oss of Jesus"; and, when all men forsook
Him and fled, placed themselves heart to heart with the Divine Love
bearing the sins of the world and casting them into the abysmal depths
of its own being, deeper even than the depths of man's sin? What was it
but their faithfulness to the Highest that they had known which made
them endure the Cross, despising the shame?
And now, when at the end of the ages He once again calls us women to
stand heart to heart with Him in a great redemptive purpose, shall we
hang back? Shall we not rather obey the Divine call, enduring the Cross,
despising the shame, and, like those women of old, winning for
ourselves, by faithfulness unto death, the joy of being made the
messengers of a higher and risen life to the world?
God grant that the power of the Holy Ghost may overshadow us and enable
us to make answer with her whom all generations have called blessed:
"Behold the hand-maiden of the Lord!"
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 42: Late Head-Master of Harrow; now Metropolitan of India.]
[Footnote 43: I would especially commend this modern order of knighthood
to the prayers and support of women. It is bravely fighting our battle
for us and doing the public work among men. As it attacks what is
especially the sin of the moneyed classes, it is unpopular, men
resenting its interference with what they call their private life, and
it is always in peril for want of funds. The White Cross league admits
women associates for intercessory prayer--and what mother will not be
thankful for that?--for any work where women's aid is needed, and for
raising funds for what is so emphatically our own cause. I would
earnestly suggest to women who have incomes of their own that they
should leave the White Cross a small legacy, so as to place it on a
firmer basis. I hope myself to leave the English branch L2000.]
[Footnote 44: From an article in the _Nineteenth Century_ on "Meddling
with Hindu Marriages."]
[Footnote 45: Ezek. i., 26.]
APPENDIX
In Mr. Edward Thring's address to the Church Congress at Carlisle in
1841, he said:
"Curiosity, ignorance, and lies form a very hot-bed of impurity. We pay
heavily for our civilized habits in false shame and the mystery in which
sex is wrapped.
"I confess that for curiosity I have no remedy to propose. Ignorance and
lies are on a different footing. I suppose everyone is acquainted with
some of the current lies about the impossibility of being pure. The onl
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