upon our little early group all the disdain they felt for us.
Our first years were a conflagration created by the spark of wrath
against injustice which our cry of revolt had produced. Our vast
populations of the middle and working classes, especially the latter,
rose against the legislation we opposed, because it was class
legislation. This fact was the iron which entered into the soul of
our English people; the fact that men of the upper classes had broken
down our ancient safeguards, written in our Constitution since the
days of King John, in order that the sons of the upper classes might
benefit (as was supposed) by the destruction of the daughters of the
people. The wrath of the common people quickly broke into a flame which
shook Parliament and our legislators, and in time took hold of the
churches, and which turned our country into a veritable battlefield
for _justice_, apart from all religious considerations. I allow that
there were among our working men a few groups of devout men, who
held meetings quietly for prayer about that question, especially
in Scotland; but the great question always was that of justice and
class selfishness. There were also, I must recall, individuals among
the upper classes who were with us from the first—rare spirits whose
sense of justice was outraged by this legislation—certain Members of
Parliament (of blessed memory), certain dignitaries of the Church—such
as Canon Fowle, who scandalised the respectable community by preaching
in his Cathedral on several occasions against the Regulation; such as
my revered husband and a few of his clerical friends; and _one_ bishop,
whose largeness of view, I believe, was owing to his having been a
colonial bishop, accustomed to hear the enlightened views of the poor
heathen over whom he exercised his pastoral functions.
Some of the prominent workers with us from the first were Unitarians
(including Sir James Stansfeld). I suppose that these would hardly be
considered to be orthodox by evangelical Christians. We _never_ asked
of our adherents what their religious views or non-views were. We
joined hands with all who came to us, and there were many malcontents
among these, people who had been ill-used by society, poor failures,
people who had been deeply wronged and who longed for retribution;
people whose woes cried to heaven, even if they had never learned to
send the breath of prayer upwards to Him who bore all our woes.
From the first we had the adhesion and support of noble Jews. I may
mention Samuel Montagu, M.P. for Whitechapel, the Jews’ quarter in
London. He, Montagu, is a “Hebrew of the Hebrews.” He gave us personal
and political help. Some of the members of the Montefiore family joined
us. The Chief Rabbi of London helped us. We had letters of adhesion
rapidly from Zadok Kahn, Grand Rabbin of Paris; from Astruc, Grand
Rabbin of Brussels; and from Ben Israel, Grand Rabbin of Avignon. Ben
Israel sent to me and my husband a remarkable book which he had written
on the heroic and prominent women, prophetesses and others, of the
early Hebrew times. His book showed an intelligent study of the Hebrew
Scriptures, and an innate and profound respect for womanhood. These
Hebrews whom I have mentioned cannot certainly be ranked among orthodox
Christians; yet we felt they were an added strength to us.
I may mention that in 1875, when the first British section of the
Federation was formed, a distinguished Indian, Babu Keshub Chunder
Sen, joined us, and was elected a member of our first International
Committee. This committee was formed in Liverpool, where we resided
then, and on it were placed men of various views, some of them
decidedly agnostic. Keshub Chunder Sen visited us in our house in
Liverpool, and our family were impressed by the sublime calm and
elevation of his spirit, in the deep conviction that good would triumph
over evil. He was not a Christian.
I think I have said enough to show that we gathered _all_ who desired
justice, or who suffered from injustice.
May I mention the order in which the tide of divinely-inspired persons
or societies gradually gathered round us. This order, most curiously,
is precisely similar to that which existed in the case of the great
war in America against negro slavery, which you know, was strongly
upheld (I mean slavery was) by many of the churches in America. Our
first adherents were of the Society of Friends, the Quakers, that quiet
and peaceful body of persons whose active, practical help is always
offered to suffering peoples all through the world, in accordance with
the rule of George Fox, the founder of their sect, who established
the “Committee for Sufferings.” It is the noble obligation of this
committee, which exists to this day, to look abroad over all the
sufferings of the world, whatever they may be and in whatever land,
and to endeavour to alleviate those sufferings. These dear people
rallied to us very early. Among them my heart urges me to mention a few
of the individuals of that body who joined us and aided us silently
with unspoken prayer, and outwardly with brave and wonderful courage.
I allude especially to my very early comrades, Margaret Tanner and
Mary Priestman. The former has recently entered into her rest; the
latter is now old and infirm. You can picture these two ladies and
myself, sitting face to face, in gentle consultation. “What shall we
do?” One of them replied, “Well, we must rouse the country.” Brave
woman! So gentle, so Quakerly, yet convinced that we three poor women
must rouse the country. Indeed God does use the weak things of the
world to confound the strong. So we formed gradually our “Ladies’
National Association,” the mother, or rather the grandmother of all
the societies in which women worked. I should also like to record the
memory of several noted Friends in Birmingham, who laboured for us,
and some of whom are still alive. I recall too the name of Edward
Backhouse, of Sunderland, a true prince of generosity, whose powerful
aid helped us through many difficulties in the early days of our
campaign. Mr. Thomasson was a pillar of strength to us for many years.
Their names are written in heaven.
The religious societies who gave us adherents gradually were, as I have
said, first the Friends, then the humblest communities, the Primitive
Methodists, the Bible Christians, the United Methodists; then the
Wesleyans, who later became a powerful aid to our cause, under the
leadership of the late Hugh Price Hughes, a fiery-hearted Welshman,
a convinced Abolitionist, and an eloquent pleader for justice. Then
followed, but slowly, slowly, and with divided opinions, the Baptists
and the Congregationalists, among whom there were some who remained
blind to the meaning of our movement for a very long time. The Scottish
Churches slowly followed, the narrowly Calvinistic character of some
of them tending to cramp their sympathies. Two great leaders of the
more enlightened part spoke valiantly for us as early as 1869. I
refer to Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Duff, the well-known missionary to India.
Nevertheless some few years later, valiant corps of Abolitionists
were formed in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bridge of Allan, men and women,
especially women, who laboured with Scottish tenacity and perseverance
till quite recent years. I think I have said enough on this subject
in reply to the objection that we have departed from our original
position, or on the other hand that we were a clique of pious people of
no width of view.
May I add a few words to you, my friends, on a subject which is, I am
sure, stirring many hearts just now. You feel, I believe, as I do,
that Christianity, the true Church of Christ (I use the word in its
largest sense), is _inclusive_, and not _exclusive_. When the disciples
of Christ saw a man casting out devils, who was not a member of their
group, they forbade him to do so. What did the Master say? “_Forbid him
not_, for he that is not against us _is for us_.” We have no intimation
that this man ever joined the circle of the disciples, and yet of him
the Master said: “_He is for us._” I have seen many just men who give
life-long labour to casting out the evil spirits of tyranny, oppression
and injustice; and of these, whatever their formula of belief may be,
the Judge of all will say, “_Well done._” There are many outside the
Christian pale in whom the Spirit of Christ is working, and many of
those who are nominally antagonists of Christianity have been thrown
into the position in which they are by the very force of that Spirit
within them which leads them to recoil from the manifest unchristliness
of the teaching of many of the churches and the intolerance of
so-called Christian governments. The true Church of Christ is wider
than all communions and creeds. In some of those creeds our God has
been so maligned, so caricatured, may I say, that many have been
turned into rebels, or apparently rebels, whose hearts are not really
estranged from the _true God_. That poor, unhappy and outwitted son of
the Patriarch Isaac, who had in an evil hour sold his birthright for a
miserable mess of pottage, cried with a loud and bitter cry: “Hast thou
but _one_ blessing, O my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father!”
Yes, the Eternal Father will bless the apparently rejected son. There
is more than one blessing for the sons of men, however much they
may have erred, whose inmost hearts utter this bitter cry. The Good
Shepherd said: “I have other sheep which are not of this fold. Them
also I must bring, and they will hear My voice!” _There I rest._
You will pardon this expression of my heart’s conviction. I do not
speak as an orthodox adherent of any church, but as one whom sorrow and
love have taught that none of the great human family are forgotten by
Him who redeemed them, by the Eternal Father whose name is LOVE.
The following is part of the reply written by Josephine Butler to an
Address sent to her from those present at this Neuchâtel Conference.
I should like, before concluding, to express in words a thought which
has come to me in my later experience. In the sacred writings there is
a scene recorded concerning the birth of Christ. The aged Simeon had
waited all his life for the advent of the promised Messiah. He took in
his arms the infant Christ, and after proclaiming Him as the promised
Saviour of the human race to the end of time, he said to the mother of
the Babe, “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, _that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed_.” The sword-piercing of the
heart of womanhood has been, and will continue to be, in an infinitely
humble degree the revealer of the thoughts of men. The sorrow of the
holy mother of Christ, the woman of the sword-pierced heart, is still
bearing fruit.
In going from city to city on the continent of Europe, I have felt that
I must needs meet this sword-thrust with open arms, and the promised
result has followed. The thoughts of many hearts have been revealed
among the _élite_ of earth, among whom I include every creature of
whatever rank, rich or poor, whose regard is directed towards the
light, who desires justice and abhors injustice: the thoughts of these
begin to be expressed openly, in speech and in action. On the other
hand, the thoughts are revealed of those who desire at all costs to
hold fast their base privileges, and to defend the means by which these
privileges are safeguarded. The thoughts of these also take expression
in speech and in action. Silence and acquiescence are at an end. It is
now war to the death through the revelation and outward expression of
men’s hearts for good and for evil. The sword-pierced heart of holy
motherhood—a motherhood which lives by sympathy in many a woman who
is not actually a mother—will continue to work in this mission of
revealing, and we know on which side will be the final victory.
When the question shall be asked, “What of the night, brothers? What of
the night?” the answer which I would leave with you, friends, is this:
The Angel of the Dawn alights,
The pale peaks glisten with His presence fair.
My last words to you, in case I may not be permitted to remain long
among you, will be words of hope—all of hope. It cannot be said that
now, aged, and often in pain and in much weakness, it is any natural
buoyancy which upholds me. It is a granted hopefulness. The “Angel of
the Dawn” is ever present. Deeply fixed in my soul is the conviction
that the power and love of God are about to be manifested in proportion
to the troubles of our times, and far beyond them. Is He not the
Creator of the universe, of the myriads of the stars of heaven—_God_
“once manifested in the flesh” in the person of the Christ?
Everywhere—east, west, north, and south—those whose eyes are open see
in this our day manifestations of a spiritual power, of a loving,
divine pressure on the souls of men, of a holy compulsion bringing them
to a new consciousness, and drawing them irresistibly to the source
of Light and Life. I believe that every effort, however humble, which
is being made for the triumph of good over evil will be found to be
a contribution towards the final victory, and towards the fulfilment
of the Divine promise that the “knowledge of the Lord shall cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea.” I am emboldened, therefore, to hand
on to you this message of joyful and undying hope, from “the God of
Hope and of all consolation.”
To a young worker in America.
_February 26th, 1906._
You say that “many persons do not welcome new recruits, lest they
should make mistakes.” They will no doubt make some mistakes, but they
will learn as we did by our errors. This brings me to express the
thought that has been uppermost in my mind for some years past, viz.
that the great hope for the future movement is in the _young manhood
of our day_—in the generous heart of youth. Young women too must and
will come forward. But I press the fact of the need of a great army
of young men; for the great evil which we combat is the result of the
egotism of men, and of the deeply-rooted idea that the sin of impurity
is a greater sin in a woman than in a man. This unequal standard is
the devil’s invention, and dates from very early times, in spite of
the severe and sublime teaching in that matter of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
It must be the part of the young manhood of our days to make a place
for womanhood, to restore them to their rightful position before
the law of God, and before the laws of the land. And here I wish to
emphasise the fact, that it is not only the pure and blameless of our
youth who are called and who can work effectually in this advance
guard of the army of the future. Let me tell you something of my own
long experience. I have seen young men whose lives have been far from
blameless, some in whose hearts rankled an oppressive sense of the
wasted past, even a terrible remorse—I have seen such throw themselves
into the battle (not in a conspicuous position, to be seen of men),
in order to take a noble revenge against their former selves, and die,
if need be, as leaders of a forlorn hope, making merely a bridge of
their own dead selves for worthier comrades to pass over to victory.
So, I beseech you, let _none_ of goodwill hold back. “Many a wounded
soldier hath won the day.” Society is in peril from dangerous wounds
which will not close until the young, the brave, the reckless, for
Christ’s sake shall throw themselves into the yawning gulf. Christ
rejects _none_. It is to His glory that He is able to furnish precious
material out of the very rubbish of the earth, that He should gather
up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost, and direct to one
holy end all these scattered and desecrated energies.
Josephine Butler lived the last few years of her life at Wooler, near
to Milfield, the place of her birth. There she died peacefully in her
sleep, on December 30th, 1906, and was buried in the churchyard of
Kirknewton, where many of her ancestors had been buried.
Surely we may say of her, but very slightly altering the words of
Bunyan: As she drew nigh unto the beautiful Gate of the City, she
asked, “What must I do in the Holy Place?” and the shining Ones
answered, “Thou must there receive the comfort of all thy toil, and
have joy for all thy sorrow; thou must reap what thou hast sown, even
the fruit of all thy Prayers and Tears, and suffering for the King
by the way. There also thou shalt _serve_ Him continually, whom thou
desired’st to serve in the World, though with much difficulty because
of the infirmity of thy flesh. There thine eyes shall be delighted
with seeing, and thine ears with hearing the pleasant voice of the
Mighty One. There thou shalt enjoy thy friends again, that are gone
thither before thee; and there thou shalt with joy receive even _every
one_ that follows into the Holy Place after thee.” As she entered in
at the Gate, then I heard in my Dream that all the bells in the City
rang again for joy, and that it was said unto her, “Enter thou into
the _joy_ of thy Lord.”
APPENDIX.
LIST OF JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER’S WRITINGS
_The Education and Employment of Women._ Pp. 28. (Macmillan) London,
1868.
_Introduction_ (Pp. lxiv) _to series of Essays on Woman’s Work and
Woman’s Culture._ (Macmillan) London, 1869.
_Memoir of John Grey of Dilston._ Pp. 360. (Edmonston & Douglas)
Edinburgh, 1869.
Revised edition of same. Pp. 310. (H. S. King & Co.) London, 1874.
Italian translation of same. Florence, 1871.
_An Appeal to the People of England on the Recognition and
Superintendence of Prostitution by Governments._ By “An English
Mother.” (Banks) Nottingham, 1870.
_On the Moral Reclaimability of Prostitutes._ (National Association)
London, 1870.
Italian translation of same. Rome, 1875.
_The Duty of Women._ Address at Carlisle. (Hudson Scott) Carlisle,
1870.
_Sursum Corda._ (Brakell) Liverpool, 1871.
_The Constitutional Iniquity of the C.D. Acts._ Bradford, 1871.
_Address in Craigie Hall, Edinburgh._ (Ireland) Manchester, 1871.
_Address at Croydon._ (National Association) London, 1871.
_Letter to the Order of Good Templars._ (Brakell) Liverpool, 1871. (?)
_Vox Populi._ (Brakell) Liverpool, 1871.
_The Constitution Violated._ Pp. 181. (Edmonston & Douglas) Edinburgh,
1871.
_The New Era._ Pp. 56. (Brakell) Liverpool, 1872.
_Letter on the subject of Mr. Bruce’s Bill._ (Brakell) Liverpool, 1872.
_A Few Words addressed to True-hearted Women._ 1872.
_Legislative Restrictions on the Industry of Women._ [By J. E. B. and
four others.] (Personal Rights Association) London, 1873. (?)
_Letter to a Friend on recent Division in the House of Commons._
(Brakell) Liverpool, 1873.
_Speech at Bristol to Vigilance Association._ (F. Bell & Co.) London,
1874.
_Some Thoughts on the Present Aspect of the Crusade._ (Brakell)
Liverpool, 1874.
_Letter to the L.N.A._ (Brakell) Liverpool, 1875.
_Une Voix dans le Désert._ (Sandoz) Paris and Neuchâtel, 1875.
German translation of same. Neuchâtel, 1875.
Italian translation of same. Rome, 1875.
Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Spanish and Dutch translations of
same. 1876 and later years.
_State Regulation of Vice._ Speech at Hull. 1876.
_The Hour before the Dawn._ [Anonymous.] (Trübner) London, 1876.
Second edition. By J. E. Butler. (Trübner) London, 1882.
French translation of same. (Grassart) Paris, 1876.
_Discours prononcé à l’hôtel Wagram._ Paris, 1877.
_Discours prononcé dans la Salle de la rue d’Arras._ Paris, 1877.
_Discours prononcé dans la Chapelle Malesherbes._ Paris, 1877.
_Discours prononcé dans la Salle de la Redonte._ Paris, 1877.
_The Paris of Regulated Vice._ (Article in _Methodist Protest_.) 1877.
_Adieux à Genève._ Geneva, 1877.
_Ceux qui prient._ Paris, 1878.
_Catharine of Siena._ Pp. 338. (Dyer Bros.) London, 1878.
French translation of same. Fontaines, 1887.
_Government by Police._ Pp. 64. (Dyer Bros.) London, 1879.
_Social Purity._ Pp. 48. (Morgan & Scott) London, 1879.
Dutch translation of same. La Haye, 1884.
_Souvenir des réunions à Vevey._ Fontaines, 1879.
_Deposition regarding treatment of English Girls in Immoral Houses in
Brussels._ (Printed for private circulation) 1880.
_Extrait d’une lettre à l’occasion des investigations de M.X. à
Bruxelles._ Neuchâtel, 1880.
_Discours au Congrès de Gênes: La traite des blanches._ 1880.
_Discours au Congrès de Gênes: Des lois sur le vagabondage._ 1880.
_Discours au Congrès de Gênes: La provocation._ 1880.
_Discours prononcé à l’issue du Congrès de Gênes._ 1880.
_Address at Tenth Anniversary of L.N.A._ (Brakell) Liverpool, 1880.
_A Call to Action._ (Hudson) Birmingham, 1881.
_Portions of Address at Conference of Women in Geneva._ (Hazell,
Watson & Viney) London, 1881.
_Letter to the Mothers of England._ Liverpool, 1881.
French translation of same. Neuchâtel, 1882.
_Lettre d’une Mère._ Neuchâtel, 1881.
_Lettre à ses amis et compagnons d’œuvre._ Neuchâtel, 1882.
_Allocution dans la séance d’ouverture de la Conférence de Neuchâtel._
1882.
_Allocution à la Chapelle de la Place d’Armes._ Neuchâtel, 1882.
_Discours d’Adieux à la Conférence de Neuchâtel._ 1882.
_Life of J. F. Oberlin._ Pp. 190. (Religious Tract Society) London,
1882.
_The Salvation Army in Switzerland._ Pp. 304. (Dyer Bros.) London,
1883.
_Dangers of Constructive Legislation in Matters of Purity._
(Arrowsmith) Bristol, 1883.
_The Bright Side of the Question._ (Arrowsmith) Bristol, 1883.
_Questions morales._ Lausanne, 1883.
_Appel aux dames présentes au Congrès de La Haye._ 1883.
_Discours dans la séance d’ouverture du Congrès de La Haye._ 1883.
_Le point du jour._ (Discours à la Haye) Neuchâtel, 1883.
_Allocution aux femmes de Gênes._ Neuchâtel, 1883.
_The Principles of the Abolitionists._ (Dyer Bros.) London, 1885.
French and German translations of same. Undated.
_The Work of the Federation._ (Federation Offices) London, 1885.
_Marion, histoire véritable._ Neuchâtel, 1885.
German translation of same. Neuchâtel, 1885.
_Rebecca Jarrett._ (Morgan & Scott) London, 1886.
_L’œuvre du relèvement moral: Discours prononcé à Naples._ Genève,
1886.
Dutch translation of same. La Haye, 1886.
Danish translation of same. Copenhagen, 1887.
_Our Christianity tested by the Irish Question._ Pp. 62. (Fisher
Unwin) London, 1887.
_The Revival and Extension of the Abolitionist Cause._ (Doswell)
Winchester, 1887.
_Letter to International Convention of Women at Washington._ (Morgan &
Scott) London, 1888.
_Zwei Vorträge über das staatlich regulierte Laster._ Mülheim, 1888.
_The Dawn._ [Quarterly.] (Burfoot) London, 1888-96.
_Woman’s Place in Church Work._ (Article in _Review of the Churches_.)
London, 1892.
_Recollections of George Butler._ Pp. 487. (Arrowsmith) Bristol, 1892.
_Letter to World’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union._ Bristol, 1892.
_St. Agnes._ (J. Cox) London, 1893.
_The Present Aspect of the Abolitionist Cause in relation to British
India._ (Federation Offices) London, 1893.
French translation of same. Genève, 1894.
_The Lady of Shunem._ Pp. 143. (Horace Marshall) London, 1894.
_The Constitutional Iniquity._ (Federation Offices) London, 1895.
_Lettre à Madame Duplan._ Lausanne, 1895.
_Two Letters of Earnest Appeal and Warning._ (Federation Offices)
London, 1895.
_A Doomed Iniquity._ (Federation Offices) London, 1896.
_Address to L.N.A._ (Arrowsmith) Bristol, 1896.
_Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade._ Pp. 409. (Horace
Marshall) London, 1896.
French translation of same. Paris, 1900.
German translation of same. Dresde, 1904.
Russian translation of same. Varsovie, 1904.
_Truth Before Everything._ (Dyer Bros.) London, 1897.
_Lettre à une ami sur la lutte contre la réglementation dans l’Inde._
1897.
_Letter to Conference in London._ (Published in the _Shield_) London,
1897.
French translation of same. 1897.
_Some Lessons from Contemporary History._ (Friends’ Association)
London, 1898.
_The Storm-Bell._ [Monthly.] (Burfoot) London, 1898-1900.
_Prophets and Prophetesses._ (Mawson) Newcastle, 1898.
French translation of same. Neuchâtel, 1898.
_Native Races and the War._ Pp. 152. (Gay & Bird) London, 1900.
_Silent Victories._ Pp. 87. (Burfoot) London, 1900.
_Receiving._ (Article in _Wings_.) London, 1900.
_L’émancipation telle que je l’ai apprise._ Neuchâtel, 1900.
_La cause de la femme et l’avenir du foyer._ (Article dans la _Revue
de Morale Sociale_.) Genève, 1900.
_Souvenirs humblement recommandés aux amis de la femme réunis à
Paris._ Genève, 1900.
The three last-mentioned papers also appeared in English in _The
Storm-Bell_.
_In Memoriam, Harriet Meuricoffre._ Pp. 308. (Horace Marshall) London,
1901.
_Réflexions sur la Fédération._ (Article dans la _Revue du
Christianisme Social_.) 1902.
English translation published in the _Shield_.
_The Morning Cometh._ By “Philalethes.” Pp. 56 (Grierson) Newcastle,
1903.
_Lettre aux Membres de la Commission administrative de la Fédération._
1904.
English translation published in the _Shield_.
_Du travail des femmes dans les fabriques._ Neuchâtel, undated.
_Deux entretiens avec ses sœurs de la Suisse: La mission de l’heure
actuelle._ Neuchâtel, undated.
_Un mot aux femmes._ Genève, undated.
_Feuille volante de l’Association du Sou_, No. 20. Genève, undated.
_The Social Purity Movement._ Undated.
Many of the above publications are out of print, but some of them
may be obtained at the Offices of the Federation, 17 Tothill Street,
Westminster, S.W., or 3 Rue du Vieux-Collège, Geneva.
PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation, spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.
Chapter 20, Line 7842 "pleading pleading face to face with God" is
probably an error but could be emphasis, so is unchanged.
End of Project Gutenberg's Josephine E. Butler, by Josephine E. Butler