WOMEN MISSIONERS

Evening Star, Issue 14531, 6 December 1910, Page 2

WOMEN MISSIONERS

A service under tho auspices of the Christian Women's Board of Missions of tho Churches of Christ was held in the Tabernacle, King street, on Sunday evening. Beside the preacher (Mr \V. J. Hastie) there were on the platform Mrs C. Fleming Macdonald, president of tho Tabernacle auxiliary, Mrs J. Hislop (vice-president), Mrs Captain C. F. Sundstrum (treasurer), and Miss M. Gregg (secretary), tho latter of whom read a short report. The woman question (said Mr Hastie) occupies a great deal of - attention both in Church and State, and whatever may he the position of others on this, tho Churches of Christ have always believed in " woman's rights." Iu our Dominion there is no sex in citizenship; .-Aid in the constitution of the Now Testament Church there are neither fpecial privileges nor special classes. Racial, social, as well as sex distinctions are obliterated. There never was a time when women wero debarred from our conferences, vot-; iug and speaking on an equality with men, and when they wanted to organise a society in which they could best develop their God-given talents, they did so, and tho '-Christian Woman's Board of Missions" was formed in America, and at the close of their first national convention in 1874 they had 430 dollars, or about £B6 sterling in their treasury. At the end of October, 1909, these sisters, beginning m such a humblo way, had collected arid disbursed for the Lord's work more than £550,000 sterling: Their ramifications extend into many lands and islands . of the seas v aad their estimated property;

exceeds £120,000 sterling. Their spocial centennial fund offering last year exceeded £46,000. Surely tUo Lord lias signally blessed tho work of His handmaidens. But apart from organising, raising funds, and conducting a great educational and missionary work, God has given to woman enrtain constitutional adaptablitics, and it is her mission, as much as man's, to improve her taleuts, or bo oast out as an unprofitable servant. Woman as well as man must answer before God for the use or misuse of life's privileges and responsibilities. All her gifts and abilities arc from God, and too long sho has hidden her light under a bushel instead ol letting it shine so that all could see. Nature and grace supplement each other, and both are from God. If the Bible did not recognise man's constitution and make up, and wero against him rather than adapted to him, it would fail. Woman's ability and need are about the samo as man's, and her education in principle is tho same, and she has been recognised as a stand by the side of man in all of God's dispensations. It is a significant fact that in all religions wliich degrade woman there have never been martyrs, but in both the Mosaic and Christian dispensations woman has gladly yielded her life to torture and tho flamo rather than deny her God and Saviour. The Scripturn was freely quoted to show that women have always occupied an important part in all of God's dealings with man.