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THE SUPREMACY OF LIFE 
 
 A POEM 
 
 BY 
 W. S. HARRISON 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 
 
 1917 
 

 CoFYmiOHT, 1917 
 ShEEMAK, Fb£KCH 3* COMPAKY 
 
 JAN -4 1S!8 
 
 4=^01.4479835 
 
TO 
 
 MY DAUGHTER 
 
 MRS. CHARLIE HARRISON REYNOLDS 
 
 THIS POEM IS 
 AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
PROEM 
 
 O THAT some mighty power had touched my 
 pen, 
 And made its diamond point the gauge of worth, 
 That all its words should have the perfect ring, 
 Delightful tone, the voice of silver bells ; 
 And each with note to make exact accord, 
 And blend in lays, so lofty, so divine. 
 That he who reads a single verse must feel 
 The spell of hannony so pure and sweet 
 That, mind aflame with glowing thought. 
 By golden fetters bound in pure delight. 
 The soul will drink the last of all the words. 
 And still in pose expectant wait for more : 
 This pure ideal of poesy divine 
 Is mine to grasp in longing thought, alone ; 
 Perchance some bard may yet be born, inspired 
 With thoughts of purest tone, from heaven 
 
 caught. 
 And words so charged with high dynamic force 
 That such a poem yet may bless the world. 
 
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 ex- 
 ploration 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, 
 
4 Cfte §)uptemacp of Life 
 
 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. 
 
Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 
 
 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, 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of Life 7 
 
 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 ; 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 9 
 
 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 
 
10 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 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. 
 
12 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 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, 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 13 
 
 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, 
 
16 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 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 
 
18 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 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 im- 
 mense, 
 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. 
 
n Cfte ©uptemacp of ILife 
 
 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 THEME 
 
 The mind is granted power to leave the flesh 
 and roam at will through space. Worlds de- 
 signed for life, by development reach this end. 
 The overwhelming vastness of nature. Seem- 
 ing 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 ! 
 
 27 
 
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 
 
 growth ; 
 But these the worlds complete and put to use. 
 Where teeming life in endless forms delights 
 The great Creator's loving mind and soul. 
 For life the worlds are made. 'Tis Life Di- 
 vine 
 Which sends them forth on life-producing 
 
 tasks. 
 Some serve as heating centers, in whose light 
 And genial heat the finished worlds may bear 
 Their products rare, the many forms of life. 
 A world in making glows with fiery light; 
 A world complete with surface cold and smooth. 
 When winds and waves, and rain and sun and 
 
 time 
 Have changed its surface rocks to fertile soil, 
 Then grass and forest grow on all the land. 
 While placid waters cover ocean's beds. 
 It shines no more, but does a nobler work. 
 With all its bunkers filled with sentient life. 
 To this most useful class our earth belongs. ~ 
 
30 Ci)e @)uptemacp of Life 
 
 So oft in wonder lost I've sought in vain 
 To find the reason of the grand display 
 Of blazing worlds in nightly skies sublime. 
 To light our earth, inspire our souls, and lift 
 Our minds to see the living God in love. 
 Is purpose great, but surely not the end. 
 For life they seemed not fit. What then their 
 
 use.^ 
 They surely do proclaim the wondrous skill 
 Of some great Mind Supreme on purpose bent. 
 They cannot be by chance an empty show, 
 A vast display without some end in view. 
 
 The reason, hid before, is now made plain: 
 These globes of fire we see are worlds to be, 
 Unfinished products littered here and there; 
 As in a shop we see the scattered chips. 
 And useless ends of plank, the lumber stacked 
 For future use, and half-made chairs and beds, 
 Perhaps some products set aside for show; 
 If this were all, what boots the busy shop? 
 But scattered far and wide in pleasant homes, 
 The things which justify the shop are found. 
 
 True reason is that nature should exist. 
 To give her highest type for highest use : 
 And what is this but life, with mind and soul? 
 To give, then, life a chance must be her aim. 
 Here, in these worlds of life unseen we find 
 The end of all creation's mighty plans. 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 3i 
 
 There life abounds, and minds are made to 
 
 think, 
 And souls in joyful worship look to God; 
 There love, and hope, and joy, and peace are 
 
 found. 
 We hope the curse of sin has never reached 
 These other worlds. But that is far above 
 Our reason's proper range; our God knows 
 
 best. 
 
 'Tis now my pleasant task to see and learn, 
 Of things beyond the ken of other minds. 
 'Tis good beyond the art of words to tell, 
 How mind unchained from earth, and flesh, and 
 
 time. 
 Can wildly leap with speed of living thought 
 From universe to universe, aglow 
 With keen delight, unmixed with fear, across 
 The brighter plains of nature's brighter scenes ! 
 The worlds by mortals seen suffice to show 
 My greater sight the worlds by them unseen. 
 These are the homes of beings who have life. 
 The garden plots of God's delightful care. 
 And rip'ning fields of rich fruition great. 
 Where He receives, deserved, a crop of joy 
 From souls returning love for love bestowed. 
 There brightest minds with wondrous thoughts 
 
 unfold. 
 And happy souls their thankful adoration 
 
 give 
 
32 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 To Him, well pleased, to whom all praise be- 
 longs. 
 
 Mj long extended vision through the aisles 
 Of shining worlds caught sight of tiny cloud; 
 I wished to know what this might be, and lo ! 
 As quick as thought could move myself was 
 
 there ! 
 But strange, the cloud was not ; instead, there 
 
 rose 
 The grandeur of a universe of worlds ! 
 Entranced I long admired these stately orbs. 
 And basked in their effulgent light, which 
 
 seemed 
 Before as but a wisp on outer edge 
 Of distant things, a fleeting tissue hung 
 Upon the fading screen where sight expires ! 
 But now at hand I see a grand display 
 Of princely stars, of magnitude the first. 
 And gathered in such splendid groups, as if 
 Around this spot the whole creation moved; 
 And thus I learned, each frill of light that hangs 
 About the border of our distant views 
 Are galaxies which light some distant skies ! 
 
 And now I turn my eyes to see again 
 My native world, but strange my native sky 
 With our great milky way ; and all the stars 
 And constellations bright which charmed my 
 youth 
 
Cfte @)upremacp o( Life 33 
 
 Were lost to sight. Well, that concerns me 
 
 not. 
 A wish at any time will put me there. 
 The very power to move at will restrains 
 My wanderlust. Just now I wish to think. 
 The mighty God by mouth of prophet said 
 To man, "Be still, and know that I am God." 
 Some things we cannot know till we get still. 
 And think them out ; and some defy all thought. 
 
 Creation's greatness overwhelms me now. 
 On furthest edge of vision I descry 
 A patch of light like cloud on Asia hung; 
 My vision then in all the round that far 
 Extends, and thus a globe of light descries, 
 The size of light in all directions sent. 
 Suppose a mind of equal vision strong 
 Should to my right an equal globe of light 
 Describe, and to my left one same in size ; 
 And these should multiply a million times. 
 Like mammoth eggs, of myriad stars composed ; 
 And poured forth in vain attempt to fill 
 Unbounded space ; and if these globes of light. 
 Increased beyond all power of thought to 
 
 grasp. 
 Scarce less of space would still remain unfilled. 
 In vastness thus of mighty things I'm lost ; 
 My native world, which once so great did seem. 
 Seems now a mote, the merest speck afloat 
 In vast abysmal range of countless things. 
 
34 Cfte ©upremacp of JLife 
 
 And all the wondrous stars which charmed my 
 
 youth, 
 That milky way along whose cloudy paths 
 My growing fancy swept, and where, me- 
 
 thought. 
 There might be hid amid its snowy folds 
 The blissful heaven's site, with ample room 
 For all the saints that grace on earth could 
 
 make: 
 These all are dwarfed to merest dust, and if 
 They could be seen at all, would now appear 
 Like yon small cloud, a tiny wave of light! 
 The people there once thought that little earth 
 The very center true of all the worlds. 
 Then man a creature seemed that God might 
 
 note, 
 And make the special care of Heaven's love; 
 That man, though marred by sin and scarred 
 
 by guilt. 
 Was worthy still of God's redeeming grace ; 
 That Christ the Son and truly one with God 
 In human flesh made sacrifice for sin. 
 
 These precious thoughts seem warm with 
 
 Love Divine, 
 And well sustain the drooping souls of men. 
 'Twere worth all worlds to prove them surely 
 
 true. 
 But God's domains so great oppress the mind, 
 And raise the fear that our world so small 
 
Cfte @)uptemacp of Life 35 
 
 Could never such supreme attention claim. 
 
 As child I loved to wade the rocky beach, 
 And seek where " Water Babies " frisk and 
 
 play, 
 The streamlet pebbles, polished round and 
 
 smooth, 
 The treasures of my childish happy hours ; 
 To see and feel the rippling waters run 
 O'er feet and fingers bare, was joy supreme. 
 Some grains of sand would to my fingers cling. 
 The very least of these compared to earth. 
 Is like the earth compared to all the rest! 
 Can reason think the sovereign God of all 
 Would come in human flesh to this poor world, 
 The merest speck on being's endless scroll. 
 While creation all demands His care.? 
 Here Wisdom interposed and kindly said, 
 ''True worth is not by bulk or weight defined: 
 The distance dwarfs your vision, not the 
 
 worlds : 
 God's work on earth must by results be 
 
 judged." 
 
 This put life's mighty problems in new light, 
 And gave a higher trend to all my thought. 
 I saw at once it must be really true, 
 That merit cannot hang on weight or bulk. 
 A single thought may oft outweigh a world ! 
 It has no form or bulk, yet on its sway. 
 
36 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 For weal or woe, the fate of nations hangs ! 
 It sweeps unseen across the fields of strife, 
 And soldiers stack their arms in peace. 
 It works its way through legislative halls, 
 And glad industry feels sweet freedom's touch, 
 And homes become the scenes of love and bliss. 
 It deftly clothes itself in simple verse. 
 And myriad souls along the stream of time 
 Catch from its flame an inspiration warm. 
 Of courage new, and living hope revived. 
 And with new hope, rise victors in the strife. 
 Like incense from eternal truth it comes 
 To souls by sin and black despair laid low. 
 And new life springs beneath the pall of death ! 
 
 And now the second thought by Wisdom 
 
 sprung: 
 'Tis failing sight which makes yon group of 
 
 worlds 
 Appear like orphaned cloud on being's rim. 
 To perfect Life there is no distant view. 
 I sought the little cloud, and found instead 
 This brilliant sky, adorned with matchless 
 
 worlds. 
 But God was always here as everywhere, 
 And sees all things exactly as they are. 
 The endless stretch of multiplying worlds 
 Can never make one grain of sand the less 
 Than what it is by Heaven truly seen. 
 The omnipresent God sees sparrows fall, 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of Life 37 
 
 As he beholds the grandest worlds which rise 
 In heaven's brightest fields of dazzling light. 
 
 The final thought is greater far than all: 
 God's work on earth must by results he judged. 
 To reason's finer sense it must appear 
 That this great sacrifice which wrung the soul 
 Of Love Divine, and so grieved Heaven's heart, 
 Perforce must touch the fate of all the 
 
 worlds, — 
 Just as the stamp of any mind is fixed, 
 Beyond recall, on all the work it does. 
 Man cannot do his noblest work till grief 
 Has toned, enlarged, and mellowed ripe his 
 
 mind. 
 'Tis only then his truest work appears. 
 So God in deep travail of dying love 
 Attained the highest reach of skill divine. 
 Which gives the tone of love to all His works. 
 
 The Maker does the product shape, and 
 what 
 Affects the God of all, must all affect. 
 Redemption shows the inmost soul of God ; 
 It gleams through all of nature's high intent; 
 'Tis God himself, whose finger point of fate 
 In nature indicates this high design. 
 Which gives the smile of love to nature's face! 
 
 Eternal justice never could permit 
 Existence of a life with power to sin 
 
38 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 Before redemption was accomplished fact, 
 
 And stood in force by Heaven's high decree. 
 
 The sacrifice must first in heaven's mind 
 
 Precede creative actions, with design, 
 
 To foster Hfe with independent will. 
 
 We cannot think of time remote when lives 
 
 Endowed with will to choose did not exist, 
 
 And must conclude, redemption is innate, 
 
 Essential in the very life of God. 
 
 Creation is innate in Heaven's mind, 
 
 And must abound in universal space. 
 
 But separate minds to think, to will and choose. 
 
 Involves the risk of awful sin and death. 
 
 The least advance from solitary God 
 
 Was fateful work of making minds as free 
 
 As His ; then free to make the choice of sin ; 
 
 And that would open chasm deep as hell ! 
 
 The break was at the very foot of thrones ! 
 
 That break was surely bridged by sacrifice 
 
 Of God ; creation else had never been ! 
 
 That bridge was built with adamantine Truth, 
 
 Built in and one with God's eternal throne, 
 
 Firm as the very God of truth and love ; 
 
 From very first it was the living Way, 
 
 On which repentant feet might come to God. 
 
 This was supremely good for Heaven's rule. 
 And surely did behoove the mighty God 
 To suffer much to gain the high estate. 
 With least of ill in final loss by sin. 
 
Cfte @)upremacp of Hife 39 
 
 To minds well taught this must appear to be 
 Supremest work that Heaven ever did, 
 The ground and pledge for good of all the rest ; 
 'Tis tallest crest on depths of Love Divine, 
 Like highest wave on ocean's heaving breast, 
 Result of rising swell of ocean's bed! 
 
 Redemption, then, was leading cause in all 
 Creation's mighty works divine, and still 
 Is guiding star in all the course of things. 
 To reason's clearest sight that purpose shines 
 On all the worlds, and like a sheen of light 
 Proclaims the law of life which God has fixed 
 In all the works His skillful hands have made. 
 It grows the life of God in human souls. 
 And precious fruits of faith are ripened there. 
 And safely garnered in the life above. 
 The beings made of God, and given will, 
 Must surely of His blessed nature take. 
 And thus the mark of sacrifice they bear. 
 It is inwrought in nature's wide domains, — 
 As needful to the mighty God himself 
 As to his wayward creatures warped by sin. 
 It did behoove the Christ to suffer thus ; 
 So Christ himself eternal Truth declared. 
 
 All beings with free will endowed, and so 
 To virtue may aspire, have power to sin; 
 And this condition must forever hold. 
 As virtue, in the very nature of the case, 
 
40 Cfte S)upremacp of Life 
 
 Can never be without the power to sin. 
 And this itself demands redemptive grace; 
 Eternal justice could not else be met. 
 And thus we see that higher forms of life, 
 The power of God to make high Heaven's bliss 
 And give the universe a chance for all 
 The great results of free and noble minds, 
 Demands the sacrifice by Heaven made. 
 It is a part of Heaven's true design, 
 And could not fail to come at proper time. 
 
 Was earth, then, first of all the worlds to 
 
 sm 
 
 It matters not; eternal love demands 
 That ere a child with tragic power so great 
 Should live and have the awful chance to sin, 
 Provision must be made, and be inforced. 
 That God, the Maker, just and true and good. 
 Might still be just, and yet the sinner save. 
 The time and place, by Heaven's wisdom fixed. 
 For this display of Heaven's greatest love 
 Were planned for best results for all the worlds. 
 The great event did date and place require. 
 But these are not the great essential things. 
 The tragic scene, the crowning act of love 
 Divine, while sending Heaven's healing force 
 To helpless worlds in all the bounds of space 
 And shaping life on all the rim of time, 
 Required but little space for cross to stand. 
 As well on this, as on a larger world. 
 
Cfte Supremacp of Life 41 
 
 The date decreed on time's eternal flow 
 Must surely leave eternal years behind, 
 And then have equal years of time to come. 
 The time, no matter when, must cut in twain 
 The rim of endless years to equal parts. 
 The two eternities, both back and forth! 
 
 What earth has done for cause of nobler life 
 Shall claim my growing lays some future time, 
 But now I still pursue allotted tasks. 
 In my excursions grand through realms of light. 
 I noted here and there in mighty voids 
 Of space, some spacious fields of darkness 
 
 strange. 
 Contrasting queerly with all else beside. 
 Not as a note to jar the tune of praise. 
 On all the lips of endless beings hung. 
 But rather that which calls for higher thought. 
 To catch the final note in higher praise. 
 
 Then Wisdom quick outran the forming wish. 
 And thus explained : " These are the brooding 
 
 nests 
 Whence infant worlds spring forth to nascent 
 
 life. 
 There brooding love in patience waits the hour 
 Till sons of God in serried rank proclaim, 
 By joyous shouts of praise, the great event: 
 Another universe to heaven bom ! 
 By such creations nature, gaining strength. 
 
42 Cfte S)upremacp of Life 
 
 Continues age on age, forever young. 
 
 You see on furthest vision faintly hung, 
 
 They seem Hke toy balloons of dark silk made, 
 
 While these at hand reveal their great extent ; 
 
 Your milky way would not the chasm fill ! 
 
 They are in every stage of progress found; 
 
 Beginning some, and some emerging full, 
 
 A nest of new born worlds of glowing light, — • 
 
 A mighty universe, to catch the step 
 
 Of nature's march along the course of time ! 
 
 A universe indeed it may be called, 
 
 A unit turning ever to itself, 
 
 Suggestive thus of wholeness all complete. 
 
 We need a term of broader sense to stand 
 
 For God and all creation's countless things, 
 
 To image that which flows forever out. 
 
 Extension, universal, without bounds, 
 
 Containing universes great and small. 
 
 Which ever flow from mighty Source of all." 
 
 I saw at once with startling clearness bright, 
 As if a slug of light had struck the brain : 
 That's how our sun and pendant worlds were 
 
 made. 
 I made resolve to study well this fact. 
 But first I wished to know of Wisdom why 
 The Maker, having all things at command, 
 Required the time to bring, through long de- 
 lays. 
 The worlds from chaos after ages spent, 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Hife 43 
 
 When by a word the work might stand com- 
 plete ? 
 To which my Great Instructor thus replied: 
 
 *' The perfect Wisdom has no need to rush. 
 A proper time there is for things to be, 
 And He who has all time and knows all things 
 May well employ an age to work His will. 
 What's cheaper than the simple lapse of time? 
 To use the cheapest means to reach the end 
 Becomes the Perfect Mind, at perfect ease ; 
 To smaller minds the fretting rush belongs. 
 The God who knows the means, and wisely 
 
 plans. 
 And gathers pleasure from His many works, 
 Gains joy from each success which marks the 
 
 way 
 From first inception of His growing plan 
 To final consummation of His task. 
 The passing ages to the making gone, 
 Are ages then of joy to Heaven brought.". 
 
 The mind is never satisfied with gains. 
 But gets a deeper thirst from each new thought. 
 And strives to know the endless flow of things: 
 How groups of shining worlds from darkness 
 
 rise. 
 And burn their destined way through ages long, 
 To reach fruition's milder stage of life; 
 And then through other ages still prolonged, 
 
44 Cfte S)uprema(p of Life 
 
 To meet far down the stream a tragic death. 
 To this vast flow of things, no start, no end, 
 No boundaries belong; not once a break 
 Where daring thought might pry a rent 
 To see the secret structure of the work. 
 It keeps the mind forever darkly screened. 
 From subtle nature's primal forces hid. 
 We want to know the secret spring of all ; 
 How nature acts unspent from age to age. 
 Can nature by her innate force renew 
 Her endless waste, and keep herself in trim? 
 The dark suspicion comes with mad'ning fear 
 That some blind force by chance has caught a 
 
 grip 
 On nature, also blind, and that the two. 
 Like demons yoked, are swift to ruin bent! 
 
 Again kind Wisdom to my doubts replied : 
 " Some things in nature lie beyond our ken ; 
 But this great truth, above all truths is sure. 
 'Tis Life which holds secure all things in place ; 
 In God's unbounded, independent Will, 
 All things are working out their destined 
 
 course. 
 Here, manifest to reason's listening ear. 
 Is Power Supreme, serene and undisturbed. 
 While nature, restless, moves in endless flow, 
 A boundless ocean in perpetual stir. 
 With eddies slow and winding currents swift. 
 Here silent swirl, and there explosions great. 
 
Cfte §)uptemacp of Life 46 
 
 But in the great reserve of Force Divine 
 There lies the pledge of calm concern which 
 
 holds 
 Secure our fondest hopes for endless good. 
 
 " A million worlds to atoms blown could not 
 By single blast of vast Titanic force, 
 The heart of nature jar: a million worlds 
 Would soon appear in beauty young and 
 
 strong, 
 And nature scarcely would the blister feel 
 On surface raised, the sting of passing hour! 
 
 " We see but little of the sum of things, 
 And study nature only in its parts. 
 These parts emerge in view in countless ways : 
 The fleeting life of man, or form of worlds, 
 Or vital mote, the creature of a day. 
 Each form emerging from the Great Unknown, 
 Completes its work, or sings its only song 
 To heedless earth on summer's drowsy eve; 
 Then each gives back its might to God of all ! 
 
 " Thus Life is primal Source of all the Force 
 Which works to endless ages still unspent, 
 Both making and sustaining nature's form. 
 But for this Life no nature could have been. 
 And He who laid the plan of nature holds 
 All working forces in His mighty hand. 
 And this secures eternal good to all. 
 The frame of nature is no ill device 
 
46 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 To fall to pieces by its own great weight. 
 The vast extent of nature only shows 
 The greater strength of God, who made it all. 
 Thus study of the larger range of things 
 Reveals the greater power of God in all. 
 'Tis only God that endless Force can give, 
 And God is in all nature immanent, 
 The stronger, subtler Force sustaining all. 
 This Life is far above all nature, sure 
 Within himself, and holds all nature safe. 
 Then he who trusts this larger Life needs not 
 To fear the minor ills of earthly things." 
 
 May Heaven kindly grant me perfect faith, 
 To live securely safe without alarm, 
 On endless flow of time's majestic sea; 
 Assured that He whose perfect mesh of laws 
 No atom ever lost will gather up 
 At last this helpless, trusting soul of mine ! 
 
BOOK THIRD 
 THE THEME 
 
 How worlds are made. An empty void, be- 
 fore the process had begun. No germs could 
 exist in the coldness of space where worlds be- 
 gin, nor cross the space to reach the forming 
 world at any stage of progress. Life in any 
 world must begin with God. The different 
 voids show degrees of progress in the develop- 
 ment of worlds. A view of Heaven. Not one 
 but many worlds. Return to normal state. 
 
BOOK THIRD 
 
 To wring some secret facts from nature's 
 
 grip, 
 And fill the mind with Heaven's living truths, 
 To gain new thoughts, add reason's products 
 
 true. 
 And thus enlarge the precious stores of mind, 
 Are gracious gifts from Heaven's bounty sent, 
 And make the soul within us leap for joy. 
 Such chance is mine, to learn how earth was 
 
 made; 
 To watch the movements all both small and 
 
 great, 
 How first the chaos came to be, till earth 
 From mighty hand of God rolled forth com- 
 plete. 
 
 Here are the brooding nests where future 
 worlds 
 Are hatching out ; and I, by simple will. 
 May now descend the awful depths and see 
 Each stage of progress, step by step, as worlds 
 Begin, and trace their growths to worlds com- 
 plete. 
 
 In single day I live a million years, 
 
 49 
 
50 Cfte S)upremacp of Life 
 
 And grasp at once what brighter minds than 
 
 mine 
 Have vainly sought through ages long to find. 
 
 And first of all I wish to see a void 
 Where no creative work has yet begun: 
 The empty nest of universe to be. 
 I wish to scan with care the empty space 
 Where some vast system new of worlds may 
 
 form, 
 And thus to get a view of primal space 
 Where I may note the rising drift of things, 
 Of which the future worlds are wisely built. 
 
 By motion quick, responsive to the wish, 
 I was at once on edge of vacant space. 
 So awful in extent I paused, subdued 
 By view profound. Great nature here has 
 
 stopped 
 On brink of barren space, and yields a truce 
 To primal night, and marking time intent 
 To hear the Great Commander's word to move 
 To further conquests great of stubborn space. 
 By peering in this awful void a while. 
 By light of brightest stars on farther side, 
 I could but faintly see the boundary lines 
 Of this abysmal blank in heaven's ranks. 
 By stars beneath like diamonds bright in depths 
 Of mine, I traced the floor of this vast cave. 
 Like some great ocean's bed by chance run dry. 
 
Cfte Suptemacp of Life si 
 
 Above, the dome in awful grandeur rose, 
 In height quite equal to the depth below; 
 And thus the globe of space appeared com- 
 plete. 
 
 At last, by act of will, I made the leap 
 Across this mighty void, with speed of thought, 
 Where light itself would ages take to go. 
 And now the scene is most completely changed; 
 Here stars in fullest rank are glowing bright 
 As those were on the other side, where now 
 But few can show the fearful length between. 
 Descending low to Nador's starry floor. 
 The zenith far appeared, with spaces broad 
 Between its lonely stars, so far away. 
 
 Then rising to the space, midway I found 
 Where stars in all directions seemed the same. 
 And there I stopped to muse on problems how 
 Such growing voids in nature's wide domain 
 Were brought about. Did some explosive 
 
 force 
 Blow stars apart, and make this vacant space.'* 
 A thousand worlds of dynamite composed, 
 And fired at once, could not have made such 
 
 void. 
 Or did some laws unknown divide the banks 
 Of stars, and thus an awful void disclose? 
 Or is it primal space by Heaven left 
 Till his good pleasure comes to take it up.'* 
 
52 Cfte Supremacp of Hift 
 
 Or can it be that here great worlds have died, 
 And have to dust returned, so fine that all 
 Unseen, the parts in lucid spaces small 
 In ether's fine transparent robe are hid, 
 As water charged with lime is limpid still? 
 Or did the dust by subtle laws restrained 
 To other parts repair for future use? 
 Whatever may have caused this mighty chasm. 
 We know at once its use in nature's plan. 
 Here worlds are rounded into proper shape. 
 And fitted into systems, worlds with worlds. 
 And when the worlds have come to solid form. 
 And in their growth have taken up the fog. 
 And all the signs of gestant life are gone 
 And air is clear and fit for sentient life. 
 Obedient then to constant sway of laws, 
 Responsive ever to Eternal Thought, 
 The forms of life spring forth in every case 
 Well suited to conditions made to fit. 
 But life from life is Heaven's law divine. 
 The life begun with God begets its kind ; 
 And thus each world has life to fit itself. 
 Its weight and air and all its nature true. 
 Such movements great of all the marshalled 
 
 worlds 
 Reveal the thoughts of Heaven's Perfect Mind, 
 The thinking high of God made visible! 
 
 In center here of this vast cavern's heart, 
 I'm farthest from the stars on every side. 
 
Cfte @)upremacp of Life 53 
 
 If this, perchance, should be the largest void. 
 Then reason shows that here is coldest spot 
 In all of Heaven's vast dominion found. 
 The worlds are sources all of spreading heat ; 
 Then truly must the place remotest from 
 Their fires be counted coldest spot of all. 
 Can this be reason why the atoms small 
 From worlds thrown off apart should gather 
 
 here ? 
 Perchance they seek the lowest mark of cold, 
 As water on the earth seeks lowest place. 
 
 Then one important fact stands out most 
 
 clear : 
 No germs of life could here a moment live. 
 No forms of life could cross the frozen space 
 To worlds which here might reach the finished 
 
 state. 
 Life, then, could only come from touch divine. 
 The God of life is only Source of life 
 That new-made worlds in barren space could 
 
 have. 
 How He imparts the life is known to Him 
 Alone. We only know that worlds begin 
 Without the forms of life, and that these forms 
 Can never come except from Source of life. 
 
 This first survey in duty thus performed, 
 'Tis now my pleasant task to note the growth 
 Of worlds from first beginning on to worlds 
 
54 Cbe ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 Complete, and fit for many forms of life. 
 By force of simple wish I bounded forth 
 Through avenues of stars with speed beyond 
 The rush of wildest comet's greatest flight, 
 And found at once another kindred void. 
 In which I gladly plunged and found a mist, 
 A forming vapor, thin as morning fog. 
 The sweat thrown off from living worlds at 
 
 work. 
 Or refuse picked from dead worlds' rotting 
 
 bones. 
 And driven hence by laws which save the waste. 
 And start the current back along through veins 
 Of nature's life, to wildly throb once more 
 In nature's living scenes, to mount the crest 
 Of life, to smile in flowers bright, or blush 
 In luscious fruits, or think in brains of some 
 Great sons of God, or glow in bounding love 
 In hearts made warm with sweet emotion thrill ! 
 The rising warmth I felt, most clearly shows 
 That nature's brooding work had now begun. 
 I could not tell how long this growing work 
 For nascent worlds had gone to reach this 
 
 stage. 
 In making worlds the time is gauged by Him 
 Who deems a thousand years as but a day. 
 Or day may give a thousand years' results. 
 
 I now desire to see another step 
 In Heaven's highest art of making worlds. 
 
Cfte §)upremacp of iLife 55 
 
 And then by wish the bounding mind traversed 
 Another lengthening stretch of arching skies, 
 Where galaxies were made triumphal spans, 
 By heaven's bounty raised across the way 
 To further search in nature's greater fields. 
 And now I found a chasm dark as night : 
 A dismal gulf of fearful breadth and length. 
 Where seething nature, robed in deepest black. 
 Was in the throes of mighty travail sore. 
 
 This, then, is chaos, famed by Greeks of old, 
 Supposed by them to be the first estate. 
 So little did they know of that great Life, 
 The true unwasting Source of boundless things, 
 Sufficient Cause for everything that is. 
 In being's wide dominion ever found. 
 And this chaotic mass of blackest night, 
 So big that worlds might vie with worlds within 
 The ample space, — and all was held in shape 
 By gravitation's law divinely fixed. 
 So great the space within the cavern's bounds 
 That this chaotic mass of size so great. 
 Seemed but a core within the center held. 
 There still was vacant space around the cloud. 
 Like that between, dividing star from star. 
 
 But I could not content myself alone. 
 With surface view, and knowing thought can 
 
 live 
 Unhurt where other sentient life would die, 
 
56 Cfte ^upremacp of JLife 
 
 Impelled by thirst for knowledge great I 
 
 plunged 
 The great abyss, and found Egyptian night, 
 An utter waste, where nothing seemed complete, 
 A mass of elements untamed and none 
 By law controlled in proper order bound. 
 I sought in vain for form, but all was waste. 
 And naught of purpose anywhere appeared. 
 Except a genial warmth like that produced 
 By brooding fowls, which seemed a promise fair 
 Of worlds to be in destined time to come. 
 
 And now I longed to see another pit, 
 Where many ages more of growth appeared. 
 And then by ardent wish impelled again. 
 Along the path of stars I swiftly sped. 
 Where constellations hung like royal robes. 
 With richest gems bedecked for Heaven's use ! 
 O'er space beyond all reason's power to tell, 
 I sped at once, with scarce a lapse of time. 
 And reached another void in nascent stage : 
 In magnitude immense, and common mien. 
 Twin brother to the one I just had left. 
 
 But here was light, a dim, pervasive light. 
 Which seemed to make the night but darker 
 
 still. 
 The source of light was in the center hid. 
 So densely thick the foglike mass remained. 
 That nothing could indeed be plainly seen. 
 
Cfte S)upremacp of ILife 5t 
 
 The chaos seemed in segregation stage, 
 And forming into spheres of deeper gloom. 
 It was a glowing mass of vast extent, 
 So great that worlds by thousands duly ranked 
 Might there display their ample rounds, and 
 
 still 
 Leave space for thousands more of equal size. 
 In this vast region wild of dismal night, 
 Outlines of black chaotic masses huge 
 Appeared like giant's head, in black hair robed. 
 Just rising out above the dark seas' gloom, — 
 The prophecies of mighty worlds to be! 
 
 And now I deemed my task was duly done; 
 The time had come to normal life return. 
 The hints thus far so gladly treasured up 
 Are deemed enough, with care, to study how 
 Our earth and all the kindred worlds were made. 
 But Wisdom here the great suggestion made 
 That now, ere I to common things return. 
 Should get a view of Heaven's vast domain, 
 Resei^v^ed for finished souls, and Heaven called! 
 
 The thought, surprising, fresh, was like a 
 shock. 
 So far it seemed above my highest hopes. 
 'Twas like a man in humble sphere of life 
 Who has for 37^ears adored in secret love 
 The one he thought was far above his reach, 
 When sudden hint reveals his love returned! 
 
58 C|)e §)upremacp of Life 
 
 To find this blissful place so near at hand, 
 Was next the great surprise; for while we 
 
 talked 
 We passed the veil unseen, the bar between 
 The state of bliss and all the worlds beside. 
 How far in Heaven we went I could not tell ; 
 For thought can move through space with so 
 
 much ease 
 No measure known to earth can tell its bounds. 
 But in an open space, for prospect fine. 
 We paused, delighted much, while Wisdom said : 
 " 'Tis not for you to see or hear the things 
 Which earth, as yet, is not prepared to know. 
 The old-time saint to this third heaven brought 
 Heard things unlawful then for earth to hear; 
 These things to him were aids in trials great. 
 You need them not, but blessed are your eyes, 
 To see as now the blessed things that serve 
 To make eternal home for all the blest." 
 
 The first impression was a sense of rest. 
 Perplexing care and anxious thought can find 
 No place in any mind, with Heaven blest. 
 The very atmosphere was charged with rest, 
 And gave to all a deep sub-sense of peace. 
 The view of things gave proof of finished work. 
 No blazing worlds half made are needed here 
 To give the light and heat to this blest clime. 
 The whole vast range of sight was crowded 
 thick 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 59 
 
 With worlds of grandeur, far beyond my ken 
 To tell; but not a single sun appeared! 
 The light of God makes one eternal day. 
 'Tis light of brilliant softness, sweetly toned. 
 The brightest light without a sense of glare, 
 And such as earth has rarely ever seen ! 
 It rested once on sacred Galilean mount. 
 When Moses came with Tishbite seer, to talk 
 With Christ of Heaven's great redemptive plan. 
 In this effulgent light disciples fell. 
 And seemed half dazed, so unprepared were 
 
 they 
 To live in this, the blazing light of God ! 
 
 The clearness of the air was next surprise. 
 The light was absolutely unobscured. 
 On all the worlds that nearest to us lay. 
 The mountains, streams, and forests could be 
 
 seen. 
 I thought that some great city should appear. 
 The current thought on earth had made me 
 
 look 
 For something kindred to the life of man. 
 And here indeed are means of fairest life ; 
 'Tis all a lovely country's wide domain. 
 Of hills and vales, and ever growing trees ; 
 Of mountains grand, and peaceful rivers broad ; 
 With limpid water sweet the streamlets play; 
 And seas and lakes of crystal clearness bright, 
 Give all the charms of pristine nature's face. 
 
60 Clje @)uptemacp of Life 
 
 No axes rude were made to fell the trees, 
 And mar the course of nature's fair estate. 
 Then surely here the living souls which sprang 
 From nature's ample breast can find a life. 
 But still the city's grand display I missed; 
 So firm the thought was rooted in my mind. 
 Then Wisdom to my puzzled thoughts replied; 
 " Why think of houses built of brick and stone, 
 In such a clime as this ? These things are made 
 To guard us from the cold, or screen us from 
 The heat. But here is neither cold nor heat. 
 We would by nature's truest instinct flee 
 From any house to live in this bright light 
 Of God, so mildly sweet, so grandly clear ! 
 There is no night to cause a dread of chill, 
 Or lure us to oblivious dreamless state. 
 In this bright clime, assured of endless day. 
 The house is surely not a thing of use." 
 
 And yet it seems that houses must be made 
 With vaults secure, to keep the records safe. 
 And keep the books which Heaven must possess, 
 To make the knowledge of its people sure 
 And guard its civil life from growing dim. 
 How can the highest state of life be kept 
 Without the books which hold secure the 
 
 thoughts 
 Of brightest minds in all the treasured past? 
 To this kind Wisdom did again reply: 
 
Cfte §)uptemacp of JLife ei 
 
 " Your mind is haunted still by earthly 
 
 thoughts. 
 Here forces work to give the highest life, 
 All laws combined to work the greatest good. 
 The strictest sanitation comes by law. 
 Then cleanness, purity, and perfect health 
 Are blessings sure by Heaven's law decreed. 
 Disease, decay, and accident are all 
 Unknown in this bright land of perfect law. 
 Health acts on health, producing endless health. 
 The people here grow young, and never old; 
 Grow stronger, wiser, nimbler, age by age. 
 All Heaven moves to give to every one 
 Complete efficiency of mind and hand. 
 
 " No reason here for one to cry. Unclean ! 
 Lest he his horrid woe to others give. 
 But each the other meets and gives new 
 
 strength. 
 All life acts so that each by giving gains ! 
 Communion tends to life, to joy, to health. 
 The great preserving force of clime is such, 
 And such the constant purity of thought. 
 That one might lay a book beside the way 
 Where people always pass in endless throngs ; 
 If then he should be sent to distant work. 
 And should be absent for a thousand years. 
 He might return, and pick it up unhurt. 
 As if he had but crossed the street and back! 
 
62 Cfte ©upremacp of Life 
 
 In such a clime there is no need of vaults. 
 All force for preservation is assured." 
 
 Thanks, kind Wisdom, thanks, such teach- 
 ing true 
 Is sweetest music to the listening ear. 
 But I should like to know the true intent 
 Of all the gorgeous imagery displayed, 
 Descriptive of the Holy City's charm, 
 In Heaven's plans of universal good. 
 Was New Jerusalem designed for earth, 
 Or has it here a place among the blest? 
 To this the ready Guide again replied: 
 
 " The work of God for human good per- 
 tains 
 
 Alike to earth's deep woe and heaven's joys. 
 
 The city came from Heaven down to earth; 
 
 The tabernacle then was with the men 
 
 On earth to aid them in their fight with sin. 
 
 When sin had been subdued, and saints trans- 
 ferred. 
 
 The city still is theirs in higher sense. 
 
 We must admire the grandeur of this view, 
 
 A city fifteen hundred miles each way; 
 
 The length and breadth and height the same. 
 
 But city thus compactly built would place 
 
 The central court too far from open space. 
 
 The sense symbolic may be known to men 
 
 Of keen prophetic sight in Heaven's lore. 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of JLitt 63 
 
 " But let us rather think of tableland, 
 With widely rolling plains and rippling 
 
 streams ; 
 Of growing trees and flowers ever bright; 
 This glowing plain, in length and width the 
 
 same. 
 Just fifteen hundred measure miles each way. 
 And now suppose another tableland, 
 The same dimensions mile for mile each way, 
 And this is placed a hundred miles above, 
 And sky to that below, and so the next. 
 Till fifteen plains are placed in order thus; 
 One hundred miles of space between the plains, 
 From lowest start to highest plain complete, 
 Just fifteen hundred miles aloft in air! 
 And now we have a cube of equal size 
 As that described in prophets' glowing terms. 
 It may be city called, or country named. 
 But meeting place for Heaven's happy 
 
 throngs." 
 
 Then Wisdom mildly blushed to find himself 
 Amid the doubtful things in fancy's range. 
 The airy castles of a poet's brain! 
 But in such dreams the rarest gems of thought 
 Are sometimes found ; but later on well known. 
 
 One other thought has long perplext my 
 mind: 
 I've thought of Heaven as a single place, 
 
64 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 Perhaps a world entire of size immense ; 
 But could a world, just one, however large. 
 Contain the throngs by grace secured from 
 
 sin? 
 Just think of all the young to Heaven called, 
 Ere yet the blight of sin has touched the soul ; 
 Full half the race to Heaven's thus secured 
 By primal law of saving grace divine. 
 Then come the countless hosts of all the saved, 
 From start of race to end of passing time. 
 How could such hosts of endless numbers find 
 In one broad sphere a home of sweet content.'^ 
 
 Then Reason showed that God's great sac- 
 rifice 
 Is not alone for one small world of sin. 
 But holds for every world where blight of sin 
 Shall lay its deadly touch on sons of God! 
 This does beyond all count increase the doubt ; 
 But now I see these orbs enlarge the space, 
 And even yet it seems that in the roll 
 Of ages long, unnumbered worlds immense 
 Would scarce suffice to hold the growing 
 
 throngs. 
 At this, the Guide stood forth, and thus re- 
 plied : 
 
 " This is our Father's many mansioned 
 house ; 
 Each world is mansion built on Heaven's plan. 
 
Cfte Supremacp of M(t 65 
 
 As seen in all of Heaven's wide domain, 
 God builds by laws promoting helpful growth, 
 And gives us bliss on nature's higher plane. 
 Why talk of room, with boundless space at 
 
 hand? 
 Why think the saints should crowd in narrow 
 
 space. 
 Since God in every place is there to bless? 
 Did not our blessed Jesus say he would 
 Prepare a place for you? a place to work: 
 Not house in which to loll in idle dreams. 
 But place for those who conquer sin and self. 
 Where each may find the service best to do. 
 For those who rise to life there's always room." 
 
 And now the time by Heaven freely lent. 
 To study nature on a broader scale 
 And then extended still for hasty glimpse 
 Of this great universe of perfect things. 
 Is now at end, and these surveys must close. 
 These are the homes of those who loved us best ; 
 Their love abides to greet us when we come. 
 Somewhere secure in these vast worlds are those 
 My soul doth long the most of all to see. 
 To grasp the hand that would not yield to 
 
 death ; 
 To hear again the voice which gladly sang 
 Triumphant praise in Heaven's gate the day 
 We laid the form with silent tongue to rest ; 
 To feel again the soul's sweet loving touch, 
 
66 Cfte S)upremacp of Life 
 
 And clasp the form of life, renewed by death, 
 Which death could never touch, nor grave could 
 
 claim. 
 The soul which gave us help and never ill; 
 Oh, that would be the bliss almost supreme, 
 The next in kind to seeing Christ himself. 
 The Source of hope and all the bliss we have. 
 
 And then before I knew the change had come. 
 By sudden movement quick as thought, I stood 
 Before the form of flesh which I had left ! 
 I started with affright, then stopped, and thus 
 To Wisdom's high discretion made appeal: 
 " And must I now unite with this sad form? 
 Behold how like the sodded earth it seems ! 
 How blank the eye, how hangs the heavy face. 
 For lack of life to give expression force ! 
 See how the vacant eye roams idly round. 
 Like vagabond with naught of work to do ! 
 The lips for want of life asunder part. 
 The awkward hands, like useless pendants hang. 
 For want of life to give them proper place. 
 How drag the feet! How ambling slow the 
 
 gait ! 
 The whole dull form, an aimless, sad mischance. 
 Seems on the verge of falling into heap ! " 
 
 To this the thoughtful Wisdom made reply : 
 " Of course, since all the mind has been away. 
 On knowledge bent, the body could but droop. 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of Life 67 
 
 'Tis like some illness had the body worn. 
 The wisest man at last becomes a fool, 
 When dire disease, like gnawing rat, has cut 
 The vital cords connecting mind with flesh. 
 Thus stranded, man becomes a helpless thing. 
 Perchance for many weeks he lies on brink 
 Of stream dividing life from all beyond ; 
 With one foot dangling darkly o'er the bank, 
 And tongue the while a-prattling like a child 1 
 
 " But should the tide of fate turn back to 
 life, 
 And health go bounding through arterial flues. 
 And push the veins again to proper size, 
 Restring the nerves to harmony's own strength, 
 Till like a many corded harp in tune, 
 They give again the note of perfect health 
 And sing once more the song of bounding life. 
 The face then shines afresh with radiant 
 
 thought. 
 The eye then kindles with the glow of mind, 
 The tongue responds again to master mind ; 
 The man is master of himself again ! 
 And then again on rostrum's high renown. 
 Or sacred pulpit's throne of power divine, 
 Or in the books not made for speedy death, 
 The thankful world grows debtor to the man 
 Who comes from dark oblivion's dismal state." 
 
 Then hearing this, I yielded glad consent, 
 And found myself once more a normal man. 
 
BOOK FOURTH 
 THE THEME 
 
 Creation of the earth. " In the beginning." 
 The ages ere the days begin. The first day. 
 Light appeared. " The evening and the morn- 
 ing." Second day, in which the firmament ap- 
 peared. Third day. The vegetable depart- 
 ment. Fourth day, when the heavenly bodies 
 became visible. Fifth day, fish and bird chap- 
 ter. The sixth day, devoted to animal life. 
 The long preparation for man. How man was 
 made ; how woman was endowed with soul. The 
 first wedding. 
 
BOOK FOURTH 
 
 Thou who didst inspire the man of old 
 To write creation's wondrous story true, 
 Help us to grasp the sense and make it plain, 
 Just how the earth and heavens came to be ; 
 For thou, who didst at first inspire the Word, 
 May surely best interpret what was meant. 
 Forbid that we should read into thy Word 
 Our thoughts, antagonistic to thine own ; 
 But marking well thy works within our range. 
 Help us to see thy thought and learn thy ways. 
 
 " In the beginning God created earth." 
 This marks the time when God began to make 
 The heavens all, to which our earth belongs. 
 When all the space in which these orbs revolve 
 Was void, then first the dust from far-off 
 
 worlds. 
 Impelled by nature's reproductive laws, 
 Was gathered here, and darkest chaos made^ 
 As ages passed, this chaos grew intense. 
 Responding to the swing of laws, the whole 
 Became in time a great revolving mass. 
 And growing dense became a central sphere 
 W^here latent heat began to grow intense. 
 And thus our sun was rounding into form. 
 
 71 
 
7g Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 
 
 Then from his rim, immense and undefined 
 There rolled great masses, huge and formless 
 
 waste, 
 And these began to form the smaller worlds ; 
 And thus the planets in their turn began, 
 Like earth and Mars, to catch the marching 
 
 step 
 Along the glowing past sublime, where stars 
 Of all the magnitude in legions grand 
 Have been in all the ages marching on. 
 
 This reign of chaos and of blackest night 
 Was time unmeasured, which elapsed before 
 The days began in which the heavens were made. 
 It was for worlds the long, dark brooding time, 
 When thinnest vapor grew to chaos dark, 
 And chaos thickened into watery mass. 
 The Spirit of God, the all-creating power, 
 Was moving on the deep, sufficient Cause 
 Why earth and all the heavens rose to form. 
 
 Of all the ages spent in making earth 
 More than half had gone to primal work 
 Before the first day's work had yet begun. 
 These days describe how God equipped the 
 
 earth. 
 Already made in ages long before. 
 The progress in creation's work had reached 
 The point when growing heat in central orb 
 Was on the eve of bursting into light. 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 73 
 
 When days, the periods long, began in which 
 Creation's parts are all in order told. 
 
 FIRST DAY 
 
 The first, the day in which the light appeared. 
 " Let there be light" ; the word of power came 
 And light was then diffused in all the mass. 
 No form from which the light had come was 
 
 seen. 
 Thick clouds hid well the shining sun from view. 
 The writing is from the point of one on earth; 
 As things would have appeared to one so placed. 
 It is the sure eye-witness point of view. 
 The Spirit that inspired the mind of man 
 To write was present and so gave the facts. 
 As seen by great Eye- Witness of the truth. 
 
 God saw the light was good ; 'tis always good. 
 It is a boundless sea of sweet delight, 
 In which we live, and move, and being have. 
 By it the eye delighted serves the mind 
 With gorgeous high display of distant things. 
 The great wide world becomes the food of 
 
 thought ; 
 And visualized, imported scenes become 
 The treasured views of nature's wide expanse. 
 Thus light is symbol and the aid of thought. 
 The light was truly good, and with the force 
 Of Heaven's law it broke the spell of night, 
 
74 Cfte Supremacp of Life 
 
 Which had for aeons reigned in space where 
 
 worlds 
 Were now revolving into beauty's charm. 
 Comparing things of great import with small, 
 'Twas like the sudden crowing of the cock 
 While coming day yet slumbers in the East. 
 
 " And God divided darkness from the light." 
 This shows the world was even then, as now, 
 Revolving in the time for day and night. 
 This first creation day saw days and nights 
 In serial succession come and go. 
 No sun from view of earth could yet be seen. 
 The cloudy mass of untamed waters hid 
 All distant worlds, those sunless days, from 
 view. 
 
 " The evening and the morning were first 
 
 day." 
 'Twas shortest of creative days ; it had 
 But one great task, to show how light came forth. 
 Like healing strength, to nature's prostrate 
 
 form. 
 The harbinger of normal health to come. 
 This day began in dark chaotic night 
 And closed when light from hidden sun came 
 
 forth. 
 The first great gift from God to coming man. 
 
 Creation was the coming forth of things 
 From chaos dark to Heaven's day of light, 
 
Cfte §)uptemacp of Life 75 
 
 In which a finished universe stood forth, 
 Delight of men and proof of Heaven's skill. 
 And hence those days descriptive of that work 
 Must all begin in darker time, and close 
 When primal gloom was giving place to light. 
 And this is why creative days begin 
 With darkened eve and close with morning light. 
 These days are not successive days of time: 
 They all begin far back in primal night, 
 And close when their descriptive work is done. 
 They are designed to keep distinct and clear 
 The separate spheres of God's creative work. 
 These days describe works of existing God; 
 Are parallels along the course of time 
 As measured by diurnal turns of earth, 
 Each showing how creative work progressed, 
 The works of days progressing side by side. 
 The one department far advanced, perchance. 
 Another lagging back, but all show how 
 The heavens out of chaos rose to form. 
 
 When light first broke upon the seething 
 mass 
 Which was to be the earth, it found no shape 
 Or proper form, but one vast shoreless waste 
 Of water, mud and air together stirred 
 By howling winds above and fires beneath. 
 The heavy clouds were wrapping up the earth. 
 As if it were a sprawling infant born ! 
 There was no seam dividing sea from cloud. 
 
76 Cfte S)Upremacp of Life 
 
 So one might say here's cloud, and that's the 
 
 sea. 
 Old Chaos, broken, still held slacking reign, 
 And wild confusion everywhere prevailed. 
 Thus ages went, while order came to reign. 
 
 SECOND DAY 
 
 In course of time the clouds began to rise 
 And leave a clear expanse of proper air 
 Around the globe, between the clouds and seas. 
 This open space was called a firmament. 
 It was the work, age-long, of second day. 
 It was dividing waters in the seas 
 Below from waters in the clouds above. 
 No sun, nor moon, nor stars had yet appeared. 
 The clouds were dense, and thick with water filled. 
 And had no rents through which the sun could 
 
 shine. 
 This day like all the rest began with eve. 
 And closed with brighter light, and morning 
 
 called. 
 
 THIRD DAY 
 
 The third in course was vegetation's day. 
 And work the first, as reason must approve. 
 Was drainage of the land. The forces great 
 Had worked in all the hidden fluids of earth. 
 Till bursting forth in throes of giant might 
 A cataclysm laid grip on waking earth. 
 Ad squeezed the continents to final place ! 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 77 
 
 And there they lay, stretched out along the 
 
 world 
 Like sleeping giants in a bed of slush, 
 And covered with a winding sheet of mud 
 Beneath a canopy of cloud and fog ! 
 Thus cold and dark, without one sign of life. 
 The mountain ranges lifted high their crest, 
 With lower lands and hills extending far; 
 And rivers flowing with majestic sweep 
 As fed by smaller streams from out the hills ; 
 Cut deep and wide their channels to the sea; 
 Till earth was ready for the growing plants. 
 And then God said, '' Let earth bring forth the 
 
 grass." 
 
 As sun and moon and stars the fourth day 
 
 came, 
 And vegetation day is reckoned third. 
 We must conclude that ere these orbs were seen 
 The tender grass was growing in the earth. 
 And when the sun had dried and warmed the 
 
 earth, 
 The next to grow were herbs, and then the trees. 
 At first the softer kinds by brooklets seen ; 
 And then the fruit for man and beast prepared. 
 How long the time to gain these steps of growth 
 We cannot tell ; but reason does suggest 
 That, first of all, the land was clothed with 
 
 grass. 
 Rich meadows, food at hand for coming beasts. 
 
78 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 And then along the streams the cottonwoods, 
 The willows, and their kind the wet feet sort, 
 Made graceful curves by winding streamlets fed. 
 Then came the harder wood, of slower growth; 
 Trees growing nuts, and yielding luscious 
 
 fruits. 
 Thus nature did prepare for sentient life, 
 All kinds of beasts, and man the head of all. 
 But from the tender, waxen grass which grew 
 Before the warming sun began to shine, 
 To trees producing fruit by summer heat, 
 Is call across the centuries of time. 
 
 The preparation made by Heaven's skill 
 In nature's grand display of growing wealth 
 Had just reward for Heaven's pleasure made, 
 When earth was duly clothed in one vast sheen 
 Of living charms, the flowers blooming bright. 
 The foliage rare, and grasses spreading green. 
 All changing much to meet climatic zone. 
 From ocean's lip to mountain's dizzy height. 
 From line of central heat, to arctic cold! 
 
 The evening of this day, which means its 
 start. 
 Lies back of time, when fourth day's work began. 
 And that day closed ere this had reached its noon. 
 These days recording Heaven's plan of work 
 Have varied lengths to suit the time required 
 
Cfte S)upremacp of Life 79 
 
 For sundry tasks, each closing with its work : 
 Thus God provides no time for idle hours. 
 
 FOURTH DAY 
 
 The fourth was Heaven's exhibition day: 
 The day in which the clouds, like curtains thick, 
 Were drawn aside by Heaven's mighty hand. 
 Then sun and moon and stars in grandeur stood 
 Before the clear, prophetic eye, transferred 
 To him who wrote creation's wondrous theme. 
 It is not said these stars were made that day, 
 But God, who made all else, made also them. 
 The man of simple faith sees clear the truth 
 Despite the blur of intervening things. 
 And sings, " My Father's hand has made them 
 all." 
 
 'Twas like the little maid whose father led 
 Abroad to see the stars come out at eve ; 
 Her searching eyes the evening star descried. 
 And then to watching father, she exclaimed, 
 *' papa, papa, God has made a star ! " 
 Or like it was in classic days of art : 
 An artist in his study hid from view 
 Toiled on from day to day, from year to year, 
 While bringing out the lines of perfect grace, 
 On exhibition day he showed his work. 
 The waiting crowds, with admiration wild. 
 Exclaimed, " Our Raphael has an angel made ! " 
 This day, like all the days of Heaven's work. 
 
80 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 Began with eve, and closed with morning light. 
 For all the time that God was in this work, 
 The light was coming to its brighter glow. 
 
 FIFTH DAY 
 
 The fifth division great of Heaven's task. 
 Called day, relates that fish were made for seas, 
 And birds produced to fly in ambient air. 
 This day no doubt began on even time 
 With third and sixth; for sentient life 
 For land, and sea, and air, the many kinds. 
 Appears to have begun about the time 
 When warmth had made conditions fit for life. 
 The vegetable day began when grass 
 First sprang from earth, and closed with per- 
 fect trees. 
 Likewise the fifth began when forms of life 
 Appeared at first in ancient seas, and closed 
 When God had made the mighty whales com- 
 plete. 
 
 SIXTH DAY 
 The sixth appears by far the longest day. 
 Beginning even with the fif ih and third. 
 The sentient life on land, in sea, and air. 
 From first to last an even progress made. 
 If beastly life alone had been the aim, 
 These days would then have closed on even 
 
 time ; 
 For earth was now complete for all but man. 
 
Cfie Supremacy of Life si 
 
 The beasts, the fish, and fowls had now a home. 
 But ages long went by ere man took charge. 
 Between the time the world was made complete, 
 And stocked with all the lower grades of life, 
 And later time, by Heaven's will designed, 
 When man appeared, the earth had many 
 
 scenes 
 Of tragic strife, and revolutions vast, 
 And works of economic high design. 
 As God through ages worked to fit a home 
 For man; arena where the human race 
 Might work a destined end to justify 
 The wisdom of the great eternal God 
 In placing such a race in reach of sin ! 
 
 In this long dismal stretch of ancient life, 
 Unwrit except in relics which by chance 
 Have filtered through unnumbered ages long, 
 And tell of giant forms and uncouth shapes 
 Of beasts on land and in the ocean's depths. 
 The trees developed also giant forms ; 
 Likewise the birds, as eggs remain to show. 
 We read that when the human race was young, 
 Great giants too among the men appeared; 
 Among these forms were dwarfs and pigmies 
 
 found ; 
 As if wise nature was on testing bent. 
 To see which form should be the final type. 
 Full many a battle great was grimly fought 
 By monsters of the deep, ere man was there 
 
82 Cfte §)uptemacp of Life 
 
 To give the greater shock to oceans' depths 
 With dreadnaughts huge, and giant guns to 
 
 match ! 
 The peaceful calm of woods was oft disturbed 
 By savage howls and snarls of angry beasts 
 In mortal fight, ere cruel man had learned 
 To beat them in their game of beastly hate. 
 
 But other things of larger worth to man 
 Were in those ages coming into form. 
 The forces ages long were then at work 
 To give him beds of coal throughout the earth. 
 With iron ores laid strangely by the coal ! 
 And all formations great of building stone; 
 And all the precious stones, for use or show. 
 And precious metals, gold and silver bright 
 Were in those ages made for coming man. 
 In all, the thought of God is clearly seen. 
 These things have not an air of accident. 
 Though man designs the means by which they 
 
 came. 
 The men of science tell the process true. 
 For instance, how the wood by rapid growth. 
 In rich, wet valleys, rose in fathoms high. 
 Then earth went down, and water covered all. 
 And sand and silt then covered up the mass. 
 Then earth rose up for ages long to change 
 The mass to stone, when earth again went down. 
 And all once more was valley rich and wet. 
 And then again the rapid growth of wood. 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 8 3 
 
 And thus the repetition went, till earth 
 
 Was well supplied with waiting fields of coal! 
 
 Just give these ready scribes enough of wood 
 And water, earth and sand, and willing earth, 
 To sink and rise by rule, and endless time 
 In which to work, and they can demonstrate 
 Beyond all question how all things were made! 
 We take their word as certain truth because 
 We were not there to see how all was done. 
 We do not pose as high installed shorthand 
 Reporter for the secret court of God; 
 But sure we are that economic laws 
 Together worked to fit the world for man. 
 
 And when conditions all were made complete, 
 When earth through ages long had struggled 
 
 up 
 To reach the full maturity of growth, 
 And pristine beauty hung on every leaf. 
 By gentle breezes blown, and blossoms hung 
 In rich array on trees, and shrubs, and vines, 
 Young nature's beauty fair was spread abroad 
 On all the wondrous landscape, high and low ; 
 The balmy wind went round with kisses soft. 
 And touched each leaf and bloom on nature's 
 
 face: 
 A greeting to the long-expected time 
 When purpose high had touched the soul of 
 
 things. 
 
84 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 The time of higher life had surely come; 
 All nature stood in waiting pose to greet 
 The coming Lord of earth. Then man ap- 
 peared ! 
 
 How man was made is question mooted much. 
 'Tis said that God created man of dust, 
 And surely breathed in him the breath of life, 
 And man by that became a living soul. 
 In God's own image true the man was made. 
 The male and female, He created them. 
 And gave them rule and right o'er all the earth. 
 Over the cattle, fowls, and fish of seas. 
 These all, with herbs, he gave to them for food. 
 'Tis thus the record gives the simple fact ; 
 On these our simple faith may safely rest. 
 
 But fancy sweeps the field of knowledge wide. 
 And gathers up the broken ends of thoughts. 
 The errors, truths, the sense and nonsense 
 
 mixed. 
 The bits of wisdom rare, and follies piled. 
 The contribution huge of shallow minds 
 Then cards the stuff to rolls and spins a 
 
 thread 
 With doubtful twist, and woven in the warp 
 Of speculation's fad, with bright designs, 
 Like wild kaleidoscopic visions crude, 
 And calls these fads the shining flowers of 
 
 truth : 
 
Cf)e ^uptemacg of Life 85 
 
 To Wisdom's seeing eye they all appear 
 Just little systems made for little men. 
 
 Some think that man was spoke at once full 
 
 form, 
 A man complete except the boon of life : 
 A new-made corpse which never breathed a 
 
 breath 
 Of life, nor felt the pang of any pain, 
 Nor hunger's rage, nor passion's fiercer sway; 
 Whose lifeless brain was never stirred by 
 
 thought ; 
 Whose eyes had never seen the light of day; 
 Then God breathes into him the breath of life. 
 And he became a living soul, a man. 
 Then man, by this, is not akin to brutes, 
 And has no life in common grade with theirs. 
 But man is animal in functions all. 
 In fibre, cell, and nerve, and circling blood: 
 An animal complete in structural life; 
 And man himself discounts the pleasing thought 
 By showing brutish traits in all his ways. 
 
 Then others think that God by single word 
 Commanded man to stand complete, full grown, 
 An animal with every part in place. 
 With nerves and blood and bones and struc- 
 ture all; 
 Just one with horse, or ox, or other beast. 
 And then at once, or after lapse of time, 
 
86 Cfte ^upremacg of Life 
 
 God breathed into this comely beast the breath 
 Of higher life, and he became the man. 
 
 But others still, with show of learned words. 
 With scientific form of speech, contend 
 It best accords with reason's earnest quest. 
 And better squares with modern view of things. 
 That man, like earth he came to rule, was made 
 On plan of growth by long successive steps, 
 And when he was by measure well prepared 
 For higher tasks, and needed gifts to suit, 
 God breathed in him the breath of higher life. 
 And brutish man became the living soul ; 
 Which made him more than beast, akin to God ! 
 
 This scheme of thought, by reason made 
 quite fair. 
 Limps sadly on the crutch of honest doubt, 
 Because 'tis not by proper proof sustained. 
 If man has really come from brutish life. 
 He could not thus have come by single pair. 
 But must have come by tribes in many groups, 
 And blossomed into manhood's higher life 
 In many spots, in time about the same. 
 While Eden's group might well be first to come, 
 In reason's view some groups in other parts 
 Would soon attain the same high rank in life. 
 And men would thus in many parts appear. 
 
 This view, though charged to speculation 
 wild, 
 
Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 87 
 
 Has color in the record handed down ; 
 
 " Cain went to land of Nod, and took a wife " ; 
 
 Unless he took a sister wife with him, 
 
 Then wives were in that land to be secured. 
 
 And then, when this first tribe of men had 
 
 grown, 
 And spread abroad for food and larger place, 
 " The sons of God saw daughters fair of men, 
 And took them wives, of such of them they 
 
 chose." 
 This looks like intermarriage with a race 
 They thought of ruder blood, though fair to 
 
 love. 
 If this is how the earth was peopled first, 
 The track of man as he ascended up 
 From lower forms and step by step advanced 
 Should be as clearly traced by bones pre- 
 served, 
 As is the case with any beast that lives 
 Today in any part of earth or sea. 
 But proof like this, though sought, is not at 
 hand. 
 
 And thus we see that all these schemes of 
 
 thought 
 Have limping legs, and none can stand erect. 
 With bold assurance say that here is truth. 
 Since mystery hangs on all these lines of 
 
 thought. 
 Dogmatic speech may split the air in vain. 
 
88 Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 
 
 And ranting zeal, with pounding gestures wild, 
 Will surely fail to whip the doubt away. 
 
 Man is, and what he is is more concern; 
 Than how he came. If we his measure take, 
 As he has stamped it plain on all his works. 
 Then we some noble traits shall surely find. 
 And some, alas, for which the race should 
 
 blush! 
 Man's better self makes him akin to God, 
 Reveals the traits which honor God, and give 
 To human life the rank and high impress 
 Of nature's true nobility of soul. 
 The love of justice, mercy, right and truth; 
 The will to stand like steel for what is just, 
 Although it cost the sacrifice of self; 
 To see that fellow men have equal chance. 
 Alike fair play in all affairs of life ; 
 To mercy be inclined ; to God give all ; 
 And serve the cause of right in every way: 
 This shows the man who wears the precious 
 
 stamp 
 Of highest honor on his noble soul ! 
 
 Man's lower nature shows the beastly grade ; 
 The snarl of dog, the sudden spring of cat ; 
 The greed of wolf, hyena's deadly hate ; 
 The course grained nature of the dirty swine ; 
 The lion's lordly tread, the serpent's sly 
 And noiseless glide ; show traits that still are 
 found 
 
Cfte S)upremacp of Life 89 
 
 Embedded deep in many human lives. 
 
 Some men along one beastly line find work, 
 
 And some find other traits which suit them 
 
 best. 
 But everywhere along the ways of life 
 These beastly traits are meanly cropping out. 
 
 We find the human dog and cat, alas ! 
 Sometimes together bound by marriage ties ! 
 We see the lordly lion in his den, 
 And note the crafty paws outstretched afar. 
 Like greedy fingers long by practice taught. 
 Are surely raking in by usurious ways 
 The profits hardly earned by sweat and toil 
 Of other men. Voracious human wolves. 
 And tigers strong and shy, are out for prey. 
 Thus beastly traits incarnate live in men; 
 So man is mixture strange of good and bad. 
 
 A second view of man's advent is found. 
 In chapter two of Book, and seems on face 
 To be an after-thought, a folk lore piece. 
 Perhaps the growth of pious myths around 
 Traditions handed down from men of old, 
 And tells in mystic parable the truth 
 Of how the first man struggled long in prayer, 
 And pain endured to win a helpful wife. 
 It is a fact revealed in both accounts 
 That man was first endowed with human soul. 
 What gave concern to God and grief to man 
 
90 Cfae ^upremacg of Life 
 
 Was this important truth, that for the man 
 No fitting help was found. In such a case, 
 It well accords with Heaven's plan for man's 
 Eternal good, that man himself should bear 
 The burden of the task to meet his wants. 
 
 That sleep profound which came to Adamj 
 
 then, 
 Was not the sleep of soul. It was a time 
 When all the minor things were pushed aside. 
 The man had in his secret chamber gone, 
 The chamber of his inmost secret soul. 
 And shut the door against all outward life, 
 And wrestled hard, perchance all night, with 
 
 God, 
 As Jacob later did at Jabok brook ; 
 Not for his life but for his backward mate 
 As she, as yet, was not endowed with soul. 
 
 And this great struggle of the yearning heart, 
 Which came so near to death, suggested well 
 The taking out a rib from near his heart. 
 To make the woman all the more his own. 
 This may have been designed to strengthen, too, 
 The marriage tie in that licentious age. 
 Which intervened before the awful flood: 
 A lesson needed much in every age. 
 
 And thus the man the first great lesson 
 learned. 
 That real success in life is always gained 
 
Cf)e ^uptemacp of Life 91 
 
 By conquering power of faith. And then alone 
 Obtuse to all the things of outer life, 
 With high imperial might of faith in league 
 With God, he wrestled for the highest prize 
 Of earthly bliss, the other half of life ! 
 'Tis ever thus by Heaven's law decreed 
 That man must pray the most for highest good, 
 Which God desires the most to freely give ; 
 The things he cannot give, though most we need. 
 Till we become prepared by grace to take. 
 
 If this surmise is truth by Heaven meant. 
 We see that Adam's prayer was great success ; 
 His bride was hence not only fair, but pure 
 A woman sent from God, with soul sublime, 
 To match his own and fill his life with joy; 
 A soul of finer fibre made to rule 
 With love the realms of sweet domestic bliss ; 
 With mind, the equal of his own in strength. 
 Though ranging most amid the lighter 
 
 thoughts. 
 The softer and the gentler ways of life. 
 While he performs the harder, cruder tasks. 
 
 The man had grown apace ; his soul had felt 
 The thews of force mysterious from out 
 Th,e spirit world ; he stood on higher ground : 
 Companionship with God had made him strong. 
 His mind before had swept the wide expanse 
 Of nature's range, and he had given names 
 
92 €^bt Suptemacp of Life 
 
 To cattle, plants, and streams about his home. 
 But now his mind had taken higher range, 
 Befitting new and larger claims of life. 
 
 And now his bride, the joy of life, had come; 
 In thrilling agony of bliss he cried, 
 " Now this is bone of my own bone, indeed. 
 And flesh of my own flesh." The mystic speech 
 Still hangs in view ; the deeper sense obscure, 
 Of soul begotten by the faith of soul. 
 We read between the lines : the marriage true 
 Of souls, as well as wedded tie of flesh. 
 
 There was no prior type of woman's face. 
 No model true by which to gage her charms. 
 He needed none ; she was herself the gage 
 Of every trait of heart and grace of form, 
 The royal form of beauty absolute. 
 To him she was the gift of God supreme. 
 The highest prize that Heaven could bestow. 
 No gentle wind from out the court above 
 Could waft an angel half so passing fair! 
 He gently placed his arm about her form ; 
 She, yielding softly, nestled to his fond 
 Embrace, and thus her silent answer gave 
 His wooing heart : true love for love the same. 
 And thus the two became the man and wife. 
 And God himself the happy union blessed. 
 
 In blissful innocence of pristine love 
 The pair walked forth in Eden's leafy shade. 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 93 
 
 Along the aisle of nature's temple vast. 
 The stately trees rose high like columns made, 
 By Heaven's skill designed to hold secure 
 The doming of the sky. And other trees, 
 By weight of luscious fruit, were bending low, 
 As Heaven had prepared the marriage feast. 
 The birds, in every shade of beauty dressed, 
 Their varied notes self-taught, by Heaven 
 
 skilled, 
 In harmony with nature's hum, sent forth 
 The grand recessional in Heaven's praise ! 
 The flowers spread the ground with beauty's 
 
 sheen. 
 And laughed from bushes bright with many 
 
 shades. 
 They peeped with lustrous eyes from out the 
 
 boughs 
 Of trees, and smiled like infants' merry eyes ! 
 Each hue and tint with new-made luster shone ; 
 And all the landscape glowed with rich designs 
 Of nature's floral wealth, spread out before 
 The parents first of all the human race. 
 As they went forth, to what great destiny 
 May Heaven help us truly to divine ! 
 
BOOK FIFTH 
 
 THE THEME 
 
 The Primal Laws which God in Eden gave. 
 The First, " Be Fruitful, Multiply and Fill the 
 Earth," means not only production, but care 
 of men. Conservative not destructive. It 
 started man on life of peace but he has followed 
 the scheme of war. The trend to war has 
 ripened into militarism. Its utter failure as a 
 means of peace. The World War and its gi- 
 gantic evils. 
 
BOOK FIFTH 
 
 When man came forth from nature's primal 
 source, 
 With senses quick, and naught of skill to guide, 
 The mind untrained was filled with wonder lust. 
 With concept in the rough, unsorted massed, 
 The assets rich for nascent reason's skill 
 To sort and place the thoughts in kindred rows. 
 
 When thoughts stood up in pairs before the 
 mind, 
 Some other thought sprang forth like new born 
 
 babe. 
 The product of the mind, conclusion called. 
 And thus the links began which strongly hold 
 All human kind in one vast growing mesh 
 Of forces strong, invisible, but real. 
 The ties which bind each man to all the race. 
 The mind some actions deemed of better kind ; 
 Some thoughts produced a better state of soul. 
 And gave a richer joy of higher rank. 
 The best should be approved, the worst con- 
 demned ; 
 Thus conscience took her place on judgment 
 seat, 
 
 A force, the counterpart of reason's reign. 
 
 97 
 
98 Cbe ^upremacp of Life 
 
 The man with reason clear and conscience 
 quick 
 Has forces, twins in human sphere of work, 
 Eternal in their swing for weal or woe 
 Along the fatal range of human life ! 
 To man so made the Lord gave three great laws, 
 Designed to work the highest good of race. 
 The first is basic law of racial life : 
 " Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth." 
 The next law looks to food supply of race. 
 And thus it runs : " Subdue the earth for use." 
 The third gives day for proper growth of souls : 
 " And thou shalt keep the holy sabbath day." 
 These primal laws by Heaven's will imposed 
 Most surely point to that high crest of life 
 Which God has set for aim of human kind. 
 They tend to fill the earth with goodly men. 
 Give nerve and health and strength to manly 
 
 frame. 
 Increase the growth of mind by constant work, 
 And keep the soul in living touch with God, 
 By all that Sabbath means, a holy life. 
 
 To multiply the race is God's first law: 
 The basic law on which all else depends. 
 The source of all for which the race was made. 
 To what extent this vital force runs dry. 
 To that degree creation's aim has failed ; 
 To that extent the Christ has died in vain ; 
 And heav'n to that extent has vacant chairs. 
 
Cfte ^uptcmacg of Life 99 
 
 This law is also writ in human souls, 
 
 And they who waive its claims by childless 
 
 homes 
 Are cutting off a source of highest joy, 
 As well as robbing race and God of right. 
 The spoken law of God is outward sign 
 Of native wish, deep planted in the soul. 
 So all of Heaven's laws, from first to last, 
 Are met by counterparts divine in man. 
 The will of God and deepest wish of man 
 Are yoked, and pull for highest human good. 
 
 Just how this first great law should be obeyed 
 Is here most clearly shown. This wedded pair, 
 The man and wife by Heaven's mercy blest. 
 Is sample set for all the human race. 
 The household thus by Heaven's wisdom made 
 Is first of human groups, both Church and 
 
 State : 
 The basic compact, blest of God and man, 
 'Tis best of all the institutions made 
 For social good and individual worth : 
 It is the firm foundation pledge for state. 
 Supreme for purity in Heaven's church. 
 Here man is king and wife is queen, and both 
 In this may reach the highest earthly good. 
 To love, maintain and rule this kingdom well 
 Demands the highest traits of heart and brain. 
 Here children have restraint of purest love. 
 And freedom's ample range for childish play. 
 
100 Cfee ^uptemacp of ILife 
 
 In such a state they grow both lithe and strong, 
 With sanest minds, combined with lofty souls, 
 The best for earth, the most at hand for God 
 To use in reaching man's supremest needs. 
 
 These little kingdoms spread through all the 
 land 
 Are chiefest treasures of the greatest state. 
 The pride of cities, boasts of towns, and joy 
 Of all the growing homes of countryside. 
 The crop of children grown in any land 
 Exceeds in value far all other growths. 
 All trade and commerce great, all money made 
 However good and much to be desired. 
 Are but the needed fringes, truly wise. 
 To make this crop the bliss of all our years. 
 
 The king and queen of home should put their 
 all, 
 Their time and thought in constant efforts true, 
 Their wealth of mind and soul ; above all else, 
 The priceless boon of honest life, the high 
 Integrity without a blot, as seen 
 In daily acts of life before their eyes : 
 These are the treasures of the children's souls, 
 Inwrought in very structure of the mind, 
 The safest treasure man can leave his child. 
 And truest work that man can do for God. 
 
 What, then, you have to give in fair 
 estate 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life loi 
 
 Is well bestowed, and meets a purpose wise. 
 The cultured minds, well toned to truth and 
 
 right. 
 Receive ancestral wealth as stepping stones 
 To nobler lives in true succession bound. 
 In happy homes like these, this primal law 
 Is duty met, and God no doubt is pleased. 
 But he who puts a spoilt and shrivelled heir 
 In care of fortune huge, is like a moth 
 Which puts a worm in heart of goodly peach : 
 The only talent is to spoil the fruit ! 
 
 To multiply the race by children bom 
 Is less than half the royal law fulfilled. 
 In households, tribes and nations all, the law 
 Demands protecting care for all the weak. 
 The strong, the brave, the wise, by God 
 
 endowed. 
 Must give the means of growth and self-support 
 To all the less prepared for life's demands. 
 The law requires that parents give their best 
 Of mind and heart to train their children well ; 
 That States protect their subjects in their 
 
 rights ; 
 The same great law holds good for all the 
 
 world : 
 The stronger nations must maintain the rights 
 Of weaker States ; the world is common fact. 
 
 We need a statesmanship as broad as earth, 
 A sympathetic grasp of mind to work 
 
102 Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 
 
 For greatest good for universal man ; 
 
 A vision clear to see the needs of man, 
 
 An altruistic sense of justice fair, 
 
 An inspiration wrought by Heaven's grace 
 
 To do the best for every race and tribe, 
 
 And stand in might of right for every man. 
 
 This is the high and just demand of God 
 
 Upon us laid, because of better life 
 
 We from his wondrous bounty have received. 
 
 'Twould be a noble work for nation strong 
 To make arterial flues of trade to reach 
 Remotest backward tribes of savage men. 
 And keep all veins of active trade unclogged. 
 Along with boxes, bales and sacks, would flow 
 A stream of mental wealth and moral worth ; 
 A plea for culture, peace and honest work ; 
 With all, a healthy growth of self respect, 
 An independent thought, a manly wish, 
 Desire for decency and better life. 
 All these good signs of larger things w^ould 
 
 grow 
 Beneath a foreign policy like that ! 
 All work like this is meant by this command 
 To multiply and fill the earth with men. 
 
 Production, then, of men to fill the earth 
 Most surely means protection to this end. 
 We only need to read the mind of God 
 To know His chief desire for human race. 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of JLife 103 
 
 Three points in racial life stand boldly out 
 Like mountain peaks in lengthened range of 
 
 hills. 
 In each our God seemed closest to the race, 
 And each gives clear a deeper note of faith, 
 As His great fingers touched the primal chords 
 Which sound the note of Heaven's greater will, 
 Revealing clear the highest work of man. 
 
 The first of these was here in Eden's home, 
 When all the race was in the single pair. 
 Then God made clear to them his primal laws. 
 The first is law of growth, increase of kind. 
 To fill the earth with stirring human life. 
 With thinking men and women made for 
 
 God,— 
 And thus enlarge the power of noble thought, 
 Give wider range to all the traits of heart. 
 So dear to loving heart of mighty God, 
 As virtue truth and love and all the traits 
 That make the man akin to Heaven's King. 
 This surely looks to splendid civic life ; 
 To forceful states, sustained by wholesome 
 
 laws. 
 Where men in peace may gain the truest life. 
 
 The next momentous time when God's great 
 hand 
 Was laid on fever-heated brow of earth 
 Was in that night on plain of Bethlehem, 
 
104* Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 When angel choirs to waking shepherds sang, 
 
 " Be glory to the mighty God on high, 
 
 On earth be peace and love, good will to men." 
 
 That very night the Prince of Peace was bom ! 
 
 It must be so that God's great loving heart 
 
 Was then the nearest to his earthly sons. 
 
 And now we hear the same sweet note of peace, 
 
 The primal law to multiply and save. 
 
 To make increase of life and not to kill. 
 
 God's conservation love proclaimed the law, 
 
 And Jesus came to fill its highest aim. 
 
 And last, on that great plain of judgment 
 seat, 
 Where doom of man depends on how he served 
 His fellow man, the same great law appears. 
 I hungry was, ye fed, or failed to feed ; 
 This crucial test decides the weal or woe. 
 Reveals the moral texture of the soul. 
 The character decides the fate of man ! 
 
 'Tis thus when God comes closest to the race, 
 We hear in every case the same great law. 
 These forming epochs all display the true 
 Articulated joints in frame of fate. 
 The}^ place in clearest light the will of God, 
 And show the path of duty plain to man. 
 Beyond all question clear, 'tis Heaven's will 
 That next to love and worship due to God, 
 The man's supremest law is love to man. 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 105 
 
 There is no warrant in the Book for man 
 To take the sacred life of fellow man. 
 At first, and on the way, and at the last, 
 Of racial life, the law of God rings clear, 
 '' Thou shalt not kill, but help thy fellow man." 
 And yet such right has been too oft assured 
 By daring men with vain, presumptuous 
 
 thought 
 That they can read the secret will of God 
 In wish profane in their ambitious minds ! 
 
 The race has lived at variance wide from 
 course 
 Which Heaven's wisdom clearly pointed out. 
 The first man born on earth rose up in wrath 
 And took his brother's life. Thus war began. 
 The face then set has ruled the darker side 
 Of life from first beginning until now. 
 The arts of war and arts of peace have claimed 
 Alternate place in thoughts and deeds of men 
 Since human life first waked to conscious might. 
 If this or that has claimed the larger share 
 Of energy in brain and brawn remains 
 A problem still unsolved in mystic lore. 
 
 The war, spectacular in tragic scenes 
 In annals told, has made the larger show ; 
 While peace with modest mien has crouched 
 
 between 
 The tragic times of fierce destructive wars, 
 
106 Cfte Suptemacp of Life 
 
 And even then is taxed to utmost strength 
 For means to fight the next impending war. 
 The trend of this pernicious course is seen 
 In grinding force of crushing JMilitarism. 
 'Tis here we see the genius grown by war, 
 The Thor of Norsemen grown to modem size, 
 Enthroned as wisdom's very self to rule. 
 And safest hold the destinies of men. 
 It lays its hand on all the nation's men. 
 As generations into manhood grow. 
 And trains their plastic minds to war's de- 
 mands. 
 Puts premium first on fighting trait ; makes war 
 The chief concern and highest grade of life, 
 And battle field the place where highest prize 
 Of life, by daring deeds in fight, is won. 
 And when at last they go to civil life. 
 They're soldiers still, and must respond at call 
 To colors, ready for expected fight. 
 'Tis nation organized for pending war. 
 The civil life is given second place. 
 And all industries to the limit taxed. 
 And nation's back is bent to bear the weight 
 Of boosted scheme of national defense. 
 
 The system's false and rotten to the heart, 
 The basest, costliest thing beneath the sun ! 
 It sows the seeds of war, and reaps its kind. 
 The peace allowed is only truce of war, 
 A time to gather means, and grow, alas ! 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 107 
 
 Another crop of men to slaughter bound. 
 A government arranged on such a plan 
 Will tax and kill its loyal sons in turn 
 As long as its misguided life endures. 
 The blackest hell could never hatch a scheme 
 More pleasing to the devil's hating mind ! 
 'Tis maudlin bold to talk of freedom's bliss 
 Or liberty's fair boon in state like this. 
 
 The evil spreads as evil always must. 
 One nation taking on the war-like scheme, 
 The neighboring nations must, in self defense. 
 Put on the same, and thus the continent 
 Becomes a war-like camp, the hatching nest 
 Of hate, mistrust, suspicion's baleful doubt. 
 Conditions thus must surely lead to war ; 
 Why armies kept in train if not to fight? 
 The high ambition of the ruling class 
 Cannot be trusted with such tempting test. 
 
 This baleful system in its final fruits 
 Would make the world a scene of hostile camps ; 
 With every nation armed to full extent 
 Of fighting force ; and all industries taxed 
 To utmost limit for the state's defense. 
 The weak and feeble work in sweat and pain 
 To keep the strong and stalwart at the guns ! 
 It is reversal to the savage life. 
 And places war above all civic worth. 
 Instinct to kill for plunder's cruel gain 
 
108 Cfte ©uptemacp of JLife 
 
 , - -^ - - 
 
 Is thus installed as primal law of man. 
 
 It puts the world in attitude of war. 
 
 The men of strength and brawn must idly wait 
 
 The chance to maim or kill their fellow men, 
 
 And this in name and for the sake of peace ! 
 
 Is this the final grade of highest life? 
 The best that statesmen's wisdom can devise? 
 Is this the best response that earth can make 
 To Heaven's song to peaceful shepherd's song, 
 " On all the earth be peace, good will to men " ? 
 We take appeal from rulers deaf and blind 
 To wisdom God has planted deep in man. 
 When wisdom wakes to life and stands erect 
 And square, with face to earth's great problems 
 
 set, 
 These cruel schemes of blinded men shall fall 
 Like autumn leaves by killing frost cut down. 
 Ambition made the boast of proud defense. 
 The safest guard, through fear, of lasting 
 
 peace. 
 But testing ordeal proved beyond a doubt 
 That Europe's peace was on foundation false, 
 A deadly trap on fatal triggers set. 
 And fell at very first excuse for war ! 
 
 A calm, sweet peace, diffused o'er all the 
 earth. 
 Lay softly as a sleeping infant's breath. 
 And pleasant mirth in happy circles free 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 109 
 
 Assured to all a sense of life secure. 
 
 The busy hum of labor's joyful reign 
 
 In all the earth as incense rose to God. 
 
 Thro' all the circling flues of useful trade, 
 
 Content and happy life in-flowed to homes 
 
 Of low and high degree. God's peace on earth 
 
 Had come. From all glad lands the trustful 
 
 souls 
 Of peaceful men in thankful worship rose 
 To meet the Father's great descending love. 
 It was a time when earth and heaven joined 
 To bless the worn, long-suffering race of man. 
 
 But rankling in some human breasts the hell 
 Of discontent was forging strong the bolts 
 Of war. Occasion came, alas ! the day. 
 When crashed the bolt of war, the direful knell 
 Of fate; as if ten million bombs immense, 
 By one fuse lit, their discharge shook the earth 
 From pole to pole ! 'Twas thus the world re- 
 ceived 
 The sudden blow ; and nations stood aghast. 
 With bated breath and tight 'ning nerves, with 
 
 hands 
 Upraised, beheld the awful rush of war ! 
 Then Peace, betrayed, was like a wounded dove 
 Thrown crumpled in the dust. Then Hope and 
 
 Joy 
 Like frightened spirits fled from heart and 
 home ! 
 
110 Cfte Supremacp of Life 
 
 The earth once more became the nesting place 
 Of grief and woe, the hell of sin and death. 
 Alas ! that man should bear the guilt of war, 
 And answer at the bar of God and man 
 For such a crime! Yes, Teuton, Slav, and 
 
 Frank, 
 And Briton, all, — the share of each is far 
 Too large. But ah, the fate of him most 
 
 wrong ! 
 If life for life is Heaven's law, and he 
 Who slays his fellow must his own life yield, 
 Can one man bear the guilt of thousands slain.'' 
 You cannot hide beneath the wild applause 
 The sting of outraged conscience; God speaks 
 
 there ! 
 'Tis still the sin of earth to gage the war 
 By numbers slain. But what good cause was 
 
 there 
 For this great waste of life.? To God give 
 
 count ! 
 
 A legend sporting on the breeze of 
 
 thought, — 
 Mere whim on Fancy's wings, or solemn 
 
 truth, — ■■ 
 But tells of gala day in Heaven's court. 
 Those angels each assigned a world to guard 
 Were called from many stations far and near 
 To meet for counsel wise on state of things. 
 
Cfte ^uptemacg of Life iii 
 
 The spacious park in front of Heaven's throne 
 Was place of recreation and of joy. 
 
 One stately form a stranger seemed to be, 
 Was making observation of the grounds. 
 In one sequestered nook he found a place 
 Where nature drooped in adverse style of dress, 
 So bent from normal lines of grace 
 He turned aside to study well the scene. 
 The limbs on all the trees grew slim and 
 
 strong, 
 And pendant hung, from tallest top to ground. 
 And waved in gentle breezes, soughing low; 
 As when the winds blow through the forest 
 
 pines. 
 A shim'ring green of finest cypress vines, 
 In waving festoons, hung on all the trees. 
 Like veil of finest gauze by sadness worn. 
 Beneath a bower screened from open view. 
 Yet dimly seen through meshes of the moss. 
 Like that on trees along our southern coast. 
 Which hung on all the sides a temple made. 
 Befitting well the form enshrined within. 
 He saw an angel fair with face suffused 
 With tears ; a scene most strange in court of 
 
 bliss ! 
 She spake no word, nor gave the stranger heed. 
 But seemed intent, observing distant views. 
 Each turn but opened fresh the fount of tears. 
 
112 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 He turned away the problem still unsolved ; 
 He asked a knowing one, who made reply: 
 
 " That is the angel of the sin-cursed world. 
 She always weeps because her people sin, 
 But more now, because her sons on earth 
 Are in the awful throes of horrid war." 
 
 She sees her manly sons of perfect mold, 
 With highest type of earthly life endowed ; 
 Erect and chiseled to a perfect form 
 Which nature through a million years attained, 
 With faces glowing bright, with red blood lit. 
 And gleaming eyes, the wondrous lights of life, 
 The flashes seen of finer soul within ! 
 In serried ranks they march by millions strong. 
 Alas, that so much life, such mental force 
 Of cultured brain, and soul endowment great. 
 Could find no better sphere of active life 
 Where service done would bless the human race ! 
 These men have had their plastic minds so 
 
 trained 
 By culture false, misguided craft of state. 
 Environments of life, so aptly laid. 
 They have no choice. Some other wills than 
 
 theirs 
 Have shaped the grooves in which their lives 
 
 must run. 
 Their wills are only free to go as led; 
 As waters in the streams may freely flow. 
 
Cfte Supremacp of Life 113 
 
 But always in the channel ready made. 
 Like sheep to slaughter led, they go to war. 
 
 But hush, the sacred honor of the State 
 Must be upheld without regard to cost ! 
 What awful deeds of shame are in the name 
 Of sacred honor done ! What base desires 
 And lustful eyes of greed have hid behind 
 That name, concocting schemes to take by force 
 A neighbor's lands, his honor, fair estate ! 
 All ships on all the seas could never bear 
 All goods purloined in honor's sacred name ! 
 A nation's honor struts with bloated form. 
 And gains an acute sense of vital touch. 
 As army grows and dreadnought ships increase ! 
 The duello displayed a growth the same. 
 When idle men with guns in pockets strode 
 In vain conceit, with honor on the tap. 
 They knew no other trait demanding guard. 
 Some men developed honor's sense so quick 
 That insult flashed at dun for honest debt. 
 High Honor's name is oft the silken glove 
 That hides the blood-red stain on Murder's fist. 
 
 Men go to war as to a gala scene. 
 Because they go with sense of sacrifice. 
 On Duty's altar they are risking all. 
 And with the martyr's spirit tender life 
 To sacred country's cause. They are trans- 
 formed 
 
114 Cfte Supremacp of Life 
 
 By conscious sense of highest duty done. 
 They move on higher plane of thought and life. 
 With seeming mirth they bid adieu to friends, 
 And rush with spirit brave to dreaded war. 
 But that does not dispel the love of life, 
 Nor hide from men the awful chance of death ; 
 Or worse, the living death of wounded life. 
 With human hearts and hopes they' face their 
 fate. 
 
 Their first ordeal perchance was quick sur- 
 prise. 
 When distant guns of foe had caught their 
 
 range. 
 The deadly whizzing balls and bursting shells 
 And shrapnel filling air bring rain of death. 
 A galling fire with not a foe in sight 
 To give relief to thought by active fight 
 Is hardest strain for any troops to bear. 
 O horrid sight for mortal man to see ! 
 That manly face was torn away by shell, 
 Like one might cast a ruined mask aside ! 
 A noble comrade to my right falls dead, 
 And one to left cries out with shattered limb. 
 Great God, how reckless man destroys Thy 
 
 work ! 
 Our guns at hand reply with shot for shot ; 
 They now at last have got the range of foe. 
 This checks their deadly aim, gives chance for 
 life. 
 
Cfie S)upremacp of Life 115 
 
 This dual strife of giant guns prolonged 
 Gives cruel chance to think, an awful gift ! 
 We helpless wait ; our pits afford no guard 
 From rain of gaged iron from the air ! 
 Alas, how long! Suspense is almost death! 
 
 At last they come, the foes, a blest relief ! 
 Now at them, boys ! Each man a hero brave, 
 For home and country's sacred cause we fight ! 
 Defiance rings along our daring ranks. 
 And resolution gleams along our guns ! 
 Hurl back the demon foes, give death for death ; 
 We now must surely kill, or bravely die ! 
 We cannot know the battle's fateful swing; 
 Each man's whole life is with the foes in front ; 
 No eye to see who falls, no ear for groans ! 
 
 Our foes with awful might push back our 
 
 ranks ; 
 They now are with our dead and wounded men ; 
 In shooting them, alas ! we shoot our own ! 
 A wave of strength, we know not whence it 
 
 came, 
 The victor's sign unseen, but surely felt : 
 It swept us into form and conquer'ing might ; 
 We made a charge no mortal foe could stand. 
 We found ourselves among our fallen braves. 
 And other bleeding men were also there. 
 The prayers in hostile tongues in union join 
 In melting tenderness in ear of God! 
 
116 Cfte Suptemacp of Life 
 
 The cries for wrath give place to prayer for 
 
 peace, 
 When death demands the awful toll of life ; 
 The wrath and dying blood flow out as one. 
 We took no thought of passing time ; at once 
 The darkness fell as from the hand of God. 
 The end of day demanded truce of fight. 
 
 One solemn glance across the frightful field, 
 While daylight lingers yet on stifling air, — 
 Those quivers of the prostrate forms we know 
 Too well are dying throes of shattered nerves ! 
 The frantic hands, in gesture pawing air, 
 Are last appeals in vain of passing life ! 
 Demented men in heedless rush of might 
 Are trampling on the helpless wounded ones. 
 The blinded men, in agony and pain. 
 Now wait in vain for friendly hands to lead. 
 The wounded men make efforts vain to rise. 
 Restrained by dangling limbs and loss of blood, 
 And everywhere the faces white in death 
 Make dumb protest against the cruel war. 
 
 And yet the hellish work goes on unchecked. 
 A thousand fields of holocaustal death 
 Can scarce restrain the savage rage of war. 
 Humanity's red blood indignant boils 
 At reckless pain and waste of human life. 
 If princes have no nobler use for men 
 Than pap to feed the greedy maw of war. 
 
Cfte Suptemacp of Life 117 
 
 Then clearest reason pleads to Heaven's throne 
 To spare the men and let the princes go. 
 
 What scenes of awful woe in battle's path 
 Reveal the fearful toll of one day's fight ! 
 No measure known to earth can give the sum 
 Of pain and anguish, thirst, and fever's rage, 
 As life ebbs out or hangs in doubtful scale. 
 As all the dreadful hours of night pass by ! 
 Can mortal man give reason's fair demand 
 Why these true men, of faithful women born. 
 In anguish, travail pains, at risk of life. 
 And nursed through years of helpless infancy. 
 And educated by a father's toil, 
 Should here be killed like savage beasts of 
 
 prey? 
 Just " food for powder," " cannon fodder," — 
 
 God 
 Forgive the man who coined the cruel words ! 
 Perhaps they sprang from fevered lips of pain, 
 As dying soldier, sinking in despair, 
 Hurled back the shame on those who made the 
 
 war! 
 
 But this is only one day's cruel work. 
 For weeks and months and years the war goes 
 
 on. 
 The men from homes are to their colors called, 
 Till all the fighting men found in the State 
 Are in the dreadful work of killing men. 
 
118 Cfte Supremacp of Life 
 
 If hell had turned her utmost powers loose 
 The fate of Europe hardly had been worse ! 
 
 If war would take the old, the stiff and worn, 
 The maimed, the lame, the feeble, halt and blind, 
 And satisfy with these the thirst for blood. 
 The world might well be shocked at such a 
 
 feast ; 
 But earth's great life would flow with scarce a 
 
 check. 
 But this foul monster comes from darkest hell, 
 Demanding angel's food, for Heaven made, 
 The very cream and richest crust of life. 
 The young and manly, hope and flower of earth, 
 These brightest sons and noblest men, the 
 
 strength 
 Of states, the stalwart brain and brawn of 
 
 earth. 
 Must go to fill this appetite of death ! 
 
 'Tis robbing sore the future race of men. 
 The prophets, priests, the poets, statesmen 
 
 great. 
 The farmers, builders, workers, the stay of state 
 In years to come, are swept away by war. 
 And all the light and force of life and thought 
 From this great source to bless the future race 
 Have all gone down the greedy throat of War ! 
 The states in strife consume the thews of 
 
 strength, 
 
Cfte S)Upremacp of Life 119 
 
 And make dependent weaklings of themselves. 
 'Tis like a man preparing well for work 
 By cutting off the fingers of his hand ! 
 
 But intense suffering on the battle fronts 
 Is only part of all the baleful fruit 
 Of horrid war, on which to feed its friends 
 As well as foes ! The nation stript of men, 
 The weaker hands must bear the increased 
 
 weight 
 Of private life, and all industrial works, 
 And toil to pay the crushing cost of strife. 
 But worse than all in states o'errun by war. 
 All food consumed or burned, supplies cut off, 
 The population has to die by slow 
 But sure starvation's great increasing pains. 
 'Tis here we see the blackest side of war. 
 It brings a shame to every human face, 
 A blaze indignant on each helpless brow. 
 But scorches blisters where the guilt is found. 
 That man with reason blest will give the sway 
 To passion's cruel might, and trample down 
 All sacred rights, and send destructive war 
 Like plague to blight the homes of innocence. 
 And bring starvation's blight, O horrid 
 
 thought ! 
 On mothers weak and babes of tender age. 
 
 A starving mother means a starving babe. 
 The mind looks through those naked homes in 
 track 
 
120 Cfie Sjupremacp of Life 
 
 Of war, where baby faces make appeal to God ! 
 How should the starving babies die, but with 
 Their faces peaked, bone white, upturned to 
 
 God, 
 Who surely gathers up their little souls, 
 B}'^ cruel men denied existence here? 
 That Heaven's pearly gates stand open wide 
 For souls of children crushed by cruel fate, 
 And marked for wasting death for lack of food, 
 Is only gleam of light on picture dark 
 As hell, where demons laugh at human pain ! 
 Behold their wasted forms ! the skin drawn close 
 Shows bony contour of the shrivelled face ! 
 They slowly walk about their ruined homes, 
 Like moving skeletons with glowing eyes 
 In cavern sockets, strangel}^ still alive ! 
 Their little fingers shrunk skin-tight to bone, 
 The size of straws, are plowing in the dirt 
 About the kitchen hearth in hope perchance 
 Some hidden crumb may still be found ! 
 Or on the ground amid the grass and leaves 
 Their shrunken little hands like claws of birds 
 Are seeking bugs or worms or anything 
 To stay the gnawing pains of hunger's rage ! 
 
 The angel of the earth has cause to weep. 
 The guilty weight of human sins would shock 
 The very stones in Heaven's jasper walls, 
 And send the blight of pain through heaven's 
 ranks 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 121 
 
 If pain could reach that pure abode of love. 
 What reparation can be made for crimes 
 Which shock the nerves of universal life? 
 Repentance still remains, but how can you 
 Restore the wasted lives ? How heal the grief 
 Of wives bereft? And mothers' stranded lives 
 Renew? How hush the helpless orphans' cry? 
 
 The past is gone forever out of call. 
 Regrets must find their true response, else vain 
 In reparation for the coming time. 
 Restore deserted Reason to her throne 
 By treaties based on Honor's sacred name ; 
 Combine to tie with chains the dogs of war, 
 No more to tear a Christian brother's flesh; 
 With fleets by all the treaty nations owned 
 Hold back the savage hordes untaught, and so 
 Compel the peace of earth. Atonement thus 
 You have the skill to make if you but see 
 The worth of chance by Heaven's wisdom sent. 
 Millions unborn in ages all to come 
 Would rise to call you chief among the blest. 
 
 Oh, tell it not that base suspicion's doubt 
 Is such that nation cannot nation trust ! 
 If state no honor has to keep its word 
 In sacred treaty bound with other states. 
 It has no honor true for which brave men 
 Should die. A government thus false should 
 fall. 
 
122 Cfte ©upremacp of Life 
 
 If men who hold the nation's faith in hand 
 Have no integrity that men may trust, 
 The safety of the state is best conserved 
 If they should walk in paths of private life. 
 A nation's sacred faith is far too great 
 To trust in hands where truth has been de- 
 throned, 
 And wild Ambition's greed has been installed. 
 The man who holds the fateful steering wheel 
 Of mystic ship which bears the hopes and 
 
 aims, 
 The precious lives and sacred name of all 
 The people safe across the waves of earth's 
 Tempestuous seas, of adverse currents strong, 
 Must in himself combine the noblest traits 
 In all the best of all the people found : 
 The high ideals of honor, sacred trust, 
 Integrity unsoiled, the love of right. 
 And justice, honesty, the pure white truth, — 
 These God-born traits in nation's deepest life 
 Embedded in the very heart of state, — 
 Must surely in the nation's chief be found. 
 
 And even thus equipped the nation's chief 
 Must needs be supplemented and sustained 
 By safe advisers, best the nation has ; 
 And then with every safeguard blest, the State 
 Can scarce with safety breast the lurking 
 
 storms. 
 Avoid the hidden rocks and shoals of sea. 
 
Cfee ^upremacp of Life 123 
 
 What then must be the fate of helpless states, 
 Where rulers love the cruel game of war, 
 And count the lives of trusting subjects cheap 
 When marshal glory waves the victor's sign? 
 
BOOK SIXTH 
 
 THE THEME 
 
 " Subdue the Earth " was the sacred law in 
 Eden given. Each success is stepping* stone to 
 larger gains. The basic elements with which 
 we have to work. Steam and Electricity as 
 burden bearers of the race. The Sabbath law 
 was third and last of primal laws at first im- 
 posed. It looks to proper growth of soul. 
 
BOOK SIXTH 
 
 " Subdue the earth " was second great com- 
 mand 
 Which God at first imposed on human race. 
 It was and is the most stupendous work 
 Which God has given busy man to do. 
 To make the earth the servant of the race 
 Is work of mind by aid of willing hands, 
 Through all the circling rounds of passing time. 
 Each force subdued enlarges man's domain, 
 And each is stepping stone to larger life. 
 The sum of nature's forces serving man. 
 By man's direct control, is proper gage 
 Of man's domain in conquered nature's realm, 
 And marks the standard of enlightenment. 
 The race by proper thought and honest work 
 Has gained age after age to present time. 
 
 The naked man, turned loose in nature's 
 
 wilds. 
 
 Was helpless, more than all the creatures made. 
 
 They were bom with instinct true to guide. 
 
 While he with gift of reason was endowed ; 
 
 But reason leans on facts by practice gained. 
 
 And here his savage mind was blank and void. 
 
 127 
 
128 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 No single hint of trend from prior race 
 
 Was in his blood to guide his untrained 
 
 thought. 
 The helpless monarch of a world untamed, 
 He had a task the very gods might shun ! 
 
 Of nature's mighty forces aiding man, 
 The ambient air in which he lives and moves 
 Is closest neighbor to his transient life. 
 It holds a mortgage on each vital breath. 
 And gives him one by one without a pledge 
 To bind the future. Great uncertain gift ! 
 This subtle fluid holds in close reserve 
 The force which man may train to do his work. 
 It fills our sails of commerce on the seas ; 
 It runs our mills, pumps water for our use ; 
 And lifts our planes to new and dizzy spheres 
 Of peaceful work, or war's destructive ways. 
 It is the servant to prolong our days ; 
 It surely will stand sponsor when we die ! 
 
 The water has been servant to the race 
 Since dawn of life ; has been man's food and help 
 In every step of his momentous course. 
 A thirst was likely first of conscious wants. 
 The water was before him sparkling clear; 
 But how to meet the want was question great ; 
 To lap like dog, or suck like greedy swine. 
 Was problem first for puzzled mind to solve. 
 But how convey it to the fevered lips 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 129 
 
 Of one who might by chance be sick or weak ? 
 A vessel was a first demand of life. 
 The hand in form of scoop no doubt was first ; 
 And then perchance a leaf was shaped to make 
 The primal cup by mortals used on earth. 
 
 When man first caught the driftwood on the 
 stream 
 And dried it in the sun to make his fire, 
 The water transportation of the world 
 Had then an humble unrecorded birth, 
 But destined in its prime to mark the seas 
 With open lanes of universal trade. 
 
 Among the very first of nature's aids 
 Was fire, and he was benefactor great 
 Who first learned how it might be kept and 
 
 used. 
 The fire that played along the dark'ning cloud 
 To timid man seemed naught but danger's sign. 
 Anon the lightning struck the seasoned tree, 
 And set the forest resinous ablaze ! 
 But this to helpless man was menace new. 
 But taking refuge in the district burnt, 
 AVhere many glowing cinders still remained, 
 They felt the genial warmth, a welcome help. 
 Some mind perceived that fire fiercest burned 
 Where sticks were thickest bunched with added 
 
 leaves, 
 And caught at once the thought of keeping fire 
 
130 Cfte S)upremacp of Life 
 
 By adding constant fuel to the blaze. 
 Volcanoes also taught the same high art ; 
 The burning lava setting things ablaze, 
 Suggested soon the work of kindling fires. 
 'Tis thus the things most needful to our lives 
 Are things which may be had at smallest cost. 
 The air we breathe, the water slaking thirst. 
 The fire which keeps us warm and cooks our food, 
 The earth on which we live and move and rest: 
 These prime concerns of life were gifts of God 
 To primal man, and still are basic things. 
 
 To make the vessels, implements and tools 
 With which to work was man's first step in work. 
 Each new device in thought worked out required 
 New tools by which to put device in form. 
 The work at first no doubt was very slow ; 
 Wild nature was the hope and dread of man. 
 Her forces once subdued were best of aids ; 
 Those forces wild were constant threat of death. 
 The powers hidden deep in nature's vaults 
 Have been the highest prizes sought by men 
 Of brightest minds in all the passing rounds 
 Of time, since men on earth began to think. 
 'Tis only thinking mind can forge the keys 
 By which these secret vaults can be unlocked. 
 And treasures rare of useful truths brought out 
 And harnessed up to do the work of man. 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life isi 
 
 " Subdue the earth " : 'tis endless task of 
 man. 
 Our senses are the tools which nature gave 
 For this stupendous work of mind and hand. 
 We are most strongly interwoven parts 
 Of nature's self, in charge of nature's weal. 
 The man is stationed at creation's head, 
 With awful task to tame and put to use 
 The mighty earth from which he sprang. 
 
 The earth is first great mother of us all. 
 Out from her ample secret life we come ; 
 And God, well pleased with this high type of 
 
 race, 
 Engrained his finer breath, the living soul, 
 And stamped eternal Beings high impress 
 Upon the ever-conscious soul of man! 
 And though we crumble back to earth awhile, 
 The living soul at last must claim her own, 
 And in the endless rounds of shifting time, 
 Amid the ever-changing roll of things. 
 The man's eternal stamp of living God 
 Demands eternal service, true and brave, 
 On scale befitting well the high degree 
 Of mind which may unfold, and larger grow. 
 Each shining hour while worlds must live and 
 die. 
 
 Is 
 
 This first great work assigned to willing men 
 close at hand; begins with training self. 
 
132 Cfte ^upremacp of JLife 
 
 First get thy native forces well in hand ; 
 Then know the earth, the nature of her soils, 
 Her building stones, and precious mineral 
 
 wealth. 
 The value of her noble forest trees. 
 The stored power in her water runs. 
 Then make her forces daily serve the race 
 l^y lifting burdens from the backs of men. 
 For thinking man this is a noble work, 
 A work of highest grade, a giant task. 
 Which claims the utmost strength of mind and 
 
 hand. 
 And tends to make men's daily work of life 
 A healthful, pleasant and uplifting thing, 
 And not the grinding out of soul in toil. 
 
 The paths of glory all traverse the plains 
 Of peace, where souls of men grow large. 
 And mind unfolds its noble parts to " Sun 
 Of Righteousness with healing wings " of love. 
 The noblest, best of all the traits of man 
 Reach fullest life, and all combine to make 
 In symmetry the golden type of man ! 
 
 The thinking man who loves his kind grows 
 sick 
 To contemplate how much of nation lost 
 Has checked the noble task by God assigned. 
 Please hush the bugle notes of cruel war ; 
 Forgo the idle ways of silly wealth, 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of Life 133 
 
 And heal the sickly, sentimental trend 
 Of untrained minds to follow senseless fads ; 
 And bend emancipated thought to earth, 
 Our primal work, assigned on nature's plain. 
 Let us survey the noble field of work 
 Where God at first gave tasks in busy life. 
 
 Each rood of land in all the spacious earth 
 Is subject for our earnest minds to know 
 What it can do in giving food to man. 
 It is our task to know the civic worth 
 Of all the parts which make our earthly home ; 
 To put each waiting part to proper use. 
 In giving lighter tasks to human toil: 
 Each fount and flowing stream, each mountain 
 
 range, 
 And all the hills, and dales and fertile plains ; 
 The deserts wild, and ocean's vast expanse ; 
 The clouds and rains and dews, the sources 
 
 all 
 Of moisture, indispensable to land, 
 To make old earth forever teem with wealth 
 Of growing corn and fruits, and flowers bright. 
 And make for all the human race a home 
 Where brightest lives with beauty's stamp un- 
 fold. 
 And sanest minds, by inspiration blest, 
 Shall crown all earthly life with purpose high ! 
 This is the field where intellect can give 
 The noblest work in aid of toiling man. 
 
184 Cfte §)upremacp of Life 
 
 The earth is far too vast to take it piece 
 By piece, and note how each in every land 
 Should be subdued and harnessed up for work ; 
 But let us note the value of a stream 
 Which has its birth in mountain forests wild. 
 Now here beside this mountain torrents run, 
 We'll take our pleasant observation stand 
 On solid ground, by soggy soil hugged, 
 And see how Nature loves to throw her charms 
 Around the cradle of a river's life. 
 
 Before us looms the mountain's awesome face. 
 On either hand a jutting spur of hills. 
 Like faithful sentries, stand, some miles apart. 
 Between the points the mountains make a curve. 
 Receding in our front, a modest bow, 
 And thus a basin large before us lies, 
 Where all the springs which rim the mountain 
 
 side 
 Collect, and make this gladly flowing stream. 
 
 The giant trees have rooted firm their toes 
 In steepest mountain-side, and lifting up 
 Their leafy heads, they throw the sky-line high, 
 In waving beauty on the azure vault, 
 Where fragile clouds float high on heaven's 
 
 dome. 
 The tangled underbrush, and graceful vines, 
 And flowers rare, which smile on all the scene. 
 Are making eff^orts brave to hide the scars 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 135 
 
 Which earth's convulsions long before have 
 
 made 
 In mountain's rocky face of rugged strength. 
 But rocks crop out in bold relief despite 
 The healing trend of Nature's kindly work. 
 
 The busy squirrels bark in playful mood, 
 The birds are flitting, singing in the air. 
 Mosquito hawks, the butterflies and moths. 
 Add beauty to the varied living scene ; 
 While mountain trout in every joy of life 
 Are leaping high in air along the stream. 
 'Tis nature's sporting ground, where life is 
 
 free. 
 We catch the inspiration of the scene. 
 And feel the charm of Nature's wildest mood. 
 
 See how those living springs leap gayly out 
 From prison vaults, and freely laugh in air, 
 And frolic wild and free with new-bom life. 
 Like skipping lambs on meadow fresh and 
 
 green ! 
 That one of larger size, with daring feet. 
 Is leaping from the dizzy heights to rocks 
 Below, which turn her substance all to spray, 
 And gives a frock like damsel's gay attire. 
 With sporting rainbow on the wat'ry skirt! 
 
 This stream in all its winding length has 
 force 
 Which may be put to use in serving man; 
 
136 Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 
 
 May grind our corn, spin thread, and weave 
 
 our cloth ; 
 May irrigate and fructify the land; 
 And, blending force with other streams, may 
 
 grow 
 To river size, and bear upon its breast 
 The commerce of a great and growing state ; 
 Till far away beyond the busy towns, 
 The lovely river kisses Ocean's lips. 
 So all the streams of earth may serve the race. 
 
 Wind, water, fire and electricity 
 Are servants, standing by for ordered work, 
 And only wait for master-mind to give 
 Command and put them all to willing tasks. 
 These primal elements, first aids to man. 
 Are still the forces whence to draw our help. 
 By simple combination Watt put steam 
 To use, and thus gave man a working force 
 Which has transformed the very face of earth. 
 Developed Age of Steam and Age of Steel, 
 Has ribbed the continent with iron roads. 
 And belted seas with open lanes of trade. 
 
 It was an age of wondrous thought and 
 
 deeds. 
 When mind was tapping natures secret vaults 
 And time was tremulous of coming things. 
 And men with larger grasp in waiting stood. 
 Then Franklin's lasso caught the lightning's 
 
 flash, 
 
Cfte @)upremacp of Life 137 
 
 And held the fiery steed in fetters strong, 
 To be cajoled and patted on the mane, 
 Caressed at distance safe, till skillful Morse 
 Did slip the harness on the wily beast 
 And put to useful work this subtle force, 
 The carrier, best the world has ever known. 
 These mighty forces geared in tandem style 
 Now bear the world's great drudge of needful 
 
 work, 
 Which else would fall on feeble human hands. 
 
 With this release of man from grinding toil, 
 The mind by wondrous leaps has filled the earth 
 With aids, machines and new devices great, 
 Till earth had been reborn to better life. 
 Machines to cook, and wash, and knit and sew ; 
 The horseless cars to split the air with speed ; 
 The riding plows and rakes and reapers all 
 Release the drudge of toil, give time to think ; 
 Electric lights to drive the dreaded night 
 From cities, country towns, and village homes ; 
 Thus placing human life on higher plane. 
 
 But bright, ambitious youths need not repine 
 At thought that naught remains for them to do. 
 Achievements great for victor minds to claim 
 Are waiting still in circling years to come. 
 Inventions made by ardent thought make way 
 For other gains, perhaps of larger mould. 
 Each abstract thought made plain in concrete 
 form 
 
138 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 Brings gladly bearer to the concept birth, 
 Those preconceptive shades which seem to taunt 
 Us by their play beyond the rim of thought. 
 'Tis like explosions used in rocky mines ; 
 Beside the stones thrown out in open view, 
 Some rocks are rent, and wait, an easy prize, 
 For next discharge to lay at ready hand. 
 
 To conquer earth is task divinely set. 
 Each conquest brings another into view, 
 Which waits the coming man to take the prize. 
 " Subdue the earth " most surely^ means to tame 
 All things connected with this spacious globe. 
 To tame great nature's self and harness all 
 Her mighty forces strong, to serve our race. 
 To send a warning note in front of storm 
 Is noble work ; to conquer storm is best. 
 Why not, with high endowment of the mind, 
 Pursue the cyclone's trail to matrix lair, 
 And wring his cruel neck at very birth? 
 Till this is done, count not our work complete. 
 Perchance the daring mind with thought may 
 
 rope 
 The ether's endless force, and thus draw 
 
 strength 
 From all the worlds, and feed the human race, 
 The sons of God, on universal food ! 
 
 Observe the Sabbath, make it holy da}^ 
 Is law the third imposed on man while yet 
 
Cfte g)upremacg of Life 139 
 
 The glow of innocence was in his heart. 
 Because the Lord in six days made the earth 
 And rested from His work the seventh day 
 The Lord ordained that man should work six 
 
 days, 
 And then enjoy a holy day of rest. 
 
 Those days in which the Lord made earth and 
 sky 
 Were Heaven's days, and measured by the tasks, 
 Were times of awful sweep, befitting well 
 God's majesty and grandeur of His work. 
 In smaller sphere we have our smaller days 
 As measured off by sure returns of sun : 
 The six in which to do our faithful work, 
 The last in which to rest and worship God. 
 
 The law of Sabbath is forever writ 
 In constitution of the human soul. 
 Six days of work, successive done in full, 
 Is measured strength of body, mind and 
 
 soul. 
 The nice adjustment of the human clock 
 Is set to run on this fair scale of things 
 In just accord with universal law. 
 The measured beat of Heaven's vaster clock. 
 To which the bounding earth responds on 
 
 time. 
 The weather even marks this weekly time 
 In fickle crises circling through the year. 
 
140 Cl)e ^upremacp of Life 
 
 The laws revealed from Sinai's awful brow 
 Were made to curb man's inborn lust for sin. 
 The primal laws in Eden first imposed 
 Were made ere sin had touched the human race. 
 The love which joins two hearts in wedded bliss 
 Expands in watchful care o'er children's weal. 
 And cultivates the soil for children's bread; 
 And then in peaceful rest repairs to church 
 On Sabbath day to worship God, who gives 
 It all, enjoys a realm whose headlands lie 
 Beyond the range of sin's destructive might! 
 These first great laws from out the love of God 
 Were given man for normal, sinless growth. 
 These laws are constitutional in man ; 
 They're truly in his blood and flesh and bones ; 
 They fire the mind with high resolve to do 
 The things at farthest reach of strength; 
 Inspire the soul with themes of mighty faith 
 To sweep the field of spirit's living range, 
 And bring to pass results invisible. 
 On scale befitting well the mighty fact 
 Of God's relation vital to our living soul. 
 
 " Six days of faithful labor shalt thou do." 
 This law appended to the first command 
 Is bar to native sloth of sinful man ; 
 'Twas needed not in Eden's sinless home. 
 Restraint from labor was command at first, 
 But sin brought sloth, and hence the two-fold 
 law: 
 
Cfte S)upremacp of Life i4i 
 
 Command to labor, and to rest from toil. 
 
 When Jesus rose from tomb on Sunday morn, 
 Disciples all with one accord acclaimed 
 That day the Sabbath, holy day of God, 
 The day of rest, of worship, and for church, 
 Where people met to hear the Word and pray. 
 The risen Christ was foremost fact and 
 
 thought, 
 That pushed all else to shades of minor things. 
 Beyond all challenge for the Christian Church 
 Forever true, 'tis holy Sabbath day. 
 
 'Twas like a rill which ran thro' ages long, 
 Till near its source a mighty fountain gushed 
 And hid the smaller streams with broader flow. 
 Creation stood as greatest work of God, 
 Till Jesus broke the solid bars of death 
 And brought the human race on higher ground 
 Of kindred life, the higher life with God! 
 The greater overflows the less, and gives 
 A higher sanction to the day of rest. 
 It is the resurrection day of Christ 
 And truly celebrates the great event 
 Which gave to man the triumph over death. 
 The Christian world accepts apostles' lead. 
 As in the phases all of Christian truth. 
 
 Such were the primal laws of God for man : 
 Religion primitive for sinless souls. 
 Natural as the hum of flowing brook, 
 
142 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 Reposeful as the wings of summer day 
 Or ocean's lap along the peaceful shore. 
 These laws are still in force, the vital laws 
 By which the race, despite of sin, must gain 
 The highest earthly good, a stepping stone 
 To that eternal higher good which God 
 Designs that man through sacrifice must gain. 
 
BOOK SEVENTH 
 
 THE THEME 
 
 Locating the Garden of Eden. Evidently in 
 tropic clime. An isle or spur of land in the In- 
 dian Ocean. Rich nature inclined man to in- 
 dolence while savage beasts compelled him to 
 fight. Man's great wickedness. Righteous 
 Noah and the Ark. Source of the Flood. Ark 
 left on Ararat. Progress of ancient man. 
 Earth's formation forecast the destinies of the 
 race. 
 
BOOK SEVENTH 
 
 Where man at first began to live on earth 
 Is theme of many speculations wild. 
 Each writer seems entitled to his view, 
 And so by common right we bring our own. 
 The history itself is safest guide; 
 The evidence is plain in every line. 
 The scene most clearly shows a tropic clime, 
 And all the facts fit snugly in this view. 
 " They both were naked," so the Book declares. 
 This state disturbed their minds by slow de- 
 grees. 
 So nude condition may have been for years ; 
 And it disturbed them not because of cold. 
 But innate shame suggested fig leaf robes. 
 " God walked in Garden in the cool of day." 
 This is of course but figurative speech. 
 But shows that cool of day was time to walk, 
 And intimates a tropic climate hot. 
 Then ready fruits, abundant, close at hand. 
 Is picture rich and true of tropic lands. 
 The atmosphere entire of Paradise 
 Is far removed from any thought of cold 
 And fits the view that pristine man appeared 
 In tropic land, where living came with ease. 
 
 145 
 
146 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 There fruits in rich abundance gave him food. 
 How helpless, new-made man could have sur- 
 vived 
 In climate bleak and cold is hard to tell. 
 A vale protected by Caucasus range, 
 Tradition's place for Eden's ancient site, 
 Is pleasant home for man already skilled 
 To build his home and cultivate his corn. 
 But not for man as pictured in the Book. 
 
 Now all conditions taken into count, 
 True reason seems to indicate that some 
 Great isle, or continental spur of land, 
 In Indian Ocean's tropic clime about 
 A thousand leagues, a little east of south 
 From where the Ark was found on Ararat 
 When flood subsided into normal state. 
 Was place where man began his life on earth. 
 Here all conditions met his simple wants 
 As he came forth without the means or skill 
 To guard himself against the rigid cold. 
 In latitude where Euphrates is born. 
 
 This settled, then, we may again pursue 
 The course of things and how man fared when 
 
 turned 
 From Eden's pleasant home to make his way. 
 Untried, unskilled, to indolence inclined. 
 Out in the world amid luxuriant growths 
 Of all the forms of life in tropic land. 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of Life 147 
 
 Rich nature there is stay and threat of man. 
 She gives him food and shields his helpless state, 
 But holds him back from virile progress strong. 
 Conditions there obstruct the way of man, 
 By might and strength of nature's rapid 
 
 growths. 
 The trees and vines and reeds luxuriant make 
 A tangled mass obstructing path of man. 
 A road cut out today will in a year 
 Be surely lost by overgrowing plants. 
 Man scarce can clear the land, ere nature fills 
 Again his garden flat or field of grain 
 With wild intruding trees and vines and shrubs. 
 
 'Tis doubtful whether in the course of time 
 In such conditions man could ever rise 
 To nobler type of higher civic life ; 
 Where nature freely meets his simple wants 
 She takes away the motive spring of work. 
 The bread fruit hangs in plenty, large and fine ; 
 The cocoa tree is close at hand for milk ; 
 The cabbage palm up high in air, and yam 
 In mellow earth beneath, all furnish meals ; 
 Besides the fruits to form his rich desserts : 
 Bananas, citrons, limes, pineapples sweet. 
 Why, then, should man exert himself for aught? 
 
 But life has spurs to action close at hand. 
 All beasts were wild, and free as he to range 
 The vast expanse of pristine forest wild. 
 
148 Cfte ©upremacp of Life 
 
 The beasts with savage thirst for blood, no 
 
 doubt, 
 Disputed much the right of man to rule. 
 To them the naked man, with empty hands, 
 Was challenge fair to their supreme delight. 
 The lions, the tigers, the panthers, all fierce 
 
 cats. 
 Were quick and sly and daring beasts of prey. 
 How could the man, with naught but empty 
 
 hands, 
 Defend himself from savage foes like these.? 
 Great serpents, too, were there, within whose 
 
 coils 
 The strongest men could slight resistance make. 
 Then dreaded snakes, and insects small, men- 
 aced 
 The safety of his life at every doubtful step. 
 Diseases, too, most surely did abound, 
 With little skill to fight their fatal grip. 
 Thus Nature in her wild and savage mood 
 Confronted unskilled man with tasks which gave 
 Pugnacious bent of mind to all who tried 
 To bravely conquer all these savage ills. 
 And fear and death to all who tamely shrank 
 Beneath the awful force of adverse life ! 
 
 Conditions thus demanded active work. 
 Some shelter must be found, some sure re- 
 treat 
 From foes he could not meet in open fight; 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 149 
 
 Perhaps a hollow tree, or cave in earth, 
 In which, by barring up the entrance way, 
 Or fighting hard with clubs and stones, he could 
 By might defend himself and helpless ones 
 From fierce attacks of savage beastly foes. 
 But all such hiding dens would likely be 
 Pre-empted by the wily beasts, a safe 
 Retreat from rain, perhaps from kindred foes. 
 To take such den while mother beast was 
 
 out 
 Would mean a fight prolonged, of royal size ! 
 Thus early man was trained in arts of war; 
 The practice then begun continues still. 
 
 But pristine home of man was not without 
 The charm of Beauty's soft, refining touch. 
 There bounding nature reached the fullest tone 
 Of colors rare, all shades to charm the eye. 
 There rarest flowers, rich in fulness grew. 
 The very forest leaves, not satisfied 
 With simple green, took many shades to give 
 A rich effect to Nature's blushing face! 
 
 If early man essayed to study plants. 
 And looking up to scan the lofty tree. 
 He met the same which baffled Humboldt's skill, 
 In after ages, intervening long; 
 To tell which flower grew on lofty tree, 
 And which belonged to parasitic vine. 
 So rich is nature in the tropic clime, 
 
150 Cf)e ©upremacp of Life 
 
 In shades of sunlight, stored in foliage rare, 
 That every blooming bush becomes a flame 
 Of rainbow tints, like that which Moses saw 
 On sacred Horeb's sunny desert wild ! 
 
 A like rich color tone was seen on birds. 
 Their plumage, like the flowers, showed sport- 
 ing rays 
 Of sun, caught off the bat in rapid flight ! 
 There is no tint nor shade they did not hold, 
 And in such great profusion spread, that when 
 In rapid flight was seen in numbers large, 
 It was as if a thousand flowers rare 
 Had turned their petals into wings to sport 
 Awhile with changing mind in glowing airt 
 What vivid scenes must oft have pleased the eye 
 Of ancient man, when parti-colored birds 
 Commingled with the blooms of forest trees ! 
 How oft they looked through swarms of lovely 
 
 birds 
 To banks of flowers, glowing bright beyond ! 
 
 How loving, sweet, and pure the bird notes 
 fell 
 On quick primeval ears, unused to song, 
 Ere man had learned the art of harmony ! 
 These charming songsters of the air were first 
 To teach men how to sing; to put the soul 
 In tuneful notes and calm the mind to peace. 
 They needed not a teacher's art to tell 
 
Cfte Supremacp of Life i5i 
 
 Them how to wake the souls of living men 
 With sweetest music fresh from heart of God ! 
 
 The length of human life in early times 
 Has been a subject mooted much and long. 
 Some think that man immortal made at first 
 Was slow to lose the sum of pristine force 
 And dw^arf himself to present length of life 
 By sinful ways of folly, lust, and greed. 
 But others think that time was measured then 
 By phases of the moon, as oft is done 
 By primitive, unlettered tribes of men. 
 This latter view, while bending low beneath 
 The load admitted great of adverse views, 
 Seems most of all to be in just accord 
 With nature's laws, and true conditions then 
 In force to shape the destinies of men. 
 Time measured thus would give Methuselah's 
 
 life, 
 The longest in that age recorded true. 
 The modest sum of four and seventy years. 
 And man was old at threescore years and ten, 
 Some twenty years below the standard now 
 Of good old age : just what we might expect, 
 Because it is about what would occur, 
 With men in like conditions living now. 
 
 In efforts oft in vain to reconcile 
 The facts recorded in the sacred Book, 
 We must remember well two thousand years 
 
152 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 Of human life, of tragic scenes, had passed 
 Ere oldest Book appeared which Moses wrote. 
 Of course traditions grew in such a state. 
 And scraps of writing, done by man in times 
 Asunder far apart, as ages past ; 
 Some using one, and some another mode 
 Of counting time ; these many scraps of thought 
 Together made folklore of ancient world; 
 Accounted truth by all, and highly prized ; 
 Were likely written in the sacred Book, 
 That future men, with all the data known, 
 Might cull the truth by reason's truest light. 
 
 There seems to be a law which marks the span 
 Of all organic life : five times the length 
 Of growth is length complete of all the life. 
 Examples many may be found at hand: 
 Horse grown at five is old at twenty-five. 
 The cow at three and one half years is grown ; 
 That cow grows duly old at seventeen. 
 The dog in two years gets his normal size, 
 And surely age is manifest at ten. 
 The useful barnyard hen is grown at one. 
 And passes by her useful age at five. 
 A man requires full twenty years to grow ; 
 This law in human life would indicate 
 That man well born, and all conditions right. 
 By prudent life should live a hundred years. 
 But sad to say, by reckless disregard 
 
C!)e ^uptemacp of HiU 153 
 
 Of all the wholesome laws of health and life, 
 Man cuts his wasted days in twain by half. 
 No doubt this sin, among the other sins, 
 Belonged to men who lived before the flood. 
 
 But how the race made use of life and time 
 Is vital fact of greatest just concern. 
 And this is still a great momentous thought. 
 For man, or tribe, or nation great, or race, 
 Of men in any land, in any age. 
 
 'Tis sad this first attempt at civic life 
 Was failure thus complete. By slow degrees, 
 Or rapid strides, the wavering fight between 
 The parties good and bad through ages ran, 
 And always to the loss of better side ; 
 Till, sad to say, the whole of good was found 
 In one small house, and all the rest were bad. 
 
 The might of man was universal law. 
 Foul murder, lust, and greed were common sins. 
 The whole imagination of the mind 
 Was evil, only evil, always wrong. 
 In state thus bad there is no hope for good. 
 The fated race was gangrened through and 
 
 through, 
 And amputation was the only cure. 
 Hence God decreed to rid the earth at once 
 Of this foul breed of men, and give the race 
 A chance by harder lot, in ruder clime, 
 
154 Cfte ®upremacp of JLife 
 
 Where toiling man might truly eat his bread 
 In sweat of face because of honest toil, 
 And not from heat as in the tropic land. 
 
 In those decadent times of fearful sin, 
 Of violence, of lust, and every wrong, 
 When strong men fought like savage beasts of 
 
 prey. 
 And weak men died by force like timid hares. 
 And all the race had long forgotten God 
 And every sin prevailed without remorse, 
 Then only Noah had a voice for God 
 And right, and spoke in vain to jeering men. 
 Who heeded not this warning voice of God. 
 
 Then Noah, moved with fear, inspired by faith, 
 Prepared an Ark, a ship of goodly size. 
 And of proportions good for any age. 
 In which his household goods and useful beasts 
 Were safely housed while awful flood destroyed 
 The lovel}'^ pristine home of sinful man, 
 And swept the sinning race from off the earth. 
 
 The building of the Ark shows progress made 
 In use of tools and art of building ships. 
 The warm, soft water of the tropic sea 
 Was doubtless means of travel and of trade 
 Between the little towns along the shore. 
 And Noah was, perchance, by honest trade. 
 Constructor apt in building useful boats, 
 And thus had learned proportions for the ship. 
 
Cfee Supremacp of life 155 
 
 This truth does not discount the fact that God 
 Revealed the plan by which the Ark was built. 
 All blessings are from God, though often gained 
 By constant labors great or study hard. 
 At meals we thank our God for blessings spread, 
 Although we know our toil has brought them 
 
 home. 
 We thank Him well for strength and will to 
 
 work. 
 
 'Twould please us much to know the kind of 
 tools 
 By which the timbers for the Ark were shaped ; 
 If saws and planes were pulled to cut like those 
 In use in Eastern lands, or cut when pushed. 
 Like all the Western builders use them now. 
 The use of tools no doubt survived the flood. 
 Was carried East and West by Noah's sons. 
 We rather think Mongolian tribes retained 
 The older methods by good Noah used, 
 While Western men discerned the better way. 
 This well accords with life in changeless East, 
 And shows the bent of Western progress too. 
 
 The cataclysmic event of the flood 
 Has given rise to speculation rare; 
 To many vague and senseless views which men 
 Could never bend to reason's clear demand. 
 A flood to cover all the lands of earth 
 Has no authoritative word from Book. 
 
156 Cfte ^uprcmacp of Life 
 
 The flood was meant to kill the human race, 
 Confined to limits near the pristine home ; 
 And universal flood was needed not. 
 
 " The fountains of the deep were broken up." 
 This tells the chiefest sources of the flood. 
 The waters came not only from the clouds, 
 But larger source, from broken earth beneath. 
 This surely means the sinking of the ground. 
 The island large, or continental spur. 
 On which the human race had lived went down. 
 And left the Ark afloat on what appeared 
 To be a shoreless sea, a waste profound ; 
 A flood as universal for the race 
 As if the waters had been high above 
 The highest mountain peaks of all the earth. 
 
 For forty days and nights the flooding rains 
 Incessant fell ; for forty days and nights 
 The earth continued sinking slowly down. 
 Till all the home of ancient man was lost 
 Beneath the ocean's undisputed sway ! 
 We cannot tell if Ark continued long 
 To float above the early home of man. 
 Or ocean currents caught the helpless thing 
 And sailed it like a useless derelict 
 Around the Indian Ocean's vast extent! 
 We only know that for a year the Ark 
 Was floating on the face of waters deep. 
 Momentous year was that ! The life of man 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of Life 157 
 
 On earth then tipped the beam at hghtest 
 
 weight. 
 All human life was helpless there afloat ! 
 'Twas time for patience, prayer, and trust in 
 
 God. 
 What else was left for helpless man to do .? 
 The sum of all his great activities. 
 The works he thought supreme, and needed 
 
 much 
 To help the mighty God complete His plan 
 And bring to pass the great results which God 
 Had hinged upon his fight for God and man, 
 Were all reduced to simple trust in God! 
 
 " God made a wind to pass upon the earth." 
 A blessed wind, God's messenger of help! 
 Its course may well be known by where it left 
 The Ark secure on spur of Ararat. 
 Perhaps a schismic action marked the end, 
 As one began the dreadful work of flood. 
 Subsidence of the land, perchance, combined 
 With mighty wind, rolled high the waves, and 
 
 left 
 The Ark on foot of mountain Ararat. 
 Thence Noah sent forth the raven and the dove, 
 A natural but a needless thing to do. 
 The flood was surely passing back to sea ; 
 But for the shrouding mists which wrapped the 
 
 earth 
 In clouds, the mountain tops were then in view. 
 
158 C!)e ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 The end of flood had come, and man had found 
 A new and better home. They all went forth, 
 Those eight from whom the human race has 
 
 sprung. 
 And moved with pious gratitude to God, 
 They built an altar first for sacrifice. 
 
 A cloud of peaceful mien passed overhead, 
 And dropped refreshing shower down, and 
 
 washed 
 All nature clean from sediment of flood. 
 And lo, on face of cloud a rainbow smiled ! 
 The first for many dragging, cloudy months 
 Their weary eyes had seen ; and happy man 
 Felt in his heart that better times had come. 
 And God, well pleased, received their simple 
 
 faith. 
 And to their hearts a full assurance gave 
 That earth no more should be destroyed by 
 
 flood; 
 '' That while the earth remained secure, seed- 
 time 
 And harvest, cold and heat, and summertime, 
 And winter's blast, like day and night should 
 
 come." 
 All this most clearly indicates the change 
 From tropic heat and that spontaneous growth 
 Which gave them food without their constant 
 
 toil. 
 This is first mention made of winter's cold. 
 
Cfte Supremacp of Life 159 
 
 The atmosphere is here of temperate chme, 
 As that of Eden was of tropic heat. 
 
 The infant race had here a fairer start; 
 With tools and building art, their chance was 
 
 good 
 To cope with nature's most exacting tasks. 
 Besides their tools and building art, they 
 
 brought 
 Their faith in God ; in humble, pious minds, 
 They brought the priceless treasure. Godliness. 
 
 Of course they brought the names of places, 
 streams 
 And mountains, which they gave to objects 
 
 here 
 In nature like the things they left behind! 
 Their Euphrates and all the rivers named 
 In Eden's fair description handed down. 
 And so of countries, mountains and of plains. 
 And thus we see how vain it is to seek 
 For Eden's site by names of places found 
 Recorded truly in the sacred Book. 
 These all are but reflected names of things 
 Of like import, forever lost in sea. 
 
 They came from Ark, the lords of all the 
 earth : 
 The whole wide world was theirs to use at will. 
 With timid zest and minds like pendulum. 
 Vibrating back and forth, twixt fear and hope. 
 
160 Cf)e ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 They started out to see their wide estate. 
 Wild nature's charms inspired their eager 
 
 quest. 
 The lure of unknown things gave added joy 
 To every step in wild excursions made ! 
 
 We think their Ark was stayed in vernal 
 
 times, 
 When nature's life from winter's bracing sleep, 
 In morning time of year, was waking up. 
 Refreshed, and putting on the bright new dress 
 Which Earth has loved to wear each coming 
 
 spring 
 Since time began the circle of the years ! 
 
 In every rambling search for something new, 
 The joy of being first of human kind 
 To look upon the lovely scenes was theirs. 
 Their feet could tread the wilds where foot of 
 
 man 
 Had never been. As spring to summer went. 
 Rich nature came with fuller lap of fruit. 
 And tender birds to meet their every want. 
 Some took excursion down the Euphrates, 
 And found on level plains there growing wild 
 The precious wheat, which ever since has been 
 The staff of life, and gage of shifting trade. 
 
 Here then was cradle of the human race. 
 Whence nations were to spring and empires 
 rise! 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Hife lei 
 
 'Twas fitting scene to wing the agile thought, 
 
 And wake the lays of high poetic art ! 
 
 Could Grecian bard have known the inspiring 
 
 scene, 
 When Grecian mind was in ascendance high, 
 Their active wits no doubt had clearly seen 
 The splendid form of Destiny around 
 These camps of busy men, whence was to spring 
 The fruitful mind and soul to make the world! 
 Their pens in fitting strain had clearly drawn 
 The living features fair and proper mien 
 Of that great Genius walking slowly round. 
 Or sitting on a boulder thinking out 
 The course of empires, waiting to be bom ! 
 
 But nobler thought is that of God, the Great, 
 Invisible, whose all-directing Mind 
 Supreme works through all Nature's forces 
 
 great ; 
 In waters deep, in rock, and air, and earth, 
 Directing all ; f orefixed the course of man, 
 By wise construction of the earth itself. 
 The pious Hebrew bard, with vision clear 
 Concerning God's eternal purpose great 
 In all affairs of men, and how His rule 
 Is linked with all creation's greater schemes, 
 How universal being works for God's 
 Eternal plan, thus sang in lofty strain, 
 " The stars in all their courses fought against 
 Great Sisera's host of heathen gods and men." 
 
162 Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 
 
 It was a time when God's almighty hand 
 Was seen outstretched to aid His people's cause. 
 But that great help was but minutest arc 
 In that great circle seen by eyes of faith, 
 Which sweeps around the destinies of men, 
 And shows God's purpose true in giving man 
 A place in this great world of sin and woe. 
 
 When earth was hardening to its final form, 
 And mighty continents with restless throes, 
 Like sleeping giants huge, made turn to take 
 Their final place, and lifting high above 
 The surging flood their bulging rocky spines, 
 Thus giving range to mountain heights of earth. 
 They preordained the destiny of men! 
 Thus Himalaya's range from east to west, 
 A bar to northern cold, gives milder clime 
 To all the lands of Asia's southern plains. 
 Their lofty peaks, like dorsal fins, pushed high 
 The scalloped skyline seen from India's plains, 
 And hold upon their heads eternal snow. 
 To temper all these plains from tropic heat. 
 Likewise the Alps give nature's genial touch 
 To all the curving shores of inland sea. 
 Here, then, from Hercle's pillars, famed of old, 
 To China's eastern shore, is where the men 
 Have lived and wrought, have loved and fought 
 
 and died. 
 Here is the zone of high achievements all. 
 Which ancient men bequeathed to modern race. 
 
Cfte ©uptemacp of JLife i63 
 
 Most clearly earth herself is basic line 
 Of human life; her mighty continents, 
 Her mountain ranges, rivers, deserts wild, 
 And fruitful plains, and ocean's broad expanse, 
 Have all been potent in the life of man. 
 
 Man conquered nature first in rainless zone. 
 Here camping in his wild pursuit of game. 
 And building hasty huts to shield from sun, 
 He found, returning after lapse of years. 
 The structures still intact without decay. 
 This led to building towns, where might be left 
 The wives and little ones, while men pursued 
 The game, or fought in wars with hostile men. 
 The very desert wastes have helped our race 
 To break away from early savage state. 
 
 From Western fringe of Gobi's desert wilds 
 The course of empire winding westward ran. 
 Thence rose great Babylon, with empire vast; 
 Then in the route of travel westward bound. 
 The columns tall of great Palmyra rose. 
 That fine strategic site by nature made. 
 Where flowing rivers met the burning sands, . 
 The great Damascus came in might to stay. 
 And Memphis on the rainless Nile held sway. 
 Then westward where the great Sahara meets 
 The sea, the course of empire kept its way. 
 And strange to say, across the ocean's main, 
 In far Peru, the rainless spot appears, 
 
164 Cfte ^ttpremacg of Lif e 
 
 Where civic life began in Western world. 
 And thus we see the rainless zone of earth 
 And man's first zone of civic life are one. 
 Here man put on the wrestling thews by which 
 The earth has been subdued, and made his own. 
 
BOOK EIGHTH 
 THE THEME 
 
 Why was man made with nature prone to sin? 
 The human element else would have been lack- 
 ing. Life as it is means war in every human 
 breast. There is worthy purpose in it all. 
 Atonement, a necessity ; source of another set 
 of laws, the laws of Love. They build the soul 
 to end of life; converting all life to means of 
 good to faithful men, and give a trend to right. 
 Afflictions work for nobler soul when rightly 
 borne. Present earthly life is best for pur- 
 poses divine. True aim of life. 
 
BOOK EIGHTH 
 
 The purpose Heaven has in human life 
 Demands our highest reach of thought to 
 
 grasp. 
 To know why man is here, to what end bound, 
 And what the purpose Heaven has in view: 
 This is the noble task we have in hand. 
 
 Why God at first subjected man to test 
 Which Heaven surely knew he would not stand, 
 And placed him thus in easy reach of sin, 
 With native appetite and fond desire 
 To slip the fragile noose of innocence 
 And try life's tempting ways, without re- 
 straint, — 
 God knowing well that sin would be result ! 
 Why was man made with strong desire to do 
 What God would have him shun as deadly sin? 
 Wliy man should have a will by nature bent 
 Across the will of God, thus set to wrong, 
 And doing only what his nature prompts; 
 Pursuing fond desires within him placed. 
 Commits the heinous sins which mar the soul 
 And cut him off from God, the Source of Good, 
 
 Is question for our reason's highest ken. 
 
 167 
 
168 Cfte ^upremacp of JLife 
 
 Why sin should be attractive, gay and fond, 
 While virtue plain and unattractive seems ; 
 And life's great good is made to hang on choice 
 Between these two opposing ways of life; 
 Why should a narrow path like this be made. 
 The fatal ground where souls are lost or saved? 
 
 The test which man in Paradise endured 
 Has been the test of men in many forms 
 In all succeeding time, in every land. 
 We try the path of virtue in the range 
 Of tempting views where vice enchanting lurks, 
 In sound of siren song where sin invites, 
 And God does surely know that man may fail 
 In test, and fall as Adam did at first : 
 For baleful lure of sin is in us all. 
 And sin does mar and stain the souls of all: 
 Then why is man in such position placed? 
 
 Suppose a nation in whose wide domains 
 No laws were put in force to curb the wild 
 Desires of carnal man by Heaven made. 
 And each should live as by his nature bent ; 
 The boys and maids to adolescence grow. 
 And love without restraint, as fancy leads ; 
 All live and act according to their wish ; 
 Just follow lead of inborn inclinations, 
 Without restraint to bend their wills to right ; 
 And naught restrains the greedy men of might 
 From taking what they will of others' goods. 
 
C()e ^upremacp of JLife i69 
 
 So lived the men in days before the flood; 
 And now, as then, such rotten state of life 
 Would sure destruction call to rid the earth 
 Of foul putrescent stench, of brazen sin ! 
 
 But why is man so made that his desires, 
 Inborn, the gifts of God, lead him to sin? 
 Could not the mighty God have made men so 
 That inchnations all, by Heaven placed 
 Within their breast, would surely lead to right? 
 Could not the man at first have been so made 
 That innate virtue in each human breast 
 Would surely lead each mind to see the right. 
 And always keep perforce in sinless ways. 
 Could not our human minds have been re- 
 strained 
 From evil thoughts, by Heaven's wisdom trained 
 To love the pure, the right, the truthful 
 
 speech? 
 Why not a world of innocence, secure 
 From all invading evil thoughts and deeds. 
 Where men in amity and peace would live. 
 Each gladly yielding what was others' right, 
 And so devise the sum of earthly good 
 That each would have his own by common right. 
 And have no envious heart and lustful eyes 
 To ever mar the peaceful flow of life? 
 
 If virtue were thus made by heaven's will. 
 It would be void of human element. 
 
170 Cfte Supremacp of Life 
 
 The world so made might be a busy shop 
 Of God's machines with godly functions made, 
 But surely not of human will and might. 
 The virile swing of manly purpose high ; 
 The resolution born in depth of soul; 
 A spring pole strong where most in need to lift 
 Himself from slough of wild distracting ills 
 And place himself on solid ground of right ! 
 This manly virtue, and other kindred traits, 
 Could have no place in world made smooth 
 By lack of will to sin and conquer sin. 
 A man or angel made as here supposed 
 Would be a part of God, and life thus made 
 Would not increase the sum of Being's range ; 
 And though the many forms appear, the life 
 Would be the same, and nothing gained at last. 
 'Twould not be God in all, but only God. 
 
 True wisdom is to study life as made. 
 As seen in all the human race on earth, 
 Displaying honor, truth, and righteousness, 
 With baser elements of greed and lust. 
 All men are in an endless war between 
 The right and wrong: a war in every breast, 
 Without a truce, while life endures. 
 
 What then is man? A blend of adverse 
 traits ; 
 Compound of base desire and beastly lust; 
 With aspirations reaching up to God! 
 
Cfie ^upremacp of Life 171 
 
 Our nature has a fateful range of breadth. 
 It circles high about the throne of God, 
 And reaches down to demon's pit beneath! 
 Here Hfe tumultuous drifts on fateful sea! 
 And on this wide expanse each man of mind 
 Is surely working out some destined end; 
 Some thinking deep, some idly drifting on, 
 And many dazed by rival creeds; and thus 
 The race in endless waves of devious life 
 Is crossing each the other's path unseen, 
 Each giving force for force, together work. 
 In Heaven's sight, the sum of human Hfe! 
 
 On upper range of life, with ardent wish. 
 Aspiring to the awful presence there. 
 Some stretch the hand of faith, and surely feel 
 The thrilling sense of blissful purity ! 
 On lower line are found the wrecks of souls ! 
 'Tis human nature all, and all depends 
 In what is used in structure of the life. 
 The man who builds his life with solid truth. 
 With love to God and man, with purpose true. 
 To do the right in strictest justice fair. 
 Will surely grow the needed strength of soul 
 To stand the test when God demands account! 
 
 Temptations fearful haunt the path of life. 
 Oft crouching, tiger-like, with sudden spring. 
 To take the soul, alas, caught off its guard ! 
 It may be sudden temper's fiery flight, 
 
m Cf)e Supremacp of JLife 
 
 Aroused, provoked by real or fancied wrong; 
 
 Or lustful passion, blazing into rage 
 
 By beauty's prize thrown freely in its way; 
 
 Or lure to milder types of evil prone, 
 
 As tempting snares like fruit forbidden hang 
 
 In luscious clusters fair to please the eye, 
 
 And tempt the soul to taste the sweets of sin ; 
 
 But find at last that all the promised charms 
 
 Of sin are false, and in their nature turn 
 
 To bitter gall, and fix the endless sting 
 
 Of sad remorse forever in the breast ! 
 
 'Tis ever thus, the conflict presses on. 
 Desire hugs the brighter side of wrong. 
 While reason notes the warning voice of God. 
 The human will decides the choice made. 
 And turns the stream of life to virtue's way, 
 Or downward through the bogs of miry filth. 
 Thus man makes choice of things which make 
 
 his life, 
 And is the maker of his weal or woe. 
 
 It surely is the truth, of moment great, 
 That God of Justice, Wisdom, Truth and Love, 
 Would never place the human race in straits, 
 As things exist on earth, without a chance 
 To mend his falls in sin so lightly made. 
 That God would be tlie first to heed the cry 
 Of soul by folly lured to sinful ways, 
 And seeking now return to Father's love. 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 173 
 
 We surely must believe there is an end, 
 A purpose worthy of eternal God, 
 To which the trend of things is surely bent. 
 There must be reason why ; may Heaven help 
 Our feeble minds to grasp eternal truth, 
 And know in what seems here a tangled mass 
 Of adverse forces wild, a doubtful state 
 Of shifting sands of merest accident. 
 There run the cords of more than truest steel, 
 Which hold the destinies of feeble man 
 Secure in God's eternal will for good! 
 
 We see plainly by reason's clearest light 
 Condition calls for fitting love of God, 
 To make provision clear by which a man 
 Befouled by sin may rise again to life. 
 The human life as planned by God on earth 
 Is incomplete without atonement made 
 For sins which Heaven knew would surely come. 
 The work begun in Eden first was made 
 Complete by Christ on Calvary's tragic hill. 
 
 Almighty God, the Great Invisible, 
 Seems distant, out of reach, and far above 
 Our feeble cries for help and needed strength. 
 With force of laws, unyielding, fixed as fate. 
 He sweeps us on with force, resistless, blind. 
 The sport of accident, disease and death. 
 In seeming nothing more than merest trash. 
 Like leaves of autumn blown by whistling winds, 
 
174 Cf)e ^upremacp of Mitt 
 
 Where chance may drop them in the mud or 
 
 pool. 
 We know that we are in the clutch of laws 
 That never swerve, and borne to destiny 
 We know not where, in which we have no choice. 
 To laws of force like these, we look in vain 
 For pity, love, or aid, for suffering soul. 
 Of what avail would be the prayers of men. 
 If these were all the laws that God has made? 
 
 But in redemption God takes human life; 
 We feel the touch of human hand divine; 
 The heart beats warm with human love, encased 
 In flesh and form and weakness like our own: 
 A Human Life in which the all-wise God 
 Is feeling all the depth of human woe, 
 And taking stock of all the good in man: 
 The Center of another set of laws. 
 As firm, as all-embracing, and as sure 
 As those which hold the world in all their 
 
 spheres. 
 These are the laws of love which show the 
 
 heart 
 And loving soul of nature's mighty God. 
 These are the laws by which the loving God 
 Holds grip on wayward human lives for good. 
 The law of moral gravitation first 
 Is by the Teacher's own true words made clear: 
 " And I, if I be lifted up from earth. 
 Will draw all men to me." No doubt is meant, 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Mft 175 
 
 But this great fact of life is clearly true, 
 That by His death all men are drawn to God. 
 Men may and do resist this drawing cord, 
 As they resist and set at naught all laws. 
 This primal law connects the world to God, 
 And every man has felt the blessed touch, 
 The warning smart, or helping in the strife. 
 
 This law is vital to the human race. 
 It comes from Heaven's lofty court supreme. 
 Ingrained in nature's higher sphere of life. 
 Ere man had felt that breath which gave him 
 
 soul. 
 It fixes well the attitude of God 
 To human weakness, mortal sin, and pain. 
 And throws the line of hope, like noose of light. 
 Around the sinking souls of wayward men. 
 It is a fact beyond dispute that men 
 Whose lives have best accorded with this law 
 Are they who most have touched the cords of 
 
 force. 
 Which ring in every age with voice of God, 
 And surely rule the destiny of men 
 In all the shining rounds of varying time. 
 Here hangs the hope of sinful earth today. 
 The best that is alive in best of men 
 Is that whose native force cuts deepest run. 
 Where great imperial life of nations flow ! 
 In Christ, the mighty God is living Source, 
 Whence flows the healing stream of Life Divine, 
 
176 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 The saving power in all of sinful life. 
 It raises fallen souls from death to life, 
 And fructifies them well for noble deeds, 
 Like summer's sun brings out the fruit of earth. 
 
 The law of faith is one of high import. 
 And gives to feeble man the might of God, 
 And makes him share in works of things divine. 
 This is the conquering force of human minds, 
 By which opposing ills, though mountain high, 
 Are leveled down, or scaled with agile feet. 
 
 Then law of love, the sweetest of the code 
 By pleasing sense of God, turns sad old earth 
 To meet the smiling face of nature's God! 
 It is the law of love which gives the smile 
 Which eye of faith unclouded sees beliind 
 The tears or frowns on nature's saddest face. 
 It throws o'er life's tempestuous ways the sheen 
 Of blessed hope, of better things to come. 
 For heaven grows on earth when love prevails. 
 It is the sweet endearing tie which holds 
 The soul to God, and links it to our kind. 
 When God's eternal love in human soul 
 Becomes the ruling trait and law of life, 
 'Tis like refining fire, which melts away 
 All base desire, ignoble trait, and gives 
 The diamond point, the glint of cutting force 
 To man, which makes him proper tool for God 
 To use in building high and broad and firm 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life 177 
 
 The noble structure of His church on earth, 
 Whose solid walls defy the gates of hell. 
 
 These laws the kingdom of our Christ up- 
 hold, 
 And bring the mighty helping love of God 
 To every child of man who strives for right. 
 These moral forces coextensive hold 
 A place with all of nature's endless laws : 
 God's forces all, by which all things of God, 
 Of matter, of mind and spirit's finer realm. 
 Are all sustained in harmony divine. 
 And all work out the plans of mighty God 
 In all the worlds, through all the ages long. 
 
 Thus man, of twofold nature made. 
 Has twofold government and laws to fit. 
 His body subject to the natural laws; 
 His spirit's finer nature, soul, requires 
 The finer laws which hold him next to God ; 
 Within that inner circle where the soul. 
 Despite the ills of life and hurts of time. 
 Grows larger, better, stronger, to life's end. 
 One set of laws pulls down the outer frame; 
 Another set builds up the inner man. 
 
 Now this is proof beyond all question true, 
 That man has soul within the body lodged, 
 Which ripens surely to eternal life, 
 While body shrinks to fit the waiting tomb. 
 Conversely, life may work the other way: 
 
178 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 The body take on added muscle strong 
 And reach the highest phase of lusty life, 
 While sad neglect may dwarf the starving soul. 
 
 In building up the human soul complete, 
 The Holy Spirit uses things of life. 
 'Tis thus the soul is daily trained to live 
 The better life by Heaven's law designed; 
 And hence the law of Providence made clear: 
 " All things together work for good to them 
 That love the Lord." This is God's plan of 
 
 life: 
 By help divine the helpless man gains strength 
 To climb repentant stairway back to God, 
 In deep contrition grasps the hope of life, 
 And feels the mighty thrill of Heaven's touch; 
 Thus, born of God, becomes the heir of all 
 The forces working for eternal good. 
 
 This plan of life most clearly indicates 
 The life beyond, because God's forces work 
 In building soul to end of earthly life. 
 Does it at all comport with common sense 
 That man would spend his time and means to 
 
 build 
 A house, and make it all complete and fine. 
 With foolish end in view to burn it down? 
 Shall God be charged with folly such as this? 
 He builds the souls of men through all of life; 
 Each day adds finish, strength, and beauty's 
 
 sheen ; 
 
Cfte @)upremacp of Life 179 
 
 The soul at death has reached its greatest 
 
 growth. 
 Completion is the start of proper use ; 
 'Tis then we look for compensating work, 
 Results for which the thing was made or grew. 
 We cannot think the soul was made complete 
 With purpose plain for work in higher sphere, 
 Should fall to ruins on the shining brink 
 Of endless bliss for which it surely grew ! 
 That would be to charge that God has failed 
 In final test of all His work on earth ; 
 To work a plan of vast import and fail 
 In crucial test is not the way with God. 
 
 Another parable in point is that 
 Of men who build a ship, both large and fine; 
 They give their time and spend their wealth to 
 
 build 
 A vessel which could have no other use 
 But service on the seas, the place for ships. 
 Yet ere the noble structure feels the waves. 
 With strokes of brush which gives the final 
 
 touch. 
 They strike a match, and all to ashes burn ! 
 
 This is but dim reflex of folly great 
 They charge to God, who say that man has 
 
 naught 
 Of final chance above the stupid beasts 
 Who walk the earth a while, and live no more. 
 
180 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 The fact above all other facts is this, 
 That God is here and present everywhere, 
 And by his hold on every human life 
 Is working out eternal plans where fall 
 The destinies of men for good or ill ; 
 But far beyond the range of this man's fate, 
 Or that, the purpose final and profound 
 Of heaven's greater will stands best for all. 
 That purpose is, by life's adventurous ways. 
 To train on earth a population rare 
 For endless years in Heaven's vast domain ! 
 The type of soul which earth turns out com- 
 plete. 
 By heaven's handling of the things of life, 
 Is such as other ways could never make. 
 The life, and time, and God, together work 
 To fit out souls of rarest parts and tone. 
 To suit the will divine, and heaven fill 
 With saints prepared for highest work of man. 
 As God shall guide thro' never ending years ! 
 
 The kind of work that God may plan for us. 
 Is not on earth our chief concern to know. 
 Our greatest business here is making soul. 
 And living faith assures our anxious minds 
 That work will be what we can best perform. 
 This earth is God's preparatory school. 
 Preparing souls for endless life and work, 
 By lessons culled from common life and things. 
 In which the mind must surely choose between 
 
Cfte Supremacp of Life isi 
 
 Evil and good, and grow to good or bad, 
 Each day and hour of life, till life shall end. 
 This makes our lives on earth the tragic scenes 
 Where daily ring the fateful chimes that reach 
 In music sweeter far than angel's notes, 
 And blend with high angelic choirs in praise 
 Of God, eternal, righteous judge of all; 
 Or sink in grating harshness down the pit, 
 And send a rankling jar of hellish sound 
 Through all the dark domains of evil's chief ! 
 
 " All things together work for good to them 
 That love the Lord." 'Tis Heaven's law for 
 
 good. 
 This gives to earthly life a trend to good, 
 A drift of things in favor of the right. 
 No man is born and reared without some good. 
 Some noble traits, impulses true for right. 
 To this extent he is akin to God. 
 In loving good, he loves the Source of good. 
 And all his better traits are cords which draw 
 His soul to God's great sacrifice for sin. 
 Thus Heaven holds the draw on earthly life. 
 The cords invisible which tie each soul 
 To God, and hold restraint on men from sin. 
 
 This, then, is sum of human life on earth. 
 It is the offspring true of life Divine, 
 And God who placed man here still holds the 
 reins. 
 
182 Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 
 
 And seeks to curb his wayward will, and train 
 Him for his destined work and higher life. 
 As sun gives life and strength and beauty fair 
 To all the flowering plants below the sky, 
 So God, the Sun of Righteousness, displays 
 His love and great concern in all of life. 
 
 As flowers in their many ways respond 
 To genial warmth and glowing light of sun. 
 Some spreading wide their glowing petals 
 
 broad. 
 With open face behold the king of day, 
 With steady purpose follow him in all 
 His grand, majestic sweep across the sky; 
 While others droop their modest heads and take 
 Without display their sum of quiet life; 
 And others still, close down to earth and hid 
 Beneath the trash and fallen leaves, receive 
 Their life with humble mien and modest face : 
 So human souls in divers moods receive 
 The strength which radiates from God to bless 
 The many-sided life of man on earth. 
 Some feel in duty bound to tell abroad 
 How God is working in their lives for good ; 
 And some, no doubt, display the outward sign 
 Of consecration, which the heart feels not; 
 And some may hide the light of inner life 
 Behind deceptive garb of worldly mien. 
 But all men feel at heart the touch of God, 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life iss 
 
 And God of life is turning earthly things to 
 
 shape 
 The plastic souls of men to higher type. 
 To men whose minds are open fair to God, 
 Each incident adds fiber fine to soul. 
 
 That youth and beauty, strength and agile 
 form 
 Can grow the healthy soul is plainly seen. 
 But how can pain and weakness, age and want. 
 Add aught to any living, growing soul? 
 This is the vital point most deeply stressed. 
 As God foresaw this question surely rise 
 In every suffering soul of feeble man : 
 And this is God's response to human cry, 
 " Our light afflictions, briefly passed, all work 
 For us a great eternal weight of bliss." 
 This law of God is talisman which turns 
 All ills of life to assets more than gold. 
 This is the blest reward of those whose lives 
 Respond to Heaven's touch and gain this prize 
 Of life's supremest good, and gather pearls 
 Along life's rough and soggy, darker ways. 
 
 Religion, if you have the proper type, 
 Exactly meets the end of life on earth. 
 Afflictions, rightly borne, enrich the soul 
 With Heaven's gracious light and warmth and 
 
 peace. 
 These slack our hold Oil earthly, sordid things, 
 
184 Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 
 
 And give us time and will to think of God, 
 And grow the flowers of patience, trust and 
 love. 
 
 'Tis observation often noted well, 
 That invalids become of finer soul, 
 Take on a soft refinement, sweeter life, 
 That's more like Heaven's bliss than earthly 
 
 kind. 
 And oft the fiery trials, harsher tests. 
 Of soul or flesh, put mind on testing rack, 
 And burn away the selfish elements 
 Of heart, and purify the soul for God ! 
 
 This gives the reason why the man is here, 
 Subjected to temptation's mighty force. 
 The earth was made just as it is, because 
 'Tis best adapted thus to end in view. 
 A man will judge device as good or bad, 
 According as it serves, or fails to serve. 
 His purpose well. Thus judged the earth is 
 
 best 
 Device eternal wisdom could have made. 
 It is the garden spot of God, where grow 
 In human lives the finest flowers rare. 
 The noble service, patience, faith and love, 
 The rich, rare buds of hope by Heaven sent : 
 The fruits of righteousness and peaceful mind; 
 The sweet perfumes of holy life and joy; 
 The traits which make the men and women true, 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life iss 
 
 Time-tried, and tested long, approved of God, 
 And fit for service high in realms of light; 
 Forever young, while stars grow old and die ! 
 And this is why we have a world of woe, 
 Where man is born with cry, and dies with 
 
 groan. 
 But gains a soul beyond the worth of worlds I 
 
 Here then is grand keynote of God's design 
 And purpose high in human life on earth: 
 A purpose worthy of the mighty God ; 
 A scheme of life to give a higher race, 
 A type of life which suffering makes the best. 
 To glorify the living God, Most High! 
 This was the aim to Heaven's wisdom clear. 
 When God the Father wrapped the infant world 
 In swaddling clothes of dark chaotic mists. 
 And cradled it amid the forces where 
 The thunders of eternal purpose crashed 
 A roaring lullaby to new-born world. 
 Designed in Heaven's plans to raise the arch 
 Of noblest span above all works of God! 
 Tliis purpose rings along the course of time. 
 And still will hold supreme till that last day. 
 Far down the roll of ages yet to come, 
 When earth, grown old, shall give her charge 
 to God. 
 
 It then behooves each mortal man to know 
 The course of life by Heaven clearly marked, 
 
186 Cfte §)Uptemacp of Life 
 
 And fix the eye of soul where Wisdom stands, 
 With Heaven's banner lifted high in air, 
 Ensign of God, and goal of highest aim ! 
 To basely give the ruling force to sense, 
 Which God designed should have a servant's 
 
 place. 
 Is such reversal of the driving force 
 That all its strength is backward turned to 
 
 woe. 
 There is a force in every human soul 
 Which fights against the downward trend of 
 
 sense, 
 And truest wisdom is to throw the weight 
 Of will on side of right, and train the life 
 To climb the steeper road which leads to God. 
 
 No other end in life is worthy prize 
 For such a soul as God has given man. 
 The eye of faith can find no higher aim 
 Than that which holy life alone can give. 
 No other stake erected high appears 
 Along the shining rim where destiny 
 Unfolds rewards which highest Wisdom gives. 
 To reach this highest goal is aim sublime. 
 And worthy of the utmost strength of man. 
 All else is empty, void, and black despair. 
 
 The baser side of man to darkness turned 
 Has had too much the sway in human life. 
 And while the race for good has progress made, 
 
Cfte ^uprcmacg of Life i 87 
 
 And noblest traits in finest lives have shown 
 
 In every passing age the type of life 
 
 For man the best, and most approved of God, 
 
 The brutal and the lustful men have left 
 
 Their stain of baleful blight in human blood, 
 
 A heritage of woe to all the race; 
 
 And high ambition of imperial minds 
 
 Has soaked the fated earth in human gore, 
 
 And thus our records bear the stain of sin. 
 
 But when the Sermon on the Mount becomes 
 The universal law of human hearts. 
 Destructive wars shall be no more, but peace 
 Shall be the sacred rule of civic states. 
 Then man's ambition, might, and wealth of mind 
 Shall be invested in the art of arts 
 Of making most of every human soul. 
 Then all that's noblest, best in human kind, 
 Shall bloom and fruit in mortal life; 
 Then Heaven's sweetest smile shall rest on 
 
 earth, 
 Reflected back in every human face. 
 
BOOK NINTH 
 
 THE THEME 
 
 The Great Judgment Day. The Earth in 
 last revolution turns out the human race on 
 plain prepared for Great Assize. The wealth 
 of soul displayed. God's honest deal with 
 every man. Fate of sinners. Is there still a 
 hope for the Lost.? The King. Welcome to 
 the Saints. Banishment of lost. 
 
BOOK NINTH 
 
 Above all fateful days of circling time, 
 In which men build their lives on rock or sand, 
 And fill them with the precious gems of truth 
 Or stuff them with the rotten straw of sin. 
 There is a day for final reckoning set, 
 A time when earth shall reach the last of all 
 Her rounds in service for the human race. 
 
 Beginning at some line of longitude, 
 In early morn, the earth shall empty out. 
 On plain prepared for Judgment scene. 
 The countless hosts who ever lived on earth. 
 As parts of earth in due succession reach 
 This plain, as earth revolves in this last round. 
 Thus bringing Judgment Morn to all the world ! 
 
 Then earth's completed task for man was 
 
 done; 
 
 And like the man she served so long and well. 
 
 Who dies of fever made by burning self. 
 
 Her inward fires were loosed, and wrapped her 
 
 form 
 
 In flames ; then like the blazing star she was. 
 
 Announced to distant orbs by light increased, 
 
 191 
 
192 Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 
 
 Another world by limitation dead ! 
 The last that human eyes beheld of earth 
 Was funeral pyre, as blazing world went forth 
 In space, to be re-used by Heaven's laws 
 As circling ages long shall come and go. 
 Her atoms fine shall blend with kindred dust ; 
 Come back again through long, chaotic 
 
 growths, 
 A dazzling group of new-made worlds, aglow 
 Like threaded pearls of light, a rosary. 
 Which may be worn on vested breast of some 
 Vast galaxy, the gem. of future skies ! 
 
 But let our thoughts return to fate of man. 
 
 Behold what host is here spread out to view ! 
 
 If all the forms retain full human size, 
 
 A thousand earths could not contain them all. 
 
 That host which stands to right of Judge con- 
 tains 
 
 The service earth has done for living God ! 
 
 What God has made of earth by Wisdom's 
 rule ! 
 
 What dying love can show the universe ! 
 
 Here is the great display of work divine ; 
 Results eternal love has gathered up. 
 Along the strands of Time's tumultuous course ! 
 It clearly shows that every man who reached 
 Discretion's age, mature to choose his course. 
 Did have the chance to do the will of God, 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 193 
 
 And build a noble life on Wisdom's plan, 
 And reach, in course, the highest state of bliss 
 His soul bj nature was designed to gain. 
 
 Now each by moral gravitation drifts 
 To place which fits the soul as shaped by work 
 He did, or failed to do, as chance by God 
 Was freely given day by day in life. 
 Each man receives his own ; forever lives 
 In house himself has built by service done. 
 
 The fate of man in this last Judgment rests 
 On moral texture of the soul itself; 
 The kindly, helping disposition grown 
 To normal size by constant use in deeds 
 Of kindly ministrations wisely made, 
 Has given final texture to the soul. 
 And marks the fate of man for endless years ! 
 The Christ is one with all the human race, 
 And thus was met in all the ways of life ; 
 What each had done to man was done to Him. 
 
 The judgment, then, is on the broadest plane 
 Of common life, as man had lived with man. 
 The question here is not of faith, new birth. 
 Repentance, church attendance, prayer or 
 
 rites. 
 All these are but the tools with which to carve 
 The statuary of the soul to Heaven's will. 
 The Christ was looking for results which these 
 Had left in nature of the soul itself, 
 
194. Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 And so deciding wisely fate of man. 
 Conditions fitted men from heathen lands 
 As well as those from favored parts of earth, 
 And show that all alike had chance of life, 
 For each had chance to help his fellow man. 
 For he who truly loves his fellow man 
 Must surely love the Cause which makes men 
 
 good. 
 And love will ripen any soul to meet 
 Approval of the Judge in Great Assize; 
 And this may well occur in any land. 
 The souls that love, and bear the fruits of love. 
 Into the Kingdom pass with welcome free. 
 Kind deeds outweigh the creeds however good. 
 And they who practice love the honors win. 
 
 What wealth of soul securely safe is here! 
 The wondrous hopes which flowered by the 
 
 paths 
 Of transient life on earth now flourish here, 
 In full fruition's glorious life in God! 
 And many precious souls are gathered here 
 Which disappointed men on earth supposed 
 Had been forever lost to life and God ; 
 So wisely has the Lord of Grace pursued 
 And saved the seeming thoughtless sons of 
 earth. 
 
 The group of earthly heroes gathered here 
 Transcends our highest thought of moral worth 
 
Cfte ©uptemacp of Life 195 
 
 In silent men, unrecognized on earth, 
 Who waved aside the blatant praise of men. 
 And serving only for the cause of right. 
 Let others take the praise and wear the crown. 
 But by the blessed law of Heaven's grace, 
 Which stamps true merit on each human soul. 
 The modest ones have gained the highest prize 
 And wear the only crown they wish to wear, 
 The coronet of God's '' Well done, true soul." 
 And others still, whose clearer vision saw 
 The latent cause why weak and helpless men 
 Were made to suffer wrongs they could not 
 
 right. 
 And for the cause of truth and right took risks 
 Where life and honor hung in doubtful scale. 
 And victims fell for right and conscience 
 
 sake, — 
 Such souls are here in brightest honor clad. 
 
 And gifted minds by bad conditions hemmed, 
 Were doomed to spend their lives in toilsome 
 
 work. 
 Who might have shone on bright Miltonic page. 
 Or walked Newtonic paths of science high. 
 Or wielded well the wand of government, 
 Or made the sacred desk a throne of God's 
 Eternal power in lifting souls from sin's 
 Destructive course, to Heaven's high reward ! 
 These noble traits of mind to world unknown 
 Are now secure for endless service still 1 
 
196 Cfte ^upremacp o( Life 
 
 But brightest glow of bliss in all the throng 
 Is priceless wealth of mother's love and care. 
 No other heart could such devotion give ; 
 No other face so much of God reveal ! 
 No other hand could tuni so much of weal 
 To bless the lives of men in all the world. 
 No other smiles or tears so well reveal 
 The lights and shades where human souls re- 
 ceive 
 The lasting stamp of God's eternal love. 
 No other lives have shed such bliss in homes 
 On earth, both high and low; incarnate then, 
 But now transmuted into spirit life! 
 
 How many prayers which seemed to fall in 
 vain 
 On dullest ears of unrelenting fate 
 Have duly ripened into sweetest lives. 
 To shine as stars in Heaven's brighter sky ! 
 The fair equivalent of all the good 
 Which men have done on earth is here. 
 No honest work for God is ever lost ; 
 The faithful, earnest prayers for others' weal. 
 The cheering words of love to downcast souls, 
 The effort brave to right a brother's wrong. 
 Or agony of soul in prayer to place 
 A fallen brother back on solid ground: 
 All honest work for God put forth in love 
 
Cfte @)upremacp of Life 197 
 
 Is by His providential care retained, 
 And lives forever in the souls of men. 
 
 The judgment day is for the purpose wise 
 Of showing man he has an honest deal, 
 Results of all he did or failed to do ; 
 That every soul ma}^ see and understand 
 That justice, equal rights, and mercy due. 
 Have been most duly meted out to all; 
 As each has touched the lives of other men. 
 And gave or did receive the good or ill. 
 As each has helped or wronged his fellow man, 
 And gave or failed to give the due to God : 
 So each receives the just rewards of life. 
 
 But more than all it does behoove the God 
 Of all to show that all His ways are right; 
 That God has acted well and wisely fair 
 In giving man a nature prone to sin. 
 With strength, by help divine, to conquer sin ; 
 Thus placing him in war without his will. 
 But with the chance to reach a life sublime. 
 Beyond the highest angel's might to gain ! 
 
 This last great scene, the meeting-place of 
 all 
 The human race, is end of pupil state. 
 Here man takes on the final higher type 
 Of life, to which the mighty God has worked 
 By all the forces of his providence 
 
198 Cfte Suptemacp of Life 
 
 Since earth began, ere man had seen the light, 
 Or earth had heard the hum of living things. 
 
 The judgment day will surely prove 
 That God did wisely plan the world of men, 
 And placed the human race on topmost round 
 Of that majestic scale of things which wise 
 God has devised for universal good: 
 A work which sweeps beyond the life of worlds, 
 And gives to Heaven's liigh domain the souls 
 Redeemed for work and growth in higher life, 
 While countless ages of succeeding worlds. 
 Shall live, grow old with crowning years, and 
 die. 
 
 To left of Judge are they who stand con- 
 demned ; 
 Who by persistent choices freely made 
 Have pushed aside the precious boon of life. 
 By Heaven offered every human soul. 
 Eternal death is sentence clearly made. 
 And not a ray of hope from out the Book 
 Relieves the dark domain of endless woe. 
 No future purpose does the Lord reveal; 
 But does the silence prove beyond a doubt 
 That Mercy's book is here forever closed? 
 Does Scripture teach in clearness not to doubt 
 That in the range of grace no ground of hope 
 Is found for those to outer darkness cast? 
 We know that once before the sentence fell. 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 199 
 
 " That dying thou shalt die ! " without a hint 
 Of God's redeeming plan of saving grace. 
 No star of hope was seen beyond the sin ; 
 Yet all God's plan of great redeeming love, 
 Embracing all extended life of earth, 
 With all results here shown at judgment scene, 
 Have followed in the wake of fatal sin. 
 When pristine man in Eden rashly fell. 
 Perhaps it would be wise to stand aside. 
 And wait for God to seal the door of hope ! 
 
 When Jesus spoke of that eternal sin 
 Against the Holy Ghost which cannot be 
 Forgiven sons of men in present world. 
 Nor in the world to come, we must conclude. 
 By implication fair, that other sins 
 Can be forgiven now in present world, 
 And also in that other world to come. 
 
 If Jesus, while his body lay in tomb, 
 Was preaching life to prisoned souls in hell. 
 Can it be crime for me to fondly hope 
 That I shall be on such a mission sent. 
 To offer life to those who failed on earth 
 To honor God with service due His name.? 
 'Twould be the sweetest bliss which God could 
 
 give. 
 The brightest crown of all the crowns of life, 
 To offer hope and life and God to souls 
 On lowest floor of Heaven's mercy found ! 
 
^00 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 To reason's truest light it doth appear 
 That cause to justify eternal death, 
 Is nothing less than the eternal sin, 
 Or sin confirmed by choice beyond recall. 
 For wilful sin implies the power of will 
 To cease from sin, the will to turn to God. 
 Without free choice of will there is no sin. 
 Free choice to sin means choice to turn from 
 
 sin. 
 And choice to turn from sin is everywhere 
 The road to God, the gate to sainthood's prize. 
 
 When man has lost all power to feel remorse. 
 Lost conscience' sting, and lost all pain of 
 
 guilt. 
 And all the cords which draw us to our God 
 Are atrophied, and all completely dead 
 And feel no more, the soul is sealed against 
 All power of wish for good, all sense of right. 
 And loves the sin and guilt, and hugs the death 
 In final choice of woe, and blames not God: 
 He gets his own by fatal choices made. 
 Becomes a demon real, and gets a demon's fate. 
 
 Now this is truth above all minor truths. 
 That Judge of all the earth will do the right, 
 And do in every case the best for man 
 That man's free will shall give him chance to do. 
 Can God be just, and true, and good, and yet 
 Condemn to endless woe the souls of men 
 
C6e ^upremacp of Life 201 
 
 He might have left unmade? This problem 
 
 great 
 Demands our highest reach of thought to solve. 
 
 The highest type of life which God can give 
 Is that possessing freedom of the will; 
 And at the risk of life's eternal loss, 
 The power of God eternal can not make 
 A man of will that's free to choose his course, 
 And yet by fate be bound to certain life. 
 The freedomi means the fearful power to sin, 
 And sin confirmed by final choice is death. 
 That choice must mean the fatal wish 
 Of man to have no more of God or good ; 
 Desire in any human breast for good 
 Is proof beyond dispute that God is still 
 In touch and holds a vital cord which tends 
 To draw that soul in kindness back to life. 
 
 As God reveals himself in Jesus Christ, 
 What is conclusion just for us to draw, 
 As to his attitude to souls condemned? 
 Has God in wrath ordained vindictive hell? 
 Or is the punishment corrective, kind. 
 And working still in love to normal good? 
 All pain on earth for good is kindly meant. 
 When reckless man repents his killing pace 
 In vice, and turns again to prudent ways. 
 Kind nature strives through pain and suff'ring 
 just 
 
202 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 To give him back, in part, his injured life. 
 If this is plan of God's unchanging rule, 
 Then hell must be corrective in its work. 
 
 But why make man at all, if some will sin, 
 And make the hell the counterpart of life? 
 In every town in all the world, the jail 
 Is pendant on the skirts of civic life. 
 And shall we then forsake all stores and shops, 
 The churches, schools, and banish nobler life? 
 Make all the houses haunts for owls and bats ? 
 Reduce the town to grassy streets, for herds 
 Of lowing cows, to keep an empty jail? 
 'Twas due the universe that God should make 
 The higher grades of life with conscious bliss. 
 Though man by sin demands the awful hell. 
 
 But we return to scenes of Judgment seat. 
 And most of all we must observe the King: 
 The men of perfect mien and form complete. 
 Both human and divine, in fulness joined; 
 The human face on which the stamp of God 
 Had shone for ages, calls for art divine. 
 Beyond all power of human words to tell, 
 Or mortal's brush, or pencil's skill to show. 
 'Twas like the transformation on the mount. 
 Except it had become the settled cast 
 By fixed indwelling of the Force Divine, 
 Effulgent nature of eternal God 
 Made visible in every line of face 
 
Serene ! The life which no beginning had, 
 The Source of all the life in all the worlds, 
 The living Cause, whose mighty power sustains 
 The endless circle of eternal years. 
 Where live and move the whole of being's range ; 
 That God who rules it all is centered here. 
 In human Form Divine, the living Christ. 
 
 This King eternal lived in human flesh ; 
 That flesh was brother to each son of man. 
 The soul within was human every whit, 
 In vital union with eternal God ; 
 Was truly man of mortal woman born. 
 And lived through all the range of human life 
 In all the vital things which make the man; 
 Endured the pains of body, griefs of mind. 
 The threnodies of soul, the anguish deep, 
 As any mortal man could ever feel; 
 Touched all the highest range of human joys. 
 Which come from doing good to fellow man. 
 And all the thrill of soul by wisdom gained 
 In sweet communion with the living God. 
 That flesh, so mortal that it slept in tomb, 
 Was raised in this majestic form of man. 
 With every fiber charged with living God ; 
 That flesh transmuted into spirit life 
 Forever makes God manifest to men. 
 We see the God in every feature shine. 
 We know the Presence here is all Divine ! 
 The thrilling glance of those majestic eyes 
 
204 Cfte S)uptemacp of ILife 
 
 Is like a lightning sweep of wisdom's flash 
 Revealing all the might of living God ! 
 The wave of that imperial hand is like 
 The grand, majestic sweep of Heaven's wand, 
 Compelling all the worlds in destined paths 
 To do the high commanding will of God ! 
 
 The King, in manly vigor, rose and stood, 
 In stature just a man of human size; 
 But with a native grandeur, so refined 
 A nature, so imperial, so divine, 
 That all the pomp of earthly kings compared 
 Seems nothing more than empty, childish play. 
 No words with limping feet on mortal tongue. 
 No thoughts in human brains of brightest 
 
 mould. 
 Nor high imagination's lofty sweep, 
 Can ever tell the beaming force of Life 
 Which in his grand majestic features shone! 
 The rich, effulgent life Divine proclaimed 
 To all the presence of eternal God ! 
 
 One broad survey he made of all the host. 
 The audience vast of all the human race, 
 In many serried ranks extending far 
 On plain so broad that all the surface ground 
 Of myriad worlds, flat-spread, would scarce suf- 
 fice 
 To give capacious plain to hold them all ! 
 The Judge of all the earth was taking note 
 
Cfte g)upremacg of Hift 205 
 
 Of what the race had done with earthly life ! 
 With gifts of minds endowed with talents rare, 
 And souls designed to love the true and good, 
 Freely to worship God, and thus to rise 
 To noblest life and reach the final good 
 For which the human race was clearly made. 
 The Judge was looking well to find results 
 For good or ill in all their words and deeds. 
 His kindly eyes with satisfaction glowed 
 While resting long on that far larger part 
 Of all the mighty throng of earthly life 
 To his right hand spread out on shining plain. 
 'Twas full of sweet assurance to each soul. 
 For each soul felt the touch of kindred tie. 
 Whose sense of love and peace drove fear away. 
 It was not wholly new, that sense they felt. 
 But such as oft in life had raised the soul 
 To sweet communion with the living God. 
 
 But when the King began to speak, a thrill 
 Of joy beyond expression moved the throng. 
 His voice was strong as thunder peals, but 
 
 soft 
 And smooth, as it befits the voice of God. 
 It had sustaining force to reach with ease 
 The outer rim of all the circling hosts. 
 " Come now, ye blessed of my Father's love, 
 Inherit kingdom well prepared for you 
 From first foundation of the mighty world." 
 The joy, the bliss, ecstatic glow of mind 
 
206 Cfte §)upremacp of Life 
 
 These words produced in all that blessed 
 
 throng, 
 No words can tell ; no other souls can feel. 
 Between each soul in all that happy throng 
 And Heaven's King, there was a vibrant cord, 
 Invisible, but surely felt by all. 
 Of drawing love : a living harp sublime. 
 Of countless strings, all kept in perfect tune, 
 And swept by Heaven's hand of skill divine, 
 And gave a silent harmony of bliss, 
 A song of love, unheard, but truly felt 
 By every soul in all that countless host ! 
 'Twas music like, but greater far than that 
 Which those deprived of hearing learn to feel. 
 
 The first word, " come," was in exact accord 
 With every tuneful string in all that harp 
 Of world-wide range, by Heaven's wisdom 
 
 strung ! 
 Each soul responded to that welcome word, 
 And felt the sweet delight of peace with God ! 
 
 " Inherit ye the kingdom of our God." 
 Then Heaven is their own ancestral home. 
 Those bom of God are children of the King, 
 And come to that which is of right their own. 
 For all are duly held in golden band 
 Of one sweet tie, the family of God ! 
 From every land of earth God's children come. 
 No one in Heaven is a stranger there; 
 
Ctie ^upremacp of Life 207 
 
 No foreigner can ever reach that shore, 
 For all God's saints from every land and clime 
 Are native there and " to the manner bom." 
 
 " Prepared for you from first foundation laid 
 Of earth," the training school of heaven's King. 
 From first foundation on to end of earth. 
 The place has been prepared by constant work, 
 By saints below and mighty God above. 
 In each succeeding age of passing time. 
 God's grace, " the melting pot " of Providence, 
 Conforms each one to perfect type divine. 
 All sons of God are of one grade in Him. 
 
 Then Jesus said to them upon his left, 
 " Depart from me, ye curst, to endless fire, 
 Prepare for devil and his angel hosts " ; 
 The place of banishment for wicked men 
 Was not prepared for man ; he's stranger there ; 
 He is intruder in the ranks of sin. 
 His birthright sold for pottage lost in use. 
 He is the homeless prodigal, the tramp. 
 The product waste of friction thrown from 
 
 wheels 
 Of nature's vast machine, the busy loom 
 Of God, which weaves the marvelous designs 
 In endless web of things on tragic time's 
 Stupendous beam, forever on the roll! 
 
 The law of sin is death, and like all laws. 
 It must forever be enforced of God. 
 
W8 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 The cause of righteous government demands 
 The endless banishment for endless sin. 
 What Jesus meant by burning fire we catch 
 From what he said while teaching here on earth : 
 " I come to send on earth a fire, and how 
 I wish it might be fiercely kindled now." 
 The fire which Jesus sent on earth was war 
 Of God against all sin however garbed. 
 That fire is sense of sin, the burning guilt 
 Which makes eternal hell in wayward souls. 
 It is the sting of conscience, burning still, 
 Though crushed a thousand times beneath the 
 
 heel 
 Of daring will, till seeming dead as stone ; 
 It rises, vital, from a thousand deaths, 
 And stings with fiercer rage the writliing soul, 
 Despite all flight or dodging skill to stop 
 Accusing guilt ; the worm that never dies ! 
 The fire of hell which water never quenched ! 
 When man begins to hate the sin which holds 
 Him fast, and loathes himself because of sin, 
 That is the fire of hell, the sting of death. 
 
 The fiercer burned the endless fire, the more 
 The soul of Christ was filled with pure delight. 
 'Twas in this burning fire his Church was born, 
 And in this fire has grown from age to age. 
 But when the fire grows dim, then coldness 
 
 comes, 
 And forms of worship prim become the style. 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life ao9 
 
 Then timid preaching, mild rebuke of sin, 
 Gives wanton range to speculations wild. 
 The Church begins to compromise with sin. 
 And worldly ways and Mammon's gorgeous 
 
 sway 
 Become the ruling spirit of the times. 
 And sin becomes disrobed of guilt, and moves 
 With brazen face to seats of honor high. 
 Then public justice bows obsequious head. 
 And pulpit smiles on wealth and vanity; 
 Then humble goodness takes the lowly seat, 
 In silence worships God, and mourns the wrong. 
 
 But God omnipotent still rules the world. 
 Eternal justice, truth, and right are still 
 The primal forces held by Heaven's hand 
 And sway the destinies of men, despite 
 Their vulgar brag of sordid wealth and vain 
 Conceit of power, and pride of mighty schemes, 
 Which look to dividends alone and take 
 No righteous thought, or just concern of all 
 The sweat and toil required to bring them 
 wealth. 
 
 'Tis ever thus that selfish man conceives 
 His plans and builds his schemes to highest 
 
 pitch 
 That need can force the waiting poor to give. 
 Thus combinations wide to belt the globe 
 Are built on purpose to enrich the rich. 
 
210 C|)e ^upremacp of Life 
 
 And keep the poor secure in chains of want. 
 
 And when the fated plan is working well, 
 
 And man looks up with pride and thanks to 
 
 God, 
 That by the consummation of his schemes 
 Of wealth, the millions get their daily bread, 
 And vainly think that this is right, the will 
 Of God, and eats and sleeps with great content ; 
 But when the scheme is running at its best. 
 And end of Heaven's patience has been reached. 
 One stroke of fate knocks out the binding wedge. 
 And all the structure into ruins falls ! 
 The world, by universal collapse shocked. 
 Stands helpless in the wrecks of folly dumb! 
 Then Wisdom for a time regains her place, 
 And stricken man again turns hope to God. 
 And then again the rising fire glows. 
 And men and nations turn to Heaven's fold. 
 
 It may be then that this great day of wrath 
 Shall shock the guilty souls of sinning men, 
 And send through all the regions of the lost 
 Such burning hate of sin, that men shall turn 
 To God with deep contrition such as earth 
 Has rarely seen, and send through hell 
 Revival fire bej^ond what earth has known. 
 And this suggests that hell may have a use. 
 In Heaven's plan for man's eternal good. 
 Which highest reason must approve as best. 
 
Cfte Suptemacp of Hift 211 
 
 'Twas said of old this fire was kindled first 
 When rash ambitious angels of renown 
 Rebelled against high Heaven's righteous laws. 
 Indignant God in righteous wrath repelled 
 The fatal sin, and to rebellious ranks 
 Our God became a fierce consuming fire ; 
 And this He is to every form of sin. 
 His presence then in any sinful world 
 Is fire to sinning men with sense of God. 
 The kindling fire for which the Teacher prayed 
 Was then a waking sense of God and sin. 
 When these two thoughts loom large in sinful 
 
 soul, 
 Then fire of hell is fiercely burning there. 
 That soul is by opposing forces drawn ; 
 The base impulse of guilt and fear is flight ; 
 The sense of right is for return to God. 
 If right prevails, then God and bliss are 
 
 gained ; 
 If flight, then banishment is sure result ; 
 And this is hell ; and whether here on earth, 
 Or in the world to come, is only lot 
 For all who flee from God, and hold to sin. 
 
 " And these to endless punishment shall go, 
 But all the righteous to eternal life." 
 With Heaven's King to lead, these mighty hosts 
 Shall rise to higher spheres of endless work. 
 And this is chiefest joy in Heaven known. 
 
^12 Cfte Suptemacp of JLife 
 
 Then here we find the bliss of endless life, 
 The grand supremacy of life to which 
 The mighty God has worked in all the earth, 
 Through all the circling years of earth's career. 
 
BOOK TENTH 
 THE THEME 
 
 Heaven. Work on earth is preparation for 
 similar work in Heaven. Heathen lands con- 
 tribute much to Heaven's wealth of soul. The 
 Judgment Plain rises up to face the many 
 worlds of bliss. The constant growth of mind 
 and soul in Heaven. The stored wealth of 
 soul, gained by proper use of life, unfolds as 
 ages pass. 
 
BOOK TENTH 
 
 By Heaven's will in pleasant dream or trance, 
 Or safety in good reason's fancy held, 
 We caught a hasty view of those bright worlds 
 To which the name of Heaven sweetly clings. 
 O blessed name is that, the pennant staff. 
 Supporting strong the pledge of Heaven's love, 
 Around whose base our fondest hopes have 
 
 leaned 
 In darkest hours of life's tempestuous night. 
 
 The thought for which this name in English 
 stands 
 
 In every tongue of earth has found a term, 
 
 Embalmed in human tears, and crowned su- 
 preme 
 
 With brightest smiles which human face has 
 borne. 
 
 The thought for which these names have ever 
 stood 
 
 Has charmed the hopes of man since earth 
 began. 
 
 Wherever man has felt the scourge of time; 
 
 In dreamy East, or rushing West, or where 
 
 The tropic sun has scorched the sluggish brain. 
 
 Or arctic frost has dwarfed the form of man; 
 
 215 
 
216 Cfte ^uptemacp of JLife 
 
 On Ocean's isles, or continental plains ; 
 
 The soul of suff'ring man, through tears and 
 
 smiles, 
 Has lifted longing eyes to this fair clime ! 
 
 And now we see the living hosts for which 
 These circling worlds of light and peace were 
 
 made; 
 The souls redeemed no number can express, 
 Because no mind can ever grasp the thought 
 For which such lengthened row of figures stand. 
 They come from every land and sea of earth ; 
 From every age since man began to live; 
 Of every hue, and creed, and lisping tongue ; 
 The babbling hosts of universal man 
 Have fallen heir to all the brightest hopes 
 That ever sprang to life in human breasts ! 
 The man has spanned the whole of being's 
 
 range. 
 From dust and sin to touch the heart of God ! 
 The ruling trait which binds them all in one. 
 And marks them off from every type beside. 
 Is human nature's clear distinctive brand. 
 They all have lived the lowly human life. 
 Of woman born, at risk of woman's life. 
 And in her anguish entered life with cry ; 
 On earthly products fed, they are of earth. 
 
 'Tis dust transmuted into spirit life. 
 And raised to touch the higher Life Divine. 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of ILife 217 
 
 This human nature is not selfish, all ; 
 
 It is communal born ; the helpless child 
 
 By altruistic hands is fed and led; 
 
 And all our worthy deeds are done by help 
 
 Of those dear friends with whom we live and 
 
 work. 
 'Tis this soft touch of nature's finer cord 
 Gives life the zest and tone whence comes the 
 
 spring 
 Of noble faith to reach life's higher aims ! 
 And hence the low sweet music, thrilling all 
 This host with joy unspeakably divine, 
 Is played on sympathetic cords which bind 
 All souls in one great brotherhood of love ! 
 
 The talents man received from God at first 
 And has developed in the work of life 
 Will be the means by which still better work 
 May be accomplished in the world above. 
 'Tis thus the souls whose sweeping wing of faith 
 Did bear them far above earth's fogs of doubt, 
 And gave them vision clear of Heaven's plan 
 Of life on earth, and in that grander world, 
 Where now their faith has grown to sight, takes 
 
 but 
 A firmer grip on nobler forms of truth. 
 For higher service marked by Heaven's will. 
 
 Heroes of faith on earth are needed still 
 For nobler work of faith in realms of bliss. 
 
218 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 The work of faith is never laid aside : 
 It only grows to larger spheres, and takes 
 A higher range of nobler work for God, 
 And sees the grander things of God displayed 
 To faith alone on Heaven's nobler plan, 
 Where God is working out the destinies 
 Of human lives in ages yet to come ! 
 Thus faith is like a living flame of light, 
 Forever driving back the gloom in van 
 Of march of all the moving hosts of God. 
 We need it re-enforced a hundred fold. 
 To make us strong for work as Heaven wills. 
 
 Here are the master minds, of giant mold. 
 Whose clearer sight discerned the primal facts 
 Beneath the shifting scenes on nature's face, 
 And brought to light the basic truths of life, 
 Eternal truths of Justice, Love and Right, 
 And laid foundations deep for civic life 
 On which the nations grew, and gave to man 
 The chance to think and work, and lay the plans 
 For sweet domestic bliss, where children grew 
 To manhood's years, enriched by mother love. 
 And father's guiding hand to life's best aims. 
 They wrought full well on earth, and now re- 
 ceive 
 Reward, the chance to do still nobler work. 
 The best reward for noble service done. 
 They enter now the joy of Christ, because 
 Their better work is nearer to his own. 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Mitt 219 
 
 The work of greatest minds is needed still ; 
 The problems of eternal truth, unsolved, 
 Are waiting still the work of intellects 
 Of highest grade, with sharper mental tools. 
 To cut the knotted doubts from strands of 
 
 truth 
 In all the tangled skeins of baffling thought. 
 And place each shying thread in proper light. 
 And make the problems clear to reason's view ! 
 
 The prophets, too, are here, those men in- 
 spired 
 By Holy Spirit's power in human souls. 
 To give them visions true of human life, 
 And lay upon their throbbing human hearts 
 The burdens great of sin's impending woe ; 
 To speak with voice of God to guilt}^ men ; 
 To lead repenting souls to see the right. 
 And save their times from God's o'erhanging 
 wrath. 
 
 God raised their spirits high with joyful 
 views 
 Emblazoned on the shining rim of years. 
 Of brighter days to come by Heaven's will. 
 They saw above the horoscope of time 
 The rise of bright and morning Star, the lead 
 Of Sun of Righteousness with healing wings 
 To shield and bless the world in coming time. 
 In dark and gloomy days of infant earth, 
 
S20 Cbe ^upremacp of Life 
 
 They saw the coming Son of God and man : 
 The sacrifice of God for healing sin's 
 Destructive wounds, and giving man new life ; 
 The Man of Grief, in sorrow's path to walk ; 
 And how he died in shame by sinners mocked. 
 And how by might of his own will he rose 
 From death in splendor of eternal life 1 
 They saw his kingdom rise, and grandly spread 
 O'er all the earth in righteousness and peace. 
 Till all the world had learned to war no more. 
 Destructive man had learned constructive ways. 
 And living each to help his fellow man. 
 
 The prophet's noble office still survives. 
 In shining circles of eternal years 
 Abundant need of vision will arise 
 For prophet's minds alert on duty bent. 
 To ply their office still, and catch the trend 
 Of distant times, and thus to note the drift 
 Of God's designs, and then prepare the saints 
 By burning eloquence inspired of God, 
 Refined by Heaven's lofty range of thought. 
 To rise and grasp the higher grades of life 
 As chance for better service swings the doors. 
 Which open wide to nobler spheres of work ! 
 
 Here, too, are those of minds constructive 
 made. 
 Whose nimble wits have tamed the forces wild 
 In nature's deep recesses hid, and made 
 
Cfte ^uptemacp of Life 221 
 
 Them to do the drudgery of human need, 
 Reheving man of toil and sweat and pain ; 
 Thus giving chance for mind and moral force 
 To mould their growing souls to better shape. 
 With keener intellect, and endless time. 
 Where all conditions aid unceasing thought, 
 With finer nature's higher grade of things. 
 Inventive minds may find still greater work 
 To do in those bright worlds of matchless light. 
 
 But brightest saints in all the throng, me- 
 thinks, 
 Are mothers true and tried, whose pains and 
 
 cares 
 Supplied the population of the world. 
 Is there a place in Heaven's higher ranks 
 Of sweeter calm and peace than all the rest. 
 And kind of work exhaling richest joy. 
 And song of human heart of richer tone. 
 Than all besides ? All surely must be theirs ! 
 But mother's love and gently guiding care 
 Must still avail to shape the future growth 
 In mind and soul of this vast spirit host. 
 To reach those finer traits which surely mark 
 The grade of highest worth which God de- 
 signs 
 For those redeemed from earthly sin and woe. 
 And thus we see that traits within us bom. 
 And duly used, have rounded into strength 
 For further use in Heaven's larger sphere. 
 
222 Cfte ^upremacp of Life 
 
 But all the classes thus in mind are from 
 The lands where Wisdom taught the way of life. 
 But is there naught from heathen lands to swell 
 The flowing bliss of Heaven's endless life? 
 Does he who gave command to gather scraps 
 That nothing should be lost, have aught of 
 
 scraps 
 To gather up from darker lands of earth? 
 What wealth of soul from heathen lands is here? 
 All people in all lands belong to God; 
 He made, preserved, redeemed, and loves them 
 
 all. 
 Denied the lamp of light to guide, they groped 
 Their way in darker shades of mental night ; 
 But sun and rain and fruitful earth were theirs, 
 And told them of a Father's love and care. 
 But God could never hold them to account 
 For what they never had. 'Twas theirs to do 
 The best they could with all that Heaven gave. 
 And such is Heaven's plan with all the race. 
 By guilt of sin oppressed, their conscience led 
 Them in contrition's path to seek relief. 
 But how can man appease the wrath of God? 
 His goats and lambs, and oxen too he gave, 
 But no enduring rest from guilt was found. 
 His captives, then, the spoils of war he gave. 
 
 But reason pleads that God should have the 
 best. 
 'Tis wrong to offer less to highest worth. 
 
Cfte ^upremacp of Life gas 
 
 How oifer less to him who owns it all? 
 Thus conscience holds the rod of guilt above 
 The stricken soul by dreadful sin oppressed. 
 Thus duty seems to point with fatal aim 
 To prattling child, the treasure of the heart, 
 As gift of price to meet the call of God! 
 
 If Abraham is called the friend of God, 
 And rightly holds his marching place at head 
 Of that long column, justly held in high 
 Esteem, the hero true of faith, because 
 He staggered not in unbelief and fright, 
 But truly gave consent to slay his son 
 At stem command of God, must we condemn 
 To endless woe the pagan blind, whose mind 
 Through doubt and fear and grief did reason 
 
 out 
 The truth, to well instructed duty clear. 
 Of what we all should give to God Supreme? 
 
 We must in duty give the brightest child, 
 And every other child in all our homes 
 To God, not slain for guilt on bloody block. 
 But living sacrifices, trained in heart 
 And brain and healthy brawn for service best 
 For God and man, in noblest deeds for good. 
 
 The mothers numbering thousands strong are 
 here. 
 Who, blindly led by council dark, did cast 
 Their babes to sacred river's greedy maw! 
 
^M Cfte ©upremacp of Life 
 
 What awful witness this to guilt of sin ! 
 Can such a sense of sin be lost to man? 
 See how it well accords with act of God, 
 In giving up His Son to die for sin ! 
 Consider well the mother's sacrifice: 
 The fearful plague is thinning out the tribe, 
 Or famine threatens death to all the race. 
 The gods are mad: all nature frowns in wrath. 
 The costly gifts have failed to check the 
 
 scourge. 
 The best has been withheld from angry gods ! 
 True reason now demands, so priests declare. 
 The gift of brightest child in all the land. 
 And conscience gives it sanction to the creed! 
 
 How then the leaven worked in trembling 
 hearts. 
 While sifting process finds the fated child ! 
 How motives clash in such an awful search! 
 What mother would not wish her son to be 
 The brightest child in all the realm today? 
 What mother would not crave the high reward 
 Of Heaven's love, and suffering nation's thanks, 
 For costly sacrifice for human good? 
 So Mary felt the thrill of purest joy 
 AVhile standing highest up in Heaven's love. 
 And having sweetest thanks of all the world ! 
 But how the steel of cruel fate did cut 
 Her grieving heart in twain, as by the cross 
 She saw the sacrifice of all her love I 
 
Cfte 8)upremacp of ILife 225 
 
 Such sacred gift was held to be too dear 
 For any priest than mother's holy love; 
 And so this heroine of mighty faith, 
 In agonies above the throes of death, 
 Gave babe, and with it heart and soul to God ! 
 Deluded souls may oft the hardest work 
 To sense of duty give ; and God alone 
 Can see results in those ill-tutored minds 
 Of sacrifice to what seemed duty clear. 
 Think not that such a bow at duty's shrine 
 Is lost to Heaven's grasp, whose pleasure is 
 To gather traits of human worth to swell 
 The flowing tide of endless human bliss ! 
 
 'Tis thus we see that good from every land 
 Does swell the sum, beyond conception great. 
 Of Heaven's bliss, as streams from every source 
 To circling ocean's mighty waters flow. 
 And thus the final home of human race 
 Is made complete by gathering all the traits 
 Concreted well in living human souls. 
 Approved of God as best for human good. 
 
 By some great law of moral force divine, 
 A gravitation fine of subtler kind. 
 The vast extending plain on which the saints 
 Received the welcome word of Christ the King, 
 Now moved to face the grand array of worlds. 
 The heaven made for all the saved of earth! 
 Those pleasant worlds immense we saw before ; 
 
226 Cfte Supremacp of Life 
 
 With atmosphere of crystal clearness bright, 
 Where sense of peace and quiet calm delight, 
 Soothes every mind to feel the sweet repose 
 Of rest beyond all power of words to tell, — 
 This is the heaven God has made for man. 
 
 The final debarkation now began : 
 By one, by twos, or groups, or vast platoons, 
 As King eternal gave direction plain, 
 Where each should go to pleasant task assigned. 
 And thus the working force of host redeemed 
 Began the service which eternal God 
 In wisdom planned before the world began. 
 And sweetest thought of all, in comfort great. 
 It is our final home, eternal home. 
 In Father's house prepared to fit the souls' 
 Eternal want, in ages all to come ! 
 
 Wherever one may go in all these worlds. 
 The sense of home is never left behind. 
 The ease with which one moves dispels the 
 
 thought 
 Of absence. Security of health and life 
 Forbids the thought of loss by death, disease. 
 Or accident, or freak of wild desire 
 In any friend to hide himself from view. 
 The perfect ease with which one joins his 
 
 friends. 
 And knows them well despite the flight of time, 
 Far none are growing old in face or form. 
 
Cfte ©upremacp of JLife ^m 
 
 Gives sense of home and kindred tie for all ; 
 A universal home, one common board, 
 An endless brotherhood of kindred souls ! 
 
 If you would know what Heaven means as 
 home. 
 Then think what boon is earthly home to man, 
 The sacred spot above all others prized, 
 Where tired man lays off the gear of work, 
 And tension's rigid knots are all untied; 
 Each straining nerve lets go its tugging hold, 
 And finds its place in quiet groove to rest; 
 And aching muscles jerk themselves to form, 
 And gently rock themselves to quiet sleep! 
 The home where quiet creeps around the heart. 
 And soothing calmness nestles in the brain ! 
 There love creates an air of sweet repose, 
 And peaceful soul unwraps its tired folds 
 To warming sun of sweet domestic life. 
 Like summer roses bloom in Heaven's smile! 
 'Tis home because it holds our dearest loves, 
 The sweetest treasures of our heart's desire. 
 So Heaven meets our human wants because 
 The very same sweet hearts which made on earth 
 The restful air of pure domestic bliss. 
 Are here in brighter life, to form anew 
 The ties of binding love, and build again 
 The circles of domestic peace, where each 
 Soul feels the kindred glow of answering love, 
 And heart responds to heart, and soul to soul, 
 
228 Cfte S>uptemacp of Life 
 
 And all the circles touch and blend in one ; 
 And thus the bliss which touched the earth in 
 
 spots 
 Abounds, unchecked, in Heaven's wider sphere. 
 
 Thus Heaven holds the sum of good which 
 
 men 
 Of all the earth have gained in mortal life: 
 The wealth of mind and soul in service reaped 
 By all the honest work for others' weal; 
 By all the efforts made in Heaven's cause. 
 By all the ills and pains in patience borne ; 
 B}'^ mighty leaps of faith to duty's calls. 
 For needed help in fields which seemed to lie 
 Beyond the barriers mountain high, and seemed 
 To sense above all human might to scale ; 
 All service kindly done for human wants ; 
 All gentle words and acts of love which gave 
 To social life the charm of Heaven's touch: 
 The sum, in fact, of all the work on earth. 
 Which fell with might on Heaven's side of life ; 
 All work in deeds, in words, or thought, or life. 
 Which went to shape the souls of men for good ; 
 Which trained the youth in wisdom's paths to 
 
 walk ; 
 Restrained the weak from sin, or kindly helped 
 The prostrate man to rise to better life ; 
 All things which worked for better life on earth. 
 Concreted firm in deathless human souls, 
 Are richly centered here, and add their charm 
 
Clje ^upremacp of Life 229 
 
 To atmosphere of purest human love, 
 The bliss which Heaven's presence makes di- 
 vine. 
 
 Here man, the victim chance of many falls, 
 Sad lapses, accidents, and fell disease. 
 Oft sadly maimed in body, mind and soul, 
 Has reached the goal of perfect health at last. 
 The body, mostly water, dust and lime. 
 Transmuted now to spirit's higher life. 
 Has vital force to work through endless years, 
 And gain in every round of circling time 
 Some finer strength, some added grace divine. 
 Where laws of Heaven work to endless youth. 
 
 The mind, complete, well-strung in every 
 part, 
 Enlarged in scope, with keener edge, and heir 
 Of all the stirring thoughts of gifted minds 
 Whose vital touch on Wisdom's vibrant harp 
 Has given mental wealth for boundless thought, 
 Is now prepared for better, nobler work 
 Amid the finer things in Heaven's sphere. 
 Perception, quicker now, and nimbler thoughts, 
 Find each its place in reason's cleaner light. 
 And hold in one clear view the sum of facts 
 In all the scheme of Heaven's endless works. 
 And fancy, given range in boundless space. 
 With mem'ry holding all the good and pure, 
 The mind exults in gorgeous mental wealth: 
 
ago Cfte ^uptematp of Life 
 
 The scenery built of all the brightest thoughts 
 Of men who came from God to bless the world, 
 And lighted torch of thought at Wisdom's 
 shrine ! 
 
 The soul, now cleaned from every blot and 
 stain 
 Of maiming sin, is also made complete 
 In glowing splendor of immortal youth. 
 It shines in all the purity of God. 
 This fine, ethereal gift of Heaven's breath. 
 The inner life divine, where sits enthroned 
 The living image of eternal God, 
 Meets highest function in the worship due 
 At Heaven's shrine, with all its treasures laid 
 At foot of throne for Heaven's sacred use; 
 And then receives in turn the constant joy 
 Of sweet communion, all divine, which gives 
 To this eternal home its purest bliss ! 
 
 Now all the ills, misshapen parts and forms. 
 By blighting time and crooked chance imposed, 
 Have been reformed and brought to normal 
 
 grade. 
 Thus man at last has reached the high ideal, 
 The destined form of human grace divine. 
 As seen by nature's eye when Heaven gave 
 The mould in which to cast the human soul. 
 
 As we behold the people now in bliss. 
 We see no bending forms in feeble age. 
 
Cfte S)uptemacp of Life 231 
 
 No missing limbs, no dwarfs of under size, 
 
 Nor giants, looming high, unseemly large. 
 
 Nor ugliness of face nor form to mar 
 
 The scenes of glowing life on Heaven's plains! 
 
 As here on earth no ugly flowers bloom, 
 
 But each has fitting beauty all its own. 
 
 So human forms in heaven all attain 
 
 A crowning grace which well befits each life. 
 
 But human souls in Heaven still have growth, 
 A growth in finer fiber, all divine. 
 The mind itself is thing of endless growth. 
 'Tis built on plan to grow by constant work. 
 There seems no limit in the mental laws. 
 By which it must perforce refuse to work. 
 By constant exercise of reason's power. 
 And feeding mind on thoughts of other minds, 
 And using still its own clear thinking force. 
 There is no limit to its constant growth. 
 In age when senses fail the mind still grows ; 
 The statesman, busy with affairs of state. 
 Has often larger grasp of things at last. 
 And speaks in death profoundest thoughts on 
 
 which 
 His nation builds the structure of its laws, 
 And makes a government to bless the world 1 
 
 The man of thought profound will gather 
 strength 
 From all the passing years, and surely find 
 
23^ Ci)e @)upremacp o( life 
 
 That structures of his brightest schemes in 
 
 youth 
 Had made a sappy beam to be replaced 
 By better thought, in more mature years. 
 He finds that wisest thoughts and sanest views 
 Are those which come when evening shadows 
 
 long 
 Proclaim on every hand that sun of life 
 Will set in splendor of his ripest thoughts. 
 
 Now this is true, by implication clear, 
 That mind is far above the senses dull. 
 On which it here depends ; when senses fail 
 And are replaced by kind in heaven found, 
 The mind thus served will still forever grow ! 
 Dependent here on mortal sense to gain 
 Impressions from the outer world and find 
 The means of growth, the active part of man's 
 Immortal soul is often held by bars. 
 In prison locked by idle sloth, or sad 
 Mishap of accident, or want of growth 
 Of those material parts by which it works. 
 Full many minds are barred from work by force, 
 Held down b}^ nature's combination locks. 
 In prison kept while mortal life remains. 
 It was by rare good fortune's timely chance 
 That Helen Keller's brilliant mind was freed 
 From nature's prison house of darkness dense. 
 By combination held, which seemed to bar 
 All skill by which the soul, securely locked, 
 
Cfte Supremacp of Life 233 
 
 Could find its freedom in the world of mind. 
 Had this bright mind been held in bonds till 
 
 death, 
 It would have held, in undeveloped state, 
 Its native elements of mighty force 
 To be unfolded in a brighter clime. 
 In Heaven's high eternal home, that soul 
 Would surely find her freedom and her chance 
 To render endless service to her King. 
 
 And other minds no doubt are prison bound, 
 Locked close in nature's vaults to wait the day 
 When death shall give them life denied them 
 
 here. 
 In that bright clime beyond mistakes of earth. 
 Where native talents grow without restraint. 
 It may be found that many dolts of earth 
 Become the stars of magnitude the first! 
 In race across eternal ages fair. 
 The dullest minds will find the chance to grow. 
 The mind's eternal growth will surely be 
 Among the chiefest joys of endless life. 
 
 A final source of growth for human souls 
 Is stored wealth that each has brought from 
 
 earth. 
 It does to reason's judgment seem most clear 
 That things which give the soul the fine results 
 Of life, the moral strength and polished tone 
 Which come from noble deeds in service done, 
 
S34 Ct)e ^uptemacg of Hife 
 
 The burdens borne in love for God and man, 
 The dire afflictions borne in patience long, 
 The works of faith when sight and sense have 
 
 failed, 
 By long endurance, standing yet for right. 
 When life's dark days and gloomy seasons long 
 Give not a sign of any earthly good; 
 These things which surely give the final strength 
 Which earthly deeds convey to future life, 
 Are safely in the soul itself retained. 
 Unfolding one by one as ages pass ! 
 
 Amid the shining years while future man 
 Pursues his pleasant work, some deed of love, 
 Some long forgotten service done for men. 
 Will come to mem'ry bright and conscience 
 
 sweet, 
 Like hidden manna from the ark of God, 
 And give another force to growing soul. 
 And added grace to human form divine ! 
 
 'Tis thus we get a fuller meaning clear 
 Of great apostle's thought, divinely sent: 
 " These light afflictions, for a moment borne. 
 Shall work for us, — " in added strength and 
 
 life, 
 " A far exceeding more eternal weight 
 Of glory," grand and bright on Heaven^s shore. 
 'Tis in the scheme of God's eternal grace, 
 That all afflictions borne, and duty done. 
 
Cfte S>uptemacp of Life 235 
 
 Shall come to man's reward in making him 
 A greater soul, endowed with brighter mind, 
 For work of higher grade on broader plains. 
 And give a power bom of nobler faith, 
 By which the finer life does better work. 
 
 In family of God it is the plan 
 To place investment in the children's souls ; 
 Then each bears in himself the vested wealth, 
 To be unfolded in the nobler work 
 His own resources make him fit to do. 
 Then in this nobler work in Heaven's cause 
 The growth of wealth by Heaven's law decreed 
 Shall be the endless growth of man himself, 
 As all the shining rounds of ages pass ! 
 
 'Tis like one passing through some magic 
 park. 
 Where things by strange enchantment spring to 
 
 life. 
 Before him stands a stately tree of fair 
 Proportions, seeming all complete, with leaves. 
 And flowers, fruit, in perfect form secure. 
 It seems to want no added grace to give 
 The true effect; but while he looks, a limb 
 Shoots forth with leaves and flowers all com- 
 plete ! 
 His wonder halts, by true amazement checked. 
 As other limbs come forth all fully plumed. 
 Till tree from lowest limb to topmost leaf 
 
236 Cfte @)upremacp of Life 
 
 Becomes a rich bouquet of nature's finest art, 
 With leaves and flowers, fruits and buds com- 
 bined 
 In symmetry which makes the perfect tree : 
 A matchless piece of nature's finest art, 
 An ornament of Heaven's fairest land! 
 
 This parable of tree unfolding life 
 Shows how the saints of God shall grandly 
 
 grow. 
 Unfolding strength and beauty, age on age, 
 As God's eternal wheel of fate unreels 
 The endless web of time's majestic scenes! 
 It shows how bread on earthly waters cast 
 By kindly deeds and gentle words sent forth 
 Is gathered up when many days have passed, 
 And why the prayers for thorns to be removed 
 Were answered not, because the eye of God 
 Was kindly fixed on best results for man. 
 Thus wisdom's flash on mind's receptive sheet 
 Shows consummation grand, in bold relief. 
 The purpose God has had in view for man. 
 Since time when chaos formed for future earth. 
 And this prolific world had started not 
 Along the shining rim of ages vast, 
 Where Heaven marks the destin}^ of worlds ! 
 
 'Tis plain that God had use for man to make 
 Complete some mighty plan for nobler work, 
 And fitted earth to turn the product out. 
 
Cfte S)upremacp of Life asT 
 
 'Tis sure that beings who by Heaven's grace 
 Have conquered sin, and borne the racks of 
 
 pain, 
 Endured the slow, despairing grind of life, 
 And yet through gloom of disappointing years, 
 Have honored Heaven's law and held the 
 
 right, 
 When reason shed but weak and flick'ring light, 
 While oft the face of God was hid from faith. 
 And sense was pulling all the other way. 
 Shall have the finer grain of life which God 
 Designed to place on endless roll of years ! 
 The fiber needed for this highest life 
 Is thus on earth ingrained in human souls. 
 And gives an added glow to Heaven's light, 
 An element of strength in sorrow gained. 
 Thus sinful earth makes contribution rare 
 To Heaven's higher life and nobler work, 
 For all the glowing ages yet to come ! 
 
 The passing earth has left her load of life. 
 Here marshalled on the margin of the years. 
 Whose shining course can never find an end ! 
 What mind can follow still the noble work 
 On Heaven's higher plain, the human race 
 Will now begin, and never cease to do? 
 What words of earthly coin can swing to view 
 The imagery which can portray to man 
 The varied work, and high achievements grand. 
 The endless growth, the higher reach of mind, 
 
^38 Cfte §)uptemacp of Life 
 
 The glowing energies in tireless souls, 
 Of all that mighty host unnumbered here? 
 
 Imagination's spreading wings for flight 
 Are far too short to tempt the boundless main. 
 Our lisping numbers here must close the song, 
 Designed for earth, not Heaven's endless years. 
 Our words were coined in stress of earthly life, 
 And ring with meaning clear of earthly things. 
 They tell of strife, and hope, of life and death. 
 But cannot grasp the higher thoughts sublime. 
 Which hang around the scenes of upper life ! 
 'Tis like an effort vain to scan a sea 
 Of endless flow, without a farther shore! 
 
 When clogs of earthly life no longer hang 
 About the soul, and dim the struggling mind 
 By coils of earthly views, and limping force 
 Of earthly words ; with mind in heaven freed. 
 And having reached its force by nature planned. 
 And gained command of speech in heaven born, 
 That universal tongue for human race ; 
 Elastic, strong, concise, and suited well 
 For deepest thought, and fancy's highest 
 
 flights. 
 And ground in constant use by brightest minds 
 Through ages of celestial converse high ; 
 Or used in bright celestial print, in books 
 Of pond'rous thought, or transient pamphlets 
 brief. 
 
Cfie Supremacp of Lite 239 
 
 Or papers by the million handed round; 
 
 Till words by glint of thought, from mind to 
 
 mind, 
 By sparkling wit, and fancy's apt retort, 
 Are rounded in the mill of thought to fit 
 Each meaning shade, like brilliant diamonds cut 
 By lapidary's art, to beauty turned. 
 To fit in necklace, brooch, band, or ring, 
 To suit the whim of fickle wealth and pride ; 
 With language thus to high perfection wrought. 
 And mind, and soul, and fancy duly grown, 
 We may, perchance, renew the noble theme, 
 And sing Supremacy of Life in strains 
 Of nobler thought in Heaven's higher sphere! 
 
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