softer gentler hands, and a greater power to bless, soothe, help, and comfort. And their very qualification for deeds of mercy is the seal of their commission. It is their peculiar work to bear the blessings of charity to those who need. This work can best be performed — it seems to me that God meant it chiefly to be performed — by the tender hearts and gentle hands of Christian women. Much of the power of the Romish church may be traced to her gentle charities, wrought by womanly hands in the homes of poverty, and at the bedsides of the sick and dying. And why should not every Christian woman be a sister of mercy in the truest sense?
Then there is a great personal ministry of love-deeds which Christian women can do better than Christian men. God has given to them larger and more tender hearts than to men, a nobler wealth of affection, a sweeter tenderness, deeper sympathies,
Many shrink from ministering to the poor, because they have no money to give. But money alone is the poorest alms ever bestowed. There are gifts which every true Christian, however poor, has to bestow — which are infinitely better than money.The apostles gave no money. They had no silver nor gold to bestow.Jesus never gave any money! We never read of Him giving a mite to any who were poor or in distress.
But this is not the only sphere open to Christian women. They can enter the homes of the ungodly, everywhere, and by their superior tact, quicker sympathy, gentler love, and tenderer words — win their way, and win a way for their Lord, into hearts that have never before been opened to heavenly influences. The story of the Redeemer's love is never so sweet, so tender, so melting — as when it comes out of the depths of a woman's heart, through a woman's lips, baptized with a woman's tears. I have known hardened men, whom no sermon from the most eloquent preacher could ever have moved — softened to tenderness and penitential tears, as they listened to the burning words of love and the earnest pleadings of a Christian woman.