HELP TO BETTER HABITS.

We have had amongst our Nurses of late one or two very painful cases of poisoned fingers from dressing bad wounds, and neglect of a simple rule, viz., to cover the least scratch on their own hands with adhesive plaister before engaging in their work. The results of not doing so have been that the poison affects their whole system, and that they have been obliged to retire either into hospital, or to be taken into fresh air in Convalescent Homes; in either case being laid aside for weeks. We make this known as admonitory to others.

One of these has found time, during her seclusion, to write a little about her cases. She says, "I hope, soon, to return to my patients, strengthened in health through the kindness that has been shown me, and with new sympathy for the sick, and also to be more careful in my own habits, as well as more zealous and faithful in my work for Christ's sake."

"I had a case, now recovered. Mrs. ***, she met with an accident before Christmas. Dr. W--- attended. A piece of stone fell on her head from a house she was passing. It broke the bone one inch or more, also the cartilage of the nose, her face also was cut and bruised. She was brought home, and I was sent for to see to her wounds. After the doctor had dressed it, I went every day (often twice), dressed her head and face with our lotion and oil. The doctor was pleased, and said, 'But for the care she had received, her case would have been much worse.'

"They applied to the owner of the house for a recompense. Mrs. *** was, I must own, a dirty woman. She kept a dog, a cat, a chicken, in the one room they lived in. Everything was in a very dirty state, dirty dishes and cloths under the chairs, and the chicken scratching out the ashes over the floor. She had a family of two or three grown-up children besides herself. She is a widow. They all lived and worked in one room. My Superintendent has spoken to them, so have I, about the dirt; but I hope there will now be an improvement. They wanted, very much, a sewing-machine, for quilting silk and satin petticoats, and could have plenty of work if they

had one. They tried to get one from the Park-street Relief Fund, but a few days after this the doctor said they would receive a recompense from the owner of the house, so I thought it best for them to wait and see.

"In a short time Mrs. *** came to me and said, 'Nurse, you have been my friend all through my trouble, and I am sure you are the one to come to now. I have received 207. recomI have done what you told me. I have not let anyone

pense.

know I have it, for they would only say, "Treat me to this, that, and another thing, lend me 17. or so, and if I did, I should never get it again, so I come to you to advise me; have I done right?'

"My dear Mrs. ***, I can only say what I have said before, take someone with you and get your machine, choose a good one, pay ready money for it, it will always be a living for you; pay the back rent you told me was owing, make yourself and home tidy, and what you have left, put by for a rainy day.' She said, 'Yes, Nurse, I will, because I know you mean it for my good.'

"I was very anxious about this woman, fearing that much of her money would be wasted, and as soon as I was able to walk out, I went round to her house. I was pleased to see the machine. There it stood, worth 77. 78. Od. The rent-book was receipted; a linsey dress hung on the door, and, to my surprise, the animals were gone, and in their place stood a pail and whitewash-brush. Mrs. *** said, 'Nurse, we have got the kitchen now, so we are going to live down there, and clear all the dirty things out of this room, and wash the walls and ceiling, and make it a work-room. Maybe when the ladies see it clean, they may give us work.' I hope, indeed, to see a change of heart as well as home. She very often speaks of God's mercy in sparing her life. I pray it may be blessed to her soul. She is much cheered and taught by my lady's visits."

FLOWER MISSION TO LONDON.

A FEW ladies in the country having received many appeals from various hospitals and missions, inviting gifts of flowers and

fruit, have resolved to try the experiment of establishing a regular FLOWER MISSION to the poor of London this spring. Two depôts will begin work on Easter Tuesday, when flowers will be thankfully received on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before 12 throughout the season. They should be directed to

the

SECRETARY OF THE FLOWER MISSION,

HOME OF INDUSTRY, Commercial-street, Spitalfields, E.;

OR,

To the Secretary (as above),

CONFERENCE HALL, MILDMAY-PARK, N.

"Flowers should be placed in water for two hours before packing; and if tied in bunches travel better and greatly facilitates the work at the Depôt. The Secretary of the Flower Mission will be glad to hear of any Christian Ladies who would undertake to start a similar depôt in neighbourhoods like St. Giles's, &c."

FLOWERS FOR THE SICK POOR.

Passing through one of our London streets, a lady threw into the lap of a poor fallen sister sitting outside the door of a public-house, a sweetpea from among the flowers she carried. Not a word was spoken, but that one little flower brought back to the poor woman memories of youthful days, when in a little spot allotted to her in the home garden in the country village she had grown sweet peas. Following upon that came sad recollections of home and of a mother's love, and the resolution to return to both was formed, and carried out."—The Ministry of Flowers.

"And whither went two bunches of sweet, fresh, large purple violets, which reached us last night by post, labelled ‘for the sick,' and enclosed in a slight card box? By the hand of our nearest Nurse, into rooms where the reader may follow them, and fancy the look of pleasure which lighted up the face of each sufferer who received them.

66

They happened to arrive on Saturday night, an undesirable time, but we did not like to retain them lest half their fragrance should depart, and we thought Nurse B would know where to leave them, in an early call, on her way to her place of worship.

"She says, however, 'I was sent for early by a young mother whom I have been attending in her confinement; her infant had

I

just died in her arms, and she needed me to wash and prepare it for the grave, therefore I could not go with the violets till the afternoon (we wished she could have folded a few in the tiny waxen fingers; however, she says)

"I had divided the two bunches into three, and gave one to a poor woman who has been paralyzed for six years, and can only be lifted from her bed to her chair. I was wishing only one day last week I could brighten her solitary room with some flowers; they are so often God's silent messengers, and she has to spend so many hours quite alone.

"The second bunch I gave to a poor old woman who has had a dreadful leg from erysipelas, but is getting nicely well. Her affliction has been a great blessing to her, as I do not hesitate to say she is now a humble believer. She has only half-a-crown a week from the parish, and after paying two shillings for rent has very little left. She told me the other day her God had sent her the money for a loaf of bread in direct answer to prayer, and, with tears of thankfulness, she added, it was the sweetest she had ever eaten.' She was so delighted with the violets, and said she fancied herself in her country home.

"The last I gave to two poor sisters, one of whom is afflicted with cancer and the other so crippled with rheumatism that she can only move round her room by sliding from one chair to another, and has been in this state six years. These flowers, so fresh and sweet, have shed a Sabbath odour in three desolate dwellings, and have charmed some of God's poor servants not by their beauty and fragrance only, but still more by their testimony to the kindness of the sender. I was delighted to be able to carry them to those close rooms, where the perfume of a spring violet is such a rarity."

N.B.-We hear of a kind promise, in connection with the above Mission, from a young lady in Derbyshire to send a hamper of cut flowers, tied in bunches, to be taken weekly by our NURSES to their sick when they come to the MOTHER HOUSE, 20, REGENT-SQUARE, W.C., London, for their ordinary supplies of nourishment, old clothing, &c. These flowers should not arrive later than Monday night, or before 12 o'clock Tuesday.

There would be an opportunity also of supplying bunches of

cut flowers through the BIBLE-WOMEN on the days previous to the monthly meetings of those who are paid centrally; viz., these should reach No. 20, Regent-square, April 2 and 30, May 28, June 25, July 23, August 20, September 17, and October 15. These supplies should arrive on Friday night, or before 10 o'clock on Saturday.

BIBLE VISITS TO MOSLEM HAREEMS.

"MY DEAR FRIEND,

"Hitherto the Reports of our Bible-women, whom you equip for the battle in Syria, have related to the work among the mixed multitude of sects and nationalities which occupy the land. But I am sure you will be more than interested by the enclosed report of the special Bible-woman's work among the Mohammedan ladies. She has hitherto been maintained at the cost of a dear friend now deceased, but we have not let the work be suspended even for a day. I cannot tell you how deeply I feel interested in these Moslem ladies, and strange enough how, amid all their extraordinary perversions of the truths of the Bible, there is among them such an under-current of the realities of the faith of the old patriarchs, that I feel more at home among them than with the professed Christians of the land, the bigoted and almost idolatrous Maronites, &c., &c. They have a pure Monotheism and something of spirituality; then, too, they are ignorant, helpless, and often thirsting for an enlargement of knowledge, and a more honoured position as wives and mothers. They really seem to love us and wonder how we who know so much don't oftener come to enlighten and cheer them. The enclosed report is from an educated Bible-woman, who speaks Turkish like a native, as well as Arabic.

"Soon I hope to return to England, where I have much to do and to tell. Yours affectionately,

The journal is as follows:

S.S."

"Every morning (says an authorized visitor) I go from 8 o'clock till 12 to read to some Moslem ladies, and sometimes I teach them to read and write, sometimes fancy work. They are very thankful to be taught. They