A LOVE STORY FROM PORT JERVIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1449, 30 August 1879, Page 24

A LOVE STORY FROM PORT JERVIS.

A little more than four years ago (says the Port Jervis Union, June 14th) a gentleman of this village, then about 23 years of age, fell in love with a young lady, aged about 19, also of Port Jervis. She returned his affection, and for a time all went along smoothly. The lady was a daughter of pious parents, and although not connected with any church, was a firm believer in their tenets, and looked with a feeling akin to horror on anything approaching scepticism or doubt. But the time came when she learned that her lover was a deist ; that he disbelieved in a revealed religion, had no veneration for the Bible, and took no interest in ohurches, seldom or never attending them, save as her escort. She was deeply pained by the revelation. She sent for her lover and endeavoured to convinoe him of his error, but he was not satisfied with her ■rgumtntf , and refused to accede to a surrender of his principles. The more the lady pondered, the more her duty seemed clear to her, and she finally decided to renounce her lover. She accordingly wrote to him a long tear-stained letter bidding him good-bye for ever. The gentleman again and again urged her to reoonsider her determination, but she was obdurate, and a separation took place. He was deeply grieved; but although he was, as he thought, badly used, felt that she h*d acted np to what her oonvictioos of right demanded. He could not as easily divest himself of his love, and after a few months he left this village and engaged in business elsewhere. The lady mourned, but tried to satiify herielf that she had acted correctly. Two yearß made her more liberal than she had been, and she began to Study on the subject. The more she read the more she distrusted her former decision, and she finally beoame quite as liberal as the lover sbo had discarded. Whether the logic of the books she read or the promptings of the old love had most to do with this change it would be hard to tell. The lover, too, had undergone a change. The fact that his creed had cost him his sweetheart annoyed him, and struggle as he wenld, he could not banish her from his memory. List winter a revival of religion took place in the city in whioh he was engaged in business. At the solicitations of a friend, he was induced to attend, As in the etotr mi*; it would be ford tp tell whether

the change was brought about by the arguments of the preacher, by the excitement which prevailed, or by the memory of his old love. Suffice it to say that he united with the church, and in a short time became a zealous member. He thought over the aotion of his former sweetheart in discarding him for his infidelity, and wrote her a brief note asking the privilege of calling on her, She responded in the affirmative. The gentleman came, and when she timidly apologized for her previous dismissal of him, he, to her surprise, defended her conduct, said she had been in the right, and in her place he would to-day do the same. Her heart sank at theße words. She confessed the great change in her sentiments, from being a firm believer in the Bible she had discarded it, and with it her belief in any revealed religion. It was now the gentleman's turn to be horrified. He pleaded with her, urged everything ho could think of to induce her to change her mind. She could not, and told him so. He felt that he must not be "unequally yoked with an unbeliever," and, taking counsel of bis religion, gave her up.