Article September 1, 1898 Issue

HAPPINESS AT LAST

BY B. M. W.

Ever since a child twelve years old I have been searching for happiness. At that age my mother passed on, leaving me desolate. My father, sister, and brothers, could not fill the vacancy. One of the members of the Methodist Church, where I always attended, said, "The Bible says, God is a father of the fatherless, and that means mother too." So I joined the church, and for a time found consolation in trying to live up to its rules, thinking that, by so doing, I was pleasing God and my mother.

Then a change came. The class meetings I used to love became distasteful; the prayers that once seemed so full of real goodness and earnestness seemed far removed from the simple prayer taught us by Jesus. I fought these feelings for a long time, thinking I was wrong, the church right. After a time I concluded I would like to be a missionary, but on mentioning it to the minister he thought I was too young to undertake the work now, but in a few years more I could think of it.

Having read many of my father's medical books, I became interested in medicine and trained nursing. I thought, perhaps in caring for the sick I could find peace, could get out of self and make some one else happy. I applied at the training school connected with the Brooklyn Hospital, was accepted, and passed two years there, that being the time required to receive a diploma.

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