In answer to a question, William Q. Judge once said to the writer that comparatively few women had found their power, that although all women had it and used it, it was more or less unconsciously and that "if a woman could find her power and use it consciously she would become a tremendous force in the world." That power he defined as "the holding, binding force."
This idea of the holding power of woman is not entirely a new one; yet, as given by Mr. Judge, it took on a broader, deeper aspect as a factor potent for the good of humanity. We are accustomed to thinking of the woman as the binding influence in the family. Yet as this influence has usually been exercised to bind the family together to the exclusion of all not of the same blood we have, not strangely, failed to see that this power which is especially woman's may be exercised not only in the midst and for the help of her own immediate circle, but in the service of all humanity, and surely the great human family stands in sorer need of being bound together than ever did a group of beings joined by ties of blood.
In the "Letters" Mr. Judge, speaking briefly of the question of sex, says that the "female principle" — which he carefully distinguishes from the souls using it — represents matter and tends to the established order. It is this quality which makes of the average woman a conservative, trying to hold things as they are, thus forming a necessary balance to man's tendency to change. This same quality, which now so often degenerates into intolerance, because it rules in the woman, would, if ruled by her, become the "holding, binding force" and capable of use for all mankind. The woman who is already convinced of her responsibility in this direction can most surely help on the desired end by working with other women and by giving active sympathy to women of all classes. For this force, which is hers and which rules the personality of most women so strongly, can never be conquered and harnessed to the service of humanity but by the heart.
Perhaps this broader use of woman's force has not always been possible; but surely it is so today. It is possible, for every mother, through the love her own children have drawn out in her, to learn to love and help childhood wherever she meets it: it is possible for every sister to realize that the needs of her own brothers and sisters are the needs of all those other brothers and sisters who go to make up the world. But, more than this, it is possible for her, and therefore her special service to humanity, to help to bind together not merely individuals but classes.
The greatest problem of today is not so much the wiping out of poverty and its attendant miseries, though that problem is hard enough and pressing enough; nor the obliteration of class distinctions, for these also have their lessons and uses; but the blotting out of the feelings of bitterness and contemptuous antagonism which exist between these classes. In this work every woman can engage, no matter what her other duties. To do this she need not lecture, nor write, nor go out into the public world — though if she have leisure and talent and opportunity in those directions she can do great good there — for it is in the home that the greatest and most far reaching part of the work can be accomplished. To do this the woman has only to enlarge the work she is already doing. She now gives to her children — born and unborn, by act and word, but still more by the continual silent influence of her own conviction, a sense of love for each other and of responsibility for each other's welfare, and the sensitive minds and hearts of these little ones can as readily be given the same feelings of love and responsibility for all mankind. Though they may never have to work themselves they can be taught to recognize the dignity of labor and to see in the "lower classes" souls like their own temporarily in a different environment and working bravely, even though unconsciously so, for the welfare of others.
This work among children is of immeasurable importance because of the vast difference it will make in the thought of the next generation. And there are many others, no longer children, to whom these lessons can be given by word and act and still more by the subtle power of strong conviction.
Our present modes of thought, from which it is so hard to free mankind, are the result of continued thinking in the direction of separateness, and can, therefore, best be corrected by continued thought in an opposite direction. This quiet steady working towards the binding together of humanity, towards the holding of all men in one common bond of brotherhood, though it may not show results in a day, or in years, must surely do so in time.
The greater freedom now accorded to woman, her, so-called, larger duties as a human being are liable to make her under-rate this work which lies most especially within her province and neglect her very special opportunity as a woman, thus bringing greater injury to herself and loss to humanity than can readily be measured.
Theosophy, showing us as it does, the human soul passing (how frequently is not to the present point) from one sex to another, also points out the corollary fact that each sex has a use and duty in the evolution of mankind and that the human being who fails to make the most of the special opportunities given by the special sex of any incarnation neglects the chief privilege of that lifetime.