sites for his work were ' patience, impudence, and a ready tongue.' The receipt, to which Fliedner added much prayer and much faith, proved so successful that he was spoken of before his death as the most accom- plished beggar ever known in German)'. England, America, and many distant regions learned to pour their contributions into his wallet, and often his worst necessities were relieved by what seemed almost mi- raculous unsolicited gifts, which exactly' answered the demands upon him." In 1823 he visited England on a begging excursion, and there became acquainted with Elizabeth Fry and with her benevolent movements. See Fry, Elizabeth. On his return he examined the prisons of his neighborhood, and found them in a wretched state. " The convicts -were crammed togeth- er in narrow, dirtj' cells, often in damp cellars -without light or air ; boys who had fallen into crime from thoughtlessness were mixed up with hoary, cunning sinners ; young girls Avith the most corrupt old women. There was absolutely no classification ; even accused persons waiting for trial, who might soon be released again as innocent, were placed with criminals who might be undergoing a lengthened term of imprison- ment. There -vvas as good as no supervision at all ; as long as the jailers allowed no one to escape, they had fulfilled their duty." For more than two years Fliedner tried to bridge the gulf -which laj"- between this criminal class and the rest of the communitj' in his own person, visiting, teaching, reorganizing, and in 1826 he founded the first German societ}^ for im- proving prison discipline. " Seeking a matron for the female wards at Dnsseldorf, he found his wife, whose parents refused to let her take the position first oft'ered to her, but approved her acceptance of the young pastor himself, although the second in- volved all the duties of the lirst. In 1833 he took a poor creature released from prison into a summer-house in his garden, and so practically started a scheme which had for some time been in his mind, to provide a refuge for such women as desired to refoim on the expiration of their sentences. A friend of Mrs. Flied- ner's came to take charge of this minute beginning, and assumed the title of deaconess. The summer- house gave way to a house, the deaconess got compan- ions, and the establishment grew. Then the thought of founding an order of deaconesses for the care of the sick poor dawned upon him. He bought a house in 1836, having no mone^', but a vast amount of faith. The same maj' be said of all his sulisequent enlargements of his borders. His hospital was started -with one ta- ble, some broken chairs, a few worn knives and two- pronged forks, worm-eaten bedsteads, seven sheets, and four severe cases of illness. The effort soon flourished under royal favor." In 1838 Fliedner first sent dea- conesses from his establishment to work in other places ; the}' spread, fresh mother-houses multiplied, till now there are 139 stations. (For statistics, see Deacon- esses, vol. ii. p. 709.) In 1849 he visited America, and travelled widely. He founded a "house" at Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania. " In the course of his life Flied- ner established at Kaiserswerth schools, training col- leges for middle-class school-mistresses as well as for governesses, a lunatic asylum, a boy's school, and a training college for schoolmasters. The hospital, the asylum, the schools, are all utilized for the training of deaconesses, Avhom Fliedner frequently taught himself by the example of his wonderful gifts for interesting the young. Comical stories might be told of his do- ings in his infant-schools, where he would fall pros- trate by way of illustration of the story of Goliath, dis- tribute bread arid honey to fix the excellence of the heavenly manna on the children's minds, or suddenly send a boy under the table to vivify his tale of the fall of a traveller over a precipice. His labors lasted till his death. He died at Kaiserswerth, Oct. 4, 1864, -worn out by journeys in Germany, France, Great Britain, and America, which had brought on disease of the lungs.
FLIES
598
FLOAT
To the ven' last day of his life, he continued, in spite of painful weakness, to exhort those near him to a re- ligious and earnest life, took keen interest in the de- tails of daily work going on around him, and died a daj' or two after taking the communion with his whole establishment and family, including two sons, whose entrance into the Church he specially rejoiced to see." Fliedner published (after 1836) annual reports of his institution, and a monthly periodical called Ber Armen- und Kranlcenfieund. He also wrote a work, in four volumes, on the martyrs of the Evangelical Church, Buck der Miirlyrcr und anderer Glaubenszeugen der evangel. Kirche vun den Aposteln lis auf unsere Zeit, 1852-18G0, 4 vols. — London Quarterly Review, April, 1868, p. 247 ; Spectator, April 11, 1868 ; Winkworth, Life of Pastor Fliedner (Lond. 1867); Appleton, -4 m. Ci/cloj}. (1864), p. 377.
riies. See Fly.
Flinn, Andrew, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in Marj'land in 1773, graduated at the Uni- versity of North Carolina in 179!), and was licensed to preach by Orange Presbytery in 1800. In 1803 he be- came pastor of the Presbj'terian church at Fayette- ville, and in 1811 he was installed pastor of a new church, expressly organized for him, in Charleston, S. C. Here he gained a brilliant and solid reputation, ■which was soon wideh' diffused throughout the coun- try. He was " one of the most impressive and attrac- tive preachers of his day." He died Feb. 24, 1820. He printed a few occasional sermons.— Sprague, Aii- nals, iv, 276.