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June 19 Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers
A Work for Women, Not Men
“That [the aged women] may teach the young women . . . to be discreet,
chaste” (Titus 2:4, 5).
It is time, my dear brother, that you looked at these matters [of
guarding your reputation] in a right light. You have been called away
from the word of God to serve tables. . . .
There are women who fasten themselves to someone to whom
they tell their home difficulties. But there are two sides to every question,
and often these women are themselves in need of reproof. They
speak only of their side of the question, and words of sympathy that
they do not deserve are given to them.
You are not to set such an example that women will feel at liberty
to tell you the grievances of their home life, and to draw upon your
sympathies. When a woman comes to you with her troubles, tell her
plainly to go to her sisters, to tell her troubles to the deaconesses of the
church. Tell her that she is out of place in opening her troubles to any
man, for men are easily beguiled and tempted. Tell the one who has
thrown her case upon you that God has not placed this burden upon
any man. You are not wise to take these burdens upon yourself. It is
not your appointed work. 41
In the battle with inward corruptions and outward temptations,
even the wise and powerful Solomon was vanquished. It is not safe to
permit the least departure from the strictest integrity. “Abstain from
all appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). When a woman relates
her family troubles, or complains of her husband, to another man, she
violates her marriage vows; she dishonors her husband and breaks
down the wall erected to preserve the sanctity of the marriage relation;
she throws wide open the door and invites Satan to enter with
his insidious temptations. This is just as Satan would have it. If a
woman comes to a Christian brother with a tale of her woes, her disappointments
and trials, he should ever advise her, if she must confide
her troubles to someone, to select sisters for her confidants, and
then there will be no appearance of evil whereby the cause of God
may suffer reproach. 42
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