The supremacy of life, a poem

Front matter

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Class

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Book First The Theme

Life, the staple of thought, the source of knowledge, least understood. The work of life is growth, the only creative force. Highest life is God. Life molds organic forms to suit its nature. The highest Life in touch with all, gives lust of life to nature. The ever changing nature remains unchanged ; only one nature. God has always worked. All power is of God and is manifest in laws. Creation has no bounds ; an organized thought on exploration sent ; a wide survey of the heavens ; stars arranged in vast designs ; Mind the source of all.

Book First

My theme is life, the boon of greatest price, The theme on every lip, and yet unknown. It brings the food afar for mental wealth. But shuns itself the keenest mental glance. It lights our way with lamp of knowledge true, But hides behind the lantern's darker side. Forever thus eluding careful search. 'Tis like a bird at play in ambient air ; He loves to feel its good sustaining force. But cannot understand its nature true ; Though freely used in every passing hour. And joy of every day, is still unknown.

What then is life, which thrills us through and through.

The fibers all, of nerves and flesh and bones ? A subtle force we cannot touch nor see ; A flame lit by a higher Life Divine. 'Tis in my fingers penning now these lines ; The brain cells glow with strugghng thoughts

intent.

Each striving first to reach the glowing page ; My soul is filled with high resolve to trace This subtle power to its Source Supreme,

And thence to note with care its wide expanse In time and space, without an end or bound.

What is the mission, then, of this tense life, Which strangely animates our being so? 'Tis here to build and keep in good repair The wondrous stature of the outer man. And build as well, the structure of the soul, — The temple true, and fit for God's abode. Our vital forces thus are building us, In body, soul, and mind, our all complete. Then self-made they are all who walk the earth.

'Tis so in all of nature's endless work ; Each life maintains its own true self apart; Each builds its house in which to live and die. Behold the giant oak in forest grown ; Had it a tongue, it might a legend tell. Perhaps the red men built their wigwams rude Beneath its ample shade, where children played ; And braves rehearsed the dangers of the chase, Or told of daring deeds in martial strife. Here down this steep decline the pathway led To where the spring, now dead, then nestled

cool Beneath the arching moss in fork of hills, Whence squaws went down to fetch the water

up.

Here on this spot in times remoter still An acorn fell ; in moisty earth was hid.

That acorn held concealed within itself Parental forces well combined to make The future tree. In genial earth the life Began its growth. The first, the next, and all The cells were given by the vital force. Each living cell gave added strength, and thus The baby plant began to live and grow. Two sprouts in opposite direction sprang ; One strangely downward turned to make the

roots, One upward went to make the stem and lap.

Food in the acorn held was first consumed. Then vital fluid, by busy rootlets fed. Went circling freely through the porous wood ; Put atoms in the structure high and low ; Thus building up the tree from roots to leaves. Each atom in the oak from first to last Has found its place and use by work of life. And if the tree should be to lumber cut. Each piece would show the vital process still, As shells and bones beneath our heedless feet Still show to all the work of vanished life.

The active work of life thus clearly seen Reveals to all what life has always done, And what, to be at all, must always do. Its function is to make, to build, to grow : The work no other agent can perform. Research no other builder has revealed. Then Life must be the source of all that is.

6 Cfte S)uptemacg of Life

The working life, not matter's lifeless forms, Is then the first in being's realm to stand. It is the cause and not the mere effect. Organic form is end, not cause of life. The clods can bloom when lost in living plants. The earth becomes a tree when active life Transforms its helpless soil to fibrous wood. Life ploughs the inorganic mass of earth, And sucks the lifeless atoms for its food, And moulds them to its own organic use. The bower of the tree grown tall and great Is but the spreading form which life has

made, — Which life may leave a crumbling monument, Like shells and bones to show what life has done. Thus life creates the forms of living things ; Shows nature's rise by nature's work today.

The highest life, the source of all, is God. Because He lives and works and loves all life. The world abounds with endless living things. Some sport in air, and some in water swim ; Some creep, some walk in horizontal form, And some the image of their Maker bear. And walk erect, the highly trusted lords Of earth, on which they work to higher ends. Immortal, these advance to higher spheres Of being in the endless rounds of time. Ascending ever, as improvement shows Their fitness for the nobler works of God,

Thus life proclaims itself the highest trait Of universal being's grand domain: The active Soul which shining forth is seen In all the countless forms of living things. Life blushes in the rich, unfolding rose ; Laughs gaily in the face of hollyhock ; And droops like shying love in poppies fair ; Tips kisses from the chubby lips of pinks ; Paints crimson on the cheeks of rising love ; And touches highest peak of earthl}^ bliss When Love lays kisses sweet on Beauty's lips ; Asserts its claim to rule by right divine, By high imperial force of mind, as when It leaps from lips inspired by burning truth. And stirs the souls of men to great resolve To crush the wrong, and give to suffering man The boon of freer life and better things.

No pen can trace the endless ways of life. As seen in all the myriad living forms. Life shapes the moving form in which it dwells To suit its own peculiar nature best. See how the timid life in graceful deer Has shaped the form and trimmed the legs for

flight!

And how the fierce combative life has bulked Itself in heavy bones and muscles tense About the lion's daring mane and head! The greyhound's love of speed, through ages

nursed,

8 Cfte Ssupremacp of Hitt

Has shaped each bone and muscle for the

chase ; While bulldog, kindred blood, pugnacious bent, Has all his powers massed for dogged fight. From limb to limb the fearless squirrel leaps In tallest trees without a sense of fright; While timid rabbit scurries close to earth, And sniffs the race for which his legs were made.

Some lives are held in balanced poise between Defiant fight and running cowardice. And may be trained to either this or that. Most men are in this class and may be swayed To war's tumult, or quiet peaceful life. The horse is not by nature very brave ; But well-trained horse to fearless temper bred. With arching neck and eyes to brav'ry set, Will charge in grandeur of his fearless might Amid the carnage of destructive war!

To see life hiding in the dust, averse To light, consider well the terrapin. Encased in shell, content with lowly life. He seeks his food in darkness of the night, And hides by day beneath some rock or log. Or burrows in loose sand or hides in trash. His life to darkness doomed, his sluggish

thoughts In narrow circles run ; few are his wants ; His tame desires but feebly stir his breast ;

His very loves are scarce of ardent kind ; And if disturbed, draws close his bony doors, And seems a stone among the others cast. His purpose here must be to fill a gap In scale of life, which else had been a blank. When rising sun shoots beams of morning light Amid the pines which grow on tallest hills, And ere the shades of things reflected true, Of waving trees or passing men or birds In sportive play, had yet the light to dance In dewdrops on the hedges in the plains. Then by his hiding place the joyous lark. So full of life to highest pressure wrought. Springs high on rapid wing to greet the day. And gladly sings as God endowed his throat That sweetest song which birds to mortals give. And sends to earth a thrill of keen delight! The plowman to his task with lighter heart Renews his brisker step across the plain ; The merry milkmaid sings a blithe response ; The farmer lifts his hoe with lighter task ; And still the joyous melody rolls on, O'er hill and dale ; to higher pitch tones life. Till waking nature laughs in morning light. Responsive to the notes of gifted bird, In ecstasies of universal joy!

Each life has place for use or beauty meant, And each is faint reflex of Life Divine. In outward form and inward trait, we see

The stamp which God by rigid law has placed On every living thing which thinks, or loves, Or sports, or sings, in nature's wide domain. The God of life, the Fount of vital force. In living touch with every phase of being found Gives lust of life, a trend toward Himself, And placed it on each atom born, and in Each life, with growing strength, and stronger

pull.

As life to higher grades of being rise.

Responsive to this law, rich nature grows The forms of life in rich abundance full, In endless shapes, each pointing to its best, Aspiring each to grow the true ideal. To grow the perfect form, from first in nature's

eye; And thus all nature teems with living things. Each striving much with wholesome discontent To reach some dimly floating wish, which plays Forever in the van of nature's course. Each normal life repines for better life ; And thus is progress intertwined, innate In all creation's endless, wide domain. Thus nature circles in a sea of life. The boundless life of God, the Source of all, And Guide of all to Wisdom's destined ends.

And thus sustained by reason's high behests. We know this universe was never dead ;

Cfte Supremacp of JLife ii

Else life's great tragic scenes had never been. Beginning absolute there never was ; For space and time by primal law must be ; But space and time have no creative force, And never could have added aught of things, Much less create the bounding force of life. And Life, the Source supreme of all beside, Has worked through all the years' eternal past.

Say not of mind or matter. Which was first. If each alike may claim eternal years. Then surely Mind was first in grade and rank; Was Maker, Master, Moulder true of all that

was.

No other Force could make old chaos dark. And then by might transform to certain shapes Whatever was in chaos found concealed. No other Force could swing the baton huge O'er all the things of being's broad domain, And harness worlds with worlds to work. The destined course of nature duly planned ! None else could raise the senseless dust to life. And make it blush in laughing flowers bright. Nor lift the clods to think in human brains. Nor raise the soil to praise the living God !

This order reason never can reverse, And sanely think of dust producing life. It cannot give a force it never had. No stream above its source can ever rise.

A cause is never less than what it makes, And may by making lose its power to make, As all its wasting strength to product goes ; So mother grains expire for baby plants.

But such is not the august Living Cause From whom the mighty stream of nature flows. The full unbounded, everlasting Life In universal nature imminent, Above all nature infinite in might. The Mind Supreme remains in vital touch With all that is in space or being's realm, The conscious Presence living everywhere, With full creative force and knowing skill, To make, sustain, or bless, as need may be. But what we see of life on all the earth Is but an inch of all the miles which stretch To endless ages down the stream of time ! F'rom heart and soul of things one purpose

comes : It is the will of God, and all worlds feel The vital touch and will respond, though oft In wayward freaks they wildly seem to move.

As fickle as an idle maiden's whim. Dame nature wears an ever changing garb ; Each morning new and changing through the

day.

Unsteady as a healthy child at play ; With features mobile as an actor's face,

She smiles, and frowns, and laughs, and weeps

in turn, As new conditions change the ruling hour. But in her essence real, her very self. She changes not in either space or time ; She is today what she has always been. In ages still to come must ever be. She is in earth and all the worlds the same ; No line is found where new domain begins. The finger-prints of one eternal God Appear in living light on all His works, And give to universal being laws Which work through all the changes unto life. One nature and one God proclaim the one Creative Force in all the realms of space. Whatever form the inorganic mass. In any world or comet thin, may take. Of gas, or water, rock, or ambient air. Or blazing mass of flowing lava hot. Or sand, or soil, or coal, or plastic mud, — There shimmers over all the glowing sign. By reason's eye discerned, the high design Of life, prophetic, as the flower bright, Which plays along the distant flows of time !

The drift to life is stamp of God, and must Be law in all the worlds which move in space. Then let us rise in thought to contemplate. With awe and praise, the grandeur of the works Of God, and wisely strive to catch a glimpse

14 Cl)c Supremacp of Life

Of what must surely be the grand result. Then help us, O thou God of wisdom, help Our little minds to reach this broader plane Of thought, and see what mighty purpose hangs Sublime on all creation's endless course!

We know not date when worlds began to be. Eternal seems to be their shining rounds, So stately, grand, and firm through ages found. We see the same expanding dome of stars Which David from his lowly place of rest Beside the shepherd's fold beheld, and sang, " The heavens declare the glory of our God ; The firmament declares his handiwork; Day after day they speak the mighty truth; Night after night they show his wondrous

pow'r.

There is no speech nor tongue by mortals

heard ; Their lines of light are spread through all the

earth ; In meaning thought they speak to all the world. Amid these stars a tent is pitched where sun Reclines at night, and comes refreshed each

morn.

Like bridegroom young and strong, to run a

race Each day across the wide expanding sky. His course from end to end of heaven lies. And all the world receives his light and heat."

Cfte ©upremacp of JLife i5

Undimmed the stars, unchanged their groups, Their pious lesson still they bring to earth. But all the things of dull materials made Are surely working out the destined end ; And timed by days, or years, or aeons great. The law of death is surely in them writ. One fate by law decreed belongs to all: To live the destined life, and then to die. Then soon or late the wheel which spins The tenure thread shall snap the line of fate, And each in turn shall surely pass away !

But nature grows not old, except in years, Because she has her own recruiting force. The waste of worlds supply the means ; The sweat of living worlds at work thrown off, The dust of worlds when dead, to atoms

dropped.

Are pooled in voids by economic laws. And thence new worlds begin their shining

course.

And thus in series endless, nature duly shines, Forever young ; and this has always been.

Is nature co-eternal then with God? It must be so ; else God sometime had lived Alone in dark eternal voids of space ; For had there ever been such vacant time When God alone was in the shades of night And nature had not yet been made or born,

Then back of all creation's mighty things

There was the night which no beginning had.

The dismal reign of nothingness was then,

An idle God in utter silence hid !

Can we suppose that all the energies which now

Control the universe were ever held

In idle pose through sleeping ages long?

The God of wisdom, hope, and might, asleep,

With talents hid in napkin made of night !

The mind with reason blest rejects the thought.

The God of life and love has always worked.

His high and holy nature is the pledge

Of endless work ; because He lives and works,

And finds His joy and satisfaction great

In guiding nature's course from age to age.

Then reason prompts the strong belief that God In all the ages past hath planted space With worlds on which to grow successive crops Of souls immortal, blest with reason's gift. Endowed with higher life, to worship bent ; And hearts of love, by virtue's law designed. To fill the growing space of heaven great With countless numbers, all by virtue crowned. And ready for their work in any sphere Where Heaven's wisdom gives to each a task.

The dull dead matter wisely thrown in space By strength of arm, omnipotently great.

Cfte S)upremacp of Life i7

By constant touch of God's eternal might, Has rounded into worlds for purpose wise. Around each atom God has placed the grip Of law, which holds each piece to service bound, And like a noose invisible brings back The ordered harvest great of living souls, To fill the vaster growing place of bliss. The garner of our God, hence Heaven called !

" All power is of God " ; thus Heaven speaks. God is only Source from whom it flows. All power in man is surely gift of God ; And yet the force of human will is used Basely to thwart the will of God, and sin Against high Heaven's holy law ; to fight Against the Holy One who gave him life. And with it all the force he calls his own.

Likewise the pow'r of growth in living things Is often twisted from its proper course. And works as hard to make the knots on trees ; Grows warts and tumors in organic life. As if the growths all went to forms of grace 1 God's power blindly works by rigid laws, To make the normal forms of living things ; But if the laws be broke, then blindly works. And spends the force in malformation's freaks. The broken law is cause of all the wrongs In all the range of Heaven's wide domain.

Now reason clearly shows that God must fill

Both time and space, and these can have no

bounds ; That energy divine can never lag, But works in functions ever, great and small, And fills all space with endless forms of things. Creation then can have no boundary line ; Else endless space beyond that line would lie. But God alone, to whom all space belongs, Whose economic mind all fragments saved. Could not permit such needless, idle waste. We must believe there is no idle space, Or boundless range beyond a final rim Which marks a boundary line to busy worlds.

Had we a messenger of lucid thought, A mind encased in spirit's deathless garb, An entity composed of thought alone. With speed endowed, as thought has always

been.

Inspired by thirst for explorations great, Then, ere the word to start had reached our

ears.

The messenger had passed the blazing sun. Beyond the galaxy in sky had gone To depths of space, straight on the line of

flight!

The days run into weeks, and months, and

years.

And these to ages climb, as time mounts still To aeons winding out their ample rounds,

Cfte ©upremacp of Hife i9

While still the thought maintains unbroken

flight !

And should he hold unslacked this onward

course Till yon bright sun grows dim with failing age And in cold death his atoms fall apart And all our worlds again to chaos drop, And night and silence jointly reign once more, Till ages long have been to nothing swept ; When sons of God by proclamation called. Once more shall shout his praise at birth of

worlds, — And should this rapid thought continue flight. While countless generations still of worlds shall

pass, And heavens yet succeed to heavens bright. Till even thought grows tired of constant flight And comes to rest on some bright world apart. And there together pulls his lagging form. Like tired eagle folds his weary wings to

rest ! — 'Tis well, for endless flight could only show Creation truly has no boundary line.

If thought should fly through all the ages long, 'Twere still to see the never ending charm Of universal nature's grand design. Where God displays in worlds of grandest mien In ever richer, grander fields of light.

20 Cfie ©upremacp of Life

His garden plots encircling endless skies ! Where perfect skill displays the Worker's art. There grow the trees celestial, bearing stars ; There glow the tinted beds of blooming orbs, In clusters grand in ether's awful depths, Ablaze with life supernal, fresh from God ! There wave the vines in graceful festoons hung On trellis sky where Pleiads shyly stray, And peep with laughing eyes, or boldly hang Like diamonds bunched on spray of living light !

Thus growing stars is Heaven's endless work. In this He teaches wisdom how to use The wings of mighty faith to reach His throne ; Appeals to sense of beauty in each mind ; And makes the stars, the messengers of light, To lead us all to higher realms of light. And each is index finger pointing still To higher wisdom found alone in God. The stars are all God's ministers of thought To train the thinking power of human minds. The stars are guides to him who strives to think.

Some glow like roses of celestial light. And some like modest pinks content to shine In milder charms of beauty still sublime. Some stars the waving lines of beauty trace ; And some a palace vast of grand design, Outline the spacious form of beauty rare;

CI)e ©upremacp of Life ai

The great fa9ades by shining stars are marked, The portal columns glow with brightest gems ; The window frames by rarest diamonds shown, And all the pillars traced with stars of light!

Like temples some in grandeur rise, all built Of shining orbs, fit shrines for endless praise. Like chariots some, each glowing wheel immense, A rim of blazing stars, and steeds of rare Celestial mien, outlined by glowing orbs 1 Some stars in spacious draperies hang, as if To curtain off some vast shekinah, where The Great Invisible might wish to dwell 1 And others still in spiral beauty shine. The galaxies immense of many skies !

'Tis thus methinks the heavens would appear To knowing mind reduced to living thought. And sweeping grandly through the vast expanse To see the boundless heavens in their forms Of varied beauty, spread like cities grand ; The groups of constellations wide Make city blocks in beauty grandly dressed, With streets dividing each from all the rest,— Not stiffly squared as men their cities build. But winding ways of shining star dust made. Now gently curving here with graceful bend, Then looping there like well-bred rivers flow. And now for all the glowing country side.

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Behold the starry roads of mighty sweep, The milky ways traversing all the skies ! These all combined in one concourse of things, A universe forever glowing, tense. With living thought of Him who made it all!

Thus nature, wide expanding, ever grows Unfolding still in varied forms and hues ; Has one eternal Source who unifies The whole, without a piece cut off a part. One God, one nature, one eternal rule. One purpose worked by one eternal Mind ! Here reason finds the solid ground of truth On which to stand secure with no rude shock To jar the sense of right, by honest doubt, That Mind is Source from which all nature

flows.

And this accords with reason's high behests. And while we cannot know eternal Mind, Nor fathom all the depths of Wisdom's flow. We surely do perceive some thoughts of God In nature's grand design before us spread ; And every glimpse of truth from nature caught Accords with sanest reason's high demand. That Mind must be the Source of all that is.

The lines we see of God's eternal thoughts, Like wires we see in air above our heads. Emerge from space and into space are lost; Appear in sections short and far above

Cf)e ^uptemacp of ILife 23

Our range of thought; but it dehghts the mind To truly know these thoughts of God run with, And not across, our reason's sanest view. 'Tis only Mind which has constructive skill ; Then, Mind must be the first foundation Life Unfolding all there is in Being's range. In such a scheme of things the human mind Can rest its faith, by reason well sustained. And thus 'tis true that normal human mind. In highest reaches of its noblest work. Accords with thoughts of Heaven's greater Mind.

There is a mental harmony divine, To which all minds accord when put in tune; A grand polarity of thought which sweeps All minds to one true symphony of right. In harmony with God's own will divine ! 'Tis this which makes the bliss of Heaven great. For this the Teacher taught us all to pray: "Thy will on earth be done as angels do That will complete in Heaven's high abode."

Book Second

The mind is granted power to leave the flesh and roam at will through space. Worlds designed for life, by development reach this end. The overwhelming vastness of nature. Seeming insignificance of earth. Wisdom's better view. Redemption must precede the creation of any life capable of sin. Voids in space where chaos develops into worlds. Why worlds and things are slowly made. Control of things by knowing life, assurance gives,

Book Second

These lofty views, by rapid thought disclosed A wild ambition in my mind inspires To cut away from earth and sordid things, And trace creation's broader realms of light. If I could take an angel's life and form. And be immune from heat and cold and pain. From hunger's rage and night's demand for

sleep ; Annul the law of weight and move at will. With speed of thought, on grand excursions

bent, Through space unchecked, and free as spirits

move; And have the power of sense tenfold increased. To see with wondrous range of vision far Revolving orbs of light in revels high. As world tips hand of world in passing rounds. In circling mazes wondrous to behold, As each pursues its course by heaven fixed ; While I should lightly bound from world to

world.

Amid creations forces great, in search

For insight fresh of Heaven's secret plans !

28 Cf)e ©upremacp of Life

Here Wisdom interposed a warning word : " The flesh you cannot take on such a flight. 'Tis only mind in spirit duly cased Can wing itself with ease of speeding thought, And bound to points of interest far and near, As sportive thought may leap from star to

star, From constellations bright to star-dust cloud. Or back to trivial things of earth and time. The flesh may back to primal state revert. To what it was ere first the breath of

life God gave the brute, and he became a man, Thence walking forth in nature's higher class. The Lord of all creation's wide domain. To this old brutish state then bid the flesh Relapse, and live the sluggish life awhile. Till you by Heaven's gracious will supreme Survey the mighty things by Heaven made."

By Heaven's high commission given thus. With wisdom for my guide and needed help. And senses toned to serve with wondrous

strength, I mounted from my dull encasement free. To study nature's course with new delight. To my exalted sense of vision strong, Astounding views, beyond description, rose ; The heavens blazed with tenfold grandeur great,

C!)e Supremacp of Life 29

As greater vision brought new worlds to view. Bright constellations lost their forms unique, As all the interspace was filled with stars, And new and grander shapes endowed the skies.

This fact significant at once I learned. That all the blazing worlds by mortals seen Are but a fraction small compared to worlds They cannot see. Those are the worlds in