The actual time of her conversion seems to have been during the period that she resided with her mother and sister in Dublin.  To the earnest man of God whose ministry they attended, the preparation of the younger members of his flock for admission to the Lord’s Supper was no perfunctory task.  He introduced her, with others of his candidates, to one of his helpers as “anxious inquirers.”  So shy and reserved was Agnes that she said but little, yet this lady remarked of her:—­“In the class her intense appetite for the living bread was so apparent, that I often felt myself speaking to her only, her calm gentle eyes fixed on me, as God helped me to speak.”

It is impossible for those who have definitely accepted Christ’s salvation, and who truly realise His love to perishing sinners, to be idlers in His vineyard.  We are therefore not surprised to find her soon at work, her own particular plot being in the ragged school.  Her needy little scholars were a great interest to her.  She always showed the greatest sympathy and devotion to them, and while caring for their souls did not forget their bodily needs.  Even when on a holiday she sought and found work amongst the poor.  Indeed, distress of any kind always appealed to her heart.

There are some Christians who are very active in the outside world, but who forget that the first duty of a child of God is to “show piety at home.”  It was not so with Agnes Jones, for it was in the home that the beauty of her life was most visible, and it was in the family circle that the affection and unselfishness of her character shone most conspicuously.  Others, indeed, could plainly see the development of the Christ-life in her, but she herself, dwelling as she did in the presence of her Lord, was prone to judge herself harshly.  Thus, with every moment occupied, she charged herself with being lazy and negligent.

The first step towards the great work of her life was taken while on a visit to the Continent in 1853.  During the May meetings in Paris, there was one held on behalf of the Oeuvre des Diaconesses, one of the branches of the Institution at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, founded by Pastor Fliedner.  This she attended, and was then first made acquainted with that work, which became of great interest to her, an interest which was much strengthened by a visit to Kaiserswerth itself about two months later.  “As we drove away,” she writes, “my great wish was that this might not be my last visit to Kaiserwerth....  That visit was, I believe, a talent committed to our care; may it not be buried.”

So full was she of the conviction that by seeing more of the work at Kaiserswerth she would be the better fitted for her beloved work in Ireland, that she proposed that she should go there for a week.  To her great joy her mother concurred in the proposal, and earnestly did Agnes pray that this visit might be blessed and sanctified by God to His glory.