n so great a work as
that of training true-hearted, God-fearing nurses, there were not some
niche for me. If every one shrinks back because incompetent, who will
ever do anything? 'Lord, here am I, send me.'"

Let no one think that the resolve cost her nothing. As a matter of fact
it meant giving up a great deal, but to follow in the steps of Him who
freely gave up all for us, she cheerfully surrendered her lovely Irish
home for the dreary walls of a London hospital, where her companions
were, as a rule, neither Christians in the true sense of the word, nor
her equals in society. Yet who that knows the Lord Jesus as "a living
bright reality" can talk of sacrifice? To know the need of the Lord's
poor was sufficient for her, and she counted nothing too much to give up
joyfully for Him and His. Nor was this choice, which she felt to be a
life-choice, a thought but of yesterday. Not long after she went to
Kaiserswerth she had, as she herself writes, "much watching of a poor
dying man; sitting alone by him in that little room, day after day, it
went to my heart to hear some of his requests refused, and to see the
food given him, so unfitted to his state. And I sat there and thought,
'If these be the trials of the sick in an institution conducted on
Christian principles, oh, how must it be in those institutions in our
own land, where no true charity is in the hearts of most of the heads or
hands that work them!' and I then and there dedicated myself to do what
I could for Ireland, in its workhouses, infirmaries, and hospitals." She
felt too, that although she could do good service for her Lord in
ordinary Christian work, she could do still better if, possessing as she
did a God-given talent for nursing, she could, like her Master, both
speak a "word in season" and minister to the needs of the body.

So St. Thomas's was entered, entered with the hope and prayer that both
amongst nurses and patients God would use her. And use her He did, as He
does all who cry, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me do?" and then watch for
the opportunity to do it. It was not long before she sought and gained
permission to establish a Bible class for the other Nightingale nurses,
which proved a great blessing to several of them. In her ward, too, she
was often able to speak a word for Christ to the patients.

She was very happy in her busy life, writing, "I am so growingly happy
in it, and so fond of nay work." Of its importance she became more and
mo