n.

Another change for the better has been the enlargement of woman's sphere
of activity in the promotion of Christianity and of moral reform. As an
illustration of this fact, I may cite a rather unique incident in my
own experience. During the winter of 1872 I invited Miss Sarah F.
Smiley, an eminent and most evangelical minister in the Society of
Friends (and a sister of the Messrs. Albert and Daniel Smiley, the
proprietors of the Lake Mohonk House) to deliver a religious address in
my pulpit. The discourse she delivered was strong in intellect, orthodox
in doctrine and fervently spiritual in character; the large audience was
both delighted and edified. A neighboring minister presented a complaint
before the Presbytery of Brooklyn, alleging that my proceeding had been
both un-Presbyterian and un-Scriptural. The complainant was not able to
produce a syllable of law from our form of government forbidding what I
had done. Long years before, a General Assembly had recommended that
"women should not be permitted to address a promiscuous assemblage" in
any of our churches; but a mere "deliverance" of a General Assembly has
no binding legal authority.

In my defense I was careful not to advocate the ordination of women to
the ministry in the Presbyterian Church, or their installation in the
pastorate. I contended that as our confession of faith was silent on the
subject, and that as godly women in the early church were active in the
promotion of Christianity (one of them named Anna having publicly
proclaimed the coming Messiah), and that as the ministry of my
excellent friend, the Quakeress, had for many years been attended by the
abundant blessings of the Holy Spirit, my act was rather to be commended
than condemned. The discussion before the Presbytery lasted for two days
and produced a wide and rather sensational interest over the country.
The final vote of the Presbytery, while withholding any censure of my
course under the circumstances, was adverse to the practice of
permitting women to address "promiscuous audiences" in our churches. Two
or three years afterwards, a case similar to mine was appealed to the
General Assembly and that body wisely decided that such questions should
be left to the judgment and conscience of the pastors and church
sessions. When the news of this action of the assembly reached us, the
old sexton of the Lafayette Avenue Church hoisted (to the great
amusement of our people) the stars and stri