Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-07-21

in the slightest, but may be of wide
help to each other and to humanity"
The topics chosen for study by wo-
mems clubs cover a wide area, but
none of them, the writer thinks, could
react with anything but helpfulness
to church interests, and some might
serve to show where the church has
lacked. Mrs. Gilman says:
Here is a body of women number
ing hundreds of thousands usually wo-
men of middle age (of one club in
Massachusetts it is said every member
is between fifty-two and eighty-two
years of age), all reaching out to serve
humanity. Even where the purpose
of the club is self-improvement, that
enlarged and enlightened mind is of
service to all it touches. How can it
be said of work like this that it sup
plants church work, or that the de.
votion of the woman to her club sup
plants her devotion to the church?
1T is true that certain of the clubs
in our wide list study the Bible, and
others ethics, and practical religion,
but If their churches had been meet
ing every want in these lines we would
not have started clubs for them.
Is IL uOJ condemnation III lUSelI
that we must needs form clubs tC
9tudy ethics and practical religion,
because the church will linger forever
over dogmas and theories? What teach
ing in ethics does it offer? Our Sun
day school teachers are no experts
estimable old ladies and ardent school
girls mostly; the child learns little
from them.
LAS to practical religion, that a
Christian church can remain prosper
Gus and silent among the glaring in
justices and crying needs of today
shows a great lack somewhere. Love
is no good without action; to love the
world means to serve it, and the way
of serving is plain. The most import
ant evil of today is in high places, and
needs open discussion and attack; the
most important good of today is con
certed action for social betterment."
The club has placed woman in an en-
tirely new relation such as society has
never before provided for her, and Mrs.
Gilman thinks that the church ought
| to recognize the value of this relation
and encourage rather than discourage
the club for what it has created She
writes:
"A new conscience is developed in
club work. new set of virtues, and
these qualities are precisely those
needed to live most usefully in the
world
1.-The woman at home has a husband
to rule over her, or, as sometimes hap
pens, for her to rule; she has children
and servants to manage; but she has
no equals, no fellow laborers in the
same field. When she does mingle with
her kind in visits or entertainments,
she is giver or receiver-hostess or
guest-but not on an equal basis.
I'm the club, for the first time in her
life, she finds herself simply human
being among others, united for some
common purpose, and measured only
by her personal quality She is not
daughter, sister, sweetheart, wife,
mother, aunt, or grandmother. She is
Mary Jones, and is liked or disliked
Tor qualities hitherto uncalled for,
qualities greatly needed to make the
world what all noble religions would
have it-a place of health and happy
peace and noble growth We need all
forces working together to this end
And while the church is one force and
the home another, this new force, the
woman's club, is large and steadily
increasing help in the worlds work.