Evening star., 1932-04-03

TOO many women are unhappy.
And in too many cases there is
no real cause Studying the
4 lives of American women, / am
less impressed with the actual
troubles they have to bear than with
the army Of troubles they invent or i'm
agine for themselves, and think they
have to bear too.
Over and over again some passionate
letter, written from a bursting heart,
will tell me Of a situation that little
common sense could cure simply and
quickly. Only that grain Of common
sense is lacking. Something was left
out of a girls training few years ago.
and as woman she has to pay, and
pay doubly and trebly, for the omission.
1t seems to me that as sex, and
speaking broadly, women are less happy
than men. Cherishing a deep secret
conviction that their sex is whole cos
mic cycle ahead OF the other; that
women's wisdom, womens characters,
their fineness, their instincts, their
courage and vision are far superior to
those of men, still thinking women must
admit that men are happier than
women are.
This should not be so. If women are
spiritually the leaders, if the churches,
with their claim to superterrestrial Wis
dom. are chiefly kept in existence
through the faith of women, then
women should know a serenity of soul,
a philosophy and understanding higher
than that of men.
Do they? 1 don't think, as a class,
they do 1t almost seems sometimes
as if their very consciousness Of things
unseen tortured women. They are
finite: they need-they cannot live
without the infinite.
AIEN-millions of them-are frankly
4rA of this world. Food and sleep and
work occupy them wholesomely; they
leave the next world out of it. When
the time comes to die they may give it
a kindly interest; they listen; on death
beds they nod thoughtfully, dutifully
But men don't strain and suffer and
brood and weep over the finding of God
as women do. Even the men who as
sumo the tremendous responsibility OF
His ministry on earth take their super
natural calling naturally, concern them
selves with taxes, buildings, eccleSias-
tical uuarrels and rivalrieS political
recommendations and denunciations,
and the normal establishment of church
clubs, guilds, clinics.
They do this, indeed. in the name of
God, and much of 1t Is good, is often
the very best of which the individual
man is capable. But women never see
eye to eye with men in this. Their
God is the God who drove the money
changers with whips from the temple,
who warned His followers that every
stone of it must fall before Heaven
could come to earth, who said Look ye
not here nor there, for, lol the Kingdom
of Heaven is within ye."
Women Sapk for q higher tAnnln than
any built with hands. and that Is one
reason why as a sex they are restless
and dissatisfied, eternally seeking for
change and outlet, eternally hunting for
that shred of proof-proof that shall
make God a reality, and hence make
all life simple and secure.
Once finding the anSwer they can
never be unhappy again. Scrubbing
hospital floors, caring for repulsive ILL
nesses. poor, shabby obscure, they find
ecstatic content. They have reached a
zone of clearer values than our common
earthly values, and thence forward e
smile on the face Of slum child out
shines the Kohinur, and peaceful sleep
in some dim, crowded room carries
them in dreams TO palaces that make
q desert sandhole of the Tai Mahai.
OCCASIONALLY / have met women
~ who have found God, and less oc-
caSionally, have met man who has
done SO. But men can be happy with
out God, and women cannot, so once
again we pay for our further progress,
If further progress 1t is.
If the women who write me letters
from crowded unromantic city apart
ments, or from lonely mid Western
farms, or perhaps from that halfway
condition that is suburban life, with its
narrowneSs, its restrictions, its dullness
and duties and tiresome neighbors-ii
such women could once grasp that
stupendous truth, "the Kingdom of
Heaven is with you," they would learn
the lesson that we are all meant to
master in this life, and emerge from the
world they know into a new world of
sweetness and light.
The Kingdom of Heaven, note; not
the kingdom Of earth The children of
the kingdom Of earth are blind, work
ing hard for what they don't want,
hurrying places they don't want to
go, putting bits of coal-dust into safety
deposit vaults and noiSily proclaiming
themselves satisfied in a world where
children are hungry, and rich men can
make wars.
The children of Heaven are different