they have not been advised to pursue it. Man long ago decided that
woman's sphere was anything he did not wish to do himself, and as he
did not particularly care for the straight and narrow way, he felt free
to recommend it to women in general. He did not wish to tie himself
too closely to home either and still he knew somebody should stay on
the job, so he decided that home was woman's sphere.

The church has been dominated by men and so religion has been given a
masculine interpretation, and I believe the Protestant religion has
lost much when it lost the idea of the motherhood of God. There come
times when human beings do not crave the calm, even-handed justice of a
father nearly so much as the soft-hearted, loving touch of a mother,
and to many a man or woman whose home life has not been happy, "like as
a father pitieth his children" sounds like a very cheap and cruel
sarcasm.

It has been contended by those high in authority in church life, that
the admission of women into all the departments of the church will have
the tendency to drive men out. Indeed some declare that the small
attendance of men at church services is accounted for by the
"feminization of the church," which is, in other words, an admission of
a very ugly fact that even in the sacred precincts of the church, women
are held in mild contempt. Many men will resent this statement hotly,
but a brief glance at some of the conditions which prevail in our
social life will prove that there is a great amount of truth in it.
Look at the fine scorn with which small boys regard girls! You cannot
insult a boy more deeply than to tell him he looks like a girl--and the
bitterest insult one boy can hand out to another is to call him a
"sissy." This has been carefully taught to our small boys, for if they
were left to their own observations and deductions they would hold
girls in as high esteem as boys. I remember once seeing a fond mother
buying a coat for her only son, aged seven years. The salesman had put
on a pretty little blue reefer, and the mother was quite pleased with
it, and a sale was apparently in sight. Then the salesman was guilty
of a serious mistake, for as he pulled down the little coat and patted
the shoulders he said: "This is a standard cut, madam, which is always
popular, and we sell a great many of them for both boys and girls."

Girls!

Reggie's mother stiffened, and with withering scorn declared that she
did not wish Reggie