AUSTRALIAN women might as well be in purdah, secluded, in the tradition of the East, from all social contact except with their husbands. They are the most uninteresting women outside the Arab world, the most intellectually unstimulating . . . ," according to a recent visitor from overseas.
Had he said this of Adventist women, in a spiritual sense, would it have cut to the quick? Have we stripped ourselves of worldly attractiveness and retired behind citadels of domestic perfection to escape heart-to-heart gospel confrontation? I ask myself as earnestly as I ask you. So far as seeking and saving the lost is concerned, might we just as well be in purdah?
Perhaps our visitor was thinking of that critical day of World War II, The war monster was gobbling up men and ammunitions faster than they could be supplied. In one of his most impassioned speeches, prepared with the help of his wife, Winston Churchill appealed for women not for one or two, but for one million women who could put the duster down a few hours a day to help with the war effort.
He got them, and millions more, who did work only men had done before. Half the nation's working potential released unsuspected latent energies, some even manning or rather, womanning the antiaircraft batteries. Mrs. Clementine Churchill ob served that women could do this better than men, as the machinery needed a delicate touch.
That day, in rainy Manchester, January 27, 1940, began a radical change in wom en's traditional social position that has spread over the world.
"So what?" you demand. "It is the spiritual crisis that is our concern. Besides, with modern sex permissiveness, wife-swap ping and movements toward unisex, family life is disintegrating rapidly enough with out Adventist women hastening its demise by sharing their energies with anything beyond the traditional and sacred family responsibilities."
Yet is not this widespread family decay symptomatic of a moral cancer a spiritual melanoma eating the vitals out of our civilization as it has of previous civilizations? And does not this constitute the greatest crisis the world has ever faced? Do we expect to combat it by faithfully playing our role of competent cuisiniere, or do we hope that confining ourselves to our friends and our domestic duties will render us invulnerable to this plague that is racing across the world?
Furthermore, though a change in the social order was inevitable during World War II when women replaced men wherever it was a physical possibility, no such change is necessary for women to engage in spiritual welfare.
Christ's first interview after His resurrection, even before visiting His Father, was to appoint a woman to preach the first sermon of the Christian Era,1 and this at a time when women had few legal rights. During the seventeenth century a woman of the Spirit, Madame Guyon, formerly a socialite in the French court, found the way to sanctification through faith as a personal experience.
Her soul was all ablaze with the unction and power of the Holy Spirit, and everywhere she went she was besieged by multitudes of hungry, thirsty, souls, who flocked to her for the spiritual meat that they failed to get from their regular pastors. Revivals of religion began in almost every place visited by her, and all over France earnest Christians began to seek the deeper experience taught by her.2
She left about sixty volumes of her writings and poems, some of the best of which were written while she was imprisoned.
In the nineteenth century Frances Ridley Havergal's life was transformed when she learned to live by faith in the Lord Jesus. This beautiful young woman, proficient in more than five languages, including Greek and Hebrew, who could climb the Swiss Alps like a chamois, now occupied herself---
with her writing, in giving Bible readings and ad dresses, in visiting the poor, and in doing needle work for the Zenana missions and for the poor. . . . She took up temperance work. . . . She spent much time in visiting from house to house, to read the Bible and point souls to Christ. . . . She . . . frequently led consecration meetings. . . .
She often sang in churches, hospitals, and other places. Every morning she spent much time in studying and marking her Bible. . . . Many were the letters of comfort and consolation that she sent to all parts of the earth. Her books also carried a blessing . . . wherever they went. Children flocked to her in crowds. . . . From morning to night she was occupied in the Master's service.3
There is no more fitting comment on her life than that stanza from one of her hymns:
Take my love; my Lord I pour At Thy feet its treasure store; Take myself, and I will be, Ever, only, all for Thee.
To the 1969 Women's World Day of Prayer, a women's group in Ghana sent the following message:
"It is necessary for all women to have a spirit of courage in our world today. Practically every country has its heart disturbed by conflict and it is only through faith and courage that we women can obtain strength. Who knows but what we have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Italics supplied.)
In this twentieth century women have more opportunity to exert an influence than at any other time. And it is at this time that God has assured us He will pour out His Spirit "upon all flesh; . . . and your daughters shall prophesy, .. . and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." (Joel 2:28, 29.)
Do I hear a laconical voice: "If that's how you feel, why don't you do some thing?"
A very good question! Why don't we? Why not? Is the moral situation not critical enough to waken our dormant energies? Does everyone enjoy the advantages of righteous living by faith? Is the dedicated but small working force of godly men already coping with the world's spiritual challenge? Does the gospel machinery not need a delicate touch?
Whatever excuse we Adventist women can make to justify inactivity, it cannot be that we are in purdah.
1. John 20:16-18.
2. J. G. Lawson, Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians, p. 103.
3. Ibid., pp. 324, 325.
