AN INFANT RIVER.
Pass on, young stream, the world has need of thee;
Far hence a mighty river on its breast
Bears the deep-laden vessels to the sea;
Far hence wide waters feed the vines and corn.
Pass on, small stream, to so great purpose born,
On to the distant toil, the distant rest.
—_Augusta Webster_.
Five years after Elsworth’s marriage a great meeting of nobility and
others interested in hospital and charitable work in the metropolis,
met at a ducal residence in Kensington to found a society for the
purpose of establishing in every quarter of London inhabited by working
people, a small hospital and nursing institute on the plan of the
Nightingale institution. This was proposed to be combined with a
similar scheme of civilizing work to that conducted by the Home of the
same name.
It was felt and cordially expressed that so admirable were the results
of the work done by this institution, that society owed it to the
poorer districts of the metropolis at once to do this much towards
remedying the terrible and growing evils caused by the withdrawal of
the gentry from the working neighbourhoods of London; and that the
growing discontent of the people could best be allayed by such a scheme
carried out in its integrity.
One of the speakers said that each place would involve an expenditure
of not more than twelve hundred pounds a year, which sum he believed
was about the cost of keeping the rhinoceros at the Zoological Gardens.
It was not disputed that there were hundreds of ladies leading
perfectly idle and useless lives in the West End who would gladly
devote themselves to such a work if it were made practicable; and it
seemed to the speakers that no missionary work could have such a claim
on Christian people as this. The result of the meeting was that in a
few days large sums of money were placed at the disposal of the
committee, and some fifty ladies of wealth and position offered
themselves for personal service in its cause.
Elsworth is now engaged in a scheme for a General Hospital of 200 beds,
with a Medical School attached to it; the latter being for the purpose
of educating on humane principles such young men as may desire to
devote themselves to the healing art on the lines laid down by the
Founder of that faith from which has sprung all the charities of modern
Christendom.
It is thought that should this plan meet with the success which has
attended other hospitals founded on similar principles, it will be
ultimately possible to re-direct our richly endowed charities to the
purposes intended by their founders and supporters. For many years it
was loudly maintained by the doctors that patients could not recover
from many illnesses without the liberal use of alcoholic stimulants.
The success of the Temperance Hospital has upset that “idol of the
schools.” The physiological mania, the drug mania, and the operative
furor will all in time pass away like the craze for bleeding, and it
will ultimately be found that it is perfectly possible to cure the sick
and save the limbs of the injured by merciful, honourable, and rational
means. But then it will want merciful, honourable, and rational
Christian gentlemen to do all this. _Nous verrons._
_L’Envoi._
When the world has been dowered with a great truth, the boon comes
usually as a germ. The world always looks for its Messiah as a crowned
King, and neglects its infant Jesus in the manger. No great truth
flashes on the world all at once; great forces work ever most silently.
Even the Christ of God so little affected the contemporary history of
His period that scarce any record is found of His work in the secular
literature of the time.
The seeds of truth, placed in favourable conditions, can no more help
growing than the sun can help shining; both fulfil the laws which are
behind them; and it is a source of infinite solace to the noble men and
women who are striving to benefit the world by their words and works
that no great idea founded on the truth of God can either perish or
fail of its mission. The work of Mildred and Harrowby Elsworth must
ultimately succeed; its principles must in time dominate the conduct of
the great medical charities of our land. When the air and light of day
are let in upon the foul accumulations of scientific error which have
lately been infecting their atmosphere, their antiseptic influence will
kill the bacteria of a “science falsely so called.”
THE END.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
This text has been preserved as in the original, including archaic and
inconsistent spelling, punctuation and grammar, except as noted below.
Obvious printer’s errors have been silently corrected.
Text in italics in the original work is shown herein as _text_.
Small capitals are shown herein as all capitals.
Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end of the relevant
chapter.
Contents, Chapter XXIV, page number was changed from 153 to 152 to
correspond to the actual chapter beginning page number.
Contents, Chapter XXXI, title is “Gospel at Work” and chapter title is
“Gospel of Work” which was retained.