"We scatter the seed. But when we are old and feeble, who will gather in the golden sheaves? Where are the future reapers and sowers? They are in the Children's Bands. In them you will find the sure prophecy of the future of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions. Whether that prophesy be radiant with promise, depends upon how we are educating the girls of to-day, to be the women of tomorrow. Some time, our brains will grow dull, our hands helpless. Shall not the daughters receive the torch of truth from the hands of the mothers?
"In conclusion, let it be felt as inevitable that we should often feel tired by the way; that we should hunger for human sympathy; that our best efforts at times prove barren of results, through the indifference of God's children; that the purest purposes of our hearts be impugned by those we love best; for a public work, however unobtrusively performed, and painful criticism, cannot be divorced. It is said that there is a grape which, transplanted from its native soil, loses its taste; but possesses the flavor of the soil, when grown upon the banks of the Rhine. It is only when our lives are planted in the aromatic soil of the love of humanity, that our lives shall be identified by the richness of Christianity; and no human hand, however unkindly strong, shall be able to transplant our affections into an alien soil, or take from our lives their flavor of piety and devotion."
Having now placed before the reader the object and accomplishments of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, in Mrs. Carr's own words, thus showing her attitude toward it, we come to speak of the third great purpose that influenced her life during the ten years' work at the University.
It was none other than the same central idea of her life which we found developed in the Daughters College days of her girlhood. She realized that in her present position at Columbia, she had reached the highest step in her educational career; the highest, because she was thrown into touch with the greatest number of young lives which it became her privilege to shape toward lofty aims.
Indeed, her entire history shows advance steps. The tentative experiment of her first school at Lancaster was fortunately relinquished for her work among the girls of Australia, with its broadening experiences. Having acquired that broader view of life that comes with the extended horizon of foreign lands, it would have been unfortunate, had she not returned to America to communicate the fruits of her observations. Hocker College was, accordingly, an advance upon the Melbourne work, just as Floral Hill, where she was sole authority, hence better able to carry out her original ideas,—was an advance upon Hocker. Her keen foresight, and unalterable determination to sacrifice personal feelings for the development of wider aims, led her to merge Floral Hill into Christian College, thus losing her identity in swelling the general good. As we have seen, the promotion from the Christian College to the State University was one of far-reaching importance.
And yet, Mrs. Carr was not content. She had not reached that ideal toward which she had directed her gaze when a mere girl; and, in the elements of her nature, there were traits that refused to be satisfied by anything but the great object in view. Success did not for an hour swerve her aside from her fundamental purpose; to establish a college for girls in which she might develop her original ideas of government and tuition.
Hence, all during the Columbia days, we find her seeking a promising opening. Her eyes were turned toward many fields. Her caution and prudence prevented her from relinquishing a great responsibility for an uncertain experiment; but her indefatigable mind, while rejecting one expedient after another, never wearied in the quest. Hence it is that during those years, we find her absorbed not only in University work, not only in missionary interests, but always, as well, in the great object of her life.
It was particularly in the latter that her husband proved of invaluable assistance. Called to preach in many diverse scenes, it was his pleasure, and his care, to look about for a suitable opening where a college for girls might be established; a college whose foundation stone should be the Word of God, and whose every day's instruction should be permeated with the love and power of its truth.