THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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claim for her the right to tread any path, enter any door, probe any mystery, ask and try to answer any question that has significance to her as a responsible and religious being; a right to become the prophet of any gospel whose message has transformed her. This, to the end that her morality may partake of the healthfulness that comes only through trial and choice, that her piety may be the result of self-conscious devotion to truth and right, that her soundness of doctrine may mean the legitimate conclusions of her own independent thinking. In short, that religion shall not mean to her the imposed or borrowed theories of masculine authority, but the progressive enunciations of her own personality; her own thinking, loving, living self; a manifestation of her own spiritual life in vital relationship with the Infinite life. If this shall be, then woman alone will not be lifted, but humanity as a whole must be benefited. There would be one practical result of such a change as this, which in itself would almost revolutionize society, the establishment of one code of morals for both men and women.
It is not the masculine in the woman, but the womanly element, the mother element, which has so long been lacking. This we need in the religious life of the world. Not this at the expense of the masculine half, but both together—man thinking and doing in man’s way, woman thinking and doing in woman’s way. He, true manly; she, true womanly; each intelligently, responsibly, personally religious, thus complementing each other and each other’s work, and helping and blessing the world. Woman will thus become a better homekeeper, truer wife, fitter mother, a more refining influence in society, a greater shaping power in the nation and the world. Man will become a better home-founder, truer husband, fitter father, more efficient member of society, a more potent factor in the nation and the world. Out of such a sainthood, which recognizes no sex in the realm of religious experience, will come the divine brotherhood of the human race, a brotherhood recognizing inevitably the Fatherhood of God.
I have not been pleading for any ism or creed. Theologies become trifles in comparison with the one supreme subject of real and universal religion. Be true in that which seems to you to be true, and let religious consecration be the sacred impulse of the faith you cherish. Recognize the right of every man and every woman to that form of truth which seemeth to them to be sacred, and be very sure that wherever there is a human being there is God, and between that human being and God there is a relationship which in its essence is religious. Is it a lowly, unfortunate, chaotic soul? God is there working and working at a disadvantage, until you and I lend ourselves and the divine in us to the struggle. Is it a lofty, victorious, calm soul? God is there, and no matter the name of the prophet, no matter from what uttermost part of the earth he may come, no matter the form of his faith, God is there with a benediction, a baptism for you and for me if only we are able to bear it.
It is not the province of religion to do away with different forms of faith, but it is the duty of religious men and women to be so religious that forms shall be forgotten. Let us work toward a diviner conception, a more abundant realization of religion, a religion which shall unite the peoples of the earth and make men and women one in God.