The Gospel Messenger

Vol. 26 Old Series  Mt. Morris, Ill., and Huntingdon, Pa., May 29, 1888  No. 21

Stamped on the side of page one is J S Snyder Jan. 89 Agt

JAMES QUINTER ------Editor of the Gospel Messenger; published at Mount Morris, IL.

Annual meeting was at North Manchester, IN……left our home on Wednesday, the 16^th.

       We come now in our notes to describe a scene of peculiar and touching sadness, one that time will not soon efface from our memory; an occurrence that has cast a deep gloom and heart-felt sorrow over the entire meeting.  We refer to the death of our dear aged brother, Elder James Quinter.  He reached …the grounds….noon on Saturday, and greeted a number of those he loved so well, for all who knew him loved him, and this general feeling of love and respect shown him was fully reciprocated in his great sympathetic heart.  He expressed himself as not feeling so well, and it was generally observed that he did not seem as strong as usual.  In his last conversation with us he said he was glad to meet the Brethren in Annual Conference once more.

     At 3 P.M., Bro. Daniel Vaniman preached (to the) tabernacle, and Bro. Quinter left the…..office, saying he would go and…….sermon.  It was to be the last he would hear in this world.  He closed the meeting, using the 810^th hymn, which he lead in a most feeling and touching manner.  After singing the hymn he spoke a few fitting words upon the sermon to which he had just listened, and then kneeling in prayer he thanked God that he was once more permitted to meet with those of like precious faith.  It was noticed by those near him that his voice trembled, but the words were clear and coherent, and as he said, “We are glad to meet again,” his voice ceased, never more to be heard in this world.  Those who were kneeling by his side noticed that he grew very pale.  Saving arms held hi from falling to the floor, and he was tenderly and gently raised from his knees and laid on the table.  He gasped a few times, and then, surrounded by a weeping congregation, his spirit took its homeward flight.  And so passed away one of our great and good men, not great as the world counts greatness, but great in all the noble qualities of true Christian manhood.  He was a man of strong mental power, an eloquent preacher, full of love and zeal for the cause of the Master.  His courteous manner, his marked piety, his honesty and integrity of purpose, his great love for the church, of which he was an honored member, gained for him the love and reverence of all who came to know him.  He filled a place in the hearts of our people second to no one in our Brotherhood.  His life was full of labor for the church of his choice, and his name will long be held in sacred memory by his co-laborers and by a great Brotherhood of loving hearts.

     The manner of his death was a fitting close to a long life spent in labor for the good of humanity and for the church he loved so well.  He often expressed a desire that he might die surrounded by his brethren.  He came up to the Conference as he had done so many times before, to labor for the church, and was to have preached in the Tabernacle on Sunday morning.  Kneeling with the great congregation in prayer, surrounded by his co-laborers and those he loved as brethren and sisters in Christ, amid the tears and heart-felt grief of those who loved and reverenced him as a father in Israel, his pure spirit took its flight to the Land of Rest.  “We are glad to meet again,” were his last words, and as he uttered them his voice was hushed in death.  Were these words spoken of us, or were they spoken to those on the other shore who were watching and waiting for the coming of our dear brother?  God only knows.  As death came to him on his knees in earnest prayer, with his face turned Zionward, he may have had a glimpse of the host beyond the river, and his last words on earth may have been his first greeting on the other shore.

     After it was known that Bro. Quinter was dead, the Standing Committee adjourned it session and proceeded in a body to the Tabernacle, where his body was lying.  Bro. Enoch Eby made a few appropriate and touching remarks to the weeping congregation.  A prayer was then offered and the remains were taken away and prepared to be taken to his former home in Huntingdon, Pa. 

     In such hours of bereavement words can not express the sympathy we feel for those upon whom this loss falls with the greatest weight, --the family of our departed brother.  We know that they have the sympathy of the entire Brotherhood, for t-day we all mourn the loss of one whom we loved, but our sorrow is not a joyless one.  He was only gone before, and if we are faithful we will meet him again.

     We leave to others the sad task of writing a fitting memoriam on the life and labors of our dear brother Quinter.  For some years we have been very closely connected in our work.  In all his advice and counsel to us his chief concern was for the good of the church.  In our private correspondence this one feature marked all his letters, showing how near to his heart was the prosperity of the church.  In our last conversation, an hour before his death, he expressed an earnest desire that the best interest of the cause might be promoted at this meeting.  His life was been a blessing to the church and a benediction to humanity.  May we who are left behind, labor, as did our dear brother, for the cause for which he feel with his armor on.

DLM ( D.L. Miller)

From “History of the Upper Ohio Valley” page 45:

  In 1857 Kurtz & Quinter began The Gospel Visitor, a German and English monthly, devoted to the interests of the Tunkers.  It continued until 1866, when the paper was removed to Dayton, Ohio.