A very interesting account has lately been published of Amélie von
Braum, an educated Swedish lady, the daughter of an army officer. She
began to preach in 1843, at Carlshamm, where she lived, in the lowest
dens of vice and misery. She carried with her a clean cloth and lighted
candles, which give a festive impulse to the Swedish mind; and her
serious words produced an extraordinary effect. In 1856 she removed to
Stockholm, and was earnestly entreated to go to Dalecadin, and instruct
the people. From that time, she has acted as an itinerant evangelist,
preaching in summer in the open air. People listen to her for hours in
rapt attention.
In Sweden, there is also Mamsell Berg,[49] a brave young woman, who
thought herself moved by the Holy Spirit to teach the young Laps. She
could not get away from the thought that she ought to do it. A
clergyman, to whom she spoke upon the matter, counselled her wisely:
"Endeavor to shake off the feeling; if you cannot, then accept it as a
vocation from God, and try it for six months." She said, "If I go, it
shall not be for six months, but for three years." She went; and the
three years became seven. She seems also to have been a noble and
beautiful creature. She gathered the children around her, under the most
difficult circumstances, expending her little property in putting up a
schoolhouse for them, and laying in sacks of potatoes, that she might
feed the half-famishing; learning herself the Laplandish language,
teaching them the Swedish, and discoursing to them about the love of
God.
In spite of the bitter words of warning which John Ruskin has thought it
his duty to speak to such women as enter upon theological studies, a
good many women in Great Britain and this country have engaged in what
is properly the work of the Christian ministry. The only ordained
minister whose work has come under our notice since the marriage of
Antoinette Blackwell is the Rev. Olympia Brown, settled over the
Universalist Society at Weymouth Landing, Mass., and lately called to
Newburgh in New York. Her ministry has been highly successful, and is to
be mentioned here chiefly on account of a legal decision to which it has
given rise. The church at Weymouth Landing made an appeal to the
Legislature, last winter, as to the legality of marriages solemnized by
her. The Legislature gave the same general construction to the masculine
relatives in the enactment which the English law gave to the old Latin
word in the charter of Apothecaries' Hall; deciding that marriages so
solemnized are legal, and no further legislation necessary.
Mention, too, should be made of Rev. Lydia A. Jenkins, who has been a
successful preacher among the Universalists for the last eight or ten
years, and is now settled at Binghamton, N.Y.
Very recently, during the illness of her husband, the minister at
Bethesda Chapel, Newcastle, England, a Mrs. Booth occupied the pulpit,
to the great interest and profit of the congregation. Among the
Methodists and "Christians,"[50] as well as among the Quakers, women
have always been received as preachers. In October, 1866, I found a Mrs.
Timmins settled as the pastor of Ebenezer Church, three miles from
Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she had been for three years. Ann Rexford is
mentioned as an effective preacher among the Christians. Her preaching
attracted large crowds in the State of New Jersey, some thirty years
ago.
But the most remarkable record, if we except those to be found among
the Quakers, of any single woman's work in the ministry, is that of
Abigail Hoag Roberts, who was the settled minister of a church built for
her at Milford, N.J., and who died in 1841, at the age of forty-nine.
With her ministry is interlinked that of two other women,--that of Nancy
Gore Cram, of Weare, N.H., and a Mrs. Hedges. Mrs. Cram began life as a
Free-will Baptist, and undertook a mission to the Oneida Indians. The
spiritual destitution of Central New York in the year 1812 affected her
profoundly. Not a preacher of her own denomination in New Hampshire
could be induced to go there. Disappointed in them, she hurried to
Woodstock, Vt., and laid the case before a conference of "Christian"
elders and ministers, then in session. They understood her better. She
hurried back to the field she had left; and, when the ministers followed
her, they were astonished at her work. A church was built for her at
Ballston Spa. She is described as a delicate, blue-eyed woman, with dark
hair, dressing plainly in black silk, with her hair in a silk net; her
whole appearance and manner befitting her work. She died in 1816,
suddenly, in the fortieth year of her age. Mrs. Roberts was one of her
converts,--a woman who was a constant preacher, from June, 1814, to the
June of 1841, in which she died, and, for many years, a settled pastor
over the church at Milford, where a monument has been erected to her.
More than once she defended the unity of God in public discussion with
the clergy, whom she brought to ignominious defeat. She travelled
through the three States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania,
where her name is still a household word. More than once, she was
threatened by her own sex with "tar and feathers." She seems to have
been, like Ann Hutchinson, a witty woman. "If you feel called to
preach," said one minister to her, "why do you not go to the
heathen?"--"So far as I can judge," she answered, "I am in the midst of
them." She had a large family of children, and was distinguished for her
household skill. She was quite famed for delicate clear-starching, and,
on one occasion, wove with a hand-shuttle twenty-four yards of woollen
cloth between early morning and nine o'clock at night. Many people
sought her for information. Disliking one woman's vulgarity, she said to
her, "If you believe in the Holy Ghost, why not use the _language_ that
the Holy Ghost uses?" She was a great sufferer in her latter years, but
continued to preach at the Milford church, where she had four hundred
communicants, and a congregation, at times, of twelve hundred persons,
even after she was compelled to lean upon a staff. The Rev. Eli Fay
preached her funeral sermon, and bore testimony to her great ability.
The life from which I have drawn these particulars was written by her
son, and printed at Irvington, N.J.
Her colleague, Mrs. Hedges, died before her; but a singular anecdote is
related of her. She was exercised with some doubts as to the separate
existence of the soul, and besought God in prayer to satisfy her mind.
It seemed to her, after retiring to rest, that her soul left her body,
passed through locked doors, and found several unusual adjustments of
furniture in the house, and at last returned to the pale form upon the
bed. She rose happy, but, on trying to prove her vision, found every
thing in its usual place. A thorough inquiry in the household, however,
showed that the changes she had observed had actually occurred in the
night, and continued for some time. Her experience was the not uncommon
one of the Seeress of Prevorst.
It will be remembered, that, in the first edition of "Woman's Right to
Labor," I proposed a deaconess in every church; and I found, the other
day, a little record in reference to the old church at Amsterdam, in
Holland, which I copy here:--
"In the church at Amsterdam, there were about three hundred
communicants; and they had for pastors two admirable men, Smith and
Robertson, and four ruling elders, as well as one aged woman as
deaconess, who served them many years, though she was sixty years
old when she was chosen. She filled her office honorably, and was an
honor to the congregation. She sat commonly in a convenient place in
the church, with a little birchen rod in her hand, and held the
little children in much awe, so that they disturbed not the
assembly. She diligently visited the sick and the infirm, especially
women, and called on younger sisters, in case of need, to watch
over them at night, and to give other assistance that might be
required; and, if they were poor, she made collections for them,
among those who were in a condition to give, or informed the deacons
of the case. She was obeyed as a mother in Israel, and a true
handmaid of the Lord."
With the exception of "keeping the little children in much awe," which
might or might not have been desirable, these are precisely the
functions which I desire to see formally renewed. The church at Blooming
Grove, Orange County, N.Y., has existed, for more than a hundred years,
without a creed, and is governed by seven deacons and seven
deacon_esses_.
The following resolution was introduced by the Rev. S.J. May, at the
Unitarian Conference which met at Syracuse, N.Y., in the first week of
October 1866:--
"Whereas women were among the first, the most steadfast, and the
most fearless disciples of Jesus Christ; whereas women have been,
in all ages, the most ready to embrace the religion of the gospel,
and the most constant and devoted members of the Christian Church;
and whereas, in several denominations, women have been among the
most effective preachers of Christianity: therefore, _Resolved_,
That we, Liberal Christians, should do well to encourage those
women among us who are moved by the Holy Spirit to devote
themselves to the ministry, and should assist them to prepare
themselves in the same manner, and to the same extent, as we deem
necessary for young men."
The convention, having just passed a resolution to admit female
delegates to the session of 1868, rather shrank from this second vote.
Yet of what use to receive delegates, unless they feel free to join in
discussion? and what woman, likely to be sent as a delegate by any
Unitarian church, will ever address the convention until it _more_ than
welcomes the above resolution? To the local conferences, women are
already being elected, and will do great good if they can get courage to
accept their membership practically, and to speak when they have any
thing to say.
It would not be quite honest nor fair to those women who seek to enter
the pulpit, if I did not here record my own experience in connection
with it.
I know very well where my natural sphere of work lay, and could I have
had a theological education in my youth, or had even the paths of the
ministry at large been open to women, I have every reason to believe
that I should be at this moment a settled minister. As it was, it never
entered my head that the thing was possible; and except that I taught
steadily in Sabbath schools, and visited as steadily among the city
poor, I never turned toward ministerial work. In the first year of my
marriage, now twenty-two years ago, my husband was settled in the city
of Baltimore, as minister at large to the degraded population, which has
a special character (or want of character) in a large city, in a
slaveholding State. I say _has_, for I cannot yet speak in the past
tense. He had daily schools of girls and women, and nightly schools of
boys and men. The latter were of all ages from six to forty, and had
been gathered together by a great personal effort. In this state of
things, my husband was taken ill. It fell to me, in the first place, not
only to nurse him, but to take charge of his night-school. The ladies
could do very well without me in the day-school; but there was no
clergyman, nor leading man of character and culture, who could be
depended upon to take the _general_ charge of the men and boys, among
whom were some desperate characters. I went first in a very stormy
night; and my Irish servant took her knitting, and sat upon the steps of
the platform while I addressed them. It happened that not a single
teacher braved the storm; and the school, when I called the roll,
responded to the number of eighty. I told them that I knew how dearly
they loved my husband, that he was very ill, and that the only way in
which they could help him was to behave so well that he need feel no
anxiety about his work. They responded at once to this appeal, and I
carried home the best possible account. As Sunday drew near,--this
night-school having been held on Monday,--my husband grew more ill and
more anxious. He thought of the large, mixed congregation, which met him
every week, and for which no provision had been made. We were on an
outpost of our faith; we could not have summoned assistance in season,
nor without an expense we could not well bear. I thought the matter
over; said to myself that it was only like a large Sunday school; that
the fashionable ladies, who often dropped in to hear the preaching,
would certainly stay away, knowing my husband to be ill: so I told him
quietly that I had made arrangements for the Sunday service. He was too
weak to make inquiries, but was comforted at once. He was sick several
weeks,--long enough for me to relinquish reading, and take to
exhortation in pure despair; but he did not find a small congregation
when he resumed his place, and that was my reward. Perhaps no such step
was ever taken more simply, or with less idea of its natural
consequences. When I came back to Boston, radical country ministers took
pains to ask me to their pulpits. I shall not soon forget the first time
I preached to a large Unitarian audience, with a good mixture of city
people. It was at South Hingham; the church was crowded; the country
covered with a crystalline mantle of snow, over which a clear moon
glimmered. The beauty of that night is a permanent possession. So it
went on, till I became, I believe in the winter of 1859 and 1860, the
superintendent of the Sunday school at Indiana-place Chapel, in Boston,
where I remained for five years. This broke up my preaching, for I could
not leave town on Sundays; but it led to my addressing various
Sunday-school gatherings, and my being asked to address Sunday schools
when away from home in the summer. My addressing a Sunday school in
Greenfield in the summer of 1865, while the pastor of the church was
absent with his regiment, led, by his kind sympathy, to my preaching in
the summer of 1866 in the regular Unitarian churches at Rowe and
Warwick, as well as doing irregular service in many other places. The
church at Florence had always shown me a generous appreciation; and I
was often asked to preach for Theodore Parker's people at the Music Hall
and the Melodeon. I always declined to speak for this last society, not
because I do not sympathize with their purposes in the main, but because
I would not consent to be advertised for a religious and especially a
devotional service in the city which I make my home. There may be women
who, in the present state of things, can do this innocently and
properly; but _I_ cannot go into the pulpit myself, except in the
regular sequence of my work, and at the call of duty. The gaping crowd
of curious people who would come to look at a woman in the pulpit, would
disturb the sphere in which it is alone possible for me to work. It was
the custom of the Music-Hall society to advertise for every Sunday, and
they declined to relinquish this advertisement on my account. The
delivering a course of lectures in Hollis-street Vestry in connection
with the Suffolk Sunday-school Union, in April, 1866, showed me that
there was a work of criticism to be done,--and necessary to be
done,--which I could do: so in going West to examine the condition of
certain colleges, in October, 1866, I gave it to be understood, that, if
I were in any Western city over Sunday, I should prefer to preach for
the Unitarian minister--giving him a "labor of love"--to addressing an
audience at an evening lecture. This interfered with my pecuniary
advantage; but I believed it was in my power to enter some pulpits that
would not be offered to all women, and I desired to do what I could to
create a demand for the preaching of women. In this way, I preached for
Robert Collyer in Chicago, for Carlton Staples in Milwaukee, for Mr.
Hunting in Quincy, and in the chapels of Oberlin and Antioch Colleges. I
took the whole service, accepting no assistance in the reading or the
prayer; for it is not well that a woman who fills the pulpit should seem
to shrink from any service there, and sensitive women will always find
their self-possession impaired by any second influence. I received the
kindest sympathy and appreciation from the churches I have mentioned;
and, in every instance but one, I received the usual fee for my service,
voluntarily tendered. I think at least twenty other churches would have
been open to me, could I have gone to them.
I do not offer this explanation of the manner in which I have been led
into the pulpit, stupidly, in ignorance of the charge of egotism and
folly that may be made against me by those who read it. I have borne
harder things than that charge, for the truth's sake; and I hope that
the real motive of this statement will be transparent to honest and
gentle hearts.
I long to see women preparing for this work, for there are very few men
in the field; and, if there were more than enough, the pulpit is still
an eminently fit place for a woman. The encouragement I have received,
will show young women what is open to them. With a few words of counsel
to those who may desire to speak in churches, I leave the subject. The
dress of a woman in the pulpit should be such as will attract absolutely
no attention; yet it should be thoroughly graceful and lady-like. A
black silk well made, with collar and cuffs of fine linen, is the best,
with no ornament whatever save the needful brooch. Peculiarity should be
avoided. When we are trying to win souls for heaven, we must not lose
them, because of a "dress reform," which may wait patiently, until more
important things are achieved.
Again, if the woman who enters the pulpit is a temperance, an
antislavery, or a woman's-rights lecturer, it will be better for her to
give lectures on these subjects in the week. In the pulpit, she should
subordinate these subjects to theological reform, moral appeal, and that
attempt to stimulate religious interest and faith in which most men
fail. Nor would I have her, whatever her station in society, refuse the
fee, small or large, which shall be tendered her. If she has no need of
it, her "poor" will have; and it is important to let the ministry of
women fall into the same social and congregational relations as that of
men.
There has been a great change in public feeling since the day, not
twelve years since, when I heard Dr. Parkman refuse Lucretia Mott
permission to speak in the old Federal-street Church.
Among historical instances of the theological influence of woman, that
of the Countess Matilda stands pre-eminent; but a book by Capefigue,
recently published at Paris, shows, that Madame de Krudener was the
first to conceive the idea of the Holy Alliance, and her influence over
the Emperor Alexander was sufficient to induce him to propose what his
allies had no power to decline. Her purpose was finally accomplished,
by her engaging the emperor in prayer. She was finally exiled, and died,
I believe, in the Crimea. It was pretended that her preaching was
dangerous; but, as she spoke only in French, that could hardly be true.