Women need any and all disciplines which teach them self-justice.
There are many noble and good women who allow their whole lives to be
picked away from them by demands upon their time and strength which
come to them under the guise of duties. Viewed from a higher
standpoint, they are not duties, in that they conflict with the great
underlying principle of self-justice. This is the pivotal idea of a
true religion; for it is impossible to be true, to be just to others
save as we are so to ourselves, and while no character can be
perfected, except through the fiery ordeal of an entire
self-abnegation, there is a higher, and a holier life in store for
those who have the strength, and the courage to plant their feet upon
this God-given and eternal law of justice to self.
It is comparatively easy to gird one's self for the conflict which is
apparent, nearly all women souls are equal to that heroism; but it is
in the daily round of the household, in relation to the church, and to
society, or to the professions where women need to watch most jealously
the weakness of self-sacrifice. Women have had the beauty of
"unselfishness," and "amiability" dinned into their ears for so long
that there is no depth of degradation, or of abnegation of true
womanhood to which they will not descend for the sake of being so
considered by those whose interest it is to keep them where they
virtually endorse the vices of others by their own lack of
self-justice. While we must grope along until we understand the
wickedness of this, and until we outgrow that weakness, let us be ready
for, and equal to the hour which shall give us the laurels of the
victor. And why not laurels? Has it not been uttered by the mouth of
inspired prophecy that the "last shall be first," and that "the stone
rejected by the builders shall yet be the head of the corner?" It
rests with us, individually, to represent that truthfulness, and
faithful adherence to the justice due to womanhood which shall yet
crown her with rejoicing.
To this end women must begin to gather in those pearls of unselfish
devotion and self-abnegation which they have been so recklessly casting
under the feet of ignorance and beastliness.
It is blessed for lovely and loving woman to bestow bountifully from
the richness of her nature. But every grace has its complement, and
the complement of this, for the present, is the greater blessing of
conserving herself until she knows her power as an individual, and
thoroughly comprehends what is due to her dignity and worth.