Part 6

We can, every one of us here present, though our teaching may not be much, by our _lives_ “preach a continual sermon, that all who see may understand.” (These words were found in the last letter, left unfinished, of a native convert of the “greatest missionary of modern times,” Bishop Patteson, who was martyred in the South Sea Islands, in September 1871, and this convert with him. Oh, how he puts us to shame!)

It has happened to me--I daresay it has happened to every one of us--to be told by a Child-Patient, one who had been taught to say its prayers, that it “was afraid” to kneel down and “say its prayers” before a whole ward-full of people. Do we encourage and take care of such a little child? Shall we, when we have Wards under our own charge, take care that the Ward is kept so that none at proper times shall be “afraid” to kneel down and say their prayers? Do we reflect on the immense responsibility of a Nurse towards her helpless Sick, who depend upon her almost entirely for quiet, and thought, and order? Do we think that, as was once said, we are to no one as “rude” as we are to God?

I believe that one of our St. Thomas’ Sisters, who is just leaving us after years of good work, is going to set up a “Home” for Sick Children, where, under her, they will be cared for in _all_ ways. I am sure that we shall all bid her “God speed.” And I know that many of those who have gone out from among us, and who are now Hospital Sisters or Nurses--they would not like me to mention their names--do care for their Patients, Children and all, in _all_ ways. Thank God for it!

When a Patient, especially a child, sees you acting in all things as if in the presence of God--and none are so quick to observe it--then the names he or she heard at the Chaplain’s or the Sister’s or the Night Nurse’s lips become names of real things and real Persons. There _is_ a God, a Father; there _is_ a Christ, a Comforter; there _is_ a Spirit of Goodness, of Holiness; there _is_ another world, to such an one.

When a Patient, especially a Child, sees us acting as if there were _no_ God, then there but too often becomes no God to him. Then words become to such a child mere words. And remember, that when such a Nurse--“salt” which has lost its “savour”--speaks to her Patients of God, she puts _a hindrance_ in their way to keep them _from_ God, instead of helping them _to_ God. She had better not speak to them at all.

It is a terrible thought--I speak for myself--that we may _prevent_ people from believing in God, instead of bringing them to “believe in God the Father Almighty.”

What is it, “setting an example”? An example--_of what_? _Who_ is _our_ example, that we are to set? Christ is our example, our pattern: this we all know and say. And when this was once said--a very common word--before a very uncommon man, he said: “When you have your picture taken, the painter does not try to make it rather like, or not very unlike. It is not a good picture if it is not _exactly_ like.” Do we try to be _exactly_ like Christ? If we do not, “are we His, or are we not?” Could it be said of each one of us: “That Nurse _is_ (or is trying to be) exactly what Christ would have been in her place”?

Yet this is what every Nurse has to aim at. Aim lower: and you cannot say then, “Christ is my example.” Aim as high: and, after this life, “we shall be satisfied when we awake in His likeness.”

But this aim cannot be carried out, it cannot even be entertained, without the Parting Promise. The Parting Promise was fulfilled to the disciples ten days afterwards, on Whit-Sunday, when the Holy Spirit was given them--that is, when Christ came as He promised, and was with them.

Christ comes to each Nurse of us all: and stands at our little room-door and knocks. Do we let Him in?

The Holy Spirit comes, no more with outward show but with no less inward power, to each Ward and to each Nurse of us all, who is trying to do her Nursing and her Ward work _in God_, to live her hidden Nurse’s life with Christ in God.

When your Patient asks you for a drink, you do not give him a stone. And shall not our Heavenly Father much more give His Spirit to each one of us, His nurses, when she asks Him? (_Are_ we _His_ nurses?)

What is meant by the Spirit descending upon _us_ Nurses, as it did on the first Whitsuntide? Is it not to put us in a state to nurse Him, by making our heart and our will His? (He has really told us that nursing our Patients is nursing Him.) God asks the _heart_: that is, that we should consecrate _all_ our self to Him--within as well as without, _within_ even more than without--in doing the Nursing work He has given each one of us here to do.

Is it not to have the spirit of love, of courtesy, of justice, of right, of gentleness, of meekness, in our Training School; the spirit of truth, of integrity, of energy and activity, of purity, which He _is_, in our Hospital? This it is to worship God in spirit and in truth. And we need not wait to go into a church, or even to kneel down at prayer, for _this_ worship.

Is it not to feel that we desire really nothing for ourselves in our Nursing life, present and future, but only this, “Thy will be done,” as we say in our daily prayer? Is it not to trust Him, that _His will_ is really the best for each one of us? How much there is in those two words, _His will_--the will of Almighty Wisdom and Goodness, which always _knows_ what is best for each one of us Nurses, which always _wills_ what is best, which always _can_ do what it wills for our best.

Is it not to feel that the care and thought of ourselves is lost in the thought of God and the care of our Patients and fellow-Nurses and Ward-Maids? Is it not to feel that we are never so happy as when we are working _with Him_ and _for them_? And we Nurses can always do this, if we will.

Is not this what Christ meant when He said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you”? “The kingdom of heaven” consists not in much speaking but in doing, not in a sermon but in a heart. “The kingdom of heaven” can _always_ be in a Nurse’s blessed work, and even in her worries. Is not this what the Apostle meant when he told us to “rejoice in the Lord”? That is, to rejoice, whether Matrons, or Sisters, or Nurses, or Night Nurses, in the service of God (which, with us, means good Nursing of the Sick, good fellowship and high example as relates to our fellow-workers); to rejoice in the right, whoever does it; to rejoice in the truth, whoever has it; to rejoice in every good word and work, whoever it is; to rejoice, in one word, in what God rejoices in.

Let us thank God that some special aids to our spiritual life have been given us lately, for which I know many of us _are_ thankful; and some of us have been able to keep this Whitsuntide as we never did before.

One little word more about our Training School. Training “consists in teaching people to bear responsibilities, and laying the responsibilities on them as they are able to bear them,” as Bishop Patteson said of Education. The year which we spend here is generally the most important, as it may be the happiest, of our lives.

Here we find many different characters. Here we meet on a common stage, before we part company again to our several posts. If there are any rich among us, they are not esteemed for their riches. And the poor woman, the friendless, the lonely woman, receives a generous welcome. Every one who has any activity or sense of duty may qualify herself for a future useful life. Every one may receive situations without any reference, except to individual capacity, and to a kind of capacity which it is within the power of the most humble and unfriended to work out. Every one who has any natural kindness or courtesy in her, and who is not too much wrapped up in herself, may make pleasant friends.

Although we know how many and serious faults we have, ought we not also to be able to find here some virtues which do not equally flourish in the larger world?--such as disinterested devotion to the calling we have chosen, and to which we can here fully give ourselves up without anxiety; warm-hearted interest in each other, for no one of us stands here in any other’s way; freedom from jealousy and meanness; a generous self-denial in nursing our charges, and a generous sympathy with other Nurses; above all, an interest in our work, and an earnestness in taking the means given us to improve ourselves in what is to be so useful to others.

And this is also the surest sign of our improvement in it. This is what St. Paul calls: “Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

Always, however, we must be above our work and our worries, keeping our souls free in that “hidden life” of which it has been spoken.

* * * * *

Above all, let us pray that God will send real workers into this immense “field” of Nursing, made more immense this year by the opening out of London _District_ Nursing at the bedside of the sick poor at home. A woman who takes a sentimental view of Nursing (which she calls “ministering,” as if she were an angel), is of course worse than useless. A woman possessed with the idea that she is making a sacrifice will never do; and a woman who thinks any kind of Nursing work “beneath a Nurse” will simply be in the way. But if the right woman is moved by God to come to us, what a welcome we will give her, and how happy she will soon be in a work, the many blessings of which none can know as we know them, though we know the worries too! (Good Bishop Patteson used to talk to his assistants something in this way; would we were like him!)

Nurses’ work means downright work, in a cheery, happy, hopeful, friendly spirit. An earnest, bright, cheerful woman, without that notion of “making sacrifices,” etc., perpetually occurring to her mind, is the real Nurse. Soldiers are sent anywhere, and leave home and country for years; _they_ think nothing of it, because they go “on duty.” Shall _we_ have less self-denial than they, and think less of “duty” than these men? A woman with a healthy, active tone of mind, plenty of work in her, and some enthusiasm, who makes the best of everything, and, above all, does not think herself better than other people because she is a “Nightingale Nurse,” that is the woman we want.

(Must I tell you again, what I have had to tell you before, that we have a great name in the world for--conceit?)

I suppose, of course, that sound religious principle is at the bottom of her.

Now, if there be any young persons really in earnest whom any of you could wish to see engaged in this work, if you know of any such, and feel justified in writing to them, you will be aiding materially in this work if you will put it in their power to propose themselves as Candidates.

My every-day thought is--“How will God provide for the introduction of real Christianity among all of us Nurses, and among our Patients?” My every-day prayer (and I know that the prayer of many of you is the same) is that He will give us the means and show us how to use them, and give us the people. We ask you to pray for us, who have to arrange for you, as we pray for you, who have to nurse the Patients; and I know you do. The very vastness of the work raises one’s thoughts to God, as the only One by whom it can be done. That is the solid comfort--_He knows_. He loves us all, and our Patients infinitely more than we can. He is, we trust, sending us to them; He will bless honest endeavours to do His work among them. Without _this_ belief and support, it seems to me, when we look at the greatness of the work, and how far, far we fall short of it, instead of being conceited, we should not have courage to work at all.

And when we say the words in the Communion Service--“Therefore with angels and archangels,” do we think whether we are fit company for angels? It may not be fanciful to believe that “angels and archangels,” to whom all must seem so different, may see God’s light breaking over the Nursing Service, though perhaps in our time it may not attain the perfect day. Only we must work on, and bring no hindrances to that light. And that not one of us may bring hindrances to that light, believe me, let us pray daily.

* * * * *

I have been longer than I intended or hoped, and will only say one more word.

May we each and all of us Nurses be faithful to the end, remembering this, that no one Nurse stands alone. May we not say, in the words of the prophet, that it is “The Lord” who “hath gathered” us Nurses “together out of the lands”? “It is because we do not _praise_ as we proceed,” said a good and great man, “that our progress is so slow.” Should not all this Training School be so melted into one heart and mind, that we may with _one_ heart and mind act and nurse and sing together our praise and thanksgiving, blessing and gratitude, for mercies, every one of which seems to belong to the whole School? For every Nurse alike belongs to the Mother School of which she is a part, and to the Almighty Father, who has sent her here, and to whom alone we each and all of us Nurses owe everything we have and are.

F. N.

V

_April 28, 1876._

MY DEAR FRIENDS,--Again another year has brought us together to rejoice at our successes, and, if to grieve over some disappointments, to try together to find out what it is that may have brought them about, and to correct it.

God seems to have given His favour to the manner in which you have been working.

Thanks to you, each and all of you, for the pains you have taken to carry out the work. I hope you feel how great have been the pains bestowed upon you.

You are not “grumblers” at all: you do try to justify the great care given you, the confidence placed in you, and, after you have left this Home, the freedom of action you enjoy--by that _intelligent_ obedience to rules and orders, to render which is alone worthy of the name of “Trained Nurse,” of God’s soldier. We shall be poor soldiers indeed, if we don’t _train_ ourselves for the battle. But if discipline is ever looked upon as interference, then freedom has become lawlessness, and we are no “Trained Nurses” at all.

The trained Englishwoman is the first Nurse in the world: _if_--IF she knows how to unite this intelligent obedience to commands with thoughtful and godly command of herself.

* * * * *

“The greatest evils in life,” said one of the world’s highest statesmen, “have had their rise from something which was thought of too little importance to attend to.” How we Nurses can echo that!

“Immense, incalculable misery” is due to “the immoral thoughtlessness”--he calls thoughtlessness immoral--of women about little things. This is what our training is to counteract in us. Think nothing too small to be attended to in this way. Think everything too small of personal trouble or sensitiveness to be cared for in another way.

It is not knowledge only: it is practice we want. We only _know_ a thing if we can _do_ it. There is a famous Italian proverb which says: “So much”--and no more--“each knows as she does.”

What we did last year we may look upon not as a matter of conceit, but of encouragement. We must not fail this year, and we’ll not fail. We’ll keep up to the mark: nay more, we will press on to a higher mark. For our “calling” is a high one (the “little things,” remember: a high excellence in little things). And we must answer to the call ever more and more strenuously and ever more and more humbly too.

We live together: let us live for each other’s comfort. We are all working together: grasp the idea of this as a larger work than our own little pet hobbies, which are very narrow, our own little personal wishes, feelings, piques, or tempers. This is not individual work. A real Nurse sinks self. Remember we are not so many small selves, but members of a community.

“Little children, love one another.” To love, that is, to help one another, to strive together, to act together, to work for the same end, to bring to perfection the sisterly feeling of fellow-workers, without which nothing great is done, nothing good lasts. Might not St. John have been thinking of us Nurses in our Training Schools when he said that?

May God be with us all and we be _one_ in Him and in His _work_!

God speed us all! Amen in our hearts.

I

These are some of the little things we need to attend to:

To be a Nurse _is_ to be a Nurse: not to be a Nurse only when we are put to the work we like. If we can’t work when we are put to the work we don’t like--and Patients can’t always be fitted to Nurses--that is behaving like a spoilt child, like a naughty girl: not like a Nurse.

If we can do the work we don’t like from the higher motive till we do like it, that is one test of being a real Nurse. A Nurse is not one who can only do what she does like, and can’t do what she does not like. For the Patients want according to their wants, and not according to the Nurse’s likes or dislikes.

If you wish to be trained to do _all_ Nursing well, even what you do not like--trained to perfection in little things--that is Nursing for the sake of Nursing, for the sake of God and of your neighbour. And remember, in little things as in great--No Cross, no Crown.

Nursing is said, most truly said, to be a high calling, an honourable calling.

But what does the honour lie in? In working hard during your training to learn and to do all things perfectly. The honour does not lie in putting on Nursing like your uniform, your dress; though dishonour often lies in being neat in your uniform within doors and dressy in your finery out of doors. Dishonour always lies in inconsistency.

Honour lies in loving perfection, consistency, and in working hard for it: in being ready to work patiently: ready to say not “How clever I am!” but “I am not yet worthy: but Nursing is worthy; and I will live to deserve and work to deserve to be called a Trained Nurse.”

Here are two of the plain, practical, little things necessary to produce good Nurses, the want of attention to which produces some of the “greatest evils in life”: quietness, cleanliness, (_a_) Quietness in moving about the “Home”; in arranging your rooms, in not _slamming_ every door after you. No noisy talking on the stairs and in the lobbies--forgetting at times some unfortunate Night Nurse in bed. But if you are Nurses, Nurses ought to be going about quietly whether Night Nurses are asleep or not. For a Sick Ward ought to be as quiet as a Sick Room; and a Sick Room, I need not say, ought to be the quietest place in God’s Kingdom. Quietness in dress, especially being _consistent_ in this matter when off duty and going out. And oh! let the Lady Probationers realise how important their example is in these things, so little and so great! If you are Nurses, Nurses ought not to be dressy, whether in or out of their uniform.

Do you remember that Christ holds up the wild flowers as our example in dress? Why? He says: God “clothes” the field flowers. How does He clothe them?

First: their “clothes” are exactly suitable for the kind of place they are in and the kind of work they have to do. So should ours be.

Second: field flowers are never double: double flowers change their useful stamens for showy petals, and so have no seeds. These double flowers are like the useless appendages now worn on the dress, and very much in your way. Wild flowers have purpose in all their beauty. So ought dress to have; nothing purposeless about it.

Third: the colours of the wild flower are perfect in harmony, and not many of them.

Fourth: there is not a speck on the freshness with which flowers come out of the dirty earth. Even when our clothes are getting rather old we may imitate the flower: for we may make them look as fresh as a daisy.

Whatsoever we do, whether we eat or drink _or dress_, let us do all to the glory of God. But above all remember, “Be not anxious what ye shall put on,” which is the real meaning of “Take no thought.”

This is not my own idea: it was in a Bible lesson, never to be forgotten. And I knew a Nurse who dressed so nicely and quietly after she had heard this Bible lesson that you would think of her as a model. And alas! I have known, oh how many! whose dress was their snare.

Oh, my dear Nurses, whether gentlewomen or not, don’t let people say of you that you are like “Girls of the Period”: let them say that you are like “field flowers,” and welcome.

(_b_) Cleanliness in person and in our rooms, thinking nothing too small to be attended to in this respect. And if these things are important in the “Home,” think how important they are in the Wards, where cleanliness and fresh air--there can be no pure air without cleanliness--not so much give life as _are_ the very life of the Patients; where the smallest carelessness may turn the scale from life to death; where Disinfectants, as one of your own Surgeons has said, are but a “mystic rite.” Cleanliness is the only real Disinfectant. Remember that Typhoid Fever is distinctly a filth disease; that Consumption is distinctly the product of breathing foul air, especially at night; that in surgical cases, Erysipelas and Pyaemia are simply a poisoning of the blood--generally thro’ some want of cleanliness or other. And do not speak of these as little things, which determine the most momentous issues of life and death. I knew a Probationer who when washing a poor man’s ulcerated leg, actually wiped it on his sheet, and excused herself by saying she had always seen it done so in another place. The least carelessness in not washing your hands between one bad case and another, and many another carelessness which it is plain I cannot mention here--it would not be nice, though it is much less nice to do it--the least carelessness, I say, in these things which every Nurse can be careful or careless in, may cost a life: aye, may cost your own, or at least a finger. We have all seen poisoned fingers.

I read with more interest than if they were novels your case papers. Some are meagre, especially in the “history.” Some are good. Please remember that, besides your own instruction, you can give me some too, by making these most interesting cases as interesting as possible, by making them full and accurate, and entering the full history. If the history of every case were recorded, especially of Typhoid Fever, which is, as we said, a filth disease, it is impossible to over-estimate the body of valuable information which would thus be got together, and might go far, in the hands of Officers of Health and by recent laws, to prevent disease altogether. The District Nurses are most useful in this respect.

When we obey all God’s laws as to cleanliness, fresh air, pure water, good habits, good dwellings, good drains, food and drink, work and exercise, health is the result. When we disobey, sickness. 110,000 lives are needlessly sacrificed every year in this kingdom by our disobedience, and 220,000 people are needlessly sick all the year round. And why? Because we will not know, will not obey God’s simple Health laws.

No epidemic can resist thorough cleanliness and fresh air.

* * * * *

Is there any Nurse here who is a Pharisee? This seems a very cruel and unjust question.

We think of the Pharisees, when we read the terrible denunciation of them by our Master, as a small, peculiar, antiquated sect of 2000 years ago. Are they not rather the least peculiar, the most widely-spread people of every time? I am sure I often ask myself, sadly enough, “Am I a Pharisee?” In this sense: Am I, or am I not, doing this with a single eye to God’s work, to serving Him and my neighbour, even tho’ my “neighbour” is as hostile to me as the Jew was to the Samaritan? Or am I doing it because I identify my selfish self with the work, and in so doing serve myself and not God? If so, then I am a Pharisee.