The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-03-29
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.



ing vocation he describes as one of the
highest and noblest to which her sex can
aspire. The text is l TimothyV, 10, We'll
reported of for good works If she
have relieved the afflicted"
Well, indeed, may a woman be reported
of for good works in such world as ours
If she have relieved the afflicted. There is
suffering everywhere-in the rich mans
palace and the poor mans tenement. If
any woman desires to be we'll reported of
for good works, she can attain her am
bition In no surer, better way, than in re-
heving the afflicted. 1t is a glorious mis-
sion that has been chosen by these noble
women who are graduating as trained
nurses and are going forth In their striped
uniforms, like valiant soldiers, to contend
with fell disease. | want to present to
you my conception of what such a woman
should be- whether she stands by the op-
Grating table or bends over the invalid's
bed or walks through the wards of hos
pital for contagious diseases or sterilizes
the surgeons knives just before the limb
is to be amputated Every year of my
residence in Chicago | have been asked
ny the officials of the different training
schools to speak upon this subject l take
this opportunity to address not single
graduating class of trained nurses, but to
speak to all the different training schools
for nurses with which my pulpit comes in
contact.
The scope of my theme can best be
realized If the hearer is led into the hum
bile home of the most beloved and inter-
nationally honored of all women living at
the present time. Who is she2 / will an
swer that question by relating an incident
which happened about the year 1858. Lord
Stratford was entertaining at a London
banquet many of the prominent military
officers of the British army, who had led
to victory the queens soldiers In the
Crimean conflict. As a matter of curios-
ity, the noble lord asked them, one and
all this question: "Who do you think, Of
all the participants of the late war, will
be the most honored and revered by the
coming generations?" He asked his guests
to write the names of their choice upon
slips of paper and he would read the same
and announce the result of the ballot
When the slips were collected, the vote
vas unanimous. Wonderful to state the
name which Lord Stratford announced
was not that of a general. 1t belonged
to an untitled woman Her name was
Florence Nightingale. Who was Florence
Nightingale? She was not a Joan of Arc
or Maria Theresa, who achieved victories
by the sword She won her universal
fame by the way she bound together the
bleeding lips of the wounds which the
surgeons knife had opened She carried
IN her hand not the battle torn union
jack, but the white bandage She ig-
nited no flame which burst forth from
the cannon's mouth. She simply lighted
little candle, with which she went from
ward to ward In the field hospitals, long
after the tired men were asleep.
The Ideal Nurse.
Who was Florence Nightingale? l will
tell you. She was the heroic nurse who
did not want the British people to rear
for her monument of cold marble, but
instead she took the $4,000, which was
4. free will offering given by her country
men, and with 1t built and endowed, only
short distance from Westminster alb.
hey, the famous training school for nurses
which now bears her name. mis- school,
established in 1860. is the foster mother of
ali the modern training schools for
nurses. When woman so honored by
church and state as Florence Nightingale
thinks the development of the trained
nurse work so important that she de-
votes to 1t her fortune and her conse-
Grated energies, we need make no apol-
ogy for taking as our theme this morning
the qualities which are needed in the ideal
nurse.
The trained nurse in the first place,
must be intelligent. She Is the right arm
of the physician. BY that we do not
mean that the trained nurse is to be
mere automatic machine and that when
the physician pulls the string she is to
move and when he stops pulling she is
to stand still. Oh. no! She Is to be far
more. When Stonewall Jackson lay dy-
ing after having been shot at Chancel-
louisville. Robert E. Lee turned to the
messenger who brought him the sad news
and said: Tell General Jackson he can
rot and must not die. If Stonewall Jack
son dies, | shall lose my right ARM"
When Robert e. Lee said that. he did not
assert that General Jackson had no BRAIN
no thinking power, or that, as Lees right
arm, he merely obeyed the behests Of
Robert e. Lees brain He meant that
Jackson was in one sense, absolutely es-
sential to him for the best organizing
end development of the southern armies,
as well as for helping him In the laying
cut of a campaign. So we find that today
the intelligent trained nurse Is more than
the mere physical right arm of the ply
stefan. She is his eyes, his hands, his
constant helper. What the intelligent
trained nurse is able to report in referenc
to the progress of the patient to great
extent decides the physicians diagnosis
He sees the patient but once in twenty
four hours, while she is by the invalids
bed practically all the time, She can
record the progress of the disease by the
flight of minutes. He can only study it
by the morning and evening call The
value of the Intelligent nurse is to be
found In what she sees, as well as In
what she is willing to do; her usefulness
is to be enhanced by what she can tell
as well as by her willingness to obey or
ders.
A Fallacy Exploded.
at is high time" Florence Nightingale
once wrote. that the fallacy should be
exploded that every woman is able to be-
come a competent nurse" 1t is high time
that the standard of our training schools
for nurses should be raised, that UNI
worthy Institutions should be crushed out
and that the question of a trained nurses
efficiency should not be decided by her
ability to buy a Bingham dress and to
read a thermometer. 1t is high time that
the state legislatures should place laws
upon the statute books. so that the grad
yates of these different institutions should
be compelled to pass examinations for IL
eensure. as the doctor, the pharmacist
the lawyer or the locomotive engineer is
compelled to do. Incompetent nursing has
involved the loss Of many a life and
caused many an agonizng pain. Some
tine ago dear friend of mine a brother
minister had his little five year-old son
nearly burned to death. The only way
to save the childs life was by grating
human skin upon the little ones stomach
and chest. The father and the child's two