COUNSEL FOR SISTERS

P. Lyon

Jottings of household conversation in Melbourne in May 1936

Our brother spoke of the importance of the sisters’ conversation in the home, which is their sphere. A sister can stimulate her husband by asking questions of local and universal assembly interest, and the children who are listening will learn to do the same. If there are visitors in the house, brothers or sisters, she is still in her right sphere in introducing suitable spiritual topics. If she finds her subjects of conversation limited, she would do well to read current ministry extensively, and to make herself acquainted with the latest ‘war news’, that is, the movements of the testimony world-wide, and thus furnish herself with a store of holy conversation.

The women of this world find a certain pleasure in the discussion of books, newspapers, and literature of various kinds; much more should the Christian woman intelligently read the precious, living ministry which the Lord is giving and thus develop the ability to stimulate and support godly conversation.

The sisters are the unseen, vital organs of the body—the heart and lungs, as it were—and where these are in a healthy state the whole body functions. The brothers are like the hands and feet, the active parts which are seen. If the body has a high temperature, showing that there is something wrong inwardly, although perhaps nothing can be seen, eventually the outward activities of the hands and feet will be impaired.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in baskets of silver (see Proverbs 25: 11). The basket of silver would be the body of the believer, silver speaking of redemption. It would be a chaste and wrought piece of silver, fashioned by suffering, containing the precious golden apples—gold being the best—some word bearing the divine impress. Sisters like to see food daintily served; how important the basket is; it makes the apples seem more appetising, especially if a word of exhortation is to be fitly spoken.

In all the dispensations there have been women who have stood for the testimony, such as Sarah, Deborah and Jael. And there have been women of all ages. In Rhoda we have a young girl in her teens. Mary, the mother of our Lord, would have been young too. Elizabeth was old, and Anna was very old, all showing that we can enlist and be in the conflict whatever our age.

‘Feelings’ play a large part in a woman’s make-up, but the Lord knows all about our make-up and these feelings and, under the control of the Lord, they can be an asset to the assembly. A sister’s instinct can sometimes outstrip a brother’s judgment and she may see farther than her husband in choice spiritual feelings. But, on the other hand, her feelings, if uncontrolled, may get the better of her and can make quite a conflagration. Perhaps she has been offended, and her feelings hurt. One has heard such words as, ‘It did upset me when I saw the way she looked at me’, and so on. It would be well to remember why we are to be silent in the assembly and, as women, to have our head covered, and not take it as a matter of course. It has to do with the fact that Satan at the beginning found an entrance through the woman. God knows that Satan would find an entrance again if the woman were allowed a place of public responsibility. This thought would be wholesome and would keep us humble. As we remember what our possibilities for evil are, perhaps our feelings would not be so offended.

We are not much use in the assembly until we have lost our reputation, or, rather, until we realize that we have no reputation to lose. If we are accused of something that is not true, we can say to ourselves, ‘Well, it is not true of me at present, but it might be at any time. I am quite capable of it’. So we remain unflurried, unruffled. God has no use for those who refuse reproach. A sister was known, some time ago, to weep over assembly trouble in a far-distant locality. It seemed an extreme thing to do. Those less spiritual said, ‘There is plenty to weep for nearer home’. But she had wept for what was nearer home, and had reached out in her affections and interest to assembly troubles at a distance. She lost her reputation, as it were, and was called ‘extreme’, but the Lord threw His cloak over her and supported her.

At the end of every dispensation women have shone brightly. The end of the present one is at hand and the Lord would encourage the sisters to more and more devotedness, even to what might appear extreme to the less spiritual.

Sisters love Peter’s ministry—his sincere milk of the word—milk, you know, not meat, and what he says as to a meek and quiet spirit. And they love being kind and making garments for the poor and even being the lady bountiful. But the lady bountiful idea only centres round oneself and makes much of self. Making coats and garments ends in death—Dorcas died (Acts 9: 37). It was only when Dorcas died to that sort of thing and came to life again that she became part of the assembly on Paul’s line. Sisters are inclined to say, ‘I can understand Peter’s ministry, but I cannot understand Paul’s; I will leave that for the brothers’. But they can understand Paul. The universal interests of the assembly are for the sisters as well as for the brothers. Sisters have their part in the conflict on the battlefield in the wars of the Lord.

They need to be interested in it and to ask and find out what is going on in their midst and in the assembly all over the world. The Lord has His reserves and is preparing them to be called into the front line of the battle, the sisters among them.

If we have those interests before us we shall not feel the dog-flies and gnats which were among the plagues of Egypt. There were no dog-flies in Goshen, where the Israelites were, suggesting the assembly. The gnats bite only any part of the flesh that is visible. One sister gets a bite from a dog-fly and goes to visit another to get sympathy. She finds that the sister is rubbing her bite very vigorously. They talk so much about their grievances that they only inflame the bites. Indeed, if that piece of flesh is not covered up another piece of flesh may be exposed, and more bites experienced, until in the end that dear sister may die of blood poisoning.

There is a nice little service for sisters in ‘first-aid’. Perhaps we see a dear sister just bleeding to death spiritually. She is so offended and so hurt by the way she has been treated that her life is ebbing away. What an opportunity for a bandage, a tight, firm bandage! It may be a word in season, one of those precious golden apples, served in the silver basket. A sister who is rendering first-aid, or weaving curtains, or is out on the battlefield, who has the Lord’s interests, instead of her own, as her chief object down here, will not feel the bites of the dog-flies or the gnats, nor will she mind if she has no reputation. She will be an asset to the local company, to the whole assembly, and to the Lord.

The above, though not ‘ministry’ in the usual sense, is printed because it contains valuable counsel, conveyed in the homely manner which characterized our brother—Ed.