rated to the cause of Christ; but
after I had been out for some time I changed my mind. Now I believe
that God calls more women than men because _more women are needed_."

The army of unmarried women missionaries on the field is there, not
because there happen to be more women than men on the field, and,
since we do not believe in polygamy, some were left over; but because
there is a work that they can do that no one else can. Most men need
wives, and the fact that a man has a wife and family is more of a help
than a hindrance in most types of missionary work. A man missionary
can leave his family for weeks or months, and even though married, he
can engage in the arduous itineration that is often necessary. But a
married woman missionary, as soon as she becomes a mother, is bound to
her children, and that usually means that she bound to her home. She
can engage in missionary work in the place where she lives, but she
cannot travel easily. She cannot go out for weeks or months with a
women's evangelistic band. She cannot go from church to church,
holding Bible classes for the women. In many places, when teams of men
workers go about, the women are left almost untouched. There must be
women workers to reach the women. There is plenty of work for the
married woman missionary to engage in; but there are certain types of
work which her responsibilities will not allow her to undertake.

"That's the type of work I want to do!" declares one young woman. "To
spend weeks and months in the country villages, living in the people's
homes and really becoming one with them--that's the only work that
counts! _I_ shall never be married."

"Oh," says another, "I'm sure there is much work a married woman can
do that would be impossible to the single woman. Anyway, I wasn't cut
out for a spinster! It doesn't matter if there _are_ only half as many
men as women; _some_ of the women get married, and I'll be one of the
'some.'"

Well, friends, both of you are wrong. It's not up to you to say what
sort of work you want to do, and it's not up to you to say whether you
will be married, or one of the single crowd. Since most girls want to
be married, it is a good thing for each to face the possibility that
God _might_, for a reason, want her to remain single; but that does
not mean that I am encouraging anyone to take a vow of celibacy! I
know of one young woman missionary who told various fellow workers,
and even some of the local Christians