beggar." At first he met with nothing but refusals, and was greatly cast down. It seemed as if he had mistaken his vocation. In this state of disappointment and dejection, he met with a kind pastor, who took him to his house to dinner, and did all he could to cheer him. He told him that the three requisites of a good collector were "patience, impudence, and a ready tongue." After dinner he went with him to à gentleman of well-known liberality. Here he obtained a subscrip. tion of £6. This put new heart into him; he prosecuted his applica. tions to one and another, till, by the end of the week, he returned home with the sum of £180. More than this, however, was required to pay off a heavy debt on the buildings of the Lutheran church and school, and there were current expenses for which no provision could be made on the spot.

Fliedner next determined to visit Holland, a country that had previously helped Kaiserswerth in some of its earlier struggles in maintaining Protestantism in the village.

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In this expedition he found that he had need of the "patience" which the Elberfeldt pastor had spoken to him about. Waiting is the order of the day in Holland. The Dutchman moves slowly, and dreads, above all things, undue haste. Fliedner could do nothing until his petition had been discussed by the principal ecclesiastics of Amster dam with the ministerial board for church affairs. Meanwhile he was enjoined to study Dutch with all diligence, and to procure the proper clerical costume,-a long frock-coat, knee-breeches, black stockings, shoe-buckles, and especially the broad-brimmed three-cornered hat, without which no one in the city would believe that he was a clergyman at all. At last he received permission to begin his

collection."

He received much encouragement, and sometimes contributions were offered where he least expected them. One day, as he was leaving a shop, the master of which had given him a subscription, one of the young women came up to him, and put into his hand a list of persons on whom she said it would be well for him to call. "When he expressed his surprise to the master, he informed him that this girl was one of the most zealous collectors for foreign missions, and that she had already collected a considerable sum for Fliedner, and sent it him through a third hand. In many wealthy houses the servants were his first advocates; and often, as he went out at the door, the maid would bashfully ask his acceptance of her one or two florins."

Encouraged by his success, he resolved to obtain a sum of money sufficient for the endowment of his church, and so permanently free the pastor and people from financial embarrassment. To secure this object he visited England; and we read in his memoir, with no small gratification, that his first subscriber was our beloved Queen, then the little Princess Victoria, about five years old, who wrote her name in his book with her own hand. In five months he obtained £700, and returned to his little Rhine village with a heart full of gratitude and joy; for he was able to tell his people that all temporal cares were ended.

He now threw himself with his whole soul into the various duties of

his pastoral charge; preaching, teaching, visiting, and striving to make full proof of his ministry.

But the Lord had further work for him to do. Soon after his return to Kaiserswerth, his attention was drawn to the wretched state of the prisons of Germany, very similar to that of our own gaols before the time of John Howard and Elizabeth Fry. The convicts were crammed together in narrow dirty cells. There was no provision for mental or moral discipline; in fact, no oversight, except what was sufficient to keep the prisoners from escaping; and the houses of correction are described as "high schools of crime, where hardened criminals instructed the young beginners, not only in every form of theft, but in far worse vices." Fliedner's first work on behalf of this most miserable and utterly neglected class, was the holding of a religious service once a fortnight in the prison of Dusseldorf, a town about six miles from Kaiserswerth. He also spent several hours in conversation with the prisoners individually, taking great pains to understand each case. This fortnightly visit was regularly paid for three years, although at times the extra labour severely taxed his strength.

In the summer of 1826 he founded what would with us be called a “Prisoners' Aid Society." Its object was to secure the“ employment of the prisoners, the appointment of chaplains and schoolmasters, and the exercise of a helpful supervision over the prisoners on their release." Soon after this he visited various prisons, poor-houses, and orphanages in Holland and Friesland; and in an account which he published of his tour of inspection, he drew the attention of German Christians to the work which ought to be attempted on behalf of the criminal and desti. tute classes of society.

Fliedner's prison labours had led him to see how necessary it was to permanent success that an asylum should be opened, "where women who had shown a wish to reform should be sheltered on their release, and placed under proper Christian training until suitable employments were found for them." Those to whom he mentioned this want agreed with him in the views which he expressed, but he failed to obtain practical co-operation. Difficulties sprang up on all sides, and his wife urged him to make a beginning at once on his own responsibility. Accordingly an old house was taken, and a few women were admitted. The number gradually increased, and the superintendence of this new branch of work, and the labour of raising, month after month, the means to support it, added greatly to Fliedner's cares. But His blessing who "came to seek and to save that which was lost" prospered the undertaking. Five out of the first ten inmates gave proof of true repentance and conversion. Seven years after the asylum was opened, a new building was added; a few years later it was "again enlarged, and now contains from twenty-six to twenty-eight inmates.........Since its opening it has been the means of pointing out the way of life to nearly five hundred fallen or previously-convicted women."

While Fliedner was thus busily occupied with his pastoral work and with the charge of his asylum, his heart, so capable of large sympathies, was longing to extend the hand of loving help in another direction. He speaks of the state of the sick poor as loudly calling for pity

and aid. "How often," he remarks, "had I seen them fading away like autumn leaves, in their unhealthy rooms, lonely and ill-cared for, physically and spiritually utterly neglected! How many cities were destitute of hospitals! And where these existed, I had not unfrequently found the gates adorned with marbles, when the nursing within was bad. The medical staff complained bitterly of the hireling attendants, of their carelessness by day and by night, of their drunkenness, and other immoralities. And what shall I say of the spiritual attendance? Little thought was given to that. Hospital chaplains were unknown in many cases; hospital chapels in still more. In the pious old days, chapels had always formed a part of such institutions, especially in the Netherlands, where the Protestant hospitals bore the beautiful name of 'God's Houses,' because it was felt that God was especially visiting their inmates to draw them more closely to Himself. Such spiritual care, however, had now almost entirely ceased. Did not such abuses cry to heaven against us? Did not that terrible saying of our Lord apply to us, 'I was sick, and ye visited Me not ?'"

But how was the case to be met? As Fliedner's thoughts were anxiously engaged about it, he remembered that in the church of primitive days there were devoted Christian women, who, under the title of deaconesses, ministered to the poor and sick; and he asked himself, "If for many centuries the church had continued to appoint such deaconesses, why should we longer delay the revival of such an order of handmaids devoted to the service of their Lord?" From what Fliedner had already seen in connexion with his asylum and elsewhere, he believed there were women, whose love to Jesus, and whose pity for the suffering and destitute, were quite equal to any demands of self-denial and labour which such a work demanded. But they must undergo a course of preparatory training to render them suitable for it; and, besides, considerable expense would be incurred.

Fliedner had overcome money difficulties fully as discouraging as those which now stood in his way; and, believing it was the Lord's will that he should take "this burden on his shoulder," he obtained a large house at Kaiserswerth which happened just then to be offered for sale, and started once more on a begging expedition. Of course he met with some refusals, and some suspicions and doubts; for it was quite a new idea to most people. "One lady," he says, "did angrily show me to the door, with the question, 'Did I wish to set up nuns and convents in our Protestant Church?"" But his applications were generally successful, and supplies sometimes came very unexpectedly.

In the month of October, 1836, the Kaiserswerth Deaconess House and Hospital was opened in very humble fashion. "Two young women entered the house, and arranged the ground-floor for themselves and a few sick persons, very scantily; one table, some chairs with half broken arms, a few worn knives and forks, worm-eaten bedsteads, and other similar furniture, which had been given to us,-in such humble guise did we begin our task, but with great joy and praise. For we knew, we felt, that here the Lord had prepared a place for Himself." These are the words of gratitude and gladness in which Fliedner speaks of this beginning of one of his most fruitful works.

The first deaconess was a young woman eminently qualified for the service to which her heart had been prompted. She was the daughter of a medical man, and had been in the habit of assisting her father in the care of the sick. The knowledge and experience which she brought with her enabled her at once to take charge of the little establishment. She was known as "Sister Gertrude." Fliedner bestowed upon the inmates the most diligent pastoral attention; and his wife, a true helpmeet in every good work of her husband, directed the housekeeping.

The institution prospered under the blessing of God, and the faithful, loving labours which were bestowed upon it,-labours, especially, at the outset, neither very pleasant nor very easy. For instance, we are told that within a month of the opening of the house "there were four very severe cases, all but one requiring fresh bed-linen every day. As there were but seven sheets in all, Sister Gertrude had to stand at the wash-tub every evening, and to dry the linen early each morning at the stove in the sitting-room."

Early in the year 1838 the well-trained deaconesses began to leave the "Mother House" for other places of Christian service. The first appointment which they received was to the city hospital of Elberfeldt, which "has continued under the management of the sisters to the present time."

Very soon applications came in from all sides for deaconesses to act as nurses in private houses and hospitals, as matrons of prisons, and to superintend workhouses. In less than seven years from the beginning of the institution, "more than forty sisters belonged to the 'Mother House,' where there were more than two hundred beds, generally all full; fourteen were employed at six other places, and others as nurses in private families. The existing accommodation was insufficient; and in 1841, when the adjoining house came into the market, Fliedner bought it for two thousand one hundred dollars, and once more without money. But, unasked, a lady sent them a rich gift for this very object, and other friends came forward, so that on the day of payment the money was all ready, except fifty dollars, which had to be raised on loan; and that very evening,' says Fliedner, ́ a friend sent as the fifty dollars as a gift, so that not a penny was wanting; we had exactly all we required.""

The Prussian royal family entered warmly into Fliedner's benevolent schemes. The late King, when Crown Prince, visited Kaiserswerth, and, upon his accession to the throne, exerted his influence to extend the female agency which had been called into operation. He determined to establish a great central Deaconess House in Berlin, and Fliedner was often summoned to audiences with his Majesty. "On Sunday, October 10th, 1847, Bethany, as the new house was called, was consecrated, and the King with his court was present. The festival, which closed with an address from Fliedner, made a deep impression on all, especially on the King, who said to the pastor, 'To-day is a day of triumph for the Protestant Church. May God grant fulfilment to that which His Spirit has spoken through you to-day!'"

In the year 1846, when Fliedner was on a visit to London, he met

with Dr. Gobat, the Protestant Bishop of Jerusalem, who told him that he hoped soon to find an opening for some of his deaconesses in Jeru salem. He remarks on this: "We rejoiced in the prospect; for who would not gladly render service where the feet of our adored Saviour once brought help and healing to the sick?"

Five years afterwards, when much sickness prevailed at Jerusalem, Bishop Gobat requested Fliedner to send him two deaconesses. The matter was laid before the King, Fliedner urging that it would be desirable to send a larger number of sisters to the Holy City. “It was decided to establish at once a hospital and a training-school for girls, and as a nursery for teachers and nurses for the East. The King placed at Fliedner's disposal two small houses belonging to him in Jerusalem, and defrayed the expenses of the sisters' journey to the Holy Land." As soon as the project became known, supplies for the dea conesses were received from all parts of Germany, and so abundant were the contributions of various kinds of stores that they filled twenty chests. The German Protestant Sisters have accomplished a great work of Christian charity in Jerusalem. They have skilfully and tenderly nursed the sick, and they have sought "to kindle the light of faith in the susceptible minds of female youth, by evangelical training and instruction." Fliedner's biographer observes of the Deaconess House, with its various forms of evangelical and benevolent activity,—“ Not only the Jews and Christians of the Holy City, but the Mohammedans, to whom all Christians are even now unclean 'dogs,' have learnt to lay aside their prejudices against this home of mercy. Fliedner lived to see that more than half the patients nursed in it-amounting to from four to five hundred yearly-were Mohammedans, who heard the Word of God from the sisters and from the German pastor, Valentiner, in their native Arabic."

The terrible persecution which the Maronites, the Christian inhabit. ants of Lebanon, suffered in the year 1860, will probably be fresh in the remembrance of many of our readers. Thousands perished at the hands of their inveterate enemies, the Druses, and nearly forty thou sand wretched women and children were driven from their homes. The accounts of their dreadful sufferings which came to Europe awoke a general response of sympathy on their behalf.

Among the first who arrived on the Syrian coasts to succour the bereaved and famishing fugitives, were some deaconesses sent out by the large-hearted pastor of Kaiserswerth, who actively exerted himself to obtain the necessary pecuniary supplies. "Hospitals were opened in Sidon and Beyrout, and an asylum was provided for destitute widows; while, in large eating-houses, which were provided by other societies, the sisters daily distributed food to many hundreds of starving

creatures.

"Fliedner founded at this time the Orphanage of Zoar in Beyrout. Gifts for this object flowed into Kaiserswerth from all parts of Europe; and a house for a hundred and fifty children was erected and filled, notwithstanding the many attacks of the French Jesuits. Now, even daughters of the Druses and the wild Bedouins of the Desert may be found there, acquiring a culture at once Christian and European."