Name/Title
AU Burtner, Elmer E. - 1916-06-03 letter to Joseph Hastings HarrisEntry/Object ID
1990.1.452Context
First Church
of the
United Brethren in Christ
Westerville, Ohio
June 3, 1916
My dear Harris:
I was in Columbus the other day and wanted to come out to see you but did not have the time. You were very thoughtful to remind me that you are not to have your "big doings" to-morrow [sic] for I had understood that was the day. You know what it is to be held up now, do you not? Some one told me that you were not having the Huntington Seating Company do your work because you were afraid they would delay you. It may be that they are worse than any of the others but that is a trick they all have. It is very trying.
But you made me swell up by telling me that Bishop Mathews and myself are the only ones you had confided the day with. How is that?
Once again, moreover, by the way, anyhow, however, I had heard that you had set the eighteenth as the day. That is the Sunday after Commencement week here and we should be glad to have you change to that for our special benefit, if you want to. Did you make it the 25th on account of the Portsmouth Branche Convention? Yes, I shall try to be on hand for the 25th for the afternoon and evening. It may be that I shall not be able "for to be there for" the whole day. That day will suit me better for the reason that the 18th the churches here will hold a union service on behalf of the war sufferers. They need relief and we shall have to help them out some.
Harris, you ought to be proud of your wife. I am. I was real sad that you were not at Newark to see her manage that convention. Such dignity! It made me brace up. If my wife would ever pull off a deal like that I should have her fill my pulpit half the time. There would be order in the church and "everything would be done decently and in order" if you had your wife preach now
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and then. It was real touching the way she dealt so tenderly with the few of us men who were there. She was as gentle as a lamb with us, but she came down on the women. I guess she saw we were scared, and feared a panic among us. Now I am not making fun; I mean that your wife did do beautiful work over there. I was real proud of her. She had a fine sermon and she ran the convention with ease and skill and grace. I do not mean just now divine grace, nor exactly the grace of the waxed floor artist, I do not know exactly how to describe it - I suppose it was her own grace, whatever it was, and you will know what I mean. I am glad that she is to succeed herself, and that there is not constitutional limitation upon her terms of service.
Now I shall be thinking of you for some time to come and I assure you that you have my prayers and my interest and my unbounded praise and admiration. You are going to have a magnificent plant there and you deserve it. I am praying that the Lord may bless you in all the manifoldness and fullness of Himself. And this I crave also for them over whose souls you are set as a bishop "that no man come short of the grace of God."
I am proud to be
Your friend and brother,
{Elmer E. Burtner}
