cay of
religions throughout the world at this period, many women everywhere
sought satisfaction for their religious instincts in the pure faith of
the synagogue. In Macedonia, perhaps on account of its sound morality,
these female proselytes were more numerous than elsewhere; and they
pressed in large numbers into the Christian Church. This was a good
omen; it was a prophecy of the happy change in the lot of women which
Christianity was to produce in the nations of the West. If man owes
much to Christ, woman owes still more. He has delivered her from the
degradation of being man's slave and plaything and raised her to be his
friend and his equal before Heaven; while, on the other hand, a new
glory has been added to Christ's religion by the fineness and dignity
with which it is invested when embodied in the female character.

These things were vividly illustrated in the earliest footsteps of
Christianity on our continent. The first convert in Europe was a
woman, at the first Christian service held on European soil the heart
of Lydia being opened to receive the truth; and the change which passed
upon her prefigured what woman in Europe was to become under the
influence of Christianity. In the same town of Philippi there was
seen, too, at the same time an equally representative image of the
condition of woman in Europe before the gospel reached it, in a poor
girl, possessed of a spirit of divination and held in slavery by men
who were making gain out of her misfortune, whom Paul restored to
sanity. Her misery and degradation were a symbol of the disfiguration,
as Lydia's sweet and benevolent Christian character was of the
transfiguration of womanhood.

100. Liberality of the Churches.--Another feature which prominently
marked the Macedonian churches was a spirit of liberality. They
insisted on supplying the bodily wants of the missionaries; and, even
after Paul had left them, they sent gifts to meet his necessities in
other towns. Long afterward, when he was a prisoner at Rome, they
deputed Epaphroditus, one of their teachers, to carry thither similar
gifts to him and to act as his attendant. Paul accepted the generosity
of these loyal hearts, though in other places he would work his fingers
to the bone and forego his natural rest rather than accept similar
favors. Nor was their willingness to give due to superior wealth. On
the contrary, they gave out of deep poverty. They were poor to begin
with, and th