ir first faith. And
withal they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and
not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which
they ought not. I desire therefore that the younger women marry, bear
children, rule the household, give none occasion to the adversary for
reviling."

It is very remarkable that we seem to be left to infer from the above
that the Apostle's indictment as to idling, tattling, gadding, and
meddling is not to be charged against widows of over threescore.

Some students have held that the passage quoted above refers, not to
deaconesses, but to a sort of female presbyters, like those who in the
age succeeding that of the Apostles had a certain oversight over the
widows and orphans of the congregations. On the other hand, Neander, the
ecclesiastical historian, considers that the widows referred to were
simply those who depended upon the Church for support and were
consequently expected to manifest their worthiness by an example of
special devoutness. But it is hardly believable that the Christian
conscience would have refused such assistance to widows under sixty
years of age or to those who had married the second time and had been
again widowed. The probabilities are in favor of the view that all
indigent and unfortunate Christian females were tenderly cared for by
the charity which abounded in the Apostolic Church; but from those
widows who had arrived at the age of sixty, and had shown themselves to
be fitted for such an office by especial devotion to good works and by
their approved trustworthiness, certain ones were enrolled for the
service of the Church in the order of deaconesses.

Thus one of the earliest effects of Christianity was to introduce into
its own society, in every city, an order of women who were looked up to
with respect and veneration and intrusted with power and authority such
as no women had previously enjoyed, except in the almost unique
instances of the vestals at Rome and the prophetesses among the ancient
Germans. This could not fail to raise the whole sex in general respect,
as well as in its own estimation.

As we have already noticed, the order of deaconesses did not consist
exclusively of widows; it was, however, confined to those females who
were free from all matrimonial obligations.

In the early Church, celibacy was held in exceeding high regard. Other
qualifications being equal, virginity greatly increased a woman's
reputat