Its quarrel with our enemies, who would impose on the mass of men
cast-iron systems, and would set up state idols to be worshipped as
higher than the Conscience and spirit of man, is so profound and goes
so deeply into knowledge and feelings that are too big for words, that
the soldier who never tries to express it but goes out and drills and
works and disciplines himself that he may present his body as a living
shield for the faith that is within him, and the woman who works with
him and behind him, healing and giving, silently, are perhaps wisest
of all.

It is no time for words only, though right words are mighty powers,
but for living faith in deeds and the spirit of the women of all our
allied countries is swift to answer the challenge--by their works
shall ye know them.

The spirit of our women shows, like that of the French women who
tend their farms, keep their shops, work ceaselessly everywhere, most
clearly and wonderfully in their work. In our hundreds of hospitals
night and day, they care for the wounded and the sick and the dying,
bringing consolation, love, skill, heroism, patience and all fine
things as their gift. From myriads of homes they pour forth to
their daily toil, carrying on the work of the country, educating the
children, taking the place of their men on the railways, the factory,
the workshop, the banks and offices. In the munition works, in the
shipyards, in the engineering shops, in the aeroplane sheds, they
work in tens of thousands--risking life and health in some cases,
but thinking little of it, compared with what their men are doing,
knee-deep in snow and mud and water in the trenches. "Is the work
heavy?" you ask. "Not so heavy as the soldiers'." "Are the hours