Again the Pool of Bethesda is brought to mind, as love for the sick and suffering is shown in a way hitherto unthought of. In 1875, the Home of Industry became a centre of the now well-known Bible Flower Mission. One of the much-loved helpers recorded this touching incident:-- "In the early spring of 1874, a snowdrop, primrose, and two or three violets which had been casually enclosed in a letter from an East-end worker to Mrs. Merry, were passed round her sewing class of 200 poor old widows, 'for each to have a smell,' and then divided and given to three dying Christians, one of whom breathed her last fondly clasping them. From that time flowers were collected through the medium of 'Woman's Work,' etc., and during the season distributed by the ladies at the Home of Industry among the sick in the neighbouring courts, and in different hospitals. "Again the hedges, tipped with tiny coral buds, primroses, and daffodils peeping up amid the brushwood, golden-eyed celandines and daisies lifting their sweet faces with smiles of welcome, remind us of the near approach of the bright spring-time. But the heart is saddened, and the joy of seeing this fresh burst of resurrection--loveliness is clouded, when we turn to gloomy, stifling courts and lanes in the crowded cities, where gleams of sunshine scarce ever penetrate; the lives of whose miserable inhabitants are yet more utterly devoid of brightness; to whom the voice of spring is an unmeaning sound; to sick ones in these courts, who have no easier couch for the pain-filled limbs than a heap of shavings on the hard floor of a room filled with noisy children, and disorderly men and women; to other sufferers tossing feverishly in hospital wards, with nothing softer for the tired eyes to rest on than the endless stretch of whitewashed walls, the background of long rows of patients whose sad pale cheeks vie in whiteness with the sheets and walls: and the cry ascends? "'Oh, that a tithe of the wealth of fragrant, many-coloured flowers so lavishly spread over gardens, fields, and hedgerows, could be brought to cheer those who so dearly prize each separate bloom!' "And once more down, deeper down, into the haunts of vice, smiling so sweetly with the radiance of heavensent gifts, these messengers may go--ready-made missionaries--to open doors and hearts fast locked hitherto, but which must yield to their gentle influence; and thus prepare the way for the ministry of the word of salvation.