. 21.

CHAPTER XII.

DEACONESSES IN SCOTLAND.

When Fliedner went on his second tour to England he extended his journey
to Scotland, and ventured to Edinburgh at a time when the cholera was
sweeping with fearful ravages through the city in order to become
acquainted with Dr. Chalmers. The great Scotch divine and his good
deeds, that were connected with all kinds of charitable endeavor, moved
the German pastor to admiration and stirred him to holy emulation. On
the other hand, that Chalmers was profoundly touched by the work that
Fliedner had accomplished in Germany there can be no doubt; we have his
own words to testify to the importance he attached to the diaconate of
women. In his lectures on Romans, he says: "Here, too, we are presented
with a most useful indication, the employment of female agency, under
the eye and with the sanction of an apostle, in the business of the
Church. It is well to have inspired authority for a practice too little
known, and too little preached on in modern times. Phebe belonged to
the order of deaconesses, in which capacity she had been the helper of
many, including Paul himself. In what respect she served them is not
particularly specified. Like the women in the gospels who waited on our
Saviour, she may have ministered to them of her substance, though there
can be little doubt that, as the holder of an official station in the
Church, she ministered to them by her services also." It is but
recently, however, that deaconesses have become incorporated into the
religious life of Scotland, and, so far, they do not exist in connection
with the Free Church, of which Chalmers was the able and heroic leader,
but only in connection with the national Church--the old historic Church
of Scotland. Within this Church the question has assumed the form, not
alone of the revival of the apostolic order of deaconesses, but also of
the organization of all the manifold activities of women within the
Church into one whole, which is put under the authority and direction of
the officers of the Church.

Isolated attempts in this direction had previously been made, but in
1885 the first definite steps were taken when the Committee on Christian
Life and Work, of which Dr. Charteris was the Convener, presented to the
General Assembly a report on "The need of an organization of women's
work in the Church," part of which is as follows: "The organization of
women's work in the Church has become a subject