But in the Roman Catholic Church, the
unmarried woman who devotes herself to works of Christian benevolence
is the most highly honored, and has a place of comfort and
respectability provided which is suited to her education and capacity.
Thus come great nunneries, with lady superiors to control conscience
and labor and wealth.
But a time is coming when the family state is to be honored and ennobled
by single women, qualified to sustain it by their own industries; women
who will both support and train the children of their Lord and Master
in the true style of Protestant independence, controlled by no superior
but Jesus Christ. And in the Bible they will find the Father of the
faithful, to both Jews and Gentiles, their great exemplar. For nearly
one hundred years Abraham had no child of his own; but his household,
whom he trained to the number of three hundred and eighteen, were
children of others. And he was the friend of God, chosen to be father
of many nations, because he would "command his household to do justice
and judgment and keep the way of the Lord."
The woman who from true love consents to resign her independence and
be supported by another, while she bears children and trains them for
heaven, has a noble mission; but the woman who earns her own
independence that she may train the neglected children of her Lord and
Saviour has a still higher one.
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