UC-NRLF 
 
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 fhe Promise of Li 
 
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 ^SUTHERLAND 
 
GIFT F 
 
The Promise of Life 
 
The Promise of Life 
 
 By 
 Howard Sutherland 
 
 Author of "Idylls of Greece" "The 
 Woman Who Could," "The Le- 
 gend of Love," "Idas and 
 Marpessa," "Out of 
 the North." 
 
 , > > > 
 
 i 
 
 RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 
 CHICAGO 
 
Copyright, 19! 4, b'j 
 RANO. McNALLY & COMPANY 
 
In Memory 
 
 of 
 
 A Friend 
 
The Promise of Life 
 
 ""HESE are days of stress and of 
 endeavor, when in the pursuit 
 of the material, one is apt to forget 
 that another life shall follow this 
 as surely as night the day, gentler 
 Spring the stern and uncompro- 
 mising Winter. 
 
 Let there be no question in our 
 minds as to this. Let us not per- 
 mit the metaphysician to cloud the 
 issue, nor the scientist to clothe 
 it with doubt. Let us rather see 
 with the clearer vision of the poet, 
 
 l 
 
THE. PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 # t , ' 
 
 with the Shelleys, the Wordsworths, 
 the Brownings of the world, to 
 whom God has granted the Vision 
 and who but act as His messengers 
 in the revelation of divine Truth. 
 
 Not that the Truth needs reve- 
 lation, being everywhere in evi- 
 dence; but interpreters are ever 
 necessary, for unless one's attention 
 is called to such apparent splen- 
 dors, the majority of us overlook the 
 magnificence of the nightly display 
 of stars. 
 
 To find fault with the modern 
 tendency to strive for material suc- 
 cess is futile. To desire the good 
 things of life is only natural, and we 
 must not overlook the fact that by 
 bettering his own condition the indi- 
 vidual very often improves that of 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 those around him. The progress 
 of the individual means the progress 
 of the race; and while certain of us 
 may wish that the benefits to the 
 many were more in evidence, and 
 that poverty and unhappiness, in- 
 justice, and misunderstanding were 
 no less things of the past than are 
 the rack and the ordeal by fire, nev- 
 ertheless in our hearts we know that 
 the world is warmed as never before, 
 by a sympathy of man for man. 
 
 And whereas in the past the 
 Divine Intelligence saw fit to pro- 
 duce an a Kempis, a Saint Francis, 
 a Loyola, whose unselfish lives flare 
 like torches in the darkness of igno- 
 rance and superstition, so has that 
 same Divine Intelligence created in 
 the present those after-intelligences 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 by whose efforts and accomplish- 
 ments we of To-day and those of 
 To-morrow shall benefit. 
 
 In their way, great inventions may 
 be forms of praise, no less accepta- 
 ble to God than the widow's silent 
 prayer or the poet's hymn of grati- 
 tude. Having eyes that see not, this 
 may not be clear to us- -at least, 
 not clear to us now; but to the 
 mystic and the symbolist it may be 
 otherwise : 
 
 We see the Garment, not the God within; 
 The deed, but not its inspiration. 
 
 Therefore, let those whose voices 
 are raised against the so-called mate- 
 rialism of the day think twice before 
 they wrap themselves in their con- 
 victions and pronounce as hopeless 
 our spiritual progress. 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 Each of us is, or can become, a 
 creator in his or her own way, and 
 it is by our creative acts that we 
 prove our unity with the Creator 
 Himself. It is given to all people 
 to think along lines other than those 
 of the material; perhaps more so 
 think than we imagine. To us, the 
 merchant may appear to spend too 
 much time over his ledgers, the 
 physician over the latest theories 
 in his medical journals, and hundreds 
 of thousands to gain their meager 
 information from the news columns 
 of their one daily paper. But who 
 can see into the mind of another? 
 And who, supposing the charges 
 to be well founded, can say that 
 such conditions shall always be? Al- 
 ready there are signs of gropings 
 
 5 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 toward Light, of the reaching up 
 of hands for other than material 
 assistance, of the public expression 
 of thoughts and sentiments which, 
 heretofore, have been withheld, or 
 only whispered through fear of ridi- 
 cule. 
 
 Therefore, although the statement 
 that these are days of 'stress and 
 of endeavor " is in the main correct, 
 we need have no fear that God has 
 so entirely forgotten our world that 
 in human hearts there is no yearning 
 for Him. One can do one's work 
 and yet be an agent in greater 
 schemes than may at present be 
 apparent to him; one may toil in 
 a factory or sit in a counting house 
 and yet be an Apostle of Joy, a 
 factor for good in the plan whose 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 purpose is the ultimate perfection of 
 
 all. 
 
 With the vision that is granted us 
 we have assured ourselves of the 
 progress of the world. An occa- 
 sional setback, the flaming-up of 
 human passions, with ensuing war 
 and religious persecution here and 
 there- -what are these in compar- 
 ison with the growth of Equality, a 
 keener sense of Justice, a broader 
 sympathy between man and man, 
 and woman's use of opportunities 
 too long withheld from her? Here- 
 tofore despairing humanity has had 
 recourse to Revolution, from whose 
 crimson fires the white flame of 
 Liberty was born, and from whose 
 hideous wreckage was slowly builded 
 the marble palace fit for the children 
 
 7 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 of Freedom and of Peace. But 
 Revolution is now no longer neces- 
 sary; its place is taken by Quiet 
 Change, in which, not despairing 
 but enlightened and hopeful men 
 have faith- -men who have confi- 
 dence that in changes slowly brought 
 about Life still continues, under 
 better and easier conditions. 
 
 Prophetic of this eternal growth, 
 this kaleidoscopic replacement of 
 the countless particles constituting 
 the picture of Existence, and of the 
 eternal supremacy and control over 
 it of God, are Shelley's lines: 
 
 The One remains, the many change and pass; 
 Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly. 
 Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, 
 Stains the white radiance of Eternity. 
 
 Were we not inwardly conscious, 
 conscious above all necessity of 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 absolute proof, of this continuance 
 of the One, then there might be grave 
 doubt as to our own survival when 
 the swift divorce of death has sun- 
 dered our mortal from its immortal 
 part. But we know that funda- 
 mentally we are good, despite our 
 errors and our weaknesses, despite 
 our follies and our boasts; and we 
 know that God is good, despite the 
 wrath with which our mistaken 
 creeds have clothed Him and the 
 vengeance we have supposed He 
 would find delight in. And we 
 know that as the magnet draws unto 
 itself its affinities, so the Divine 
 Good shall draw unto itself the 
 Human Good, and that which is 
 truly ourselves shall not be lost. 
 To this, he who attends us in our 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 sickness and who has well informed 
 himself as to our body, may shake 
 his head, saying: 'My microscope 
 gives me no proof thereof"; the 
 metaphysician, no less helpless than 
 the Sufis of old, may abstrusely 
 discuss it and come to no satisfac- 
 tory conclusion. But we know that 
 the most learned doctors disagree 
 among themselves and that the pro- 
 foundest speculations of the met- 
 aphysicians are but idle words to 
 the metaphysicians of other schools. 
 Therefore, we more ordinary mor- 
 tals, unlearned in knowledge which 
 is inexact and which only unsettles, 
 and glad of our possession of 
 
 The faith of childhood and its love, 
 
 may remain unshocked by their 
 conclusions, though wishful that they 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 could participate in our simpler 
 and happier belief. 
 
 Surrounding the atom and the 
 farthest star, the pulsing cell and 
 the flaring nebula, is the Mystery 
 which neither microscope nor tele- 
 scope can adequately explain; be- 
 hind the flower's illusive fragrance 
 is something more illusive yet, that 
 something which causes us to stand 
 silent in the presence of breathless 
 beauty or confronted by the won- 
 drous serenity in the eyes of a little 
 child. 
 
 This is nothing less than the 
 Mystery of Life, the primal mystery 
 and the ultimate. In the unthink- 
 ing it raises but little wonder; in the 
 scientific mind it awakens curiosity, 
 but a curiosity which mere science 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 cannot satisfy; and from the meta- 
 physician, as hopelessly confounded 
 by it as was Napoleon by the engima 
 of the Sphinx, it draws forth such 
 papers as are delivered before Phil- 
 osophical Societies, but which, when 
 read, leave their hearers hopelessly 
 befogged. 
 
 When confronted by this mystery, 
 and confronted he is by it every hour 
 of the day, the thoughtful man knows 
 better than to seek its explanation. 
 He may divine its intent, which 
 is something very different; but 
 beyond that he will not seek to go, 
 informing and satisfying himself 
 by intuition rather than by reason- 
 ing processes. And it is by reason 
 of his inability or unwillingness to 
 avail himself of these intuitions that 
 
 12 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 we have gradually come to consider 
 our more materially-minded neigh- 
 bor among the stumbling-blocks to 
 spiritual progress to-day. 
 
 We know well how the scientific 
 mind is apt to pooh-pooh this mys- 
 tery, suggesting that in due time it 
 shall be explained to the world; if 
 not to the world's satisfaction, at 
 least to the satisfaction of the scien- 
 tific mind itself. But the pooh- 
 poohing of men at such inexplicable 
 things is as vain as the lashing of 
 the sea against great rocks, as vain 
 as the blowing of winds upon the 
 stars. 
 
 In our acceptance of mysteries as 
 mysteries, in our leaning to the poet's 
 more optimistic utterance regarding 
 that which we well know is outside 
 
 13 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 the pale of absolute proof, we do 
 not dim the luster of the divine 
 jewel of intelligence, divinest of 
 gifts. Nay, by our acceptance of 
 him as teacher we but act as do 
 the midges attracted from the dark- 
 ness by the sunbeam. For the 
 true poet is the child of the ages. 
 He is the inheritor of all memories, 
 of the hopes and aspirations and 
 longings of mankind. In him, self 
 is lost in the race, whose representa- 
 tive he becomes; and above all else 
 he is the mouthpiece of Divinity. 
 And even though it be not permitted 
 him to explain the mystery whereof 
 we are speaking, in his song he still 
 reminds men thereof and encourages 
 the faint-hearted even when de- 
 scends about them the forbidding 
 
 14 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 mist of death. With the experi- 
 ences of the past within his heart 
 he concerns himself only with the 
 , future, knowing that in that future 
 the miasmas of to-day shall be 
 absorbed, and that in the brighter 
 light of those days the race shall still 
 continue, overcoming such obstacles 
 as the future is bound to bring with 
 it, onward, upward, even as it is 
 moving onward and upward to-day. 
 Therefore, although the present 
 times may seem to us unlovely; al- 
 though an apparent materialism may 
 discomfort us and incline us to 
 weaken in the fight, there is in 
 reality no reason for such faint- 
 heartedness. It is no longer a medi- 
 tative age, but one of action, of 
 accomplishment, of the dispelling 
 
 15 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 of fears born of superstition,- -an age 
 of regeneration. We know that we 
 are still far distant from the summit 
 of time; but the air we breathe is 
 rarer, diviner; and while it is making 
 us more conscious of the divine 
 within us it is also making us more 
 human, more conscious of the fact 
 that each of us is but a link in the 
 endless chain between Then and 
 that other Then when again we 
 shall be ourselves and when, in the 
 performance of higher duties, it may 
 no longer be necessary for us to 
 remember that we were ever here. 
 
 (~\F the continuity of life after 
 
 death much has been written, 
 
 and, in the course of the ages, much 
 
 is yet to be written. For what 
 
 16 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 purpose it is difficult to say, except, 
 perhaps, because there must ever 
 be many to whom the latest word 
 is the newest truth. Certain of us 
 maintain that the consciousness of 
 eternal life as natural law must be 
 inborn, and that some are surer of 
 it than are others. Consciousness 
 of annihilation is beyond the demon- 
 stration of the subtlest mind; yet 
 when at the last the few remaining 
 survivors of the race (allowing the 
 possibility of such an event) await 
 the final disintegration of the world, 
 it is certain that, even as to-day and 
 even as yesterday, there will be those 
 who doubt and those whose reliance 
 will be placed in the flaming words 
 of Christ: 'I am the Resurrection, 
 and the Life. He that believeth in 
 
 17 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 Me, though he were dead, yet shall 
 he live; and whosoever liveth and 
 believe th in Me shall never die." 
 
 In other words, the faith in man 
 shall convince him of eternal verities. 
 
 The fact that we were alive yester- 
 day and that we enjoy to-day should 
 convince us of what we call Immor- 
 tality. Time and Space existed long 
 before man appeared upon the scene. 
 They were not created for him, but, 
 rather, he for them. The endlessness 
 of the one and the boundlessness 
 of the other are for the development 
 of the spirit, which is deathless. Let 
 us but assure ourselves of identity 
 with that which was formerly con- 
 sidered separate from us; let us feel 
 that we are bound by ties, however 
 slight, with the Divine, and we shall 
 
 18 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 soon see how impossible it is for 
 there to be an end to life, or even 
 a severing of our connection with it. 
 How can there be an end to life? 
 It is the divine mood made manifest. 
 The tree is of no less consequence 
 than the man; the tiny insect, 
 busied about its own occupations, is 
 of no less importance in the consider- 
 ation of the Eternal than is the 
 inventor, the organizer of social 
 systems, or the poet. Place your- 
 self at the altitude of the star and 
 compare your three score years and 
 ten with the hoar antiquity of the 
 rocks. Thus, far removed in thought 
 from the earth and man's way of 
 estimating things, you shall com- 
 prehend, although but faintly, how 
 all that is, how all that ever was, 
 
 19 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 is but a temporary expression of 
 something to be finally re-expressed. 
 Eternally changing, and of infinite 
 variety, Life is the other name for 
 God. And death is neither the 
 cessation nor is it the beginning of 
 things. It is merely a natural phase 
 through which living forms must 
 pass on the way to ultimate perfec- 
 tion. To feel assured of this, basing 
 assurance on the fact that every 
 thing changes continually, while 
 nothing is ever lost, there is abso- 
 lutely no proper cause for our fear 
 of death. The Buddhists say : ' Be- 
 ing born I am dead." Let us re- 
 verse this and say: * Being dead 
 I am born/ 5 That after-condition 
 which can contain within itself so 
 gentle a thing as the 'soul' of a 
 
 20 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 butterfly, will surely be unable to 
 prove hurtful to the dominant soul 
 of man! 
 
 Whether we lean to the purely 
 materialistic or the purely spiritual 
 conception of things, undeniable it 
 is that there is a force of some kind 
 which dominates all. This force is 
 absolute and eternal, because it 
 is ultimate. Our subconsciousness, 
 the soul, is a spark of the Ultimate 
 Force, and when a being reaches 
 the degree of consciousness it may 
 be said he has a 'soul/ 1 The 
 self-consciousness of [the soul is the 
 consciousness of our very being 
 itself, and its destruction could 
 take place only by the annihilation 
 of that which is Imperishable, 
 which is God, which is unthinkable; 
 
 21 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 for are not we part of the Eternal? 
 And once again let us assure our- 
 selves that our progress is not along 
 material lines only. For thereby we 
 would be judged. The spiritual is 
 back of every manifestation of intel- 
 ligence, and have not we accom- 
 plished more in fifty years than 
 has heretofore been accomplished in 
 all the centuries? To the thought- 
 ful minded, the most utilitarian 
 inventions are as wonder-waking 
 as the immortal conceptions of the 
 artist or the sculptor. While we 
 are prone to think that the former 
 marvels are the distinctive mani- 
 festations of our genius, let us not 
 forget that to us must also be ac- 
 credited the broader and kindlier 
 interpretation of the Book of Books, 
 
 22 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 the warmer sympathy and fellowship 
 between rich and poor, and ever- 
 increasing leniency to the sinner. 
 For centuries, spirituality has been 
 associated ever with individual con- 
 dition; in our day, the betterment 
 of the masses is a constant proof 
 of our recognition of, and unifica- 
 tion with, the Divine. 
 
 Knowing this, we of To-day need 
 have no fear for To-day. The poet 
 does not fear, for it is he who fore- 
 sees all things. To him the city's 
 roar is no less prophetic than is the 
 wind-song upon the hilltops, and 
 the constant yearning of humanity 
 for God is as apparent to his eye 
 as is the movement of the flower in 
 the direction of the life-giving sun. 
 He knows that in all phenomena is 
 
 23 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 the promise of life, not only of life 
 for the short period of years ac- 
 corded us, but life for all time. He 
 is indeed a safe leader, for his fore- 
 castings have come true. One by 
 one, like the beads of a told rosary, 
 the poet has prophesied great things 
 to come; and with no uncertain 
 voice he has assured us that an- 
 other existence is to follow this. 
 
 The One remains! 
 
 More constant than the Pole Star 
 by which the mariner steers across 
 tempestuous seas is He at whose 
 bidding the waters surge and toss; 
 and it is upon that constancy that 
 our faith is founded. Not indi- 
 viduals only, but entire races slip 
 into the night, and with them their 
 beliefs and their religions. Awaiting 
 
 24 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 them is ever the One and His ulti- 
 mate Truth. 
 
 The innumerable host whose bod- 
 ily afflictions have prevented a keen 
 enjoyment of the day's delight shall 
 pass on, and awaiting them is ever 
 the One and His ultimate Truth. 
 
 Those upon whom Sorrow has 
 laid pale hands, who walk with 
 Grief and in this life are not to be 
 comforted, shall pass on, and await- 
 
 / 
 
 ing them is ever the One and His 
 ultimate Truth. 
 
 And those who through error or 
 adversity sinned and fell, they that 
 doubted, and even they that dis- 
 believed, shall pass on, and await- 
 ing them is ever the One and His 
 ultimate Truth. 
 
 Our firm belief in the life that is to 
 
 25 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 be need not prevent us from enjoy- 
 ing the good things of this which is. 
 Who, passing through a garden of 
 beautiful flowers, even though his 
 business lie beyond the Gate, would 
 not tarry a while and partake of the 
 innocent allurements around him? 
 And life is such a garden, a garden 
 becoming more beautiful year by 
 year through the ministrations of 
 noble men and women whose goal 
 is beyond the Gate, where waits 
 ever the One and His ultimate 
 Truth. 
 
 And the finer things of life, whose 
 enjoyment prepares us for what is to 
 follow, what are they? Let each 
 of us do cheerfully to-day whatever 
 work is given him to do, endeavoring 
 to live up to the expectations of 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 generous-minded friends. Let each 
 of us cultivate gentleness, kindness, 
 courtesy, and consideration; then, 
 however limited the sphere in which 
 we have our being, we shall see the 
 world become better for our pres- 
 ence, and we shall have an influence 
 for good not only on the individual, 
 but on the race. The moment we 
 cease to strive we become self-satis- 
 fied and unserviceable. High aims 
 will carry us over difficult places, 
 and thousands will eagerly follow. 
 Let us sound the true note, that those 
 about us may drink in the music as 
 the thirsting sands absorb the singing 
 sea. Sincere and strong, as we 
 pay our tribute to Time we shall 
 face unflinchingly the future; we 
 shall become a part of creation's 
 
 27 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 endless harmony, and shall be given 
 expression after death. And seeing 
 that the material and the spiritual 
 are so closely allied, let us endeavor 
 to become good by doing good. 
 
 Let us labor joyously, and let us 
 love our fellows; for love is older 
 than life itself. It brooded over the 
 creation of land and water from 
 chaos, foreseeing impermanency. 
 The lover when first he knows he is 
 beloved, the mother beside the 
 cradle, the friend beside the tried 
 and trusted friend, all experience an 
 emotion akin to that which is be- 
 stowed upon the birth of a world 
 or the vanishing of a star. Not 
 until we love do we become aware of 
 the purposes of creation, nor can 
 we in any way add to the divine 
 
 28 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 harmony. Love is the light that dis- 
 pels all fear of the descent to death ; 
 it is one of the jewels that tremble 
 eternally in the beneficent hand of 
 God. 
 
 Let us be brave in adversity, hum- 
 ble in success, and true under all 
 conditions. Let us have faith in 
 ourselves and faith in our fellowmen. 
 The vault of heaven is sometimes 
 clouded; there is no nature so eter- 
 nally beautiful as the soul would 
 have it. But behind all storm is 
 the sapphire serenity, and behind 
 the most perverse of moods the pre- 
 dominant impulses of affection and 
 love. 
 
 Seeded with stars, as the sphere 
 whereon we now find ourselves is 
 starred with flowers, the limitless 
 
 29 
 
THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 reaches of the heavens allure us on- 
 ward and promise us the ultimate 
 Resurrection. 
 
 There is no reason to fear, neither 
 is there cause to doubt. Into the 
 cool, dark bosom of the earth, 
 whereto are gathered the curled 
 leaves whose trembling heralded the 
 approach of Spring, whose stillness 
 reminded us of the quiescent happi- 
 ness of Summer, whose rustling 
 foretold the stealthy advance of 
 Autumn, we must descend ere long. 
 Let us go courageously. There our 
 dust shall be welcomed by all that 
 has ever lived, by all that has ever 
 loved; but the spirit, the true self, 
 can no more be imprisoned beneath 
 the soil than can the fragrance 
 of the violet or the rose. Those 
 
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THE PROMISE OF LIFE 
 
 fragrances, along with the souls of 
 us, shall continue in eternal ascen- 
 sion; and we who have endeavored 
 and enjoyed, shall endeavor and 
 enjoy forever. 
 
 The setting sun, a purple sea; 
 
 A shaft of golden light 
 That strikes the hill tops, and, to me 
 
 Hints dawn-burst after night. 
 
 Fear not, my Soul, the gray of death, 
 
 The still, uncharted main; 
 The Light shall find thee, and the breath 
 
 Of God be thine again. 
 
 
 31 
 
. 
 
In Preparation 
 
 By the same Author 
 The Kingdom of Content 
 
336040 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY