school-house had been erected, and a school gathered under her care of twenty Chinese boys and six girls, besides her own four children. Her prospects of usefulness had never been greater than during this year. But in the midst of her highest hope, while children were seeking instruction and the heathen were enquiring the way to Christ, her life was suddenly cut short. She died on the 27th of November, 1847, soon after the birth of her fifth child. Under a secret conviction that her end was near, she had set her house in order," and was prepared for the event, while, at the same time, she prosecuted her daily duties with her usual cheerfulness, and laid out plans for labour which would have required a long life to perform. During Mrs. Shuck's eight years' residence in China she did much to help her husband in his work, besides giving direct instruction. Her aid and ready sympathy were always offered to the stranger or the afflicted, and she was constantly employed in acts of kindness and charity. SMITH, MARGARET HARRISON, LONG known as one of the earliest and most honoured of those educated women who went to Washington when it was made the seat of the American government, and gave, by their goodness, intelligence, and true refinement of feeling, that tone of Christian courtesy to the manners which is befitting the Metropolitan society of a Free Republic. Mrs. Harrison Smith was a native of Pennsylvania, and born in 1778. Her father was Colonel John Bayard, who was in the public service during the revolutionary war, commanding a regiment of cavalry from Philadelphia. He was likewise Speaker of the Pennsylvania Legislature under the first Constitution of that State, when her Legislature consisted of but one body. It may be interesting to remark that as Speaker he signed the first legislative act ever passed in the United States for the abolition of slavery. The associations of Colonel Bayard were chiefly with the leading whigs of that period, and his daughter thus early imbibed the ardent sentiments of American liberty which she retained during life. At the age of thirteen years we find her in New Brunswick in the family of Mr. Kirkpatrick, (afterwards Chief Justice of the State of New Jersey, who had married her elder sister.) In a short journal of that time, we learn that even at that age she had commenced writing poetry, her imagination having been warmed and excited by the beautiful scenery surrounding the Institution at Bethlehem, where she received her education, as also by the peculiar habits and duties of that Moravian Seminary. From the time of leaving school until the year 1800, she lived at intervals in Philadelphia, New Brunswick, and New York, in each place surrounded by a literary circle of acquaintances, devoting most of her time to reading and study. Aware then of the fervour of her imagination, she endeavoured to cool it by the perusal of works of a serious and useful kind; and thus while she cultivated that faculty, she strove to strengthen her mind, and make herself fit for the practical duties and virtues of life. She appears even then to have acquired a knowledge of her own character, and to have pursued her various studies actuated by a principle of duty; having entered thus early on the right path, we may say that this principle governed her conduct throughout life, and enabled her at all times to sacrifice self. In the fall of 1800, she was married to Samuel Harrison Smith. This event, at all times a most important one to woman, was peculiarly so to her, for it was to separate her from her family and friends, and introduce her upon an entirely new stage of existence in the new Metropolis of the nation. Mr. Smith, upon the invitation of his friend Mr. Jefferson, then the Vice-President of the United States, and just about to become the President, had determined to establish the National Intelligencer at Washington, and immediately after his marriage he accordingly removed to that city. At this period Washington was literally a forest and swamp, with few or rather no conveniences or comforts; its houses mostly new and unfinished; Pennsylvania Avenue, now its crowded thoroughfare, a road dangerous for carriages to traverse. Mrs. Harrison Smith's letters tell of many a romantic wandering among its woods, and gathering of wild-wood flowers. From that day until her death in 1844, she resided in Washington or its immediate vicinity, mingling in all its varied society, and becoming personally acquainted with all the distinguished politicians of the country and foreign scientific visitors assembled there. Her taste for literature continued unabated, and indeed grew in strength, and she was at times led to compose and publish several tales and sketches. Her first work she was induced to publish from motives of benevolence, devoting its proceeds (having no other means) to the assistance of a charitable institution in which she was deeply interested, and in the founding of which she had taken an active part. Indeed none of her writings was with a view to personal emolument, but to amuse and occupy the period which she spent in the retirement of the country, and in the hope that the moral inculcated by them might be of service to others, leading them to reflection and the purest virtue. Her first work, "A Winter in Washington, or the Seymour Family," in two volumes, was published in 1827. Her next, "What is Gentility?" appeared in 1830; and then she began contributing to the Journals. She wrote many classical tales (for she was versed in ancient as well as modern literature) and biographical sketches, in a spirited, agreeable vein, that was her natural style. Among these are "Presidential Inaugurations;" The Cornelias;" "Roman Sketches;" "Aria;" "Deserted Child;""William H. Crawford;" "Constantine;" and many others, published in the Lady's Book and Southern Literary Messenger. But her literary merit was of little consequence compared with her moral goodness, that beneficence of soul which always seemed ready to flow out on every side where her influ ence by word or deed could reach. In every por- | missionary to Turkey, under the patronage of the tion of her life, Religion and its history was to her a subject of active interest and study; and this study had brought to her mind the perfect conviction of the truth of the Bible; and the ever and immediate presence of the great God, Creator, Protector, and Saviour, was to her a reality. In the days of her peace and calmness she could repose her head on His bosom; in the hours of distress and anguish humbly and meekly she threw herself at His feet, in the full confidence that whatever He ordered was right. Her whole life was a beautiful illustration of the power of the Christian religion to exalt the female character and give hope and happiness to the lot of woman. T. THURSTON, LAURA M., By birth Miss Hawley, was born in Norfolk, Connecticut, in 1812. Her early youth was passed in teaching. In 1839, she was married to Mr. Thurston, of New Albany, Indiana, at which place she had been engaged in her professional pursuits, and where she died in 1842. She wrote under the signature of "Viola," and her poems first appeared generally in the western papers. Ease, harmony, and sensibility, are the principal characteristic of her productions. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. They sailed from Boston on the 11th of October of the same year, and arrived at Smyrna in December. In May, 1844, the mission family removed to Constantinople, where Mrs. Van Lennep commenced a school, numbering at first only five scholars, to which she devoted herself with her usual zeal and fidelity. Her career, which had promised to be one of much usefulness, was not permitted to be long. She was attacked by a painful disease early in August, of which she died on the 27th of September, 1844. Her body lies buried in the Protestant grave-yard near Constantinople. VIRMEIRO, COUNTESS, A NOBLE Portuguese lady, obtained, in 1771, a prize proposed by the Academy at Lisbon for the best tragedy; and the laurel-crown was awarded to her. The title of her tragedy was "Osmia." On opening the sealed envelope accompanying the manuscript, there was found only a direction, in case " 'Osmia" should prove successful, to devote the proceeds to the cultivation of olives, a fruit from which the Portuguese might derive much advantage. It was not till ten years afterwards that the name of the modest writer was known. She died in 1773. V. VAN LENNEP, MARY ELIZABETH, DAUGHTER of the Rev. Dr. Hawes, pastor of the Baptist church in Hartford, Connecticut, was born in that city, April 16th, 1821. The childhood and youth of Miss Hawes were spent principally in Hartford and New Haven, where her advantages were great. Her parents were qualified, mentally and morally, to give her suitable instruction, and favoured by God with pecuniary ability. In early youth she was distinguished for her love of truth, her gentleness, and her sympathizing disposition. While in her tenth year, Mary Hawes lost a younger brother, and soon after his death she became, in heart and life, a Christian. Her father waited long, and observed the young disciple narrowly, before he would permit her to make a public profession of her faith; but, satisfied by her consistent deportment, he at last welcomed her among his flock, and she never gave him cause to regret the step he had sanctioned. She became a zealous and active member of the church, and devoted herself especially to the Sunday School and the missionary cause. On the 4th of September, 1843, Miss Hawes was married to the Rev. Henry J. Van Lennep, a LONGEVITY. THAT Women live longer than men is conceded by all writers on the subject. This circumstance goes far to prove the more perfect organization of the female; because, in addition to her superior delicacy and complexity of structure, she has to develop and sustain the life of her offspring, which would exhaust her own, were she not endowed with a degree of vitality above that of the male. In which unites delicacy and complexity of workmanmachinery, made by human ingenuity, is not that ship with the greatest variety and durability of action accounted the most perfect? In 1830, it was found that, in the city of New York alone, out of 8009 persons upwards of seventy years of age, 4175 were women, to 3824 men! MARY BENTON, Is the oldest living female of whom we have received notice. She is an English-woman, residing at Gateshead-born February 12th, 1731, and is 120 years old. Her faculties are still useful. BAILLIE, JOANNA, DIED at her residence, in Hampstead, near London, February 23, 1851, aged eighty-seven. See Sketch, page 574. 888 AMERICAN MISSIONARY WOMEN. THE office of mother is the highest a human being can hold. On its faithful and intelligent performance hangs the hope of the world. Next to the sacred office of the mother in her family, who takes the children God has given her and trains them for His service on earth and His kingdom in heaven, comes that of the mother in Israel, the faithful female Missionary, who gathers under her loving care the lost lambs of Christ's flock. The Saviour and Apostles bear such ample witness to the worth of woman's services in the true church, it would seem a marvel that men who profess to be Christians should ever have disregarded those examples and degraded her from the rank of visible helper, which Christ gave her, if we did not recur to the "beginning" and there find the solution. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman," said the Lord God to the serpent or spirit of evil. Every wicked man- - and the hypocrites are not few-in the church, and the "old leaven" of sin remaining in good men, are at "enmity" with the superior moral truth and purity of the female sex. Hence the devices of Satan, through his human agents, to keep from woman all means of knowledge, all opportunities of active influence in the Saviour's cause. Hence licentiousness, the degradation of woman to the sensual passions of men, reigns over the whole heathen world. Would that it reigned only there! but in three-fourths of those nations which profess Christianity, women are kept in almost total ignorance of their own powers, and, of course, have not the knowledge of their own duties. None but the Protestant Church has God's Word for its law. All other churches are ruled by the civil or spiritual authority of men. Everywhere these men, kings or priests, are at "enmity" with the development of female intellect, which would, with its heaven-kindled light, soon unveil the monstrous falsehoods, corruptions, and impurities, which now are hidden under the mask of religious forms, ceremonies, and traditions. The Protestant Church is slowly but surely moving onward in its Gospel duty of evangelizing the world; but these movements are almost entirely confined to Great Britain and the United States. The American Protestant Churches entering on missionary labours among heathens and infidels, adopted from the first the apostolic manner of disseminating divine truths and teaching human duties. They employed women as well as men. With the ordained missionary preacher went his wife as the "help" Heaven had appointed him, and the success has been most encouraging. It was my wish to give the world a Record of the deeds of these noble women. A number of them are noticed in the body of this work, but far the greater portion have, as yet, no history but with their own families and in the hearts of those they have served. Still, it will be an encouragement to such of the sex as wish to work in God's cause, to read even the names of their sisters who have felt the same desires and hopes, and gone forward, doing what they could. American Foreign Missionaries of both sexes have, in one respect, peculiar claims on the sympathy of the Christian world. They leave their own country, the protecting power of their own government, and, resting only on the Saviour's promise—"Lo, I am with you alway". they carry His Gospel into the darkest places of the kingdom of evil, and plant their homes in the land of Buddha, of Brahm, of Fo, of Mahomet, without shrinking from the conflict with all that is most vile, loathsome, and miserable, in the prosecution of their voluntarily assumed duties. In such places has dwelt many a pious daughter of America, and the success of Foreign Missions is greatly owing to their intelligence and zeal. It will be seen by the list of names that I have obtained records of the Female Missionaries sent out by four of the great denominations of American Christians. From the Methodist Episcopal Church the names were not furnished, I regret to say, as that large branch of the true Church owes much of its prosperity to its pious women. In the last Annual Report- thirtysecond, 1850 — of the Methodist Missionary Society, there are the names of life-subscribers and of those who have given bequests. Of the latter the largest was made by a woman-Mrs. Frey, widow of the Rev. Christopher Frey, gave $2516.71, and more than one-third of the eleven thousand life-subscribers are women. Great Britain has the oldest Protestant Missionary Societies, and sends many female helpers; but their names were not accessible to me. I hope some one among their own people will give the Record of such heroines who do honour to the British nation. The Sketch of Mrs. Wilson (see page 555) is one of the holiest records of British Christianity in India. Has any man done there a greater work for the cause of Christ than did that self-educated woman? The pious daughters of England only want suitable education and encouragement, and they would go forth by hundreds and gather the poor little heathen children into schools, and carry messages of the Saviour's love to the miserable heathen mothers. Teaching the ignorant and ministering to the sick of their own sex must be the work of educated Christian women. As yet, how meagre are the means for the training of Female Missionaries! Though female teachers have much the largest share in the gratuitous labour of Sunday-schools in our country, and write two-thirds of the books for children and youth, yet there is not one liberally-endowed seminary for young women in the United States; while for young men there are one hundred and twenty-five colleges. A change in this system is now imperatively needed. Three-fifths of the human race are still in heathen darkness. One-half of these are females, who can never be reached by the ministrations of men. Ought not the missionary's wife who is sent among heathen people to be able to instruct her own sex wherever she goes? Does she not need as careful and complete an education as her husband—that is, to be instructed in the languages, moral and mental philosophy, physiology, and every sort of knowledge pertaining to the human nature, which, at its very source, is put by God himself under her forming care? One important department of a mother's duty is to preserve the health of her family, and so train her son that he shall go forth to his allotted task of "subduing the world" with a sound mind in a sound body. How can she do this, uuless she understands the laws of health? Medical science belongs to woman's department of knowledge; and never will it be well with the world till she is permitted, ay, encouraged, to study it, and become the physician for her own sex. To pious, intelligent women, thus prepared, what a mission-field for doing good would be opened! In India, China, Turkey, and all over the heathen world, they would, in their character of physicians, find access to the homes and the harems where women dwell, and where the good seed sown would bear an hundred-fold, because it would take root in the bosom of the sufferer, and in the heart of childhood. That the practice of midwifery by men should ever have become tolerated among Christian nations, is one of those monstrous anomalies in right reason as well as custom, which, if we did not know existed, we could never believe. In this respect, heathen women are superior to those of Christian America. It is devoutly to be hoped such an humiliating reproach may soon be removed. Man-midwifery is unscriptural and unnatural; and good men will unite in the efforts now making to give this branch of medical practice to the care of educated women, who may make their profession of great service in the cause of missions abroad as well as of Christian morals at home. Two public seminaries for the education of these physicians are already incorporated-one at Boston, under the care of "The Female Medical Education Society," which has had about sixty students; the other is "The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania," located at Philadelphia, which has received about forty students. Thus, over one hundred American females are now pursuing medical studies with the view of becoming physicians for their own sex and for children. God grant them success! Christ commissioned women to teach the Apostles of His resurrection from the dead; Apollos was instructed by a woman; deaconesses were appointed in the churches; Timothy owed his faith to his female teachers, and the "Elect Lady" was addressed by the holiest among the Apostles, as worthy of great honour for her Christian character. Such were the women of the New Testament! |