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
Not content with sitting down and teaching all who came to her, she went
out to the surrounding tribes, and, for miles around, preached salvation
to the dying. In these excursions she was generally attended by one or two
converts, who formed her escort and guard, and performed that part of the
labor which could not be brought within the province of woman. In this
heroic and romantic manner she travelled from place to place, fording
rivers, crossing deep ravines, climbing high hills and mountains, entering
the dwellings of the poor, sitting beside the bed of the dying, rebuking
the sinful, and every where preaching the doctrines of salvation.
The spectacle was one which affected even the heathen heart; and this
estimable woman was respected and loved even by those who scorned the
gospel and hated Christ. She had "a more excellent way;" and that
excellence was exhibited in every step of her progress. As she approached
the towns and villages, on her excursions of mercy, she was often met by
enthusiastic crowds, who welcomed her with joy, and led her to the homes of
the dying, and besought her aid. Most females would have fainted under her
toils and turned back from the amount of work to be performed; but gifted
with wisdom and strength from on high, endowed with powers not her own,
she continued until a church was gathered and the foundation laid for a
prosperous mission.
She was a _pious_ missionary. Doubtless much of the success which crowned
the efforts of Miss Macomber must be attributed, not to the brilliancy
of her intellect, not to the vigor of her mind, not to the vast labor
performed, but to the _piety_ of her heart. It was this which induced her
to go out; she had no other motive in leaving home and all the joys of
kindred and native land. It was this that induced her to plant the cross
where the name of Jesus had not been preached; to go alone, a friendless
woman, in the midst of savages; to brave sickness, disease, and death
itself, in order to utter notes of salvation which should fall on dying
ears like strains from heaven. It was this which sent her, like an angel of
mercy, to the homes of the weary, to the abodes of sickness, to the hovels
of want, to dens of crime, to whisper rebuke in one place and consolation
in another.
She gave ample evidence that her heart had been baptized in the Holy
Spirit; that her mind had come into contact with the great truths of
revelation; that she had been to the cross and received an impulse from the
spectacle of death there witnessed; that her heart had bled at scenes of
woe which every where abound on heathen soil; that, in the majesty of
humble faith and trust in the Divinity, she had resolved to die in the holy
work to which God and the church had assigned her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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