Then, too, the influence of environment is to be reckoned with. The house may be located in a large city or in a small one; in the country or in towns. It may be under the influence of a State Church, as in Germany, or of Christians of all Churches, as at Mildmay. It will share the characteristics of the race of people from which come its workers. Doubtless in the Methodist Episcopal Church in America the deaconesses that eventually become recognized as set apart to special Christian service, through the training that is provided for them, will be women who are peculiarly adapted to the needs of that Church, with all the distinguishing American traits that will prepare them to understand the people whom they are to serve, and that will give them access to the hearts of this people.
If the deaconess cause should gain favor with us as it has in Europe, and should the deaconesses112/108 become as established in the social life of the people as they are there, the effective agencies will be largely increased that are to deal with the questions that come to the front whenever, as in great cities, large numbers of people are massed together.
Deaconess institutions now exist in Switzerland, France, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Austria, England, and Germany, while the countries in which these homes have stations are literally too numerous to mention. Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the countries of Northern Africa, and of Asia Minor, as well as isolated mission stations throughout the entire world are now served by deaconesses.
If there were ten times the number of sisters, places could be at once found for them. It is instructive on this point to read what Pastor Disselhoff says[5] in the account he gives of the various demands made upon him, which he has been unable to meet. One of the letters he quotes was from an English missionary on the Cameron River. “Send us deaconesses for our hospital,” he says. “It was built for European sailors, especially Germans. We hope and trust to overcome the superstitions of the natives, and that they too, may come to be healed.” But there were no sisters to send.
A similar call came from Shanghai, but as it was impossible to return a favorable answer, although the hospital was a Protestant institution, the Sisters of Mercy were invited in, and given control. From 1870 up to 1886 over two hundred and twenty-seven places at widely remote distances, such as Madras, New Orleans, Port Said, Rio de Janeiro, and elsewhere, sent most urgent appeals for Kaiserswerth deaconesses to be assigned them, but invariably the same answer must be returned: “There are none to send.” Disselhoff closes by saying, “How many open doors has God given! Whose fault is it that they remain closed?”
[1] Schäfer, Die Weibliche Diakonie, vol. i, p. 21.
[2] The details of the deaconess work at Mülhausen are largely taken from Schäfer’s Die Weibliche Diakonie, vol. ii.
[3] Life of Pastor Fliedner, translated by C. Winckworth, London, 1867, p. 133. “The favor of the great, especially the condescending kindness of our late Sovereign, he took as a gift from the King of kings, who allowed his own work to be thus promoted. He strenuously avoided all personal distinction, and never wore the order which had been sent him; ‘for a servant of the Church,’ he said, ‘there should be but one order—the Cross of the Lord.’”
[4] Der Armen und Kranken Freund, August, 1888.