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 Presented to Princeton Theological Seminary 
 By the f^ev. Wendell Prime, D.D. 
 
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 NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1898 
 
1Rutb Mavens pvimc 
 
fPiotc 
 
 Zbcsc worOs ace written for bee neacsot*ft(n anO friends wbo 
 loved ber dearly, ^an^ tbings are written tbat are not 
 Intended for otbers. If It sball fall under tbe ei^es of 
 otbers, let tbem remember tbat wbat tbes mlgbt criticise 
 10 a eacred mcmovs to ue. j^ j^ ^ j& &^ 
 
a Sbort, ineeful, Complcte^ Xtfe 
 
 IRutb Ibavens iPrime 
 
 [Second daughter of Ralph E. Prime and Annie Richards-Wolcott 
 Prime, his wife, was born at Yonkers. N. Y., June i. 1874. Died at Yonkers, 
 N. Y., January 16, 1905. J 
 
 Among the strange and inscrutable events in human experience 
 one of the most inscrutable is the taking away from a life of useful- 
 ness and of devotion to others, of one who had given herself to a 
 life of ministry to the suffering of her fellows, and whose prepara- 
 tion for such service was only just fully completed when called to 
 lay down the work. 
 
 The human heart looks for and yearns to find the explanation, 
 and ever asks " Why "? There is a reason, a good, a wise, reason. 
 We can not know it in this life, yet that yearning to know shall be 
 satisfied, though not here or now. We are content here only in the 
 satisfaction which comes with the restful consciousness that God, 
 who doeth all things well, knows the " Why ". 
 
 The childhood and young days of Ruth Havens Prime were 
 not altogether different from those of many other young women, 
 and yet they were filled with a sympathy and tenderness and help- 
 fulness for others which, from her earliest years, marked her char- 
 acter and heart as those of a born nurse. From a very child her 
 heart yearned over, and her hands and feet were busy for, any sick in 
 the household. Those acts passed without special remark and were 
 scarcely noticed at the time, but in the memory of those years our 
 hearts recall, not only the now well-remembered child acts, but like- 
 wise the gentleness and helpfulness of her young womanhood that 
 told of a nature which found its best and most reasonable outgoing 
 in tender attention to the suffering. 
 
 S 
 
In nDemoriam 
 
 Among the hundreds of letters received by us during these last 
 days, one recalls her as a little girl, visiting the " babies' ward " of 
 a New York hospital, and going among the babies' beds, from one 
 to another, and talking to and cheering the sufifering little ones. She 
 was so touched with the experience that all her young activities were 
 exercised in the successful work of a little girls' fair, planned in her 
 own home and carried out in a neighbor's house by little girls, at 
 which a considerable sum was raised for that charity. It was clear 
 then to all, that her interest was the outgoing of her heart in sym- 
 pathy for the suffering ones. 
 
 We now recall how, when an accident kept for weeks in our home 
 a loved friend, it was Ruth who found that the opportunity to show 
 devoted attention to the sufferer at her bedside, was more attractive 
 than her girl's play and recreations. 
 
 Not only for those in actual suffering, but to those deprived of 
 ordinary joys in life, was she sensitive and helpful. We remember 
 also how as a young schoolgirl she absented herself for a long time 
 from the Saturday play of others, to slip away unnoticed to an 
 humble home and read to a blind girl. 
 
 Her hands right early learned to make the simple things that 
 tempt the appetite of the sick ones and these she pressed upon 
 them in her home. 
 
 Even during the passing away of one in the household it was our 
 little child Ruth who, creeping to the bed of suffering, and behind 
 the pillows, supporting them upon her knees, while the tired and 
 weary head of the dying aunt rested there. How little we then 
 thought of what these things really told of character, and of the 
 beginnings of a life to be developed into supreme capacity for sym- 
 pathy, helpfulness and usefulness among the suffering ones, for 
 whose cheer God gave her to us. 
 
 When the time came for lessons beyond those of the family and 
 the primary school her education went on, first at the Yonkers High 
 School. From time to time in later years, and through these recent 
 days, has come the testimony of her then teachers to the lasting 
 friendships she won from them at that high school, by her mind and 
 
 6 
 
YONKERS, NOVEMBER, 1875 
 
•Rutb Mavene prime 
 
 heart and developing character. From the high school she con- 
 tinued her education at Miss Bliss's Academy for Girls at Yonkers, 
 and there also girl friendships were formed by her which the sepa- 
 ration of many years and great distances have never cooled, and her 
 companions still treasure memories of her tenderness and sympathy 
 in their troubles. She had found out in those young years how 
 drear the w^orld is when trouble comes, and a letter recently written 
 tells of her ministry of love among her then schoolmates in their 
 sorrows. She completed her school days at Evelyn College at 
 Princeton, N. J., where she enjoyed the privilege of being taught 
 by the instructors and professors of Princeton University. How 
 well we now recall those days away from home ; how she enjoyed 
 her study of Latin and Greek and the sciences, practically going over 
 the same ground pursued by her brothers in the University. Her let- 
 ters of those years, a diary of her life and experience, are all preserved 
 and are a treasured story. Then came the years at home. They were 
 years of great usefulness, and yet of unrest, for she yearned for 
 earnest doing, the sphere for which she had not yet found. 
 
 In the summer of 1896 she went abroad with her father and 
 mother and sisters and spent nearly four months, visiting England, 
 Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. 
 
 In the winter of 1899 and 1900 the desire for a larger usefulness 
 and the sense of her yet limited opportunities got hold of her with 
 great earnestness. A nurse by nature, she longed for better knowl- 
 edge that she might be fitted for greater and better helpfulness and 
 usefulness. The desire took possession of her to pursue a regular 
 course of instruction in the art of trained nursing, and after long 
 deliberation and many family conferences she won the reluctant 
 consent of her parents and sought acceptance as a probationer in 
 the Nurses' Training School of the Presbyterian Hospital in New 
 York City. The regular course of instruction required her entrance 
 upon the hospital course the following May, but she secured per- 
 mission to postpone that date until the next October in order that 
 she might again accompany her father's family on their regular trip 
 abroad. 
 
In nDemoriam 
 
 Again, in 1900, with her father and mother and two of her sisters, 
 she went abroad for nearly four months, during which time they 
 visited Palestine, Syria, Asia, Italy, Switzerland, France, England 
 and Wales. She saw and walked about in Jerusalem, Bethlehem 
 and the holy places ; in Beyrout, Rhodes, Samos, Constantinople, 
 Athens and Rome, and the other cities of more frequent resort. 
 During those months, in anticipation of her own prospective life- 
 work, she found satisfaction in visiting the hospitals of European 
 cities and the Far East. Her heart tenderly went out to the poor 
 sufferers in those Eastern countries whom she found in the hospitals 
 and dispensaries, particularly at Jerusalem, seeking aid they could 
 only obtain from Europeans and Americans, who there devote them- 
 selves to that work among the poor, suffering Arab people ; and her 
 wishes were often expressed that she might some day go back again 
 and join in that work. 
 
 Returning home late in September, on the very first day of 
 October she began her work as a probationer in the Nurses' Training 
 School of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. We well 
 recall what she suffered during those weeks of trial, trained at the 
 outset by the hardest and sometimes the most trying work to make 
 a test of the endurance and devotion necessary to meet in after life 
 any and ever>' possible call that might come in that vocation. But 
 she was equal to it all. The goal was never out of sight to her. 
 and enabled her to meet whatever lay in the path. One of her glad 
 days indeed was that on which she was summoned to the room of 
 the Superintendent, Miss Maxwell, who with words of satisfaction 
 placed upon her head the white cap, the badge of success in the 
 probationary trials and of acceptance into the Training School. As 
 all others who had gone before had done, she gladly signed the 
 nurse's promise to pursue three full years of study, and to render 
 three full years of service to the hospital, and began her work. 
 
 They were not years of study and of work only. The ethics of 
 the school forbade any outward fellowship of members of one class 
 with those of another class, but her sweet spirit in unconscious acts 
 and unstudied words, was perforce felt not only upon her own class 
 
 8 
 
IRutb Mavene prime 
 
 women, but also upon those in the classes alxjve her, as well as 
 in those below her. Some of her most devoted friends were those 
 of the higher classes, who were providentially to feel the cheer of 
 her words and the influence of her kindly spirit and encouragement. 
 One of these now writes : " I wish I could make you understand 
 how much she meant to me. I always left her with the assurance 
 that I had been elevated. She was so thoughtful and kind, and 
 ' tided me over ' many times when I surely must have given up 
 had she not come to me ". 
 
 Nor was her service to the patients who were her charge and 
 care in any sense perfunctory or measured by the limit of her duty. 
 The poor always appealed to her sympathies. One of the graduates 
 of the hospital and one of her own classmates writes : " The poor 
 women were desperately sick and their recovery seemed hopeless, 
 and the necessary food did not tempt them. Ruth would tempt 
 them with delicacies which she brought and urged upon them that 
 they might gain strength. She could not see them discharged from 
 the hospital to rely upon themselves, but sought them out in their 
 homes, or, where they had no homes, sought homes for them and 
 kept watch over them in her spare hours. * * * All through 
 her hospital course, unselfish for herself, thoughtfulness for others 
 pursued her, and this did not cease with their leaving the hospital. 
 I have gone with her, after her long, hard day's duty was over, to 
 a distant part of the city, to which she went to take medicine to the 
 poor cripple, a former patient of hers, whom she also aided in eflforts 
 to gain a scanty support for herself with needlework ; and she would 
 take of the work of that poor girl and spend her time and efforts 
 among her friends, in seeking to sell her handiwork for her thus 
 to assist her." 
 
 The fallen girls who sometimes were her patients she did not 
 cease to pit}- when they had left the hospital, and she sought them 
 in their humble homes and strengthened them and by practical aid 
 and sympathy and encouragement helped them to flee from sin and 
 vice, that they might not fall again, and not a few now testify that 
 she saved them from disgraceful lives. 
 
In flDemoriam 
 
 During the probationary weeks, each one on trial is assigned to 
 the charge of some member of an upper class. The faultfinding 
 with such a candidate, for inaccurate or slighting work, was no 
 pleasant task to her, and the words of one of those who occupied 
 such relation to her will testify of that spirit : " Had it not been 
 for Ruth's lovely interest and encouraging words which she spoke 
 to me in so many hard places and while at so many trying tasks 
 I should have given it up and abandoned the whole thing. * =i^ * 
 I think very few can realize or know how deeply her almost silent 
 influence for good aflFected my daily life in the hospital ". 
 
 Nor were the influence and encouragement and kind words only 
 for her own probationers. Since she passed away words have come 
 to us from many others, some now in the higher classes, and some 
 graduate nurses, of the encouragement, influence and example she 
 was to them, and one of them now writes, " without these T could 
 not have succeeded in the trijil. and to her kindly words and encour- 
 agement and lovely influence I am indebted for my success and my 
 place to-day ". 
 
 During her course in the Nurses' Training School she contracted 
 a contagious disease, and was prostrated for many weeks on a bed 
 of dangerous sickness. Where she contracted it no one knows. 
 With all the care and precautions of the hospital it is apparent it 
 was not there. But from her interest in the poor the suspicion 
 naturally arises that in her visitations to humble homes, in her work 
 of sympathy, she was exposed to the contagion. Recovering from 
 this sickness of months, other months of recuperation succeeded and 
 she returned to her duty, and was graduated in June, 1903, fourth 
 in standing in a large class ; but to complete her pledged service of 
 three full years she continued in the hospital work until the follow- 
 ing winter, and then took a needed rest, during which she was able, 
 away from home, to visit relatives and friends whom she had not 
 seen for years. But she was not to be at ease, for letters from the 
 superintendent of nurses called for her assistance until she yielded 
 and returned in March, 1904, to the hospital as a head nurse, con- 
 tinuing her work until the first of June, and on the fourth day of 
 
IRutb Havens prime 
 
 that month she sailed for Europe with her parents and two of her 
 sisters. She returned September 21, and soon after again sought 
 to revive old friendships with relatives and friends so long inter- 
 rupted; but again letters from the superintendent of nurses at the 
 hospital followed her, and she was importuned to return to the work 
 at that post. 
 
 It had long been her intent and desire to devote herself to the 
 suffering poor, and there now faced her the question of determining 
 for life the sphere of her duty. In a long conference Avith her 
 mother the whole matter was canvassed. The work of a nurse 
 among the poor of her own city of Yonkers was presented, but her 
 mother argued that there she would necessarily meet competition 
 with other nurses who needed the compensation she did not need, 
 and that was a large consideration in her unselfish weighing of the 
 matter. It also was suggested to her again that in the slum work 
 among the poor of New York City she would be in the way of 
 others who needed the compensation which she did not need, and 
 that again appealed to her. Then the call to the hospital was con- 
 sidered. That she was wanted there told the story that her work 
 and ability were recognized. That she was practically offered any 
 sphere of work there which she should choose also gratified her. 
 She was assured that her father would provide for all her wants 
 wherever she should go. All these considerations were weighed by 
 her, and she determined to return to the hospital as a head nurse, 
 choosing her work in the women's surgical wards, as she had been 
 offered the choice of her place, planning to return there on the 
 first of January to remain at least five months. 
 
 But all her hopes for further and long usefulness here in this 
 world were destined to defeat. On the Sunday before Christmas 
 came the terrible information that she had somewhere breathed in 
 the seeds of a dread and deadly disease. The shock was as out of 
 a clear sky to all of us. Could it have been less to her, for she was 
 surrounded with happiness and cheer in that happy holiday season, 
 without suspicion of any impending ill? It was not strange that 
 she suffered somewhat with the shock, not because she dreaded the 
 
Iln nDemortam 
 
 f)ossible prospect, but because it suddenly brought to naught all her 
 cherished hopes of devoting her life to others. 
 
 Whence this catastrophe had come, like that of her earlier illness, 
 no one probably will ever know. No known place or occasion of 
 exposure to its contagion could be recalled. It is true that during 
 the recent three months of recreation she had repeatedly fallen u^xjn 
 sickness and suffering, and, as was her nature, had given herself 
 up to the work of nursing the sick, and at least once after her last 
 return from Europe her devoted and skilful help had been the means 
 of saving the life of a dear sick one. While in Europe she had also 
 visited hospitals in many cities to observe their arrangements and 
 methods and their work. But where had been the place of danger 
 to her no one could tell. It seems noM' that the exposure must 
 have been, can only have been, where charity called, and in some 
 lowly place where disease lurked, and where she went to find and 
 help the needy and the suffering. 
 
 During that week before Christmas, notwithstanding all she knew 
 of her danger, she was active both in and out of doors in the prepara- 
 tion for its joys, and spent much time in making ready her own gifts 
 for loved ones. She rode and drove with, and had entertainment with 
 friends, who, as we thought, would only be separated from her for 
 a short time at most. To her great joy, Miss Maxwell, from the 
 liospital, spent the afternoon and evening of the Friday of that week 
 with her. How little they thought what a few days more would 
 bring. On the Saturday of that week, the next day, without a note 
 of warning came a suddenly critical moment, and she was then for 
 the first time laid upon a sick bed. One after another came new tell- 
 tale events of awful distress to those who so dearly loved her. all of 
 which she met with a courage and peace that astonished them all. 
 The days wore on. full of anxiety but not given up by us to despair, 
 for we hoped against hope. They were days of trouble to us but 
 of peace to her. For the first few days her tw(^ sisters had devoted 
 themselves to the care of the loved sufferer, but the heart is stronger 
 than the nerves and the head, and sympathy and love more than off- 
 sets judgment and discretion. In that trial, one after the other, two 
 
 12 
 
JERUSALEM, JULY, 1900 
 
1Rutb Mavens jprime 
 
 trained graduate nurses were summoned and were sent by Miss Max- 
 well. They need not be called by name. One was her own class- 
 mate, the other a member of the class just before her. Shall we ever 
 forget them ? Never. Their devoted and lovely attention was more 
 than natural. Their watching was tireless; their cheer to her and to 
 us was beyond measure. Will they ever forget the patient, lovely 
 sufferer? They will not. They have found places in our hearts and 
 home for all time which they only can fill. 
 
 Early that week, the last week of the year, on a visit to her bed- 
 side her father had said, that we should do all we could for her ; that 
 we expected her to get well again ; but she must, to her utmost, help 
 and make a strong fight herself. This she promised him to do. We 
 wonder now if it was to that fight she referred when she said to him 
 on the last day of her life. " Father, T am afraid it has not panned out 
 well." 
 
 On Friday. January 13, her situation had changed much, and a 
 consultation of physicians was had that morning, and the hopeless- 
 ness of her condition was disclosed. She was brave, oh, so brave ! 
 When the doctors had left her she turned to her lovely nurses and 
 asked to know about it. Their hearts naturally forbade them to tell 
 her all ; and later, suspecting the truth, she turned to them and refer- 
 ring to the physician asked, " What did he say? " And later, " Girls, 
 it isn't fair, I think I ought to know ; don't you ? " And she was told 
 only that she was not so well. But after a moment, realizing the 
 whole truth, she looked into the face and pressing the hand of the 
 nurse, who was scarce able to conceal her tears, said, " Don't cry, 
 dearie ; I am so glad I won't live now to be an invalid. Oh, I'm so 
 happy! " One of her nurses, distressed at Ruth's coughing, said to 
 her, " I would like to get down in your place and breathe a little 
 while for you," and she reached up her hand and patting the arm 
 of the nurse said, " That kind of a wish shows you are a real nurse." 
 
 Those three days before the end were bitter days to all but Ruth. 
 To her they were as calm and full of intelligent realization as were 
 any days of her life. On that Saturday when her mother sat by 
 her side and talked with her of her going first of all of us, and 
 
 13 
 
II n nDemoriam 
 
 commended her to her dear Lord, and gave her messages of love to 
 her two dear brothers, now more than ten years in Heaven. Ruth 
 spoke, oh, so calmly and peacefully of her going, and of her only 
 regret as_she said that her "life had been so incomplete." Her 
 mother sought to dispel that thought by telling her of how every 
 member of the family had the night before gathered around the 
 fireside in the library, and without any conscious concert had recalled 
 her numberless sweet and helpful acts all through her life for each 
 one, and not only for them, but for all within her reach, and how 
 her own tireless and devoted and skilful work had saved two lives 
 in the household, and that we all measured hers as a complete and 
 full life, without an opportunity for doing good to others unful- 
 filled, and that the good Lord who was taking her away from us 
 was taking her to Himself, where He had more for her to do for 
 Him in higher walks. " Well, mother,'' said she, " I am glad to go, 
 and I am glad I am not to live a life of invalidism." How much 
 she must have pondered over the whole matter during her few days 
 of sickness. 
 
 To her father's assurance that the dear Lord would make it a 
 short separation, and that he, himself, would be the next, and would 
 soon follow, she replied begging him not to think so ; that he must 
 live on for the others, but he told her. " It was only a little while 
 and we would all cross to be again together, for it was like a little 
 ocean on which our ships were continually crossing, and that she was 
 but taking one a little earlier, but the ship he would take would 
 follow soon." 
 
 One after another on that Saturday afternoon and evening she 
 had seen and talked with her father and mother and her brothers and 
 her sisters all, and in the early evening one of the nurses asked her 
 if there was any one else she wanted to see. True womanhood has 
 most intense affection. There had been assigned to her care in the 
 hospital as a probationer a young and gentle girl, who was possessed 
 with the same infatuation to know all that it means to be a nurse 
 which has captivated so many of the nicest girls of our land, who 
 
 M 
 
IRutb Mavene prime 
 
 need it not for the sake of gain. She was one of such. In her visits 
 home Ruth had talked of her, and first of her fears that the pro- 
 bationary trials would be too much for her and that she would fail 
 of acceptance, and later said that she had changed her mind, and 
 that her young friend was showing real perseverance and grit in it 
 all, and would surely succeed. Since Ruth has gone the lovely girl 
 has told us that it was Ruth's fine example and tender words of 
 encouragement which enabled her to stand the tests, and that to her 
 she owes her success, for she did succeed. In the hospital life of 
 those two sweet spirits grew the deepest affection between them. 
 And on that Saturday evening after we had one after the other all 
 talked with Ruth, when the nurse asked her if there was any one 
 else she would like to see, she said if it was possible that she would 
 like to see that young nurse again. The telephone call was instantly 
 made to the hospital, and within a little more than an hour her young 
 friend stood at her bedside. The fellowship of affection can not be 
 written. She did not leave Ruth until Ruth had left us all. Fellow- 
 ship of affliction is deep and lasting, and Ruth's friend has a place 
 in our hearts and home for life. 
 
 Her grandfather began a Sabbath on earth, and it passed into the 
 Heavenly Sabbath that never ended. Each of her two brothers left 
 us on Sunday to begin to live the eternal Heavenly Sabbath. Those 
 recollections were revived with us when Sunday, January 15, opened, 
 and we could but think that Ruth too might leave us on that Lord's 
 day. The hours went on with us in tears and grief. Not so with 
 that dear one — " God's own child," as her younger brother called 
 her as he came from her bedside. Her courage and her calmness 
 and her readiness and her desire to be at rest in the Everlasting Arms 
 was supreme, and as each of us saw her radiant but calm face from 
 time to time that day, her peace and satisfaction and desire to be 
 away was beyond writing of. Her mother, the strongest and calmest 
 of us all, will never lose the memory of her moments with her that 
 day when she read to her the comforting words. 
 
 Her never-ceasing thoughtfulness for others did not forsake her at 
 
tn riDemoriam 
 
 any time during her illness. From the first of it to the very last she 
 was tenderly solicitous for the sleep and the rest the nurses should 
 have, and appreciating the grief of those near to her who so loved 
 her and whom she loved, she continually asked about them and gave 
 directions what they should do, just as though she were nursing them 
 herself. Particularly for her mother, whom she called by her pet 
 name, " Dear Mammy," was she most solicitous. And as her father 
 was about to come to her bedside she asked to be raised on her pil- 
 lows that she might not look so ill. saying. " I don't want to cough 
 while he is here." 
 
 Her elder brother will not soon forget the hour he spent at her 
 bedside and read, as she asked, God's words, and knelt and mingled 
 his prayers with hers on the last afternon she was with us. 
 
 It was on that last Sunday that she asked her elder sister to get 
 paper and write, and then she made mention of her personal treasures 
 and to whom she desired to give each one. Nor did she forget in 
 the act those poor girls she had rescued from sin and infamy, who 
 were even in those closing hours of life yet on her heart, and with 
 wishes for their welfare she mentioned articles of her clothing she 
 soon would need no more which she wanted them to have, as she 
 gave their names and addresses. 
 
 It was in the room in which she was born from which she was 
 passing away, of which her mother had that day spoken of to her 
 as the room in which she came to us when God gave her to us. and 
 from which now He was taking her from us to Himself. And even 
 in that last Sunday morning she told the nurses, how she loved that 
 room, from which she was going home ; that it was the room in 
 which she was born, which had become hers; how she loved it; how 
 it was furnished for her just as she had chosen, and how she loved 
 each article there. She talked to them of the ornaments which 
 adorned it, of whence she had gathered many of them in her travels 
 in Europe and other lands, and of how she had herself arranged 
 them all. How she loved the sunlight as it came in the south win- 
 dows in sunshiny days during her sickness! That room is a sanc- 
 tuary now to us. V 
 
 i6 
 
1Rutb Mavens prime 
 
 When death is coming near. 
 When thy heart shrinks in fear. 
 
 And thy limbs fail, 
 Then raise thy hands and pray 
 To Him who smooths thy waj 
 
 Through the dark vale. 
 
 See'st thou the eastern dawn? 
 Mear'st thou in the red morn 
 
 The Angel's song? 
 Oh ! lift thy drooping head, 
 Thou who in gloom and dread. 
 
 Hast lain so long. 
 
 Death comes to set thee free, 
 Oh meet him cheerily. 
 
 As thy true friend; 
 And all thy fears shall cease, 
 And in eternal peace 
 
 Thy penance end." 
 
 The first two stanzas of that Song of the Pilgrim was not the 
 story of Ruth, for her heart shrank not from the vale and the river, 
 nor had she any gloom or dread. She longed for and welcomed the 
 messenger to take her home. Before the dawn came she was set free. 
 
 Just as that Simday went out, and the next day was scarce begun, 
 the end came and God took her to Himself. How glad a translation 
 and a rest to her ! How she welcomed that going home, to eternal 
 rest! There were no fears for her. Hers is eternal peace. Her 
 penance ended in eternal life. New service is hers and her ministry 
 of love is continued in the Celestial Country. 
 
 We wonder if her example of sweet, helpful living for others 
 and of self-forgetfulness shall be a lost example, or shall bear fruit 
 in others who knew her. Will her place here as a minister for 
 good to others be always vacant? Will any of those who employ 
 their time and find their only joys in the second-rate amusements 
 and diversions which attract them now find in her beautiful and self- 
 eflFacing, devoted life of modest, untrumpeted service and ministry 
 for the poor and the suffering, an incentive to do themselves as she 
 
 17 
 
In flDemoriam 
 
 did, and carry on her work in her place and stead, assured of the 
 more blessed reward, the sense of the heart-satisfying satisfaction 
 of doing as she learned from the Christ to do, in " going about doing 
 good " to the poor, the fallen, the outcast, the sick and the suffering; 
 and in the quiet way that gets no applause here on earth, but surely 
 will in the Better Land receive the words of the King, '" Inasmuch 
 as ye did it unto one of the least of these." 
 
 Jl. 
 
 V 
 
IRutb IHavene prime 
 
 ^be ifuneral ot Obtse IRutb maveng prime 
 
 " The funeral took place in the First Presbyterian Church of 
 Yonkers on Wednesday morning, January i8. There was a large 
 assembly of relatives and friends upon the lovely winter day. Six 
 ministers sat in the pulpit, which was covered with wreaths and 
 roses and lilies. Two of her favorite hymns, * Christian Dost Thou 
 See Them ' and ' Jerusalem, the Golden,' were sung by the congre- 
 gation; prayers were offered by Rev. Mr. Underbill, the Rector of 
 St. John's Episcopal Church, and by the Rev. Dr. Burrell, of the 
 Reformed Church. The scripture selected by her father was read 
 by the Pastor, Rev. Dr. Stevenson, who also made a tender and 
 appreciative address. Other addresses were made by the Rev. 
 Professor Fagnani, of Union Theological Seminary ; the Rev. James 
 McLeod, D. D., of Scranton, Pa., and the Rev. David J. Burrell 
 D. D., of the Marble Collegiate Church, which three had known 
 her intimately almost from her very childhood; and the Rev. Dr. 
 George F. Pentecost, D. D., who had been her pastor for about five 
 years before her entrance into the Nurses' Training School, pro- 
 nounced the benediction. The services were most comforting and 
 sympathetic, and the family bore their dead to their burial plot in the 
 Cemetery of the Evergreens, in the afternoon." 
 
In riDemoriam 
 
 Selected Scripture IReaOtngg 
 
 Hebrews 12, 9-13: 
 
 9 Furthermore, we have had fatiiers of our flesh which corrected us, and 
 we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the 
 Father of spirits, and live? 
 
 ID For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; 
 but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 
 
 11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: 
 nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto 
 them which are exercised thereby. 
 
 12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and tin- feeble knees : 
 
 13 And make strai.ght paths for your feet. 
 
 /. Peter i, 3-9: 
 
 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according 
 to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
 
 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled. and that fadeth not away, 
 reserved in heaven for you, 
 
 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to 
 he revealed in the last time. 
 
 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are 
 in heaviness through manifold temptations: 
 
 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that 
 perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor 
 and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ : 
 
 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, 
 yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 
 
 g Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 
 
 /. John 3, 2: 
 
 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what 
 we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him: 
 for we shall see him as he is. 
 
 /. Corinthians 13, 12: 
 
 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I 
 know in part; but then shall T know even as also I am known. 
 
 Psalms 17, 13: 
 
 IS As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, 
 when I awake, with thy likeness. ^ 
 
 JO 
 
IRutb Havens prime 
 
 John 14, 2 and S- 
 
 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have 
 told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
 
 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, 1 will come again, and receive 
 you unto myself; that where 1 am, there ye may be also. 
 
 Revelations 3, 5: 
 
 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I 
 will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name 
 before my Father, and before his angels. 
 
 Revelations 14, 2 and 3: 
 
 2 And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps : 
 
 3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the 
 four beasts, and the elders : and no man could learn that song but the hundred 
 and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 
 
 Revelations 21, 23-26: 
 
 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neitiier of the moon, to shine in it : 
 for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 
 
 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it : 
 and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 
 
 25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day : for there shall be 
 no night there. 
 
 26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. 
 
 Revelations 22, 3-5: 
 
 3 And there shall be no more curse : but the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him; 
 
 4 And they shall see his face ; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 
 
 5 And there shall be no night there ; and they need no candle, neither light 
 of the sun ; for the Lord God giveth them light : and they shall reign for ever 
 and ever. 
 
 #^ 
 
In nDemortam 
 
 H&&re9se6 
 
 IRcv. "M. p. Stevenson, 2). D. 
 
 Dear Friends. — We have come into this house of prayer to pay 
 our tribute of love and honor to a rarely beautiful and unselfish life. 
 When I think of how her health was broken and her strength was 
 spent, it seems to me that in a very true and very real sense it may 
 be said of her as it was said of the Master she so tenderly loved and 
 so unswervingly followed, ^' She saved others, but herself she could 
 not save." The world would say, I suppose, that her life was short 
 and that death had come to her untimely ; but we should remember 
 that " We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths ; in feel- 
 ings, not in figures on the dial. We should count time by heart 
 throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the 
 best." 
 
 Measured by such a standard her life was long, fully rounded and 
 
 complete, and though the space it occupied in time was not large, 
 
 yet in the motives that controlled it, in the devotion that animated 
 
 it, and in the spirit that inspired it. it was splendidly, divinely 
 
 great. For 
 
 " Tt is not growing like a tree 
 In bulk, doth make man better be : 
 Or standing long, an oak, three hundred years. 
 To fall, a log at last, dry, bald and sere. 
 A lily of a day. is fairer far in May, 
 Although it fall and die that night. 
 It was the plant and flower of light. 
 In small proportions we just beauties see 
 And in short measures life may perfect be." 
 
 We are privileged to have with us three friends, Drs. Fagnani, 
 McLeod and Burrell, who have known almost from its beginning 
 the life of this noble woman now called to a higher service, and 
 they will speak to us out of the fullness of their knowledge and 
 affectionate sympathy. 
 
IRutb Havens prime 
 
 TRcv. Cbarles p. jfagnani, W.'B. 
 
 This is a soldier's funeral! 
 
 That means sadness, for it is a funeral. But it also means exul- 
 tation, for it is the giving of the last honors to one who was a 
 warrior. When her name is pronounced at the roll-call the answer 
 will come, " Died on the field of honor ! " She called it " Dying 
 in harness ", for it was all planned that she should have gone back 
 to the hospital January i to take up the coveted work of a head 
 nurse. 
 
 We think of soldiers as men arrayed in barbaric trappings whose 
 mission is to kill. Hers was the pure white uniform, symbolic of 
 tender helpfulness and healing. 
 
 The conventional soldier's business is to fight an equal foe, flesh 
 and blood like himself. She had been trained for three strenuous 
 years to grapple at the bedside with the King of Terrors. An 
 unequal fight, forsooth ! What can a frail girl do against such odds ? 
 And yet not once, not twice, did she drive him baffled from his prey. 
 He has had the last word, however, it would seem, for we who 
 loved her are to-day gathered about the pallid face that we shall 
 see no more under the sun. 
 
 But, O, death, where is thy victory? 
 
 Are her three years of arduous preparation in the training school 
 then gone for naught? Little do we realize the infinite possibilities 
 of service in the larger life to which she has been promoted, if we 
 imagine that she is not all the better equipped by that hospital 
 discipline for her Master's errands. 
 
 And yet she ought not to have died. Her dying was premature, 
 and premature deaths ought not to be ; and the time will surely come 
 when by reason of better understanding of the ways of God, which 
 we call the laws of nature, and of more intelligent and widespread 
 social conformity thereto, death out of due time will be the rare 
 exception. 
 
 She leaves a great void in our hearts, for she was very sweet and 
 gentle, and helpful and unselfish, and such are all too few in this 
 
 23 
 
In riDemoriam 
 
 sad world ; that there should now be one less means a great deal for 
 all who came within the reach of her beautiful influence. 
 
 But it is good for us to be here, for her sealed lips are more 
 eloquent than speech. We feel that we must live more nobly than 
 we have heretofore attempted to do ; that the second-rate things must 
 become more despicable in our eyes ; that it should be easier and 
 pleasanter for us not to think so much of our own things, but more 
 of the things of others, and so live in the light of the Master's 
 presence that our sense of values may be adjusted to His, so that 
 when our time shall come to lie silent in death, those who know us 
 will thank God that we have lived. 
 
 IRev. S^ames /iRcXeoO, 2). D. 
 
 My Dear Frie;nds. — When our hearts are breaking, and when we 
 need a word of comfort, there are no words like the words of God. 
 " Blessed be God, even the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
 Father of Mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforted us 
 in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which 
 are in trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted 
 of God ". 
 
 It is not easy for me to speak on this occasion. To sit beside you. 
 a silent mourner, would be more in harmony with my feelings. Our 
 Ruth is gone — T always called her Ruth — and we are here to bear 
 her body to the tomb. She needs no eulogy. At such a time as this 
 one who needs a eulogy does not deserve it, and one who deserves 
 a eulogy does not need it. Ruth Prime came of good stock, and 
 she had a right to be proud of her lineage. Her grandfather and 
 her great-grandfather, like her father and mother, were devoted 
 servants of Christ, and in her father's hou.se she. from a child, 
 knew the " Holy Scriptures which were able to make her wise unto 
 salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus ". .\nd she. along 
 with her sisters and brothers, was well-grounded in the Shorter 
 Catechism. T recall and vou too will remember some words which 
 
NEW YORK, MAY, 1901 
 
IRutb Mavene prime 
 
 she now appreciates more than ever before. They are not words 
 of Scripture, but they are eminently Scriptural, and they are the 
 words of that Catechism. I have repeated them to myself hundreds 
 of times, and i rejoice in the truths they embody. These are the 
 words : " The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in 
 holiness, and do immediately pass unto glory ; and their bodies being 
 still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection ". 
 But is that all? No, thank God, there are other, and if possible 
 greater, blessings to follow, for "' At the resurrection, believers 
 being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted 
 in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full 
 enjoying of God to all Eternit}^ ". Is not that a glorious prospect? 
 Thank God for it! 
 
 As she grew in years, she grew in grace, and in the knowledge 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Her piety was of a most humble type. It found expression in 
 deeds rather than in words. She could talk Avell for Jesus, but she 
 could work for Him better. If she could now speak she would, 
 I doubt not, caution us against speaking in her praise ; but I am 
 sure she would tell us to praise her Redeemer, and to give to Him 
 all the glory for any good thing she had been permitted to do in 
 His name. 
 
 It has been said that her death was untimely ; but I am not so 
 sure of that. She did indeed " fall in sleep " in her young woman- 
 hood, but 
 
 " It matters not at what hour o' th' day 
 The Christian falls asleep. Death can not come 
 To her untimely who is fit to die. 
 The less of this cold earth, the more of Heaven, 
 The briefer life, the earlier immortality." 
 
 Thank God, my dear sorrowing friends, for tlie hope of a blessed 
 immortality ; a hope which Ruth fondly cherished and which she 
 has now realized ; and surely you will thank God again and again, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord, for the bright prospect of a blessed 
 and everlasting reunion. 
 
 25 
 
Hn nDemoriam 
 
 My tears mingle with yours as I think of Ruth and as I say 
 farewell! But at the same time, you and I can look through our 
 tears, and far away beyond our tears, to the blooming fields of 
 immortality, where her redeemed spirit now is, and where she will 
 be "forever with the Lord ". 
 
 ■Rev. DavlJ) 3. 36uuell, 2). D. 
 
 It is the glory of the Gospel that it brings life and immortality 
 to light; and in so doing it solves the mystery of death. In the 
 philosophy of the Gospel death is not the end but the beginning of 
 life. The life which we are living here and now is not really life 
 at all but only preparation for it. The days of our years on earth, 
 whether less or more than threescore years and ten, are probationary ; 
 they are merely an apprenticeship for something beyond. Death is 
 a line of shadow falling across our path, signifying that our pro- 
 bation is ended and our character fixed ; we step across that line 
 and go living right on. 
 
 We are accustomed to think of a short life as an incomplete life. 
 We forget that the life of the Lord Jesus was scarce longer than 
 that life of service of her, the dear one who has just left us and gone 
 on before us. And yet of His own life He said, " It is finished ''. 
 As the days go by and we learn more and more of and recall her 
 work of faith, and of her doing for, and of love for others who 
 suffered, and to whom she ministered and loved to minister, we 
 shall find out and realize more and more that her short life was not 
 incomplete, and though it was not trumpeted, she was so modest 
 in all her work, it was so sincere and so helpful and so eminently 
 useful that hers was a life fully rounded out and complete and 
 finished. And it was so full of example for those who knew her: 
 such an incentive for others to l)e like her and be up and doing. 
 
 But her work of preparation, as we thought, for usefulness here 
 was not for the world only, little as we are able to see how she can 
 be spared from it. 
 
 a6 
 
IRutb Mavens prime 
 
 The cry of Jesus, " It is finished," meant that the foundations 
 were laid for a kingdom whose superstructure has ever since been 
 going up. Thus the death of a Christian is merely an advance to 
 larger tasks and responsibilities. Our young friend who devoted 
 her life to labors of love has received the serznce chevron. Had she 
 been summoned by the surgeon-general of our country for assign- 
 ment to duty at the front, her friends would have rejoiced in the 
 honor conferred upon her. But greater things are hers! She has 
 been promoted by her Divine Lord to a place among those choice 
 spirits of whom it is written, " Are they not sent forth to minister 
 unto such as are heirs of salvation?" There must needs be grief 
 in the separation; but those who loved her will rejoice in her call 
 to come up higher. The schooling which she had in the wards of 
 the hospital and among the destitute people of the slums must be 
 of immeasurable value in the larger ministrations of mercy to which 
 her Master has now called her. 
 
 And two things remain — memory and hope. We shall not forget 
 her gracious face, her winning voice, her kindly hands. They will 
 stimulate us to nobler living and emphasize anew the value of the 
 gospel which made her what she was, and better still, made her 
 what she is. And we shall meet again. " We do not sorrow as 
 others who have no hope." The day of the home-bringing will 
 come, a day of reunion, of handclasping, of " knitting severed friend- 
 ships up ". All the bright days of earth rolled into one could not 
 equal the happiness of that day. 
 
 " As for thy friends, they are not lost. 
 The several vessels of thy fleet, 
 Though sundered far, by tempest tossed. 
 Shall safely in the harbor meet.'' 
 
 Wherefore comfort one another with these words, " In my 
 Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have 
 told you. I go to prepare a place for you." 
 
 And let us live as those who realize the importance of these years 
 so fraught with possibility touching the eternal hereafter. We are 
 climbing the steps of the Temple of Life, under burdens that oft- 
 
 27 
 
In flDemoriam 
 
 times seem heavier than we can bear ; ])resently we shall stand at the 
 threshold, where a bright angel who is sometimes strangely called 
 " The King of Terrors ", will roll back the great gates and bid us 
 come in and begin to live. The friends we leave behind may weep, 
 like the elders of Ephesus who thought they should see the face 
 of Paul no more ; but though " weeping endure for the night, joy 
 cometh in the morning ". They will rejoice with joy unspeakable 
 when the veil is lifted and they know all. 
 
 Till then, dear friend, farewell. Nay rather. Auf wiedersehen — 
 ■ until we meet again ". 
 
 wm 
 
IRutb Havens prime 
 
 ©bituar^ Botices 
 
 [From the Bulletin of First Presbyterian Church of Yonkers, Jan. 22, 1905] 
 
 Since our last communion one of our younger members, Miss Ruth 
 Havens Prime^ after a life of notable heroism and self-eflfacing service, has 
 passed from us into the immortality of joy. May her inspiring example be 
 the means of quickening a nobler life, a deeper devotion and a more sympa- 
 thetic spirit of helpfulness in us all. 
 
 [The New York Observer, January 19, 1905.] 
 
 Ruth Havens Prime, beloved daughter of Elder Ralph E. Prime, of 
 Yonkers, fell asleep at her home, surrounded by the tender ministry of those 
 who loved her dearly, in the flower of her age, on January 16. Ever sweet 
 and serious as a child, the beautifully religious atmosphere of her home 
 wrought its natural result, and she found herself more and more averse, as 
 she grew up, to a life of aimless, self-centered society amusements. 
 
 With brave determination, yearning to be of service in the world, she suc- 
 ceeded in entering the Training School of the Presbyterian Hospital, in this 
 city. The searching discipline of this experience brought out into still clearer 
 light the beauties of her character. Her heart went forth in yearning sym- 
 pathy to the sorrows of her patients. She bore their griefs. Her care for them 
 did not end with their dismissal from the hospital, but followed them outside 
 and took the form of moral and spiritual and practical solicitude. She visited 
 them, and found work for them, and made their paths straight. Wise and 
 practical she was as well as kind : wholesome and pointed could be her words 
 of admonition to the wayward. Yet she was not as strong physically as she 
 needed to he. Illness baffled her at times, but her resolution carried her 
 through, her one dread being lest she should fail to be graduated and be 
 compelled to give up the glorious career to which she seemed predestined. 
 
 At length the three strenuous years were passed, and she was graduated 
 among the first in her class, and foremost in the affections of all her com- 
 panions and teachers. Then came the rest and change of a trip to Europe, 
 beyond which gleamed brightly the goal of return to the hospital as a head 
 nurse, for such was her desire, and such Miss Maxwell's cherished purpose. 
 
 Rut the Heavenly Father's plan was a better one. The Master needed her 
 for more glorious service in one of His other mansions. The pagan symbol 
 for such a life would be a broken column ; we. who sorrow not as those who 
 have no hope, see in it a Heaven aspiring flame returning to its source. When 
 the hemorrhages began so suddenly, and she was stricken down, she knew only 
 too well what it meant. Her fear now was lest she should recover only to 
 
■fln flDemortam 
 
 Jive as an invalid, requiring to be ministered unto, instead of ministering, and 
 so she was glad to go. since she could no longer be of use here. 
 
 Conscious and clear-minded almost to the very last hour, she was troubled 
 by the thought that perhaps she had been headstrong and unwise after all 
 in insisting on a nurse's career; did not the event seem to show it? The 
 mother's heart divined the shadow, and the mother's voice brought balm in- 
 expressible as it rehearsed in those dying ears what the daughter's trained 
 skill had done for her own family, reminded her of those two lives saved in 
 sudden emergencies, and of other minor but important ministries within the 
 home circle. And so the three years of devoted study had not been so fruit- 
 less after all ! 
 
 As she lay propped up against the pillows the wealth of her dark curls 
 framing the sweet and child-like, but oh so pallid face, waiting quietly for the 
 rising of the gentle tide that was to bear her safe across the Bar, her thoughts 
 following the grooves of life-long habit were only for others, insisting that the 
 nurses should have rest, that her visitors should not stand. And so in spite 
 of tear-dimmed eyes we thank the Heavenly Father for the Christian home, 
 and the Christian hospital, and the Christ-like spirit promoted to the reward 
 of grander possibilities in her Saviour's service and closer contact with His 
 love. C. P. F. 
 
 700 Park avenue, New York. 
 
 [The Presbyterian, February i, 1905.] 
 
 Early in the morning of January 16. 1905, after a brief illness. Miss Ruth 
 Havens Prime, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Prime, passed 
 away at the home of her parents, in Yonkers, N. Y. She was in the thirty- 
 first year of her age, and had been born and brought up in the midst of the 
 people of the city of her birth, where she had become loved and respected. 
 
 She was educated at the Yonkers High School and Miss Bliss's Academj', 
 completing her studies at Evelyn College, in Princeton, N. J. Early in life 
 she formed the purpose of devoting herself to the work of nursing. She 
 entered the Training School of the Presbyterian Hospital in the fall of 1900; 
 she completed her course, and was graduated in June, 1903, being the fourth 
 in a large class. Returning to the hospital as a head nurse, she had charge 
 of one of the surgical wards until the following summer, when she took a 
 leave of absence to accompany her parents upon a trip to Europe. 
 
 It was her expectation to return to her work with the beginning of the 
 present year as a head nurse in the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, 
 but before the time arrived she was stricken with the disease which resulted 
 in her death — the seeds of which were undoubtedly contracted by the strain 
 and exposure of her hospital life. 
 
 Her life, though short in years, was rich in usefulness and accomplishment. 
 A devoted Christian, she leaves behind her a blessed memory of devotion to 
 duty and unselfish ministration to others. She never ceased to follow up the 
 poor who were under her care, and not a few of those whom she nursed she 
 rescued from paths of sin and vice. Of her it may truly be said : Her works 
 do follow her. >y 
 
 30 
 
IRuth Mavene iprime 
 
 [The Westminster, February 4, 1905.] 
 
 Death has called away the daughter of General Ralph E. Prime, of Yonkers, 
 Miss Ruth Havens Primk. Thoughtful and serious as a child, as she 
 matured she found no relish in aimless and superficial society life and gave 
 three strenuous years toward fitting herself to engage in hospital work. She 
 graduated with honor, but soon disease manifested itself and nothing could 
 arrest its progress and so, though richly prepared to render earthly service, 
 the Master had need of her at once, and called her to Himself. Would that 
 many young people would cherish the high ideals she aimed to reach. 
 
 [The Sunday School Times. February 4, iQOSl 
 Life is given us to be spent, not saved. Yet whenever a particularly fruit- 
 ful life passes out from this world suddenly, because spent gloriously, there 
 are always some to talk about it as a " mistake " that should not have been 
 allowed to happen, because it might perchance have been prevented if the life 
 had been more selfishly guarded instead of so lavishly given for others. Such 
 a life and death as that of Ruth Havens Prime, the daughter of General 
 Ralph E. Prime, of Yonkers, New York, who, in her thirty-first year, has just 
 entered upon a still richer life beyond, was of this sort. Some years ago she 
 determined to devote herself to the work of nursing. Entering upon the strict 
 discipline and training of that work, she w-as graduated in 1903 fourth in a 
 large class of students. As a head nurse in the Presbyterian Hospital of 
 New York she was placed in charge of one of the surgical wards, where, after 
 a leave of absence last summer, she had expected to continue in her chosen 
 service at the beginning of this year. But before the time arrived she was 
 stricken with a disease undoubtedly contracted during the strain and exposure 
 of her hospital life, and in a few short weeks she had succumbed. Yet her 
 brief ministry was marked with a richness of service that is not measured by 
 time. She had devoted herself to the spiritual needs, as well as the physical, 
 of those whom she could help. She rescued some from lives of sin. And in 
 it all she forgot self and danger to self. There is no mistake in the spending 
 of such a life. Its thirty years count more for the coming of the kingdom 
 than three score years of self-protected existence. 
 
 31