The fact that nursing was her vocation had for a long time been dawning on her mind, but the way to go to Syria did not seem open, and the Lord had other work for her.  Almost by the same post there arrived two letters, one from Mrs. Ranyard, so well known as the originator of the London Bible Mission, suggesting that she should go and help her in the great work of superintending and training the Bible women, the other from a philanthropic gentleman, unfolding a plan for a proposed nurses’ home in connection with an infirmary, and asking if she, after a few months’ special training, would become its superintendent.  Thus, while one door was shut, two others unexpectedly opened to her.

But which should she enter?  This was the question which she prayerfully debated.  She wished to lay out her life to the best interest for God, and both schemes had special attractiveness to her; the one, because of its intensely spiritual work; the other, because of her love for nursing, and the boundless possibilities for good there might be in training nurses.  She feared, however, that as superintendent of the nurses’ home she might be fettered in more definite Christian work.  She felt she must be left in no uncertainty on this point.  In her letter replying to the gentleman who had written to her, she said:—­“You sent me the ground plan of the building, but I would ask, is its foundation and corner stone to be Christ and Him crucified, the only Saviour?  Is the Christian training of the nurses to be the primary, and hospital skill the secondary object?  I ask not that all should be of one Christian denomination, but what I do ask is that Jesus, the God-man, and His finished work of salvation for all who believe on Him, should be the basis, and the Bible the book of the institution.  If this be your end and aim, then will I gladly pass through any course of training to be fitted to help in your work.”

Soon after writing this letter she bade farewell to Kaiserswerth.  Her plan was to go first to London to consult with Miss Nightingale and other friends as to her future.  The seven months in Germany had been most happy ones, and she was ever thankful for the time she had spent there.  She fully saw the great need of Christian training institutions.  In those days the Evangelical Protestant churches, unlike the Romanists, who for many centuries had largely availed themselves of it, were not alive to the importance of the ministry of women.  There were no institutions in England where Christian women could be trained to work for Christ, that work of all others the most important, and some, to secure the training they longed for, and could not get elsewhere, had even entered Roman Catholic sisterhoods.  Times are changed now, thank God, and although there is still the need of more, there are many institutions where Christian women can be thoroughly and efficiently trained for service of different kinds at home and abroad.

CHAPTER IV.