s indeed a high one, though no higher
than the standard of God's Word. Before this, in asking permission to
remain longer at Kaiserswerth, she had written to her mother:--"Your
wishes shall be my guide, now and for the future, as long as I am
blessed with such a loving counsellor. I trust my present training in
obedience will not be lost in reference to home."

Although she thought the whole training at Kaiserswerth invaluable she
wrote long after:--"I believe all I owe to Kaiserswerth was comprised in
the lesson of unquestioning obedience." Those who would rule must first
learn to obey, and certain it is that she would never have been fitted
to be afterwards the head of a large institution hundreds to care for
and govern, had she not so truly imbibed the spirit of obedience.

While she had a profound admiration for Kaiserswerth, she could still
see that the life of a deaconess, shielded though it is from the world,
is not exempt from danger. Some fancy that the life of a deaconess, or
of any one similarly set apart, must be much more free from temptation
than that of any ordinary person. "I think," she wrote, "every one is as
much called on as a deaconess is to work for Him who first loved us; but
if this does not constrain us as Christians, neither will it as
deaconesses, and certainly the 'Anstalt' (Institution) is a world in
which the Martha-spirit may be found as well as in the outer world.
There are many most deeply taught Christians here, many whose faces
shine, but I should say, comparing my home life (but few have such a
home) with that of the deaconesses here, I should say that, in many
positions here, there are more, not only daily but hourly temptations."

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