INFLUENCK OF CHRISTIANITY OX THE POSITION OF WOMEN. 43 



all. He wants exactly what she can give, and he begins to starve 

 without it : the appraiser of right, the sympathiser in perplexity, 

 the blamer of hardness, the consoler in misfortune, the peace- 

 maker in contention, the patient waiter during hope deferred, the 

 brightness of his joy, the star of hope amid the clouds of despair, 

 the very hearth-stone of his being and the home of his soul — 

 how can he live without her ? 



Here, then, we stand. Adam can and does subdue the earth, 

 but Eve proves herself the mother of all living." Her work is 

 the one in the world that most nearly resembles that of the 

 €reator Himself, the forming, training, upholding and guiding 

 of real Hving independent wills. The actual mother comes 

 first. 



' ' Happy he 

 With such a mother ! Faith in womankind 

 Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high 

 Comes easy to him." 



Yet she does not stand alone, for my experience is that she 

 tends to confine her efforts and ambitions to her own flock, and 

 this is not enough. Our children at first belong to the familv, 

 but as they grow on they become also the Children of the Nation, 

 the priceless heritage of the country at large. In these complex 

 stages it is the unmarried women who can devote to them their 

 whole time and energy. Every true woman is an instinctive 

 mother : she knows a dehght in healthy, happy childhood that 

 at times amounts to rapture, and she bears with the Age of Chatter 

 (which succeeds to the Age of Self-will) as no man can be expected 

 to do. In the Age of Silence, with its hidden intense aversions 

 and its bold unpractical ambitions, she is equally at home, as 

 comforter and encourager. The whole range of Immaturity is 

 hers. My own lot has lain in the final stage, among girls between 

 18 and 23, and truly it is a beautiful heritage. Often well- 

 instructed but unformed, the fuel ready but the match not 

 struck, standing on the threshold of fife and still in hesitation. 

 Then it is that, 



" Like the swell of somg sweet tune. 

 Morning rises into noon, 

 May glides onward into June," 



and they leave college ready to take up the immense responsi- 

 biUties of womanhood. 



The lad and the girl are our God-given material, 

 material nobler and more delicate, and more permanent than 



