AN EVANGELICAL DEACONESS.

FROM THE GERMAN BY J. W. E.

In the eastern portion of Berlin in the so-called Koepeniker fields, you will find, dear reader, a building of stately and imposing proportions, with towers and side-wings, and surrounded with park and garden. It is the infirmary and Deaconess' institution, Bethania, established by Frederick William IV., King of Prussia, immediately after his accession to the throne. and designed to serve as a hospital for the nursing of the sick by the hands of Deaconesses, which ancient apostolic order had been called back into life by Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserswerth on the Rhine.

It was on the third June, 1853. In the large and beautiful garden of Bethania, lilac and roses bloomed and exhaled their fragrant odor, and every bush and tree was dressed in the beauty of spring. There came rolling along a stately coach. Its door bore the coat of arms and crown of a count, a black deer below two red forels in a white field. Out of the coach window bent the beautiful head of a noble lady. Her eyes rested with a radiant smile upon the mansion and the surrounding garden. The coach stops before the door of the infirmary, and out steps a man of a noble soldier like bearing, his head crowned already with the snow of age; an elderly lady follows him; he conducts her to the door. The other lady, with those radiant eyes and the smile of youth, had hurried up before them. Sister Portress, in plain black dress and white cap, opens the door; a pleasant smile passes over her countenance on recognizing the dear visitors, and she conducts them to the office of the matron of Bethania. It is empty. The matron, Marianne de Rantzau, is already for nine long months chained to a painful sick-bed. And then all three, father, mother and daughter, proceed on, and surround the bed of the patient sufferer in a small white little room.

"Worshipful matron, we bring to you to-day our daughter Anna to become a deaconess in this house. Her heart, her God draws her to the bed of suffering humanity, to serve as an humble hand-maid of the Lord. With our whole heart, we consecrate her to this work. "Sir Count, your child shall be a beloved daughter unto me. Anna kneels before the bed; the trembling hand of the matron rests in blessing softly upon the pure head of the young lady, and the rich brown hair disappears under the white cap of the deaconess. A maternal kiss confirms the new union. Anna Countess de Stolberg Werningerode, fifth daughter of the Count Anton, Prussian Lieutenant General, Minister of the Royal House and Chief Chamberlain, appears again in plain black robe and white cap, as "Novice Sister Anna" of the Deaconess House Bethania. Other titles there are not in this house of mercy.

In the beginning of this century lived the reigning Count, Christian.

Frederick de Stolberg Werningerode, in his beautiful old Castle Peterswaldan, in Silesia, a patriarchal life in the midst of his children and grandchildren. Unassuming piety, simplicity of heart, and love to their fellow men have always been distinguishing traits in the character of the ancient family of the Stolbergs. So it was then. Peterswaldan was a refuge to all the suf fering and oppressed. There they always found, not only open hands, but also open hearts. In this house of peace and love Anna was born on the sixth of September, 1819, the eighth child of Count Anton and Countess Louise, daughter of Count von der Reike, Minister of Justice. Four other children were born to them after her. The education of the children could not have been plainer in the house of a common citizen. Dressed in simple garments, made by the diligent hands of a Silesian weaver, cheerful and harmless played the Count's children in the park under the grand old trees. A ride with the parents through the country, an excursion into the near Owl mountains (Eulengebirge) on birthdays, were occasions of great joy to them. Their saving-boxes were filled only to empty them into the hands of poverty and want. The most simple nourishment for body and soul was their daily food. A pious tender family life was the air in which Anna, with her sisters and brothers, grew up, healthy in body and soul. With tender care the parents selected for their children the teachers; for even the most fruitful ground produces dangerous weeds if the gardener is not faithful. Such a faithful gardener for the sprouting and blooming child-life in Peterswaldan was Kleophen Schlatter, the daughter of a pious Reformed family in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Just as faithful a teacher of the older sons labored the candidate of theology Adolph Zalm, afterwards a zealous workman in God's vineyard in Pomerin near the Ost-see, whither Kleoph Schlatter followed him as his wife and help-maid She was succeeded in the family of Count Stolberg by another young Swiss lady of great intellectual abilities, and a heart rich in love. Her influence for seven long years was of special importance to the young Countess Anna. But the greatest blessing for the young soul was the mild and shining example of her parents. Quiet and unassuming moved the mother in her own house and in the huts of the poor. Every uncorrupted innocent child has a heart full of pity for the suffering and needy; but in the spring of life, in childhood, the heart must be planted with good seed, if it is in the future to bring forth flowers and fruit for many. This mother quietly and carefully put seed after seed of merciful love into the hearts of her children. It was always a reward for the child's good conduct, to accompany the mother to the abodes of misery, with a basket of food for the hungry and refreshments for the sick. Diligently the father assisted to water and nourish these tender plants, and words and blessing followed them everywhere in their work of ministering love.

In the spring of 1824, the grandfather, Count Christian Frederick, was called home to his fathers, full of joy and peace. His eldest son, Henrik, succeeded him in the government of his estate, the county of Werningerode. Count Anton, the fourth son, removed from Peterswaldan to his inheritance, the castle and estate of Kreppelhof at the foot of the Riesengebirge. Here he labored in great blessing as governor of a part of the province of Silesia; the Countess and her daughter, finding a large sphere of Christian labor in the five villages belonging to the Estate Kreppelhof, and among the poor weavers of the Riesengebirge. During this time the

family stood connected, by the most friendly and social relations, with other noble families of the neighborhood. The prince and princess, Wilhelm of Prussia, together with the field-marshal Gneisenau, Prince Raziwill, and others of scientific and military renown, were frequent visitors at the Castle Kreppelhof; and this social intercourse was of the greatest benefit to all the children,

In 1830 Count Anton was called to the position of General Governor of the province of the Rhine, taking his residence at Düsseldorf, near which place Pastor Fliedner had established his charitable institutions. Countess Anna frequently visited with her parents these abodes of Christian love, and listened with the greatest interest to the explanation of the inner arrangements, and the origin and progress of these institutions. Often Fliedner also came to Düsseldorf, where he preached to the prisoners in the penitentiary, and on such occasions made the hospitable home of Count Stolberg his home, and the conversation between these two disciples of Christ turned generally to the objects they loved most, the interest and progress of the kingdom of God. These were hours of pleasure also for Anna, and her eyes rested with a radiant shine upon the man of God. When he spoke of his plans to call into existence again the apostolic order of deaconesses, Fliedner. as if anticipating that this maiden before him would be in the future his most faithful and true disciple, then often laid his hands in blessing upon her head.

In the year 1835, Fliedner assisted Count de Stolberg in establishing a school for small children, whose parents were kept away from home through their work during the day. The Countess and her daughter took the greatest interest in the Christian enterprise, and for the founding of the deaconness institution all contributed most abundantly.

On the 30th of May, 1836, a society was formed and held its first session in the house of the Stolbergs, for the "education of evangelical female nurses of the sick." Count Stolberg signed the constitution as president of the society. Thus one heavenly seed after the other was sown into the young heart of Anna, and with God's gracious sunshine all germinated, broke forth and greened beautifully, until after some years the tree stood there, powerful, casting its shadow abroad, and bearing golden fruits.

In the fall of 1837, Count Anton was called to the position of ChiefGovernor over the province of Saxony, and took up his home in Magdeburg. How cheerless would have been life to Anna in those dark fortresswalls after having lived near the enchanting Rhine, if there had not bloomed within her the life in God! The family now visited frequently the neighboring Harz Mountains, and the ancestral Castle of the Stolbergs Werningerode, situated in the most romantic part of the romantic Harz. But hardly had Frederick William ascended the throne, when he called his dear Anton, as he used to name his old friend, in confidential circles, to his side, to assume the position and duties of Minister of the Royal House and Chief Chamberlain of the Court. This is the highest civil office at the Court of Berlin. A new world of splendor and festivities rose up before the eye of the young Countess Anna. But the pure eye of the maiden did not become dazzled or in the least attracted thereby. Only inasmuch as the high official position of the father absolutely required, the daughter participated in the bright and gay life of the court and residence. An evening, however, spent at the tea-table of Frederick William and his excellent

Elizabeth, the queen, on which occasions the greatest simplicity prevailed, or an hour spent in pleasant conversation with Princess Wilhelm, were a full compensation to her for all the missed festivities, the foam of the waves of the world, which began to break in upon her more and more. In these royal evening circles and at the palace of Princess Wilhelm, Anna saw and heard for the first time England's female apostle of the prisons, Elizabeth Fry! A wonderful woman; in the plain gray garments of the Quaker, over the light brown hair, the dark veil, the fine old features of her face so mild and full of peace, addressing every one high and low with the friendly "thou", and her enchanting speech, and a strange imposing and yet well known appearance drawing the heart at once to her. There she sat upon the sofa, between the queen and the princess, unembarrassed, and spoke with the eloquence of faith and love of the misery then prevailing in prisons. She related how she had found it in Newgate and other European prisons, demanding, praying for, urging the necessity of a prison reform, in which religious instruction, separation into different classes, useful employment, etc., should be the means of saving these poor creatures out of the whirlpool of vice and death. And she did not there labor in vain. How those large brown eyes of Anna again exhibited the heavenly fire, on these occasions, when Elizabeth Fry thus spoke. Quietly meditating upon that which she heard, her eyes spoke only of ideas and resolutions for the future. Every word that this noble English woman said, sank deep into her soul, and the image and example of Elizabeth Fry never afterwards vanished from her mind. This was of great blessing to the world.

And it was to become more silent yet in the heart of Anna.

In the same year, in which the King laid the foundation stone for his beloved Bethania, this act being witnessed by all the Stolbergs with the greatest gratification and interest, young Countess Marianne Stolberg died.

This sudden death made upon sister Anna the most profound and lasting impression, and, surrounded as she was by the foaming waves of the world, a deep longing for a quiet, harbor, a place to abide under the palmtrees of peace, arose up within her. But as yet she had no aim, no definite object in view. The establishment of Bethania brought the Pastor Fliedner frequently to Berlin, as his counsel was invaluable and highly appreciated by the King. Princess Wilhelm, who so warmly felt for this new enterprise, did not live to see it go to completion. On Easter, 1846, she was called away from this earth, and Anna wept at the grave of her maternal friend. On the tenth of Oct., 1847, she was present at the solemn dedication and opening of Bethania. Pastor Fliedner installed the Deaconess Marianne de Rantzau to be matron and superior of Bethania. Standing in friendly relations to the family of the Stolbergs, the young countesses were often with her, and she instructed them in all the requirements of an educated nurse without anticipating that soon they would be called upon to perform this good samaritan service, in their Silesian native home.

[To be continued in next number.]

BILEHILDE.

[A French Legend-From the German by Chas. Hüllhorst.]

Late in the night a small boat was silently gliding down the French Saale towards the Main. It had neither sail nor mast. There was no one at the helm. Only the slender pole, which from time to time kept the boat from the shore, and a feeble, dubious paddling, betrayed that some one was in the boat, who had neither sufficient strength nor skill to manage it. Is it perhaps Is it perhaps a child, desirous of reaching home yet to-night? But why does it not linger on the safe shore, until after the midnight moon arises, or until the day dawns; why is it on this perilous journey now, when the night is darkest?

A child it is indeed, which, after long grief and sorrow in a foreign land, longs for rest and peace under the parental roof. It is the daughter of the French king, Dagobert, the sister of Siegbert the Third, the Princess Bilehilde.

She, a Christian, had been married to the pagan duke of Thuringia, who had visited the royal court of France while yet a youth. The Christian priest, who, as chaplain and at the same time as messenger of peace to the heathen, had accompanied her into the wilderness of the Buchonian forests, had died soon after their arrival in the foreign country. The aged, faithful servant and nurse of her infancy, whom her mother had sent with her, had soon after followed him into the grave. A few years later her husband had lost his life on the battle-field. Thus she had been left all alone, childless and a stranger in a strange land. They would not permit her to return to her native home. Perhaps some relative of the deceased duke hoped to obtain the hand of the fair princess. But how can she stay? It is not the howling of the wolves, not the bellowing of the ureox, that renders her sojourn in the castle of the woods, intolerable to her. For here a barbarous, but faithfully devoted tribe, was endeavoring from morning till night to proffer her all that can delight and gratify her. But when in the spring, in that ancient German heathenland, the chariot, drawn by two white bulls with the veiled effigy of Hertha, beside it the heathenish priests blowing the horns, is lead out to the sea, to the bath of the goddess; when at the setting of the sun, besides the unbloody sacrifice of two children drowned in the sea, prisoners of war not unfrequently bleed under the knife of the priest, then her heart is filled with horror. How very differently, she says to herself, is now resounding in the Christian churches of my fatherland the hymn: "Christ is risen from the dead!" How differently do the powers of heaven that rest in the sacrifice of Him, who suffered death for us, operate upon the poor, depressed mind of man! When in the winter these heathen celebrate the close of the year with the loud clamors of the drinking-bout and the clash of arms, the delicate