778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



greater failure. The poetry of the Church gone, its efficiency gone, that 

 was the " reformation." Not until some decades ago did we know of 

 Protestant unions established on the plan of their Catholic predecessors. 

 But the male orders never tried to imitate the useful example of the 

 Catholics. They did not care for the sick or the poor. Their aim was 

 and is " home-mission." TJiey are replete with faith, distribute Bibles, 

 and glory in the conversion of that Jew who was baptized, once or 

 often, half a dozen years ago, for ready cash. The women, as always, 

 have done better. Their hospital orders, mainly the Deaconesses, have 

 done good work this half-century, both in public institutions and in 

 private. During the war-times in Germany they and other associations 

 established on similar plans did good work, and deserve all the praise 

 bestowed upon them. Their recognition was complete. Princesses 

 joined hands with them the Archduchess of Baden, Princess Alice of 

 Darmstadt, the Empress Augusta. And not only in military hospitals 

 did they earn deserved praise. Some general hospitals, such as the 

 Augusta Hospital in Berlin, derive great benefit from their incessant 

 and intelligent labors. I do not mean to stint praise, and therefore 

 make this statement of their work, which has been performed under 

 apparently great difficulties. These difficulties are the very rules, for 

 instance, of the Deaconesses of Kaiserwerth, from which I quote for 

 your edification the following introductory paragraph : 



" The Christian women who wish to undertake the office of a nursing: 

 sister, as deaconess for the sick and poor, must possess a somewhat ad- 

 vanced Christian knowledge. Mere church-membership, mere attend- 

 ance on Christian assemblies, and reading of Christian works of edifi- 

 cation, are not enough. The love of reading the word of God, and a 

 diligent use of the same for a long time past, must exist, as well as a 

 knowledge of the more important histories of the Old and New Testa- 

 ments. There must also be a knowledge of the sinful heart from their 

 own personal experience, as well as experience of the grace of Christ, 

 in order that they may have learned to despair of themselves, and in 

 their weakness to trust only to the strength of Christ. A Christian 

 walk of life must for a long time have adorned such Christian women," 

 and so on, and so on. You will admit that in the face of so much 

 hyper-religious sentiment an active, unselfish, modern woman must 

 feel bewildered. 



After all I have said, it is evident that the cause of humanity was 

 originally not hampered by the efforts of the Catholic Church. On 

 the contrary, many centuries ago it was the only safe deposit, inas- 

 much as the Arabs lost their importance in humanistic evolution from 

 the fourteenth century, for the gradual development of human feel- 

 ing. But that human feeling was not fostered and protected because 

 it was human ; the Church had but one purpose, the aggrandizement 

 of the Church. The latter has a meaning in the case of the Catholic 

 Church, which is at least a union, and has a uniform standard, which 



