THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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thropic leaders, but to no avail, only to find myself afloat, with these poor, drowning sufferers clutching for life to my garments; and I could not pull them to shore. But today I am glad, so glad to tell you we have found a way, the only one I have ever seen, to really rescue from a life of shame these girls, and that is to love them. Yes, we may love their sin to death. That great man, Talfourd, delivering his final verdict to the jury, in these dying words said: “What the masses want is not kindness, but sympathy.” In my efforts at one time to point a frenzied woman up to better things, she said to me: “ Mrs. Lake, if you can, go from shore to shore and tell the people the way to save us is to love us.” I believe this to be the magic key to success in the work.
The life in Chicago does not differ materially from that in New York, St. Louis, Denver, San Francisco, etc. In Leadville I found it carried on more openly than elsewhere. In Washington, with “principalities and powers,” it is rampant. But I have felt so earnestly that if the Church of God would everywhere put her hand upon it as a part of her “ home missionary ” work, its downfall would be sure. They say to me, “they never stand;” “so few are rescued.” This very argument is accusative. Drop the question, oh Church of the living Christ, because it is not solved, because it is a most difficult one to handle? No, no! If this post is held by the arch-enemy of our souls, may it not be for the very reason of our inactivity in the matter? Are we guiltless then of the blood of our sister in the gutter? Is it none of our business that she lies groveling there? Let the church bombard these forts and take them all for God, and at any cost, each church sending one woman, at least, into this work to report the awful condition of things to the Christian women of our country, willingly ignorant of the entrapping snare, and they will not longer attire themselves in flotsam and jetsam, meeting once a month to regulate work for mission workers hundreds of miles away; but would themselves, with ungloved hands, be active missionaries; not deserting foreign fields—oh no, do not misunderstand me—but do this first, and then know better how to feel for our far-away co-laborers.
Last year in our sin-sick city of Chicago alone, there came under the care of our police matron, women and children numbering over thirty-one thousand. This is startling; but visit our hospitals and reformatories, and examine for yourselves the formidable facts. Let them from their beds of pain in the hospital, or the few remaining days of their lives at the poor-house, pour into your ears their tale of woe. Then, mother, fall upon your knees and plead for mercy in that you never knew before what you might do for other mothers’ daughters. Shall we not be more faithful in this matter, faithful to the community, faithful to our sons and daughters, faithful to our God in the solemn vows in which we are pledged to His service? I wish I might tell you of some most heart-rending cases that have come under my observation, but if we had great cathedral-like souls that would soar up and up until we were in touch with God in this pressing matter, you would know it all. I leave the matter in your hands. Do with it as you will. Know only that the answer will come back to you if you will but honestly ask, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”