Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses: A selection from Miss Nightingale's addresses to probationers and nurses of the Nightingale school at St. Thomas's hospitalNightingale, Florence
History
Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses: A selection from Miss Nightingale's addresses to probationers and nurses of the Nightingale school at St. Thomas's hospital
Nightingale, Florence
Nursing -- Education -- 19th century; Nursing -- History -- 19th century; Nursing -- Vocational guidance -- 19th century
Strange to say, on Good Friday, though she was so delirious that there
was difficulty in keeping her in bed, and she did not know what day it
was, Christ on the Cross was her theme all the day long. “Christ died on
the Cross for me, and I want to go and die for Him.” She had indeed
lived for Him. Then on Easter Day she said to Miss Blower: “I am happy,
so happy: we are both happy, so very happy.” She said she was going to
hear the eighth Psalm. Shall we remember Martha’s favourite psalm? She
spoke often about St. Thomas’.
She died the day after Easter Day. The change came at 7 in the evening,
and she lived till 5 o’clock the next morning, conscious to the last,
repeating sentences, and answering by looks when she could speak no
more. Her Saviour, whom she had so loved and followed in her life, was
with her thro’ the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and she felt Him
there. She was happy. “My best love,” she said, “tell them it is all for
the best, and I am not sorry I came out.”
Her parents have given her up nobly, though with bleeding hearts, with
true submission to our Father’s will: they _are_ satisfied it is “all
for the best.”
All the Montreal Hospital shared our sorrow. The Doctors were full of
kindness in their medical attendance. Mr. Redpath, who is a principal
Director, and Mrs. Redpath were like a real father and mother to our
people. Martha’s death-bed and coffin were strewed with flowers.
Public and private prayers were offered up for her at Montreal during
her illness. Who can say that they were not answered?
She spoke of dying: but without fear. We prayed that God would spare the
child to us: but He had need of her.
Our Father arranged her going out: for she went, if ever woman did, with
a single eye to please Him and do her duty to the work and her
Superintendent. “Is it well with the child?” “It is well.” Let us who
feel her loss so deeply in the work not grudge her to God.
As one of you yourselves said: “She died like a good soldier of Jesus
Christ, well to the front.” Would any one of us wish it otherwise for
her? Would any one of us wish a better lot for herself? There is but one
feeling among us all about her: that she lived as a noble Christian
girl, and that she has been permitted to die nobly: in the post of
honour, as a soldier thinks it glorious to die. In the midst of our
work, so surely do we Nurses think it glorious to die.
But to be like her we must have a mind like hers: “enduring, patient,
firm, and meek.” I know that she sought of God the mind of Jesus Christ,
“active, like His; like His, resigned”; copying His pattern: ready to
“endure hardness.”
We give her joy; it is our loss, not hers. She is gone to our Lord and
her Lord, made ripe so soon for her and our Father’s house. Our tears
are her joy. She is in another room of our Father’s house. She bids us
now give thanks for her. Think of that Easter morn when she rose again!
She had indeed “another morn than ours”--that 17th of April.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account