DURING the period of the early Christian church, history records many noble examples of womanhood. Christianity was not popular in its infancy; the times were turbulent and many suffered persecution for their faith. We have a number of examples of outstanding women who bore a true witness for Christ, women whose influence was felt outside of their homes as well as in their families.
Faithful Unto Death
I recall W. A. Spicer's visit to our local Missionary Volunteer Society. Having more recently accepted the Advent faith, my youthful heart was deeply moved as he spoke about the devoted lives of several young women in the days when Christianity was still young. The speaker mentioned the faith of a young woman named Perpetua who lived in the latter part of the second century in Carthage, North Africa. Perpetua refused to listen to the pleadings of her loved ones that she place only a pinch of incense on the altar of a heathen deity and thus save her life. Why was she so deaf to their entreaties? By that small act this young woman would have denied her Christian faith. Because she would not yield she was sent to prison while still in her early twenties.
Since that youth gathering in our MV Society the recital of such an act of courage has at times served as an appeal for young people to unflinchingly walk in the revealed light of God's Word.
During her imprisonment Perpetua had a Christian companion, Felicitas, who suffered similar hardships. Together they stood firm for their convictions, and became martyrs for Christ. We shudder at the historian's account of the trials of these faithful young women who offered their lives in sacrifice rather than deny their Saviour.
A Mother's Prayers
As we keep turning the pages of early church history we find the stories of many women who had to live their faith under the most testing circumstances. One mother named Monica stands out in a special way. She was born into a Christian home but married the irritable pagan Patricius, who later, because of her noble influence, was converted to Christianity. Monica agonized in prayer for her son Augustine, who was eventually converted from a life of sin and became one of the church's leaders. This Church Father attributed the drastic change that had come into his life and thinking to his mother's long and faithful prayer vigils and her strong faith in God's promises to mothers who dedicate their sons to His cause.
Making Preachers
The mother of John Chrysostum was another of these noble women. Anthusa lived in An-tioch, Syria, the base of Paul's three missionary journeys. She was left a widow when she was about twenty years of age and when her son was an infant. Her husband had been an illustrious army man and did not leave his family penniless. Anthusa realized that the luxury and vice of the Roman city might draw her son into sin, therefore, during his formative years she taught him to love and study the Bible. She also helped him to develop a deep sense of truth and justice then important in remaining steadfast in the Christian faith.
Then came a day when John thought he should become a hermit instead of continuing his law profession. Having been trained under the great orator Libanius, John showed much talent for giving appealing court speeches. His mother was not in favor of his becoming a hermit, however, and recommended to him an active Christianity among men, not in a hermitage. He heeded her counsel and became one of the church's greatest reformers and Bible expositors. Later he wrote many excellent homilies on the books of the Bible.
There are times when mothers, directed by God's Spirit, may have their way. We are reminded, too, of the influence of Timothy's mother, Eunice, and her mother, Lois. From the New Testament writers, and especially the apostle Paul, we could enlarge the "Order of Anthusa." Christianity was young and women were needed, who with the leaders of that day could prepare preachers for the Lord.
Intellectual Stimulus
A contemporary of Anthusa was Paula, a Christian young woman with rare talents. Today we might refer to her as a career woman in the field of research. She was a disciple of the famous Jerome, who dedicated many of his Bible translations and several of his commentaries to her. Paula was a woman of great refinement, culture, wealth, and education. She did not use her wealth on herself, however, but was active in making the poor, sick, and lonely more comfortable. She also helped materially in providing hospitals, schools, and chapels.
Paula was an intellectual stimulus to Jerome while he labored on his Biblical material, correcting and revising the Latin translations then in use and making new Latin translations from the original Hebrew and Greek texts.
Left a widow in her early thirties, her deep grief almost caused her death. But at that time her friend Marcella won her to Christianity. Marcella had persuaded Jerome to come to Rome to teach a Bible class in which Paula and her four daughters enrolled. The lives of these Christian women were then in great contrast to the luxurious lives of their pagan sisters.
Our Adventist sisters will be interested in the following statement from Edith Deen's book Great Women of the Christian Faith * : "Before her conversion, Paula had dressed in rich silks and decked herself in the finest jewels. Like other women of her rank, she painted her face, darken
ed her eyes and plaited her dark hair with false yellow tresses. She wore gold shoes and was carried in a litter, a row of eunuchs walking in front of her.
"When she became a Christian, she began to adopt many austerities. . . . She began to pray longer than she slept. Yet the woman in her was never lost in the saint."—Pages 30, 31.
Sainthood such as the Bible teaches is a practical life patterned after that of the lowly Saviour. It is a definite separation from the excesses, frivolities, and vanities of the world. It quietly grows out of a surrendered heart to Christ.
Lessons From the Past
Womanhood in the early Christian Era presents a composite picture of feminine talents within the church. Adventist women are helping to write its closing chapters, and these, prophecy tells us, are pressing a last-day message into our consciousness. Only the future will tell how soon our Adventist young women will witness for the Saviour as did Perpetua. Already our cause is beginning to record its martyrs, and others are doomed to die for their faith.
Are Adventist mothers and workers' wives more occupied with the task of producing pretty garments for their worldly-minded daughters so they may fit into the "culture" of our day than they are in teaching them, as only a mother can, the beauties and excellences of a Bible faith? Are they so occupied with earning money to send their children to Christian schools that they have to leave their spiritual education to the teacher? Home training is the first responsibility of parents: no church school, important as it is, will compensate for the neglect of Bible instruction in the home.
How many mothers today have the wisdom of Anthusa in guiding their sons and daughters past the shoals of worldliness? Or how many in spirit follow the Parents' Fellowship of Prayer featured weekly in the Review, pressing at the throne of grace their own case of straying youth?
Would you, an Adventist mother, know how-to guide your John Chrysostom away from secular ambitions into the ministry of Christ? Would you guide your daughter into the Bible work rather than into a worldly position with better pay? Are your sons seeking fame and position? Are your daughters just "too soft" for some missionary tasks that keep pressing into the General Conference Appointees Committee? To maintain the missionary spirit for the cause, we must have fathers and mothers with missionary enthusiasm. We do have many devoted parents, but there is a need for many more.
* Used by permission, Harper and Brothers. New York.
