Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/222

 The woman preacher would bring to the new work the conscientiousness and zeal which the woman has brought to every new work she has undertaken. The gift of intuition, the instinctive passion for the giving of herself, the mother spirit, all of which make for a readier recognition of the inwardness of things and for the awakening of cosmic consciousness, would make of the woman preacher a competitor in higher things worth striving against. Moreover, it is quite sure that the women in the pews would not tolerate from the lips of a woman in the pulpit the kind of preaching they are frequently compelled to listen to to-day because it is the best that may be had. It is certain that there would be no great rush of women to the pulpit, but how mistaken, from the point of view of the community, to close the lips of those who have been touched with the live coal from the altar for no better reason than that they are women.

John Stuart Mill has said, in relation to this question of women's work: 'Is there so great a superfluity of men fit for high duties that society can afford to reject the service of any competent person? Are we so certain of always finding a man made to our hands for any duty or function of social importance which falls vacant, that we lose nothing by putting a ban upon one-half of mankind, and