Hope, the Immortal Daughter of God

HOPE, THE IMMORTAL DAUGHTER OF GOD. Suso, the great monk and mystic, one of the simplest and best men that ever lived, had a touching habit. Every time that he met a woman, the oldest and the poorest, he stepped respectfully aside, though to do that he must set his bare feet among the thorns or in the muddy gutter. "I do that," he said, "to render homage to our holy lady, the Virgin Ma^!" Let us render to hope a like reverence. If we meet it under the form of a spear of wheat which pierces the furrow, the bird which broods and feeds her nestlings, of a poor wounded animal which gathers itself together, rises and continues its way, of a peasant who labors and sows a field ravaged by inundation and hail, of a nation which slowly repairs its losses and heals its wounds, under no matter what humble and suffering exterior, salute it. When we encounter it in the legends, the untutored songs, in the simple beliefs, salute it again. For it is the same always, the immortal, the indestructible daughter of God!—Charles Wagner's The Simple Life.

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