any lasting satisfaction or any way to victory in life apart from Him?
And indeed, in the particular connection I am now writing about, it is
the fact that not a few women have lived to be almost thankful for the
problem of involuntary celibacy that once confronted them in so
menacing a way. It threw them back on God, and their experience of Him
has been so rich that they are thankful for the compulsion that drove
them into His fellowship.

There is no mysterious hunger in the inner life of any woman--no
restless longing ever torments her--no painful stresses ever make her
life seem difficult--no weary loneliness ever makes the world seem
desolate, but He understands--perfectly and utterly. And if it be love
that a woman longs for, there is no love like unto His love--perfect in
tenderness, in understanding and in power. Yes, God Himself is the
final answer to the problem of all lives that here seem to be
unfulfilled, whether they be lives of men or women.

The other question that will be raised will be put in these words: "You
have said that in the dark hours that come to so many women religious
feeling seems to be suspended, and yet you go on to say that the way of
escape lies in religion," I know that what I have written may seem for
this reason utterly tantalizing to some. I know that in general it is
in times when we most need religion that it is apt to seem most remote
from us. Most of us have been in that dilemma. But there is a way out.
It consists partly in remembering that religion is not only a matter of
feeling, and that when feeling fails us the mind and will remain. But
it consists still more in remembering that religion is not so much our
affair as God's. God does not only answer the prayers of people who are
feeling religious. If religion be what the experience of thousands
declares it is, then we have reason to expect that our seeking of God