42 A Short History of Nursing Christ's teachings of love and brotherhood coming into the midst of a hard materiahstic , society transformed the face of the ings of earth for His disciples, and set free a boundless current of spiritual joy and hope. The disciples' love for their great Teacher took the instant form of service to whomever needed it, especially the sick, neglected, and des- titute. Christ's own parables and miracles had dealt much with disease and death, and He had told His followers that in ministering to the poor and sick they were ministering to Him. We recall the quaint phraseology of the account of all those who were brought to Him to be healed, "sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them." The practical test of the new faith was "not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and, in later years, the Golden Rule was often carved on the seats of hospitals. The most striking feature of the new religion was the active, strenuous work it brought to wo- men, especially single women. The flat statement sometimes made that women hopelessly degraded tmder paganism were for ever exalted by Chris-
