Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1880 — The Love That Knows No Fear. [ARTICLE]

The Love That Knows No Fear.

A letter of Bob Burdette’s, declining tm invitation to a college reunion, has just found its way into the press. He says: “ Mrs. Burdette’s health—if the poor little sufferer’s combination of aches and pains and helplessness may be designated by such a sarcastic appellation—has been steadily failing all winter, and we have come down to this seagirt island to see if old ocean and its breezes may do what the doctors and mountains and' prairies have failed to do. And here we are waiting. ‘ Her little serene highness,’ in utter helplessness, unable to stand alone (for years she has been unable to walk), her helpless hands folded in her lap; she must be dressed, carried about, cared for like a baby ; suffering from countless pains and aches day and night, and I cannot leave her even for a few days. No one at Cliautaucpia will feel the disappointment as we do, for we had planned to go there together. If she could go with me, I would be glad enough to creep to Chautauqua on my knees. Her life has been a fountain of strength to me. In ten long years I have never seen the look of pain out of her eyes, and for more than half so long I have seen her sitting in patient helplessness, and I have never heard a complaining murmur from her lips while she has served as those who only stand and wait, never questioning and never doubting the wisdom and the goodness of the Father whose hand has been laid upon her so heavily. The beautiful patience of her life has been a constant rebuke to my own impatience, and in her sufferings I have seen and known and believed the ‘love that knows no fear’ and the faith that ‘knows no doubt.’ ” Such a letter needs no comment; it fells its own story.