The Big Sandy News

TRIBUTE
From Mrs. Emilie Walker Herr to
Mr. and Mrs. R. T. Burns.

(In loving tribute to the life and usefulness of Judge and Mrs. Burns upon the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage.)

Is there a more beautiful relationship in all human life, than the tenderness, sympathy, and kindly devotion of two who have been lovers throughout 50 years?

Such love must have endured many tests, and come into all its fullness only since the dross has been cleared away. It requires the wisdom of two earnest souls, whose lives are inspired by a pure ideal, those who know that instinct commonly called love, is but the promptings of another such soul which longs for freedom, and seeks the spiritual fellowship of its mate. It sings with Browning's—the truest lovers of which history gives us record—

"If thou must love me let it be for naught,
Except for love's sake only.
That forevermore,
Thou may'st love on through love's eternity."

And the beautiful response:—“

"Yes, I love thee with the breath
Smiles, tears of all my life;
And if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death."

I am sure that no one realizes more than do Judge and Mrs. Burns that to hold this integrity of spirit is the one essential thing of this mortal life. How the spirit whose temple is in bodily form is to be housed and clothed and fed is a subordinate question.

The real issue is how shall it grow in sympathy and tenderness and consideration for others. How shall it feed itself on high thoughts and noble aims? How shall it hold its clear, direct and intimate relation with the Divine? The answer is serene and cheerful obedience, and in all-believing and all-confident love.

Believe and love—all the duties of the world, and all the privileges of heaven are condensed in those words. Believe and love. Not only trust, but know, believe. Hold fast to the consciousness that the forces of life are divine. Come into harmony with them, and thus live above the plane of which discord is possible—and so overcome the world.

With those elect,
Who seem not to compete or strive
But with the foremost still arrive.
Prevailing still;
Spirits with whom the stars connive
To work their will."

Ah love—the great sanctifier! and nothing can sanctify this relation that you so beautifully enjoy save love.

The church and the law can impress their seal upon it, but true marriages are concluded in heaven.

By the very fact of your spirituality, dear friends, you have made of yourself a magnetic center from which has radiated love, kindness, good cheer, and these, by a natural law, have been returned to you a hundred fold.

Say what you will the one supreme luxury of life is sympathetic companionship.—Those who give it in any measure are few; those who give it in perfect measure are rare. Its vital quality is perfect, mutual understanding. Its origin is prior to all our questionings.

This social luxury has become with these dear, good friends a spiritual necessity. Such love and companionship is beyond our power to compel. It is the intuitive recognition of our higher Selves. What I love in you is not yourself as ordinarily seen or estimated, but your real self, that few see—perhaps one alone. It is your higher self to which I am most responsive, and it is that in some mysterious way that is responsive to me.

Do you know why so few people interest us? I believe it is because they do not touch the soul—the real man of us. Spiritual differences make distances immeasurable. There are no gulfs so deep as those which yawn between souls.

We say: "Blood is thicker than water." But how about the spirit? There is a difference in spirits which makes the distance infinite.

Then, how beautiful is the divine relationship of these two dear people. The trusted companionship which has shared all the ever-changing way of fifty years, the joy of fellowship where the home life has been a source of inspiring happiness and usefulness, and where the sweet sanctities of life have found restoration such as fitted each for renewed labor on the morrow.

Is it not a splendid picture to carry with us? And after 50 years of wedded glory, today they verily "rise in newness of life."

This is really a thought to live by—"to rise in newness of life." It is full of inherent buoyancy and exhilaration. Instantly we are conscious of a new tide of exultation.

It is like a ladder on which the spirit may climb and all beautiful things seem possible; and where we may be transformed by the renewing of spirit.

We live by our convictions and enthusiasms, our visions and our ideals. These are the properties, so to speak, of that spiritual world which the spirit inhabits, even though it is held to earth by dwelling in a physical body. That which we habitually see, as in vision; those conditions in which we picture ourselves in half-unconscious imaginings: are those which shall be realized in outward fact. And, so, when on the clear mirror surface of an untried day we see ourselves rising in newness of life, transformed by the renewing of spirit, we grasp thus the key to achievement and happiness and blessedness.

The initial point is to bring the mind in an attitude of love. Hatred, discord of any kind forms an impassable barrier between the spirit and the joy of the spiritual atmosphere. Hatred is mental paralysis, and it forms one of those circles that Dante saw. Love is magnetic, it offers the open vision.

Judge and Mrs. Burns are living examples of how we may "rise in newness of life" every day. And as I said to them, I believe God wants you to make a crisis in your life like this anniversary an occasion of conspicuous testimony and to show your friends what the sweet grace of continuance in love and consecration will bring in its train. He means that we should see how such lives witness to the eternal—and to inspire us so to live.

Beautiful companionship: And God too, is your inseparable comrade and friend on all the way. He rejoices that you long since made the spiritual discovery that compels and dominates all temporal and external conditions and circumstances. Love of this order is eternal as the spirit itself. It is a part of spiritual identity and cannot be dethroned. It is immortal, so much love, so much force born of love, so much power to create the conditions of one's life.

Yes, it is love that's life—so full love so much vitality.

With Judge Burns and his wife, the vitality of love has endowed their life with high aspirations that have led them to the highest place of living. It has vitalized into deeds and sung in rights. It has enabled them to meet the customary duties. Attorney motives inspiring them with higher purposes. Truly it is love that is life. So much love so much vitality. It is measure for the soul. And tonight with your minds of large outlooks, gazing upon high possibilities and by the very largeness of your gaze, setting things in their true perspective, and thus delivering life from the small bondage of one processing day, we wish you God speed upon the further journey of life and in saying good-night, we want you to know from our lips as in our hearts that we delight to honor and pay reverence to you whom we love very dearly, and we trust we go each our separate ways with more of the boundless love and joy and peace—all fruits of the spirit—which have characterized your lives. May they continue to gladden your hearts and to enrich your crowns.

And yet, still more shall life grow for you. It shall continue to increase in knowledge and broaden in experience. It shall open out still richer capacities and powers, which will evolve ever-increasing harmonies of life. Hold fast to the indestructible bond. It is that of the spirit. Therefore divine and eternal.

And remember that in God's kingdom crowns are never put on from the outside. Therefore you are self-crowned.

Louisa, Ky.
Emilie Walker Herr.