The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-07-25
A TRUE Love STORY.
Told by ]. M. Barrie, the
Novelist. Right Out of
His Own Heart.
HIS SISTERS BEREAVEMENT.
Touching Letter to the Congrega-
tion of the Dead Minister,
Whom She Was to Have
Married.
lis SISTERS BEREAVEMENT.

Mr.. Barrels dearest friend, the Rev.
James Winter, to whom Miss Barrie,
a sister, was to have been married,
was recently thrown from his horse
and killed, says the Philadelphia
IaQuirer4a Mr.. Barrels letter to his
friends congregation, read at the
funeral, is SO beautiful d passage OF
his graver work, so moving in its
solemn simplicity, that | am con-
strained to quote it entire. 1t affords
also a glimpse of Mr.. Barrels own in
ner nature
KIRRIEMUIR, May II, 1892.
To the Session and Congregation of
the Free Church Of B0a0er.:-
70 you at the grave of him who
was in three weeks time to become
her husband, my sister sends her love.
| God is near her and she is not afraid.
| You are her loved ones, for it was you
who under God called him to
Bower and gave him the manse
to which he was about to bring her;
and as he loved you, she loves YOU.
| God, who gave His Son for the re-
demption of the world, has told her
that He had need of the disciples life
also, and that he died to bring his
people of Bower to Gods knees. So
God chose His own way, and took her
Jim, her dear young minister, and
she says Gods will be done; and she
thanks Him, and she wants you to
thank Him for taking away so sud-
denly only one who was ready to face
his Maker without a moments warn
ing. His great goodness, she says to
you, in not taking someone who was
unprepared, is her comfort, and
should be yours. And she prays that
Mr.. Winters six months ministry
among you, and his death among you,
while doing his duty, has borne, and
will continue to bear, good fruit. And
always she will so pray, and she asks
you to pray for her. And she says
you are not to grieve for her over
much, for she is in Gods keeping.
This is a word from her brother,
who cannot leave her to come to the
funeral of his dearest friend, the
| purest soul l have ever known. 1t is
a word about her. You have eve
seen her, but you knew him, and they
of their religious feeling, in their hu-
lnillIy, anu VI uAoAy ObAOf ViAlb5o yOo
knew about him and loved him for,
that you may always think of them as
one. There were four years and a
half of their love story, and it began
the hour they first mel. 1t never had
O moments break; there was always
something pathetic about it, for they
never parted and they never wrote
but solemn and tenderly, as if it might
be for the last time. The. wistfulness
of his face, which you must have 70
ticed. meant early death. They both
felt that the one would soon be taken
from the other, though he thought
that he would be the survivor. Theirs
was so pure a love that God was ever
part of it. Let all the youth OF Bower
remember that there is no other love
between maj and woman save that.
My sister and | send SIS to be dis
tributed among the poor of the dis
trict, whether they belong to the Free
Church or not. The same sum we
will send every year while [ live, if
God permits it; and we ask the ses-
sion and the schoolmasters to give it
to the poor always henceforth on May
9, and in doing so always to tell you,
the congregation. the simple story of
the life and death of him who was
your minister and in whose name it is
given. For we ask you to call it the
Rev. James Winter contribution to
the poor of Bower, so that for the
span of life that might have been his,
his memory may be kept green among
you.
. J. M. BARRIE.