A WORD WITH THE WOMEN.
[The following is extracted from a quarterly paper published in the interest of the Mission of Our Merciful Savior.]
"The Mission of Our Merciful Savior was put into active operation just one year ago, with the double purpose of offering a home of mercy and restoration to any woman who fell by the wayside by temptation, whether of fraud, or poverty, or foolishness, and desired to recover her life, and of giving temporary shelter and protection to any woman or young girl who was exposed to danger of falling, because of want, or waywardness, or other cause.
"The opening of the mission was received by some with thankfulness and hope, by others with lukewarmness and skepticism as to results, and by others still with absolute indifference if not actual hostility, on the ground that it was sheer waste of time and good money to do anything to reform fallen women. Now, let it be remembered that this lukewarmness, indifference and hostility was manifested among church people, among women as well as men; among those who profess to follow Him, who came to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance; and not the better, the more respectable class of sinners, but the absolutely degraded and the outcast, the publicans and the harlots. His divine heart of pitiful compassion went out especially to those who were farthest away from him, apparently, according to the world's standard of sin and transgression. For the respectable class of sinners who looked on themselves with complacency while they scorned the publican and the harlot, Christ had anger, reproof, denunciation; but for those whose cases were apparently most desperate and hopeless he had pity, encouragement and words of hope and pardon just so soon as their hearts corresponded to his love and compassion.
"The world is much the same in every age. The fallen woman is still with us, and the class of whom Simon and the self-righteous of his class were the old-time representatives. For the fallen women, however fallen, whether by treachery, perjury, fraud, force or penury, they have neither hope, nor thought, nor compassion. They smile with an air of superior wisdom when either pitiful woman or dutiful priest speaks of reforming fallen women. If asked to aid in establishing a house of refuge or of protection, they either refuse outright to consider the request or they give reluctantly or sparingly.
"But the hardest person to understand is the unsympathetic, if not the pitiless, Christian woman, who absolutely refuses to lift her finger, to speak a kind word of hopeful encouragement, or to give one single cent to any honest effort to recall, or to save a fallen woman. She is so superior, so practical, so filled full with womanly honor and virtue, that she will not even consent to listen with patience to any plea of her pastor or anyone, for any kind of aid or encouragement, in support for an effort to win a single woman back to virtue or honor, even though it were, perhaps, her son, or her own husband, at some time in his life, that had betrayed and ruined her, or continues to send her deeper still to a lower hell.
"But there is a brighter side of Christian character among us than that. There are, thank God, men, and especially women, many of them, who think it Christian, practical, and right, to follow the example of Him whose name they bear, to go out after the fallen and the lost, to try to win back to hope and life, those other women, who at one time, many of them, were as pure as themselves, and who fell under circumstances and temptations which were all but irresistible.
"The report of the sister which we give below, will, we are very sure, more than convince these kindly hearted, though not over-sanguine, men, that their money has been well expended and that the results of this first year's work, with inadequate means and accommodations, have been far greater than the most sanguine among as dared to hope for at the outset."
The report referred to shows that late in June Mother Caroline and one sister came to Omaha. The first inmate to the home was admitted July 20. Since the opening of the home thirty-three persons have found protection there. Mother Caroline says:
"Of this number twelve have come for protection, four of them being children under 14 years of age; one for temporary refuge; the remaining seven to get service. Four have been of those who have fallen almost to the lowest degradation; four have come to await the hour which should be the glory of a mother, but has become the shame of the woman; two have come to us after they have passed through that experience elsewhere; the rest have come to us from the ordinary walks of misguided, fallen and willfully disobedient girls. Three have been baptized while inmates of the house; three we hope will be, two certainly. Only one, so far as we know, has returned to her former life, while many of the others, we know, are leading good, respectable lives, seeking what is right. Many of them come back to the Mission often, and call it coming home."
Following is the treasurer's report:
Treasurer in account with the Mission of Our Merciful Savior:
Receipts—
- Individual gifts..................$647 15
- Trinity Cathedral................. 530 00
- Ft. Matthias'..................... 375 00
- St. Barnabas'..................... 250 00
- Associate Missions................ 185 00
- Good Shepherd..................... 84 00
- All Saints........................ 84 00
- Overdraft......................... 35 91—$2,191 66
Expenditures—
- Furnishing Mission House..........$532 00
- Rent Mission House................ 440 00
- Household expenses................ 413 58
- Salaries.......................... 308 00
- Fuel.............................. 148 00
- Incidentals....................... 91 84
- Repairs on Mission House.......... 61 96
- Travelling expenses............... 45 00
- Rent of Mission Chapel............ 40 00
- Telephone company................. 31 20
- Hymnals........................... 25 15
- Board of Sisters.................. 20 00
- Printing.......................... 19 25
- Gas company....................... 15 68—$2,191 66
Liabilities—
- Salary............................$105 00
- Rent.............................. 40 00
- Groceries......................... 41 00
- Overdraft......................... 35 91
- Fuel.............................. 52 75
- Telephone company................. 21 60
- Sundries.......................... 15 00—$311 26
Assets—Pledges Unpaid—
- All Saints'.......................$166 00
- Trinity Cathedral................. 70 00
- St. Matthias'..................... 25 00
- Good Shepherd..................... 15 40—$276 40
- Deficits....................................$34 86
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