Before leaving the Central Deaconess Home I must speak of one branch of work--the artistic illustration of Scripture texts--because it so illustrates the happy freedom and wisdom of the Mildmay methods, which seek to develop the strength of each sister in the line of her special aptitudes. Two of the deaconesses have marked ability as artists, and they devote their time to illuminating texts and adorning Christmas and Easter cards with rare and exquisite designs. From the sale of these illuminations over five thousand dollars were realized last year for the benefit of the institution. The Conference Hall, too, should have a further word of recommendation for the truly catholic spirit in which it serves the interests of a myriad of good causes. Besides the crowded meetings of the conference there are held Sunday services throughout the year. The hospitality of its rooms is readily granted to every good cause with which the mission has sympathy. During 1887 "temperance society meetings, railway men and their wives, Moravian missions, Pastor Bost's mission at La Force, the MacAll Paris missions, the Sunday closing movement, young men's and young women's Christian associations, a Christian police association, the Children's Special Service mission, the Christmas Letter mission, Bible readings for German residents, and various other foreign and home missions have all in turn been advocated here."[72] The larger number of the deaconesses at the central house, as well as the twenty-five at the branch house in South London, are employed in twenty-one London parishes, where their work has been sought by the clergymen; they go to all, undertaking every kind of labor that can give them access to the hearts and homes of the people. While co-operating with the clergyman in charge of a parish their work is superintended from the Deaconess Home. They visit from house to house among the sick and poor, hold mothers' meetings, teach night-schools, hold Bible-classes separately for men, women, and children; hold special classes for working women and girls who are kept busily employed during the day, and during the winter months have a weekly average of more than nine thousand attendants on their services. They are solving the problem of "how to save the masses" by resolving the masses into individuals, and then influencing these individuals by the power of personal effort and love. But a few steps from Conference Hall is the Nursing Home, where about one hundred "nurse sisters," nurses, and probationers make their home in the intervals between their duties, and are presided over by a lady superintendent of their own. Adjoining is the Cottage Hospital, a beautiful building, the gift of a lady in memory of her son. The walls have been painted and decorated throughout by some ladies who delight in using their skill to make beautiful the homes of the sick.