We can, every one of us here present, though our teaching may not be much, by our _lives_ “preach a continual sermon, that all who see may understand.” (These words were found in the last letter, left unfinished, of a native convert of the “greatest missionary of modern times,” Bishop Patteson, who was martyred in the South Sea Islands, in September 1871, and this convert with him. Oh, how he puts us to shame!) It has happened to me--I daresay it has happened to every one of us--to be told by a Child-Patient, one who had been taught to say its prayers, that it “was afraid” to kneel down and “say its prayers” before a whole ward-full of people. Do we encourage and take care of such a little child? Shall we, when we have Wards under our own charge, take care that the Ward is kept so that none at proper times shall be “afraid” to kneel down and say their prayers? Do we reflect on the immense responsibility of a Nurse towards her helpless Sick, who depend upon her almost entirely for quiet, and thought, and order? Do we think that, as was once said, we are to no one as “rude” as we are to God? I believe that one of our St. Thomas’ Sisters, who is just leaving us after years of good work, is going to set up a “Home” for Sick Children, where, under her, they will be cared for in _all_ ways. I am sure that we shall all bid her “God speed.” And I know that many of those who have gone out from among us, and who are now Hospital Sisters or Nurses--they would not like me to mention their names--do care for their Patients, Children and all, in _all_ ways. Thank God for it! When a Patient, especially a child, sees you acting in all things as if in the presence of God--and none are so quick to observe it--then the names he or she heard at the Chaplain’s or the Sister’s or the Night Nurse’s lips become names of real things and real Persons. There _is_ a God, a Father; there _is_ a Christ, a Comforter; there _is_ a Spirit of Goodness, of Holiness; there _is_ another world, to such an one. When a Patient, especially a Child, sees us acting as if there were _no_ God, then there but too often becomes no God to him. Then words become to such a child mere words. And remember, that when such a Nurse--“salt” which has lost its “savour”--speaks to her Patients of God, she puts _a hindrance_ in their way to keep them _from_ God, instead of helping them _to_ God. She had better not speak to them at all. It is a terrible thought--I speak for myself--that we may _prevent_ people from believing in God, instead of bringing them to “believe in God the Father Almighty.”