PREFACE. We have in this volume brought together the names of several of our most distinguished female missionaries, who have toiled and suffered on heathen soil. They have been gathered from different denominations and sects, and form a galaxy of names as dear to the heart of Christianity as can be drawn from the records of earth. The object is, to give a series of brief memoirs, in which the lives of faithful Christians shall be unfolded; impart instruction in reference to the cause of missions; inspire the heart of the reader with missionary enthusiasm; and do justice to the memory of those who deserve more honour than the fallen warrior and the titled senator. Most of the subjects of these sketches are well known and well beloved, women whose deeds have been recorded in high places in denominational history; and we deem it no impropriety to take them down, unwind the peculiarity of sect, and weave these honoured names in one sacred wreath, that we may dedicate it to all who love the cause of missions. The wreath may wither and fall apart, but the flowers which compose it will not die; these sacred names shall live with immortal freshness while in the world is found a Missionary Church. HEROINES OF THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE I. HARRIET NEWELL, THE PROTO-MARTYR. SEVERAL centuries ago, the idea of driving out of Jerusalem its infidel inhabitants was suggested to a mad ecclesiastic. A shorn and bigoted monk of Picardy, who had performed many a journey to that fallen city; who had been mocked and derided there as a follower of the Nazarene; whose heart burned beneath the wrongs and indignities which had been so freely heaped upon the head of himself and his countrymen, determined to arouse a storm which should send its lightnings to gleam along the streets, and roll its deep thunder to shake the hills which in speechless majesty stand around the city of God. Pope Martin II. entered into his daring scheme, convened a council of bishops and priests, and gave the sanction of the church to the wild enterprise. This council Peter addressed, and, with all the elo B quence of a man inspired by a mighty project, depicted the wrongs and grievances of those who yearly sought, for holy purposes, the sepulchre wherein the Saviour of man reposed after his crucifixion. He was successful in inspiring the people with his own wild enthusiasm. All Europe flew to arms; all ranks and conditions in life united in the pious work; youthful vigour and hoary weakness stood side by side; the cross was worn upon the shoulder, and carried on banners; the watchword "Deus vult," burst from ten thousand lips; and the armies of Christendom precipitated themselves upon the holy land, with the awful war-cry, "God wills it," echoing from rank to rank. In later times a mightier, nobler enterprise was originated, and the great system of American Missions commenced. The object was a grand one, and awfully important. It contemplated not the subjection of a narrow kingdom alone, but the complete overthrow of the dark empire of sin; not the elevation of a human king, an earthly monarch, but the enthronement of an insulted God, as the supreme object of human worship; not the possession of the damp, cold sepulchre in which Jesus reposed after his melancholy death, but the erection of his cross on every hill-side, by every sea-shore, in vale and glen, in city and in solitude. It was a noble design; one full of grandeur and glory, as far surpassing the crusade of Peter the Hermit, as the noonday sun surpasses the dim star of evening. Its purpose was to obliterate the awful record of human sin; flash the rays of a Divine illumination across a world of darkness; and send the electric thrill of a holy life throughout a universe of death. At first, the missionary enterprise was looked upon as foolish and Utopian. Good men regarded it as utterly impracticable, and bad men condemned and denounced it as selfish and mercenary. The Christian church had not listened to the wail of a dying world, as it echoed over land and ocean, and sounded along our shores; she had not realized the great fact, that every darkened tribe constitutes a part of the universal brotherhood of man; her heart had not been touched by the spirit of the great commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." But the sun which ushered in the present century dawned upon a missionary age, and a missionary church. The tide of time had floated man down to a region of light, and the high and holy obligations which rest upon the ransomed of God are being recognised. The question is now asked with deep and serious earnestness, "Shall we whose souls are lighted By wisdom from on high, Shall we to man benighted, The lamp of life deny?" And the answer has been given. The church has felt, realized, and entered into her obligation. By the cross she has stood, her heart beating with kindly sympathy, her cheeks bathed in tears, and her lips vocal with prayer. The Macedonian cry has been heard, and from every nave, and alcove, and aisle, and altar of the great temple of Christianity has come the response, "Waft, waft, ye winds, the story, Till, like a sea of glory, Light spreads from pole to pole." |