"Let your women keep silence in the churches," is sometimes
misunderstood to mean that women disobey a Bible injunction when they
engage in public speaking. On the contrary, Saint Paul realized the
demoralizing influences surrounding the Church of Corinth, and
forbade female questioning. So far from commanding women to be
silent, he specially commends the Greek woman Phoebe as minister in
the Greek church of Cinchua. Most of the converts to Christianity
were made by women who spoke and spoke well. The missionary movement
in China, Japan, and India utterly failed until women who could speak
persuasively were sent. Nearly all the work of the Salvation Army is
done by women, and its leader in this country is a woman. Who are
the women of influence in America to-day? They are those who can
speak well--teachers, lecturers, social workers, and others engaged
in professional and business pursuits. Who are the coming women of
this country? Those who can speak their innermost convictions with
certainty and power, help to solve great national problems, and give
a message to the world that shall ring through the centuries!