Daughters of the Cross: or Woman's MissionEddy, Daniel C. (Daniel Clarke)
History
Daughters of the Cross: or Woman's Mission
Eddy, Daniel C. (Daniel Clarke)
Women -- Biography; Women missionaries
The faith which she carried forth was well studied and fully understood.
She had a reason to give for the hope which was in her and which she so
fondly cherished. She was able to defend it--to develop its glories--to
show its superiority to any and all the forms of heathenism. The kindness
of her own heart led her not only to appreciate the superior excellence of
the gospel, but also to feel most deeply for the degraded Karens. Towering
far above them in the majesty of intellect and the grandeur of thought, she
sought to inspire them with feelings kindred to her own. Her high ambition
was, to lift the race from its fallen position, save the people from
their prevalent vices, enlighten the minds of the young, and improve and
regenerate the hearts of all.
She thought it not inconsistent with her true dignity, as a woman
possessing a high order of intellect, to bring her mind into contact with
the most degraded of the human family, if by so doing she could be the
means of saving some and improving others. Hence she _studied_ to do
good. The energies of her mind were placed under contribution to furnish
arguments by which the heathen mind might be convinced and the heathen
heart subdued. She met the strongest objections to the new faith; she
answered the questions of the cavilling priest; she reasoned with the
common people from the law and the gospel, until enough were converted to
form a church of our Lord Jesus.
She was a _laborious_ missionary. All our missionaries are laborers. The
work itself compels toil; and it cannot be avoided. But few go into it with
an idea of ease and personal aggrandizement; and that few are disappointed.
The great enterprise is in itself a hardship; and however cheerfully it
may be borne for Jesus and a dying world, it cannot be carried on without
immense labor and sacrifice on the part of the missionaries.
But the noble woman of whom we write was in labors more abundant. She
even went beyond what was expected of a most faithful servant of God: she
exerted herself to an extent which but few others have done, and gathered
a reward in proportion to her labors. Others have suffered more and had
a more checkered life; but none have put forth greater exertions to
accomplish a given result.
Indeed, the spectacle of a weak, friendless, lone woman removing from
Maulmain to Dong-Yahn, and there, with no husband, no father, no brother,
establishing public worship, opening her house for prayer and praise, and
gathering schools in the midst of wild and unlettered natives, is one full
of moral grandeur. The idea of performing such a work alone, the idea of a
defenceless woman going into a besotted nation, among a drunken, sensual
people, and lifting them up to the privileges of a refined faith, a pure
religion, is an idea worthy of an angel. This idea entered the mind of our
subject, became a part of herself, and was carried out in her life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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