as we
shall see from a quaint and curious picture that is of especial interest
to all Americans, because it portrays what took place in that community
of pious souls who furnished us the men we delight to honor as the
Pilgrim Fathers. A number of these heroic souls, who could give up their
country, but would not yield their faith, went forth from England in
1608, and settled in Amsterdam. They preserved in a foreign land their
own Church usages, as the following words show: "In Amsterdam there were
about three hundred communicants, and they had for their pastor and
teacher those two eminent men before named (Johnson and Ainsworth); and
had at one time four grave men for ruling elders, three able, godly men
for deacons, and one ancient widow for a deaconess, who did them service
many years, though she was sixty years of age when she was chosen. She
honored her place, and was an ornament to the congregation. She usually
sat in a convenient place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod
in her hand, and kept little children in awe from disturbing the
congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and weak, especially
women, and as there was need called out ladies and young women to watch
and do them other helps as their necessity should require; and if there
were poor she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or
acquaint the deacons. And she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an
officer of Christ."[53]

Whether the "ancient widow" with the little "birchen rod" had any
followers in the early Puritan communities of the Plymouth Colony we
cannot say, as there are no records that throw light on the subject; but
the history of early New England Congregationalism gives us one
indication that the office was recognized in the New World. In the
Cambridge Platform, a system of Church discipline agreed upon by the
elders and messengers of the New England churches assembled in synod at
Cambridge, in 1648, the seventh chapter enumerates the duties of elder
and deacons, and then adds, "The Lord hath appointed _ancient widdows_,
where they may be had, to minister in the Church, in giving attendance
to the sick, and to give succor unto them and others in the like
necessities." The same confusion of thought concerning the Church widow
and the deaconess is here seen, but there is evident the recognition of
the services that women were officially to render the Church.

In the early part of the present century Southe