Many churches that need the services of a deaconess will doubtless select one of their number whose heart God has inclined to this service, and will provide the means by which she can secure the necessary training at a home and training-school. There are many devout Christian women in every community who have for years been deaconesses in labors, if not in title and prerogatives. It is very important for such women to give their sympathies and fostering care to this new institution. If not deaconesses by office, they can ally themselves as associates. The associate is a real officer in many of the deaconess establishments in London. Ladies who have great sympathy with the cause, and an earnest desire to do what they can to advance it, give some portion of their time, their labor, or their means to promote its interests. They will go to the home and reside there for some weeks or months, being under the direction of the superintendent and filling all the duties of a sister. Or, if such duties are not practicable, they will work in behalf of the home, often securing the aid of those whose assistance is most valuable. In some places it is arranged that a woman who earns her bread by daily toil shall be assigned to labor at her regular vocation, consecrating a certain portion of her wages (perhaps one twenty-fourth) to the cause with which she is allied. The Church has been accused of being too abstract, too ideal, too far removed from the life of the people in its every-day aspects. It is well for Church members to examine themselves, and the Church communities to which they belong, to judge how much ground there is for such criticism. None are so sharp-sighted as hostile critics, and from none can such good lessons be learned. But this accusation is not a new one, and the only effectual way to meet it is to point to what the Church has accomplished. Over eighteen hundred years ago, when John the Baptist was in danger of mistaking our Lord, he sent to him, saying: "Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?" and the answer was: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached." Let us be prepared to make a similar answer to-day, and the Church need fear no accusation of holding aloof from the needs of the daily life of the people. "Christianity, as it stands in the Bible and in our creeds, will neither be read nor understood by millions; Christianity as it is revealed in the loving service of deaconesses will be recognized by the dullest eyes."[99] We have reached a new departure in Methodism. The Church has added another to its aggressive forces. How is it to be received? What welcome will be given it? May pastors and people, one and all, be in that attitude of spirit where we shall respond readily to the command: "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."