Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1911 — FEAR [ARTICLE]

FEAR

When God made men He wanted tigers, not spaniels. Fear is disastrous to sentiment, to romance, and to common sense. Fear, thou art a woman on whose laughter-molded lip* joy lies asleep. Fear is a two-edged sword that cutn away at the same time ambition and courage. - . ' Fear Is like a lost bird that beata its wings against the black roof of a cavern. Fear is strong In. one thing only. It has the tough and enduring vitality ot n lie. Fear is a mole grubbing to the "earth for worms With no eyes to see God’s sky with the stars to. I Fear stands uplifting with unsteady hand her wan lamp and by its shifting rays transforms a siren to a specter. « l. ■' -V "• Fear, thou does not know the pace of a horse, toe fit of a hunting coat, or how to draw a sword from its scabbard. A man who believes in himself and his mother has no room for fear to his soul. Life is-too full of certainties for him. Fear, thou are the voice of that unfathomed sea of-human woe, making perpetual moan about His throne and surging to His footstool. Thou fear, drawing close o’er thy brow the sackcloth and in its folds crouching, shutting out from thy refusing eyes God’s gift of light and love. Fear, thou dost send from thy appalled sodl a shriek that pierces the hollow ear of space, starting the angels, holding in suspense awhile the eternal harmonics. Fear, thou art a form forlorn and close-mantled that with tottering* steps draws near the footstool of prayer and sends a cry of woe, horror, and defiance up to heaven, followed with a faint entreaty. Fear, thou are a maniac, losing thy grief in raving and weeping fast tears, then awakening with a sob from blank desolation and shrieking on, with eyes that dare not look straight at Divinity.