And this brings me to something else. (I can always correct others
though I cannot always correct myself.) It is about jealousies and
punctilios as to ranks, classes, and offices, when employed in one good
work. What an injury this jealous woman is doing, not to others, or not
to others so much as to herself; she is doing it to herself! She is not
getting out of her work the advantage, the improvement to her own
character, the nobleness (for to be useful is the only true nobleness)
which God has appointed her that work to attain. She is not getting out
of her work what God has given it her for; but just the contrary.
(Nurses are not children, but women; and if they can’t do this for
themselves, no one can for them.)
I think it is one of Shakespeare’s heroes who says “I laboured to be
wretched.” How true that is! How true it is of some people all their
lives; and perhaps there is not one of us who could not say it with
truth of herself at one time or other: I laboured to be mean and
contemptible and small and ill-tempered, by being revengeful of petty
slights.
A woman once said: “What signifies it to me that this one does me an
injury or the other speaks ill of me, if I do not deserve it? The injury
strikes God before it strikes me, and if He forgives it, why should not
I? I hope I love Him better than I do myself.” This may sound fanciful;
but is there not truth in it?
What a privilege it is, the work that God has given us Nurses to do, if
we will only let Him have His own way with us--a greater privilege to
my mind than He has given to any woman (except to those who are
teachers), because _we_ can always be useful, always “ministering” to
others, real followers of Him who said that He came “not to be
ministered unto” but to minister. Cannot we fancy Him saying to _us_, If
any one thinks herself greater among you, let her minister unto others.
This is not to say that we are to be doing other people’s work. Quite
the reverse. The very essence of all good organisation is that everybody
should do her (or his) own work in such a way as to help and not to
hinder every one else’s work.
But this being arranged, that any one should say, I am “put upon” by
having to associate with so-and-so; or by _not_ having so-and-so to
associate with; or, by not having such a post; or, by having such a
post; or, by my Superiors “walking upon me,” or, “dancing” upon me (you
may laugh, but such things have actually been said), or etc.,
etc.,--this is simply making the peace of God impossible, the call of
God (for in all work He calls us) of none effect; it is grieving the
Spirit of God; it is doing our best to make all free-will associations
intolerable.
In “Religious Orders” this is provided against by enforcing blind,
unconditional obedience through the fears and promises of a Church.
Does it not seem to you that the greater freedom of secular Nursing
Institutions, as it requires (or ought to require) greater individual
responsibility, greater self-command in each one, greater nobleness in
each, greater _self-possession_ in _patience_--so, that very need of
self-possession, of greater nobleness in each, requires (or ought to
require) greater thought in each, more discretion, and higher, not less,
obedience? For the obedience of intelligence, not the obedience of
slavery, is what _we_ want.
The slave obeys with stupid obedience, with deceitful evasion of
service, or with careless eye service. Now, we cannot suppose God to be
satisfied or pleased with stupidity and carelessness. The free woman in
Christ obeys, or rather _seconds_ all the rules, all the orders given
her, with intelligence, with all her heart, and with all her strength,
and with all her _mind_.
“Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”
And you who have to be Head Nurses, or Sisters of Wards, well know what
I mean, for you have to be Ward _Mistresses_ as well as Nurses; and how
can she (the Ward Mistress) command if she has not learnt how to obey?
If she cannot enforce upon herself to obey rules with discretion, how
can she enforce upon her Ward to obey rules with discretion?