ation had already
won respect through the good reports of the deaconess houses on the
Continent, he decided to adopt the same name. They continued to work in
his parish only until the terrible visitation of the cholera in 1866.
Then when men were swept into eternity by hundreds, and hundreds more
were in dire distress, the deaconesses were invited by the minister of
another parish to come to his assistance. In this way the bounds of the
work began to enlarge. A small hospital was added to the home and a
medical-school mission was begun.

It now became necessary to build a large hall; the iron room was too
small for the conferences, the church too small for the congregation,
and the missions had outgrown the capacity of the mission room. When the
plan for a new building was made known money came in unsolicited from
various sources. The undertaking was pushed rapidly forward, and in
October, 1870, the hall was opened. It will seat 2,500 people, having a
platform at the west end, and a gallery running around the sides and
east end.

Thanksgiving and prayer were built into the walls from the very
foundation; and before the basement rooms were cleared of rubbish, or
the floor laid, a prayer-meeting was held to ask for a blessing upon the
future undertakings of the mission. The basement was divided into five
rooms, to be used for night-schools and other agencies for the benefit
of the poor.

Adjoining the hall, at the west end, was built the deaconess house. From
his home near by Mr. Pennefather had watched the completion of the work
with great interest. In one of his letters he says:[68] "Sometimes I can
scarcely believe that it is a reality, and not all a dream--the
Conference Hall, with its appendages, and the deaconess house actually
in existence. May the Holy Spirit fill the place, and may he make it a
center from whence the living waters shall flow forth."

From a letter written to one of these deaconesses, we gain his opinion
as to the need of deaconesses, and what was his ideal of a Home.[69]
"The need for such an institution is great indeed. I do not suppose
there was ever a time in the history of Christianity in which the
openings for holy, disciplined, intelligent women to labor in God's
vineyard were so numerous as at present. The population in towns and
rural districts are waiting for the patient and enduring love that
dwells in the breast of a truly pious woman, to wake them up to thought
and feeling. O! if