WOMEN AND RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS

Otago Witness, Issue 2493, 25 December 1901, Page 69

WOMEN AND RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS

(Mary Low*: Dickinson", in the Boston Transcript*. )

It would be foolish to deny that extreme phases of religious teaching have always found many devoted followers among women. In c-v.ery abnormal movement they not only outnumber men, but outrank them in advocacy and oiUdo them in sacrifice for whatever cause has won their allegiance. Buj, admitting the fact of woman's greater devotion is not necessarily an admission of her greater weakness and credulity. The very qualities which make wonen victims and defenders alike of new and unpopular ideas make them also faithful yi .yes to unlucky men, devoted mothers to ailing children, and loyal supporters of unfoi-tunate friends. A good woman's hunger to give her best to the best she knows keeps her ever on the alert for something better than she lias yet discovered. Her discontent with much of her religious teaching is not always unworthy ; indeed, it is sometimes a, divine discontent. If she fails to enjoy the mild r spays too frequently offered in the guise of instruction and admonition, slip may rot openly lebel at hex' portion of spiritual food ; she may even blame herself for her lack of assimilation ; yet she knows perfectly a cil she is or ;s not strengthened by the dieb prepared for her soul. But, however cofscious she may be of her unsatisfied hunger, the good woman is rarely iconoclastic ; &Le is usually glad if the religious instruction Droves the bread of life to other *ou'«. For herself, if she is honest-hearted and' truly hungers and thiist> after righteousness", c he is surely going to take a nibble and a sip at whatever seems to promise fulness for the emptiness of her aching heart and brain. Especially is she going to tc^te for herself the brepd and the cup which some other woman tells her she has found sufficient for hex- own need. Among uomen there are many studenj? with fair endowment of logic, with welltrained thinking powers — women v. lia study, investigate, reason, accept, reject, and ' from solid grounds— but by far the larger number are satisfied with the logic of experience, and they are popf-ibly* too ready to begin with faith in sovrvh tiv else's experience whi'e m^nir - tow ' own. This natural dual desr ..i - ■ to give herself, her love, l.cr allegiance, . '*• sen-ice, and second, to find something gieau enough and good enough to claim all she has to bestow, accounts, not for all, but for much of her reckless following After new teachers of what seem fco her new truths She accepts on ftiith the experience — menta 1 and bodily— sf others. To this faith, unmindful that ir is on the wrong basis, according to Scripture, she adds virtue : that is. see practises obediently whafc she has been taught, lets her soul be lighted by the torch of association is drawn by the cord of a common sympathy. She strives, to add to her virtue knowledge, but sees no reason to wait for it before adopting new ideas or shaping her life by new ideals. That both ide is ; nrl Ideals' often have no foundation of r ac+s is not detected in the enthus-Usm that sweep* the soul into a new world. Speaking of this question, -ome one claims- for women a more profoundly re-lin-ious, nature than belongs to the otnei* sex We fail to find evidence of this, but, on the other hand, abundant preot that the religion.- instinct or nnpuUe .n. men, once having; found its rest and centre in God. stays by Him and accepts v, hat \t gets in the wa*y of r.uruue through tiie established channels of His Church. Their lives are full of vital transactions and achievements. They have little time arc! no use for fads of any sort, and for religious fads no time or us* at all. Mist as religion is served out through established channels it is "good enough"' for them. No vague longing, no hunger of heart, na watching like souls awake in the early twilight for the coming of a fuller :lay. is it best that way? Who knows? Theres something lost and something gained. W e do not judge. We only know that because women cannot always find the old things good enough for them they plunge quite too often into v..nnething infinitely wor-se.