BEDFORD WEEKLY MAIL BEDFORD, INDIANA FRIDAY, AUG. 24, 1900 "ASLEEP IN JESUS" A Tribute To the Memory Of Mrs. Nellie Mitchell Kent. The services Saturday at the Methodist church held in loving remembrance of Nellie Kent were sad, sacred and touching. The large church was entirely filled with sympathetic friends. The flowers sent by friends, and brought by relatives, from near and from afar, were in profusion and expressed the affection of sad and tender hearts through her departure. The services were conducted by James Small, her pastor, and Dr. J. W. Newland, an old time friend whom she talked with so sweetly before passing away. The songs sung by the quartette composed by D. W. McDaniel, Arthur McCain, Mrs. Harry Voris and Mrs. Eb Stalker were the songs she repeated a little while before dying. They were, "Asleep In Jesus" "Oh Happy Day" and "Nearer My God To Thee." The body was taken to Green Hill cemetery, where it will rest "in hope of that bright day" when Nellie shall rise from her prison of clay. We shall not in this short sketch attempt any exalted encomium upon her character. Her sweet winning ways and pure life was her own best eulogy. Her deeds, her love of the true, the beautiful and the good, were her most eloquent epitaph. By these she wears a truer crown than any words could weave for her. She came into the world a blessing and has gone out of it a benediction. She was a woman of lofty purposes, of heroic faith, of a bright face and disposition and of stainless purity. The flowers on her casket, gifts of love and emblems of purity, are not purer than the life to which they are a tribute. They are not sweeter in their fragrance than the character they symbolize. No one, in words, can do her character justice. She never caused intentionally any one any pain or trouble. She never injured, in malice, a human soul. Fitting words are found in Proverbs to describe the loved one of which we are writing: "Many daughters have done virtuously but thou excelleth them all, favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised who can enumerate the noble deeds of heart and love." No mother ever had a more dutiful child, no husband a more loving companion, and no pastor a more loyal friend or supporter. Hers was a peace loving and peace keeping spirit. These were the principles that made her, in a large degree, the woman she was. She had the Christ-like quality of self forgetfulness; often since she has gone has the mother said, "She never seemed to think of herself, but was always thoughtful of others and her strength was spent in trying to make others happy." She had that love that thinketh no evil. She never suspected people or imputed evil to any. She loved righteousness and hated iniquity. She was not blind to the faults and sin of others and in a kind way she sought to win them and cheer them away from evil. About her last words on earth were words of farewell and counsel. She was blessed with beauty and charm in life, but it was a consecrated beauty and a consecrated charm. She is in reality not dead. She is more alive than ever before. Even when she was fading away into heaven, one like unto the Son of God stood by her saying: "Be not afraid, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." She laid up treasures above ere death took her away. She will wait and watch for all those near and dear to her. It would not be like her if she would not. She has gone, but upon her young husband whose life during his married years, has been brightened and blessed by her presence and strengthened by her counsel, and whose mind today is crowded with precious memories of her wifehood, upon the little babe, whom she took into her arms before dying saying: "Oh! my darling, I tried so hard to live for you, but I could not. May God bless you my precious boy, and may you grow up a good man and meet mamma in heaven." Canopied with her holy love in a dying hour, and receiving from her a legacy of character, "Incorruptible, undefiled and that fades not away" upon all who were purified by her touch, and given a glimpse of heaven by her sublime, glorious and triumphant death and beaming face, upon all those, she has left a measureless benediction. May the sufficient grace of God and the consoling love of a kind heavenly father abide with all who mourn her loss. And may the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory, after that we have suffered awhile, make us perfect; establish, strengthen, settle us. ***************** J. B. Winstandley, who was in the city attending the funeral of Mrs. Harry Kent, returned to Chicago Tuesday. *** Miss Nellie Thornton, who had been here to attend the funeral of Mrs. Nellie Kent, returned to her home at Indianapolis Monday forenoon