hat can be accomplished by deaconesses working together with
ministers in behalf of the manifold interests of the Church is
incalculable. The most faithful pastor can make only short and
unsatisfactory visits. Many sorrows which he overlooks the deaconess can
discern and assuage. She knows best how to reach the heart of a
sorrowing woman, to care for her needs, to discern her wants, and to
bring solace to the sorrowing and succor to the needy. Deaconesses who
have been specially trained for service cannot be spared now that the
world has learned to know of them. For "charity cannot take the place of
experience, nor good-will replace knowledge;" and trained Christian
service is the highest of all service.

The old spirit of the Huguenots has not died out of France, and with
that ready susceptibility to noble ideas which is a marked
characteristic of the French character, we can expect to see the
deaconess cause thrive and prosper as it has done in other lands.

[50] Speak to God about the little ones, rather than to the little
souls of God.
[51] See a sympathetic study of the work by Maxime du Camp, a
member of the French Academy, in his book _Paris Bienfaisant_.

CHAPTER X.

DEACONESSES IN ENGLAND.

To learn the first facts about deaconesses in England, we must go back
to the early days of the Puritans. In 1576, under Queen Elizabeth, about
sixty non-conformist ministers of the eastern counties assembled to make
regulations concerning Church constitution and discipline, and one of
them was as follows: "Touching deacons of both sorts, namely, both men
and women, the Church should be admonished what is required by the
apostle, that they are not to choose men by custom or course, or for
their riches, but for their faith, zeal, and integrity; and that the
Church is to pray in the meantime to be so directed that they may choose
them that are meet. Let the names of those that are thus chosen be
published the next Lord's Day, and after that their duties to the
Church, and the Church's duty toward them. Then let them be received
into their office with the general prayers of the whole Church."[52]

There are other references in the works of the early Puritans that
indicate that the office of deaconess was as well known and recognized
as were the other offices that were named in accordance with the usages
of the primitive Church.

In the early part of the seventeenth century it still survived,