He is a rash soldier who ventures into the battle without a weapon tried and proved, and he can only be an unsuccessful Christian worker who does not make the Word of God the rule and guide of his life.  To Agnes Jones the Bible was a constant study.  She was a most earnest student of God’s Word, and delighted to meditate upon it.  In her journal she writes:—­“What should I be without my Bible?” And again, realising the truth of the promise, “He that watereth shall be watered also himself,” she says:—­“God’s Word often comes home more strongly to my own heart as I read to the poor, and try to make a few simple remarks.”  Little wonder is it that, knowing and loving His Word as she did, Christ was to her a very personal Saviour and Friend.  Her one longing was for more and more likeness to Him.

CHAPTER III.

FOREIGN TRAINING.

However strong and good our wishes may be, it is never safe to force on their accomplishment.  They are never the losers who wait God’s time, and the wisest course of all is the one which Agnes Jones pursued, of telling her wishes to God, and then, in perfect submission to His will, leaving the issue with Him.

It was not until seven years after her visit to Kaiserswerth that the way was made open for her to return there.  This step had been suggested by her mother five years previously, but the filial spirit was so strong in her that, although she eagerly desired a more thorough training for God’s service, she felt that her mother stood first, and refused to leave her alone.  Now the case was different, and she gladly seized the opportunity.  Still she was nervously fearful lest after all she should not be following the guiding pillar.

It was in the autumn of 1860 that she arrived at Kaiserswerth, where she immediately entered heartily into the work.  Her intention was to stay for only a month, or at the most six weeks; but after she had been there but a short time, the pastor so strongly represented the great advantage it would be to her to spend the whole winter in the institution, that she felt constrained to write for her mother’s permission to do so.  As ever, she was full of prayer for God’s guidance, and that whatever was done might be only for His glory.  Her mother leaving the choice entirely with her, she decided to remain, believing that the training would be of inestimable use to her in her future work.

The Deaconesses’ Institution at Kaiserswerth had a very small beginning.  Pastor Fliedner, having heard of Mrs. Fry’s work amongst female prisoners, was filled with longing to follow her example, and received two discharged prisoners, whose friends had refused them, with the object of giving them the chance of retrieving their character.  He set them to work under the personal supervision of himself and his wife.  The work soon increased, and assistance was needed.  To the penitentiary were added an orphanage, a training-school, a hospital, and a lunatic asylum.  More and more workers were drawn in, and at the time of Agnes Jones’s first visit there were fifteen branches of the institution in different parts of the world.  This number by the time of her second visit had increased to fifty.