Caroline Chisholm

A perfect woman, nobly planned, to warn, to comfort and command.

The Priests and the Levites went forth, to feast at the courts of the Kings,
They were vain of their greatness and worth, and gladdened with glittering things;
They were fair in the favour of gold, and they walked on, with delicate feet,
Where, famished and faint with the cold, the women fell down in the street.
The Priests and the Levites look around, all vexed and perplexed at the cries
Of the maiden who crouched to the ground with the madness of want in her eyes;
And they muttered - 'Few praises are earned when good hath been wrought in the dark:
While the backs of the people are turned, we choose not to loiter nor hark.'
Moreover they said -'It is fair that our deeds in the daylight should shine:
If we feasted you, who would declare that we gave you our honey and wine.'
They gathered up garments of gold, and they stepped with their delicate feet,
And the women who famished with cold, were left with the snow in the street.
The winds and the rains were abroad - the homeless looked vainly for alms;
And they prayed in the dark to the Lord, with agony clenched in their palms,
'There is none of us left that is whole,' they cried, through their faltering breath,
'We are clothed with a sickness o soul, and the shape of the shadow of death.'
He heard them, and turned to the earth - 'I am pained,' said the Lord, 'at the woe
Of my children so smitten with dearth; but the night of their trouble shall go.'
He called on His Chosen to come: she listened and hastened to rise;
And He charged her to build them a home, where the tears should be dried from their eyes.
God's servant came forth from the South: she told of a plentiful land,
And wisdom was set in her mouth, and strength in the thews of her hand.
She lifted them out of their fear, and they thought her their Moses and said;
'We shall follow you, sister, from here to the country of sunshine and bread.'
She fed them, and led them away, through tempest and tropical heat,
Till they reached the far regions of day, and sweet-scented spaces of wheat.
She hath made them a home with her hand, and they bloom like the summery vines;
For they eat of the fat of the land, and drink of its glittering wines.

By Henry Kendall as quoted in Caroline Chisholm: A Biography by Mary Hoban (Melbourne: Polding Press, 1984)

Reading these lines one cannot help noticing the similarity between Kendall's image of Caroline Chisholm and Chapter 31 of the Book of Proverbs:

Who shall find a valiant woman? One must search to the far corners of the world for the means to pay the price of her. Her husband entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands. Like merchant ships, she secures provisions from afar. She rises while it is still night, and distributes food to her household. She picks out a field to purchase, out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is girt about with strength, and sturdy are her arms. She enjoys the success of her dealings; at night her lamp is dimmed. She puts her hands to hard work, and her fingers ply the spindle. She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy. She fears not the snow for her household; all her charges are doubly clothed. She makes her own coverlets; fine linen and purple are her clothing. She makes garments and sells them, and stocks the merchants with belts. She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and on her tongue is kindly counsel. She watches the conduct of her household, and eats not her food in idleness. Her children rise up and praise her; her husband, too, extols her: "Many are the women of proven worth, but you have excelled them all." Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her a reward of her labours, and let her works praise her at the city gates.

So may the words of the hymn from the Office of Holy Women finally resonate throughout this country:

Let us all praise a valiant and heroic woman,
Famed and renowned the world over for her glorious holiness
Wounded by shafts of holy love, she shrank from the world's sinful love
And made her way through all difficulties to heaven above