work, namely the great Deaconess movement of Germany. In 1822 a young minister came to the small Reformed church at Kaiserwerth, near Düsseldorf named Theodore Fliedner. As Kaiserwerth was mainly Catholic, he had little to do and he began charitable work. He began preaching among the prisoners at Düsseldorf, then an almost unknown line of Christian work. One day one of the prisoners, a fallen woman, came to his home because no one would receive her. He gave her an outbuilding in his garden in which to live until a home could be found for her. Out of this grew his great work. He soon began to train Christian. nurses and also Christian teachers, and called them Deaconesses. One day he astonished the town by buying the largest building in it which happened to be for sale. His work rapidly grew. One building was added to another. His Christian nurses are found all over the world, there being deaconess' houses in Constantinople, Smyrna and the far east. These Protestant deaconesses are not nuns, for they can marry, provided they give to their deaconess house a sufficient notice of their resignation. In addition to his work for deaconesses, he also founded other institutions, as a lunatic asylum, a

Magdelene home, a home for the aged as well as hospitals, where his deaconesses can be trained. Fliedner should have all honor, for he has rediscovered the value of consecrated womanhood to the Protestant Church.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

THE GREAT ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG AND HIS WIFE LOUISA HENRIETTA

T

BERLIN.

HE first Reformed church, founded in Germany, was founded at Emden, in the northwestern corner of Germany. With its canals and vessels right in its streets up against the buildings, it reminds one of a Dutch city in Germany. It is the capital of East Friesland. Those Frisians were early known as a simple hardy race and they showed their natural inclinations by taking to the Reformed rather than the Lutheran faith. As early as 1526, when there was no other Reformed church in Germany except Strasburg, far away, Aportanus, a monk, preached the doctrines of Zwingli here, much to the scandal of the Lutherans round about. This congregation continued its existence until in 1540 there came to it, the great Polish reformer, John A'Lasco.

John of Lask, for such his name means, was one of the most beautiful characters of the reformation. A Pole by birth, he was destined to high honors in the Catholic Church. But through travel in Reformed lands, he became a Humanist. Finally, after having returned to Poland, where he was in