Bahá’í World/Volume 13/Articles and Reviews

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[Page 1167]PART FOUR

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ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

1. THE OLD CHURCHES AND THE NEW WORLD—FAITH

By GEORGE TOWNSHEND, M. A. (Oxon) (Sometime C anon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and Archdeacon of Clonfert)

HAVING identified myself with the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and sacrificed my position as a canon and a dignitary of the Church of Ireland that I might do so, I now make this statement on the relation of this Faith to Christianity and to the Churches of Christ.

It is submitted to all Christian people in general but more especially to the bishops and clergy and members of my own communion, with the humble but earnest and urgent request that they will give it their attention as a matter of vital concern to the Church. Only through an impartial investigation of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh will they find, I fully believe, a means of reviving the fortunes of the Church, of restoring the purity and the power of the Gospel and of helping to build a better and more truly Christian world.

Bahá’u’lláh (Whose approaching advent had been announced in Persia nineteen years before by His prophetic Herald, the Báb, Himselfa world-famous figure) made His public declaration as a Messenger of God in Baghdad in the year 1863. He affirmed that His appearance fulfilled the promised Return of Christ in the glory of the Father. He brought a Teaching which though ampler and fitted to a more advanced Age was in spirit and purpose the same as that of Christ. He revealed those “other things" which Jesus told His disciples He had to give them but which they could “not hear” at that time. His mission was to bring the work of Christ to its completion and realisation, t0 reconstruct the social order of the world and build the long promised Kingdom of God in very fact.

He addressed individual letters or specific messages to the monarchs of the West and to the members of the various ecclesiastical

orders of the Christian Churches, and directed numerous and repeated exhortations and warnings to the entire Christian world. These without exception were ignored by Christendom when they were made, and they have now been set aside and disregarded for some eighty years. During that period the long established influence of Christ in Christendom has suffered a decline so unprecedented, so precipitous that the Bishops gathering for the Lambeth Conference were greeted in the London press with the challengethat“Christianity is fighting for its life”; while the Bahá’í Faith proclaimed at that time by one lone Prophet shut in a Turkish prison has spread through the whole globe, has led the constructive thought of our time, has created a spiritual world-community joining the East and the West, and is fast making good its right to a place in the age-long succession of world-faiths.

“Followers of the Gospel,” exclaimed Bahá’u’lláh addressing the whole of Christendom, “behold the gates of heaven are flung open. He that had ascended unto it is now come. Give ear to His voice calling aloud over land (mdsemamtouncing to all mankind the advent of this Revelationda Revelation through the agency of which the Tongue of Grandeur is now proclaiming: ‘Lo, the sacred Pledge has been fulfilled, for He, the Promised One is come.’” “The voice of the Son of Man is calling aloud from the sacred vale, ‘Here am I, here am I, O God, my God’ whilst front the Burning Bush breaketh forth the cry, ‘Lo, the Desire of the world is made manifest in His transcendent glory.’ The Father hath come. That which ye were promised in the Kingdom of God is fulfilled. This is the Word which the Son veiled when He said to those

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around Him that at that time they could not bear it. . . . Verily the spirit of T ruth is come to guide you unto all truth. . . . He is the one who glorified the Son and exalted His Cause.”

“The Comforter Whose advent all the scriptures have promised is now come that He may reveal unto you all knowledge and wisdom. Seek Him over the entire surface of the earth, haply ye may find Him.”

Through a period of some twenty-five years from about 1865 to 1890, Bahá’u’lláh sent letters and messages to the monarchs and leaders of mankind proclaiming to them thathowever little they recognised it—a worldcrisis had already taken shape and profound changes on a world-scale were at hand; the old civilisation would pass away and another take its place; a new race of men would arise, and reverence, unity, peace, justice would become watch—words in a new and happier order. He challenged them in burning words 01' power to acknowledge the spiritual cause of world-events already coming into view and to fill the lofty and noble part for which God and Christ had prepared them. He warned them not to let prejudice or dogma or superstition or self-interest or desire for leadership and glory from men deter them from accepting this summons. Again and again He urged on their notice that the true cause of this New Age and its happenings was spiritual and that they would find the key to it in the Gospel which they so continually perused.

In a Tablet to Napoleon III. the most outstanding monarch of the moment, He informed his Majesty that in the providence of God a new age of unprecedented changes in human history was opening. He outlined certain features of its ordained pattern, which would vitally concern a King—statesman, and called on him to arise, humble himself before God, follow the guidance of God’s Prophet and take a bold initiative in unifying mankind. This, he wrote, was the Wondrous Age Christ had come to announce. Christ’s dominion had spread westward that the West and its rulers might now give a lead in His holy service. Would Napoleon now play the man in the precious Cause of God, he would make himself an emperor of the wide world.

Bahá’u’lláh had already been in communication with Napoleon and had discovered his hypocrisy and insincerity. He makes

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mention of this, and warns the Emperor (then in the plenitude of his pride and power) to give immediate heed to the Prophet’s word, else, He writes, “thy kingdom shall be thrown into confusion and thine empire shall pass from thy hands. Commotions shall seize all the people in that land. . . . We see abasement hastening after thee, whilst thou art of the heedless.”

The contemptuous rejection of this warning was followed not many months after by the sudden outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, the utter defeat and capture of Napoleon at Sedan, and the collapse of his empire.

To Queen Victoria Bahá’u’lláh sent a letter in the course of which He declared His identity: “0 Queen in London! Incline thine ear unto the voice of thy Lord, the Lord of all mankind. . . . He in truth hath come into the world in His most great glory and all that is mentioned in the Gospel hath been fulfilled. .. . Lay aside thy desire and set thine heart towards thy Lord, the Ancient of Days. We make mention of thee for the sake of God and desire that thy name may be exalted through thy remembrance of God, the creator of earth and heaven. . . . Turn thou unto God and say: O my Sovereign Lord, I am but a vassal of Thine, and Thou art, in truth, the King of Kings. Assist me then, O my God, to remember Thee amongst Thy hand—maidens and to aid Thy Cause in Thy lands. . . .”

To Alexander 11 He wrote, “0 Czar of Russia! Incline thine ear unto the Voice of God, the King, the Holy. Beware lest thy desire deter thee from turning unto the face of thy Lord, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful. . .. He verily is come with His Kingdom, and all the atoms cry aloud, ‘Lo, the Lord is come in His great majesty.’ He who is the Father is come, and the Son in the holy vale crieth out, ‘Here am I, here am I, 0 Lord, My God.’ . . . Arise thou amongst men in the name of this all—compelling Cause and summon, then, the nations unto God. . . . Could’st thou but know the things sent down by My Pen and discover the treasures of My Cause and the pearls of My mysteries. . . . thou would’st in thy love for My Name and in thy longing for My glorious and sublime Kingdom lay down thy life in My path. ...”

He wrote to Pope Pius IX announcing that “He who is the Lord of Lords hath come” and that he who is the Rock (meaning Peter),

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crieth out saying “L0, the Father is come, and that which ye were promised in the Kingdom is fulfilled.” Bahá’u’lláh bade him—“Arise in the name of the Lord, the God of Mercy, amidst the peoples of the earth and seize thou the cup of ~ life with the hands of confidence and first drink thou therefrom and profler it then to such as turn towards it amongst the peoples of all faiths.” He warned him not to repeat the error of the Pharisees and of the men of learning who on His first coming opposed Jesus Christ and pronounced judgment against Him, whilst he who was a fisherman believed on Him. He called on him to “Sell all the embellished ornaments thou dost possess and expend them in the path of God” to “Abandon thy kingdom unto the kings, and emerge from thy habitation,” and should anyone offer him all the treasures of the earth “refuse to even glance upon them”; then, detached from the world, let him “speak forth the praises of thy Lord betwixt earth and heaven” and warn the kings of the earth against injustice in their dealings with men. In the concluding pages of His communication to the Pope which contain some of the most tender, moving and impassioned passages in these writings, He expresses the warmth of His desire, the earnestness of His effort to bring the followers of the Gospel into the Most Holy Kingdom of God and to enable the true-hearted to discern its opened Gates. He urges them to rend the spiritual veils that blind their eyes, to cast away everything, everything that prevents them accepting this divine deliverance. He calls them to come out of the darkness into the light poured forth by the sun of the Grace of God. He tells them of the sovereignty that awaits them in the Kingdom on High if they will but heed and obey, of the friendship of God and His companionship in His everlasting realm of Beauty and of Power that He longs to bestow on them according to His ancient promise. The Kingdom is theirs of right. He has bidden them welcome to it, and His heart is sad to see that others enter but they, alas! tarry before its gates in the darkness. How blessed are those who will keep the covenant Christ made with His people, who will watch for their Lord’s return as He bade them, and know His voice when He calls them. Blessed are they who will walk forward in the path Christ laid out for them so

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straight and true and will take their rightful place in the van of the Legions of Light.

Elsewhere in these letters to the kings, and also in other writings, Bahá’u’lláh speaks to the entire Christian world and addresses directly officers of the various ecclesiastical orders in Christendom. For instance: “0 concourse of archbishops! He who is the Lord of all men hath appeared. In the plain of guidance He calleth mankind whilst ye are yet numbered with the dead. Great is the blessedness of him who is stirred by the Breeze of God and hath arisen from amongst the dead in this perspicuaus Name.”

“O concourse of bishops! . . . He who is the Everlasting Father calleth aloud between earth and heaven. Blessed the ear that hath heard and the eye that hath seen and the heart that hath turned unto Him. . . .” And, “the stars of the heaven of knowledge have fallen, they that adduce the proofs they possess in order to demonstrate the truth of My Cause and who make mention of God in My Name; when however I came unto them in My majesty, they turned aside from Me. They, verily, are of the fallen. This is what the Spirit [Jesus] prophesied when He came with the truth and the Jewish Doctors cavilled at Him. . . .”

He addressed the priests, telling them it was their duty to proclaim aloud the Most Great Name among the nations—they chose to keep silence when every stone and every tree shouted aloud “The Lord is come in His great glory!” “T he Day of Reckoning,” He wrote, “hath appeared, the Day whereon He who was in heaven hath come. He verily is the One whom ye were promised in the Books of God. . . . How long will ye wander in the wilderness of heedlessness and superstition .7. . ."

He warned the monks that they little understood the real greatness of Jesus Christ which had been “exalted above the imagination of all that dwell on the earth. Blessed are they who perceive it.” “Ifye choose to follow Me,” He wrote, “I will make you heirs of My Kingdom; and if ye transgress against Me I will in My long-suflering endure it patiently.” He expressed His wonder at their men of learning who read the Gospel and yet refused to acknowledge its All-Glorious Lord on His appearance.

Again and again, in general statements and in particular prophecies, Bahá’u’lláh warned the rulers of the world and their peoples that

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if these clear, solemn and public pronouncements went unheeded and the reforms enjoined were not made, then divine chastisement would descend from all sides upon mankind: irreligion would spread and deepen; from it would flow anarchy; authority and power would pass from the priesthood; the social order would break up and dissolve to make place for another which God would guide men to build in its stead.

Whatever “Lesser Peace” the war-weary nations might at last arrange among themselves, it would not bring them a final solution of their problems. This would come only with “The Most Great Peace” of which He wrote in His Tablet (or letter) to Queen Victoria, with the creation of a worldcommonwealth and with the ultimate emergence of a divine world—civilisation.These objectives could be attained only through acceptance of the Prophet of the Age and through the adoption of the principles, plans and patterns for the new World Order which were transmitted by Him from God.

When no heed was given to Bahá’u’lláh’s Declaration that His prophethood was the return of Christ, when His appeal for the examination of His Cause and the redress of cruel wrongs inflicted on Him was ignored; when no one regarded His forecast, so forcefully and so fully presented, that a new Dawn had broken, a New Age had come (new in a spiritual sense, in a moral sense, in an intellectual sense), an Age which would bring a new outlook and new concepts, an Age of Divine Judgment, in which tyranny would be thrown down, the rights of the people asserted, and in which the social structure of the human race would be changed; when no attention was paid to the vision He opened, to the opportunities He oflered, to the bold challenge which He had from prison flung before the mighty ones of the world; then alas! the Churches as the years went by found themselves caught into a current which bore them irresistibly downward at an ever increasing speed and which at the end of eight decades was still to be bearing them down to lower and yet lower levels in their political standing, in their moral influence, in their intellectual prestige, in their social authority, in their numbers and their financial resources, in the popular estimate of the relevancy and the reality of

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the religion which they taught and even in the vigour and unanimity of their own witness to the basic truth upon which the Church itself had been founded.

No comparable period of deterioration is to be found in the long records of the Christian Faith. In all the vicissitudes of fifteen eventful centuries (and they were many); in all the misfortunes, the mistakes, the failures and the humiliations in which from time to time the Church was involved, no such catastrophic decline is to be traced. The sovereignty which the Church had wielded in the Middle Ages had indeed by the nineteenth century become in Western Europe a thing of the past; but the diminution had been gradual and moderate. The loss suffered during the previous eight hundred years can hardly be compared with the vital damage inflicted during the last eighty.

In past crises the foundations of faith and of western society were not shaken; hope remained dominant, and from tradition and memory men drew inspiration. Society remained Christian and to that extent unified. But now the very foundations have gone. Reverence and restraint are no more. The heights of human nature are closed: its depths opened. Substitute systems of ethics, man-made and man-regarding, are invented, dethroning conscience. The dignity of reason and of knowledge is denied; truth itself is impugned.

The story of this calamitous decline is well known to all, and its outstanding features can be briefly summarised.

In the year 1870, not long after the despatch of Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet to his Holiness, the Pope was through King Victor Emmanuel’s seizure of Rome deprived by force of virtually the whole of that temporal power which Bahá’u’lláh had advised him to renounce voluntarily. His formal acknowledgment of the Kingdom of Italy by the recent Lateran Treaty sealed this resignation of sovereignty.

The fall of the Napoleonic Empire was followed in France by a wave of anti-clericalism which led to a complete separation of the Roman Catholic Church from the State, the secularisation of education, and the suppression and dispersal of the religious orders.

In Spain, the monarchy which for so long had been in Christendom the great champion

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of the Roman Church was overthrown and the State secularised.

The dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy caused the disappearance both of the last remnant of the Holy Roman Empire and of the most powerful political unit that gave to the Roman Church its spiritual and financial support.

In Soviet Russia an organised assault directed against the Greek Orthodox Church, against Christianity, and against religion, disestablished that church, massacred vast numbers of its hundred million members, stripped it of its six and a half million acres of property, pulled down, closed or perverted to secular uses countless thousands of places of worship and by “a five year plan of godlessness” sought to eradicate all religion from the hearts of the people.

In every land and in all branches of the Christian Church, even where there was no system of Establishment, the rising power of nationalism continually made churches more and more subservient to the interests and the opinions of the State—a tendency brought into strong relief and notoriety in the first world-war.

The gradual decay of the intellectual prestige of religion in Europe had extended over many generations, but it was brought prominently before the public mind in the seventies of the last century, largely through the controversies which followed Tyndale’s Belfast address in 1874. The character of this decay has been epitomised by Professor Whitehead, writing in 1926, thus:

“Religion is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life. . . . For over two centuries, religion has been on the defensive, and on a weak defensive. The period has been one of unprecedented intellectual progress. In this way a series of novel situations has been produced for thought. Each such occasion has found the religious thinkers unprepared. Something which has been proclaimed to be vital has, finally, after struggle, distress and anathema been modified and otherwise interpreted. The next generation of religious apologists then congratulates the religious world on the deeper insight which has been gained. The result of the continued repetition of this undignified retreat during many generations has at last almost entirely

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destroyed the intellectual authority of religious thinkers. Consider this contrast; when Darwin or Einstein proclaim theories which modify our ideas, it is a triumph for science. We do not go about saying there is another defeat for science, because its old ideas have been abandoned. We know that another step of scientific insight has been gained."

The loss in the moral and spiritual field has been even more vital and conspicuous, especially of recent years. There is no need to enlarge upon the matter. The sickness at the heart of Christian life and thought which made these humiliations possible has been the decay of spirituality. Love for God, fear of God, trust in God’s; overruling providence and ceaseless care have been no longer active forces in the world. The religious thinkers find themselves baffled by the portents of the time: when men in disillusionment, in anguish and despair come to them for counsel, seek from them comfort, hope, some intelligible idea as to what this cataclysm means and whence it came and how it should be met, they are completely at a loss. Though the Church for nineteen centuries has proclaimed, and has enshrined in its creeds, the emphatic and repeated promise of Christ that He would come again in power and great glory to judge the earth, would exalt the righteous and inaugurate the Kingdom of God among mankind, yet they believe and teach that through all these years of deepening tribulation no Hand has been outstretched from heaven, no light of Guidance has been shed upon the earth; that God has withheld from His children in their deepest need His succour, His comfort and His love; that Christ has utterly forgotten His promise or is impotent to redeem it and has permitted His universal Church to sink in ruin without evincing the least small sign of His interest or His concern.

Meantime the Bahá’í Message has kindled once more on earth the ancient fire of faith that Jesus kindled long ago, the fire of spontaneous love for God and man, a love that changes all life and longs to show itself in deeds of devotion and of self—sacrifice even to death and martyrdom. To them who have recognised Christ‘s voice again in this Age has been given in renewed freshness and beauty the vision of the Kingdom of God as Jesus and the Book of Revelation gave it—the same vision, but clearer now and on a larger

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scale and in more detail. A new enthusiasm has been theirs, a power that nothing could gainsay or resist. Their words reached the hearts of men. With a courage, a determination that only divine love could quicken or support they rose in the face of ruthless persecution to bear witness to their faith. Fearless, though comparatively few, weak in themselves but invincible in God’s Cause, they have now at the close of these eighty years carried that Faith far and wide through the globe, entered well nigh a hundred countries, translated their literature into more than fifty languages1 gathered adherents from East and West, from many races, many nations, many creeds, many traditions, and have established themselves as a worldcommunity, worshipping one God under one Name.

The Bahá’í Faith today presents the Christian Churches with the most tremendous challenge ever offered them in their long history: a challenge, and an opportunity. It is the plain duty of every earnest Christian in this illumined Age to investigate for himself with an open and fearless mind the purpose and the teachings of this Faith and to determine whether the collective centre for all the constructive forces of this time be not the Messenger from God, Bahá’u’lláh, He and no other; and whether the way to a better, kinder, happier world will not lie open as soon as we accept the Announcement our rulers rejected.

1 This was written in 1954: the comparable statement now (1963) would be, “

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“0 Kings of the earth! He Who is the Sovereign Lord of all is come. The Kingdom is God’s, the Omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting. Worship none but God and with radiant hearts lift up your faces unto your Lord, the Lord of all names. This is a Revelation 10 which whatever ye possess can never be compared could ye but know it.

“Ye are but vassals, 0 Kings of the earth! He Who is the King of kings hath appeared, arrayed in His most wondrous glory, and is summoning you unto Himself, the Help in Peril, the SeIf-Subsisting. Take heed lest pride deter you from recognizing the Source of Revelation, lest the things of this world shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is the Creator of Heaven. Arise and serve Him Who is the Desire of all nations, Who hath created you through a word from Him and ordained you to be for all time emblems of His sovereignty. . . .

“0 Kings of Christendom! Heard ye not the saying of Jesus, the Spirit of God, ‘I go away and come again unto you’? Wherefore, then, did ye fail, when He did come again unto you in the clouds of heaven, to draw nigh unto Him, that ye might behold His face and be of them that attained His Presence. In another passage He saith: ‘When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.’ And yet behold how when He did bring the truth ye refused to turn your faces towards Him and persisted in disporting yourselves with your pastimes and your fancies. . . .”

. . . have established that Faith in every

state. territory and major island of the world. translated their literature into more than 400 languages, gathered adherents

from East and West, from virtually all races. nations. creeds and traditions . . .’

2. BAHA’T: World Faith for Modern Man

By ARTHUR DAHL

Nature and Purpose

The Bahá’í Faith is a new, independent, universal religion, whose goal is to revitalize mankind spiritually, to break down the barriers between peoples and lay the foundation for a unified world society based upon principles of justice and love.

The Faith recognizes that the major problem of our age is the resolution of a series of deeply ingrained conflicts which

are interrelated and penetrate various levels of society: conflicts between ideologies, nations, religions, races and classes. Such conflicts, when combined with the weapons of annihilation our age has produced, threaten the future of civilization as we know it. They misdirect the efl'orts of science and technology at a time when man is on the verge of discovering the mysteries of interplanetary space and harnessing new sources

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of power. They consume an inordinate proportion of our productive energies, and divert attention from the conquest of our natural enemies: ignorance, disease, hunger.

World opinion increasingly recognizes that the solution of these conflicts must be applied on a world level to have a lasting chance of maintaining peace. The conviction also grows that all these conflicts have as a root cause the lack of a spiritual dynamic, a moral or ethical power strong enough to counteract divisive social forces and channel men’s efi‘orts in constructive directions. Yet when we look at the field of religion, the historic source of spiritual guidance and assistance, we find that the major religions are sharply divided and are themselves one of the principal areas of conflict. They exist exclusive of each other and have, down through the centuries, developed in their followers widely diverging attitudes toward life, which hinder general understanding and co-operation between peoples.

Since a lasting solution of our political and economic problems can only be achieved on a world level, something must first be done to bridge the vast spiritual gap existing between the followers of the major faiths. It is difficult to visualize, for example, the establishment of any genuine world government while the various segments of the world’s population differ so markedly from each other in their fundamental attitudes, purposes and values. What is needed is a new spiritual approach which will at once reconcile the basic contradictions in major religious beliefs, be consistent with modern scientific and rational principles, and offer to all peoples values and a meaning to life that they can accept and apply. To meet this need the Bahá’í Faith presents challenging teachings, founded on the concept of progressive revelation.

Progressive Revelation

The main stumbling block to religious unity has been the insistence of each major faith that its Founder and Prophet possesses some degree of exclusive authority or finality. The Bahá’í Faith teaches that this traditional division has resulted from a misinterpretation of the symbolic words of these great spiritual figures. In the Bahá’í view, the unknowable force which is responsible for all creation,

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God, guides and assists mankind, by periodically sending him an Educator. This Educator, a man physically like other men, is selected by God and divinely inspired to carry out three functions: (1) to restate the eternal spiritual truths, such as the Golden Rule, which are to be found in most religious teachings; (2) to bring laws and teachings which apply to the needs of society at His particular time but which are not necessarily meant to be permanent; and (3) to release throughout the world a spiritual force, intangible but very measurable in its effects, which eventually causes millions of people to respond to the Prophet and His teachings, recognizing both as being from God, and enabling the new religion to be the major impetus for the next cyclical upturn in civilization.

The key to the Bahá’í interpretation of the meaning of religion in the development of society is its emphasis on the periodic, evolutionary nature of this influence. If God chooses to guide mankind at all, it is logical that He would do so from the very beginning of man’s existence as a species, and continue this help indefinitely. And since change and progress is the characteristic of all other aspects of our lives, why should it not also apply to our spiritual development? By regarding God’s Messengers as divinely inspired, speaking the Word of God, occupying a level of existence well above that of ordinary man, Bahá’ís revere Them in their exalted position of spiritual leadership and as a source of man’s knowledge of God, but they do not worship these Messengers as God incarnate. By accepting the Founders of all the existing major faiths, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus Christ and Muhammad, as equally occupying the station of Manifestations of God, and recognizing the religions they established as being genuine and true expressions of God’s message, the Bahá’í view reconciles the basic concepts of these faiths without requiring repudiation of loyalty to or belief in the divinity of, the founders of any. The wide differences in their teachings today can be explained by the alterations made by successive Prophets in the laws applicable to the changing needs of society, and by the fact that many of the current teachings of the orthodox churches stem, not from the original words of the Prophets, but from subsequently

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added dogma and interpretations of fallible church leaders. In effect the Bahá’ís regard all these major faiths as being a part of the same evolving religion, which has been restated and reinvigorated periodically by the coming of a new Prophet, drawing on the same source of wisdom and spiritual power.

Bringing this concept down to our own age, Bahá’ís believe that this period in history is comparable in many respects to the ages in the past when the great Prophets have come to enlighten and guide mankind. Certainly the world has turned away from religion, at least in its pure sense as an influence and inspiration in the daily lives and actions of large bodies of people. As a result we are lacking a basic morality and have permitted a state of mind to develop in which conflict has prospered and become the dominant fact and critical problem of our time. Many people are looking for a spiritual revitalization but are divided as to how to achieve it. If the lessons of the past are meaningful, it will come, but through the appearance of a great new spiritual leader, rather than from the renewal of any of the religious institutions of the past.

And that is exactly what the Bahá’í Faith claims has happened. Bahá’u’lláh, who founded the Faith, is accepted by Bahá’ís as the Prophet of God for this day, possessed of the same divine guidance and spiritual dynamic as Christ, Muhammad, Moses and the others and come to the world to perform the same three functions. He is believed to have the same potential for counteracting dominant negative influences and for leading mankind to a new level of peaceful, unified and constructive existence.

History of the Bahá’í Faith

On May 23, 1844, a young Persian declared that He was the forerunner of an important new spiritual figure, and took the title of Bab (Gate). His teachings were profound and were widely accepted throughout Persia. But they were also considered heresy by the fanatical Islamic mullas, who taught that Muhammad was the greatest and the last of the Prophets, and who feared that the Babis represented a threat to their entrenched position. Therefore the Islamic clergy combined with the corrupt government to stamp out the new Faith by

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force. During two decades more than 20,000 Babis were martyred, often being cruelly tortured first. The Báb Himself was publicly shot in 1850 before some 10,000 spectators. This period is one of the heroic and dramatic episodes in modern history and deserves to be better known in the Western World.

One of the most active Babis was Mirza Husayn ‘Ali, son of one of the fléh’s ministers, who from an early age had shown more interest in spiritual concerns than in the world of politics and society. He embraced the Babi Faith in its early stages, and demonstrated a profound grasp of the deeper meanings of the Báb’s teachings. In 1853, in prison because of His Babi activities, He had an intimation that He was the great Prophet foretold by the Bath, but He did not announce this publicly until 1863. He took the title of Bahá’u’lláh (Glory of God). Most of the Babis accepted His claim and became Bahá’ís (Followers of the Glory). though there were some defections on the part of disappointed would-be leaders.

Many people today tend to think of Prophets in terms of past ages. It seems hard to connect these remote and holy figures with the modern world and everyday problems. Yet Bahá’u’lláh not only lived in our time, but was contemporary in the fullest sense of the word. His teachings are not only extremely advanced, but personally He had a profound influence upon all who came in contact with Him, an influence which will continue to spread for centuries. The distinguished orientalist of Cambridge University, Professor Edward G. Browne, who visited Bahá’u’lláh in 1890 and was the only Westerner to record such a meeting, wrote vividly of Him: “The face of Him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one’s very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow; while the deep lines on the forehead and face implied an age which the jet-black hair and beard flowing down in indistinguishable luxuriance almost to the waist seemed to belie. No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before One who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain.”

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lowers were kept prisoners until Bahá’u’lláh’s death in 1892 and for sixteen years thereafter. The last years of Bahá’u’lláh’s life were spent at the fortress city of ‘Akká and at nearby Bahjí. During all these years of imprisonment He actively worked to establish a firm foundation for the new Faith through copious and inspired writings, and through administering its affairs by correspondence. His strong letters to the reigning monarchs of that time accurately foretold the trend of modern history. His spiritual writings represent the Scriptures of the Bahá’í Faith, in which for the first time the Holy Book of a major religion is available in the authenticated handwriting of its Founder, or signed by the Founder if in the handwriting of a secretary. These writings are accepted by Bahá’ís as the Word of God for this age and an important portion of them is now available in English. In His will, Bahá’u’lláh appointed His eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to be, after His passing, the central Figure of the Faith. While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is not regarded, in any sense of the word, as a divinely inspired Prophet like Bahá’u’lláh or the Báb, he is recognized as the perfect exemplar of the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings as applied to one man’s life. His explanations of the meanings of these teachings, written in a somewhat more western style than his Father’s, are authorized by Bahá’u’lláh in His will and are accepted as authentic Bahá’í scriptu‘re. He lived a Christlike life and was loved and revered by all who came in contact with him. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his entourage were freed from prison by the Young Turk revolution of 1908. He moved to Haifa, and today the international headquarters of the Faith are there on Mount Carmel, where a beautiful series of Shrines and gardens are being constructed. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited Europe in 1911 and 1913 and America in 1912, where he spoke to audiences from coast to coast. He was knighted by the British Commonwealth in 1920 for his humanitarian activities during World War 1. He died in 1921. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s will established the institution of the Guardianship, and appointed his grandson, Shoghi Effendi, then a student at Oxford, as Guardian. For thirty—six years Shoghi Effendi labored strenuously to strengthen and develop the Bahá’í Administrative Order. His own writings have expanded the

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understanding of the Faith and given it direction during an exceedingly difficult period in its history. His vision of the Faith, his understanding of world conditions and his superior abilities as an administrator have been considered by Bahá’ís as the product of divine guidance granted to him in his position as Interpreter of the Bahá’í Teachings.

On November 4, 1957, Shoghi Effendi passedkaway suddenly in London of a heart attack. Since it had not been possible, under the conditions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s will to appoint a successor, the direction of the Faith was carried on, until 1963, by the 27 Hands of the Cause. Appointed by the Guardian as Chief Stewards of the Faith, they continued the plan of development launched by him in 1953, brought it to a successful conclusion in 1963, and organized the election of the Universal House of Justice, which is now the supreme authority in the Faith. This institution was created by Bahá’u’lláh in His “Most Holy Book” and assured of divine guidance.

Religious Teachings

Bahá’u’lláh re-established and re-affirmed the Covenant between God and man, the glorious promise recorded in various religions of the past, but largely ignored today. Under this Covenant God agrees to guide and assist man towards universal spiritual civilization through His Manifestations, but man, on the other hand, accepts a continuous responsibility to love God and to follow His precepts and laws, as given by the Prophets, at all times and in all aspects of his life. It is the lack of responsibility toward his Creator that makes modern man so morally rudderless and thus susceptible to the prejudices and conflicts which work against his own best interest.

The Bahá’í teachings require an extremely high standard of moral conduct, Monogamy is enjoined on all, and chaste conduct is prescribed. Marriage requires the consent of all living parents, and divorce must be preceded by a year of trial separation and attempts at reconciliation. Alcohol and narcotics are prohibited except for medical purposes. Purity, honesty, generosity and selflessness are regarded as fundamental virtues; and a sense of responsibility for one‘s fellowmen is emphasized. Backbiting and gossiping are condemned. Bahá’ís are not straight-laced,

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but are encouraged to enjoy the legitimate beauties and pleasures this world offers.

Bahá’u’lláh reaffirms belief in the immortality of the individual soul and extends man’s knowledge of the nature of life after death. Man’s purpose on this earth is to love and worship God, to gain knowledge of Him through the teachings of the Prophets and to progress spiritually through applying these teachings in his daily life. Progress so attained will be carried forward after the soul is released from the body and moves to its next level of existence. This is the measured reward of spiritual achievement, so different from the assignment of the soul to a literal heaven or hell.

The Bahá’í writings also contain many explanations of the more difficult and symbolic sections of the Scriptures of past religions, clarifying questions that have been sources of religious division and relating many of the prophetic passages to actual events. The approach is rational and in accord with modern scientific principles, yet also includes an element of faith in areas which go beyond natural law as now comprehended.

Prayer plays an important role in Bahá’í worship, and many beautiful prayers have been revealed in the writings. The effect of the whole Bahá’í approach to life is to make the individual believer a balanced, welladjusted person, at home in his environment. This is not an ascetic Faith, but teaches that the most spiritual life is lived actively in society, contributing toward the productive process and carrying the principles of Bahá’u’lláh to people through personal example and teaching.

V Political and Social Teachings

The Bahá’í Faith offers more comprehensive teachings on political, economic and social subjects than other major religions of the past. It should be borne in mind that Bahá’u’lláh enunciated these principles in the period between 1863 and 1892, when monarchy was the prevailing form of government and the industrial revolution was barely getting under way.

The keynote of these teachings is the principle of the oneness of mankind. In the past, religions have been regional in their impact and influence. But in our age, for the

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first time, the world has become one physically, and so for men to flourish under such conditions they must also achieve spiritual, political and economic unity. Through the principle 01" progressive revelation, Bahá’u’lláh has made possible the reconciliation of the doctrines of the major faiths. It is envisaged that Bahá’í will gradually lead the peoples to the adoption of a universal faith, which will close the spiritual and cultural gaps that now exist. Included in this process will be a realization that our basic loyalty is to mankind as a whole, rather than to 'any nation or smaller group. This will temper the intensity of nationalism, one of the major sources of conflict today.

To implement this principle of the oneness of mankind, Bahá’u’lláh advocated a federal world government, with 'such necessary attendant institutions as a world court and an international police force. An international language should be learned by all in addition to one’s native tongue, as an important means of increasing understanding through better communication. A universal approach to economic problems should be adopted, gradually eliminating the barriers to free world trade. Work performed in the spirit of service should be regarded as a form of worship of God. Wars must be abolished and the full energies of men concentrated on constructive pursuits. Extremes of wealth and poverty should be eliminated, and men should be happily willing to aid their less fortunate fellowmen.

Bahá’u’lláh strongly urged the elimination of all forms of prejudice and superstition, particularly racial prejudice. This issue is dealt with more specifically and emphatically than in past religions, and is regarded as a spiritual responsibility, not merely a humanitarian or educational problem.

The Bahá’í Faith also teaches that religion and science are not contradictory, but are in harmony and accord. Each deals with an aspect of existence necessary to man’s progress, and should be regarded as complementary allies in man‘s eternal struggle to better himself. The Faith also advocates universal education, the equality of men and women and the independent investigation of truth. No coercion should be used to induce anyone to accept any particular point of view with respect to the fundamental questions of

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life; but it is taught that everyone should face these questions squarely, study and consider various approaches and consider that making a decision and acting upon it is both a privilege and a responsibility.

Bahá’ís consider that together these principles represent a blueprint of the world society of the future, which God, through'Bahá’u’lláh, has given to mankind as the sole remedy for the problems engulfing the modern world. It is incumbent upon us to put these advanced principles into practice if we are to avoid selfdestruction and realize the tremendous potential for constructive development modern science and technology have made possible. None of these principles can be separated from the others; and for their full realization all are dependent upon the spiritual regeneration which must occur before mankind will be ideologically ready to apply them successfully. There are many deeply entrenched prejudices and attitudes which must first be overcome; only the power of God, which has brought about equally dramatic alterations in social trends in the past, can be expected to achieve this.

Administrative Order

As a new religious expression operating under vastly changed conditions, the organizational structure of the Bahá’í Faith differs in important respects from the organization of the orthodox faiths of the past. In the Bahá’í Faith there is no professional clergy. The various functions of administration, teaching, welfare, and worship are carried out by Bahá’ís, none of whom ever have clerical distinction, but are elected by democratic process to administrative posts or arise voluntarily to serve according to preparation and ability. The unit at the base of the structure is the Local Spiritual Assembly, which consists of nine members elected annually, and exists wherever nine or more adult Bahá’ís live in a city, town or judicial district. It can appoint committees to handle specific tasks, but is responsible for the progress and well-being of the Faith and of the believers in its area. Similarly, the National Spiritual Assembly, also with nine elected members, is responsible for the affairs of the Faith at national level, while the Universal House of Justice is the world authority for the Bahá’ís.

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Great emphasis is placed in the Faith on a spiritual approach to group consultation. Much effort is made to leave behind the human tendencies which so often cause groups to break down into petty bickering and unproductive conflicts. Each member is expected to advance his views as ably as he can. Then a genuine effort is made to develop a group view which represents the combined wisdom and can be wholeheartedly accepted by all, who then relinquish any personal identification with their original positions.

The activities of the Faith are financed solely by voluntary contributions from Bahá’ís. It is not possible to accept contributions from non-Bahá’ís for other than charitable purposes. Collections are never taken at Bahá’í meetings. By orderly process each community of Bahá’ís establishes a Fund. To local, national and international Funds the believers contribute, without pledge or pressure.

There are, at present, four Bahá’í Houses of Worship, at Wilmette, Illinois; Kampala, Uganda; Sydney, Australia and Frankfurt, Germany. The first to be completed was that at Wilmette, on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is recognized as one of the great examples of architecture in the United States and annually attracts more than 100,000 visitors. Nearby is the Faith’s first humanitarian institution in North America, the Bahá’í Home, open to men and women sixty-five and over with no distinction as to racial or religious backgrounds.

In time there will be Bahá’í Houses of Worship in most localities, but at the moment, while numbers and resources are relatively small, there are only a few modest local centers, and most communities hold their meetings in private homes or rented halls. Bahá’ís gather together every nineteen days for worship, discussion of community affairs and fellowship. They observe a number of Bahá’í Holy Days, with non-Bahá’ís being invited to certain of the commemorations.

Teaching activities for the public are at the discretion of the individual communities, and take many forms. The emphasis at this time is to spread the Faith as widely as possible.

Bahá’ís have a conviction that the administrative order which they are building, putting all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh into practice as completely as they can, is actually

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a laboratory or pilot plant model of the world order of the future. It is a miniature international society, without nationalistic or ideological conflicts, without racial bias, without class distinction, without the barriers of religious differences. Bahá’ís are now settled in more than 259 countries and dependencies, and come from every conceivable national, racial, religious and class background. They believe that in time, as the world seeks desperately for a way out of chaos, it will become aware of the example of the Bahá’í society in its midst — a society founded on spiritual principles, yet blending these with advanced secular concepts to achieve a successfully functioning social organism. The world then might be ready to follow.

C (Inclusion

The Bahá’í Faith is a religion, a society and a way of life. It offers spiritual truths the world needs but from which it has turned away and it provides laws for regulating society that are new and suited to the requirements of our own age. It is still in its infancy, with its greatest accomplishments and period of growth lying ahead. In line with the experience of many older religions, its progress at this stage is slow, for its ideas are advanced,

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and it demands of its followers many adjustments and sacrifices. In return it offers them not only an answer to the personal problems that a complex, high tension modern society creates, but also the inspiring realization that they are participating in the formative years of a Faith destined to greatness — a Faith which is nurturing God’s newest message to the world and is the channel through which all mankind will be led to the unity that is its only salvation.

In the words of Shoghi Effendi: “The principle of the Oneness of Mankind . . . represents the consummation of human evolution — an evolution that has had its earliest beginnings in the birth of family life, its subsequent development in the achievement of tribal solidarity, leading in turn to the constitution of the city-state, and expanding later into the institution of the independent and sovereign nations.

“The principle of the Oneness of Mankind, as proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, carries with it no more and no less than a solemn assertion that attainment to this final stage in this stupendous evolution is not only necessary but inevitable, that its realization is fast approaching, and that nothing short of a power that is born of God can succeed in establishing it.”

3. THE LORD IS ONE

By SEYMOUR WEINBERG

THE well—known author, Pierre Van Paassen, speaking before a completely filled auditorium at the Brooklyn Jewish Center some years ago, declared: “There are two great prophecies in the Old Testament. One deals with the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the other with the establishment of world peace. The fact that the prophecies dealing with the return of the Jews to the Holy Land have been fulfilled, gives us the assurance that those dealing with world peace will also be realized.”

The certitude expressed in these words testifies to the renewed faith engendered by a thoughtful contemplation of the restoration of Israel. What perspective can one arrive at, as he gazes upon the vast historical process

associated with the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, other than that the destiny of this people is in the hands ofa higher Power? A brief survey of the highlights of this dynamically unfolding drama affirms with unmistakable clarity the existence of an underlying Divine Plan.

More than 3000 years ago, while leading His people to the Promised Land, Moses revealed the outstanding features of this Divine Plan. Referring to the ultimate destiny of the Jewish people He declared: “That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion upon thee, and return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord hath scattered thee.” (Deut. 30:3)

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This prophecy of the scattering and return was reaffirmed many times by the other Old Testament Prophets. The greatest of these, Isaiah, categorically asserted that the Almighty would “assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” (Isaiah 11 :12)

The fulfillment of the initial stage of this portentous prophecy occurred with the destruction of the Temple, the razing of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews to all four corners of the globel. A people, whose civilization had during the reign of Solomon achieved such splendor that, in the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “even the Greek philosophers journeyed to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of its sages,” were now severed from their homeland, and entered upon a period of humiliation and persecution that was destined to last for well-nigh 2000 years.

In commenting upon this precipitous turn of events during the course of an address on religion and civilization delivered at San Francisco‘s Temple-Emanuel in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated: “From this review of the history of the Jewish people we learn that the foundation of the religion of God laid by His Holiness Moses was the cause of their eternal honor and national prestige, the animating impulse of their advancement and racial supremacy and the source of that excellence which will always command the respect and reverence of those who understand their peculiar destiny and outcome. The dogmas and blind imitations which gradually obscured the reality of the religion of God proved to be Israel’s destructive influences causing the expulsion of these chosen people from the Holy Land of their Covenant and promise.”

Many years earlier, while still a prisoner in Palestine, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had predicted that the Jews would, in this age, return to the Holy Land to the extent that all Palestine would become their home.

The first signs that the promise of the return would be realized appeared in the nineteenth century when the various nations of Europe and America, one after another, granted the Jews many civil and legal rights which had been denied them during the previous centuries. Its focus became sharper in the year 1844 with the signing by the Turkish

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Government of the “Edict of Toleration.” This edict permitted the Jews to return to the Holy Land, from which they had been rigidly excluded for 1260 years. The process of the return was further intensified in 1867, when the followers of the Jewish Faith were given the right to own real estate in Palestine. Its momentum continued to be accelerated as groups of Jews from various countries, responding to the inspiration of their hearts, and without the stimulus of any organized program, voluntarily settled in the Holy Land.

In 1917 with the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the Government of Great Britain declared that it viewed with favor “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The “return” received the almost unanimous moral and financial support of world—wide Jewry as a result of the rise of Hitlerism, and the subsequent persecution of the Jews. Indeed it may be said that the sacrifice of the murdered multitudes and the suffering of the pitiful survivors of this persecution created a moral force which eventually led to the resolution of the United Nations for the establishment of the State of Israel and to its subsequent recognition by the leading nations of the world. The permanency of this “return” has been demonstrated again and again by the new state’s ability to withstand the attacks of its hostile neighbors and by its amazing growth and progress.

FULFILLMENT OF BIBLXCAL PROPHECY

As one reviews this entire historical panorama with its remarkable fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, one is led to pay homage to the relevance and wisdom of the Old Testament. Might not a closer perusal of this sacred scripture unfold a deeper understanding of the present world crisis which is threatening to engulf all humanity? For in the Old Testament the prophecies pertaining to the return of the Jews are synchronized with those prophecies relating to the establishment of world peace and the founding of a worldembracing Divine civilization sustained by the unifying power of a universal world faith.

“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9)

“And the Lord shall be King over all the

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earth: in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one.” (Zechariah 14:9)

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:2—4)

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6,7)

If these prophecies are valid, what is preventing their fulfillment? Must humanity undergo the same intense suflering which afflicted European Jewry before its divine destiny will be realized —— or can the present generation learn from the lessons of the past?

THE WARNING THAT PRECEDES CRIISIS

One lesson which the Old Testament teaches again and again is that before every great crisis in human affairs, before every earthshaking calamity and judgment, God has always given His warning and guidance before the calamity. God spoke to Noah before the flood, giving Him a detailed plan for the building of an ark. This ark became the instrument for the continuance of life and the salvation of humanity.

This same principle operated with respect to Jonah and Nineveh, Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah, Moses and the Egyptians, and the Hebrew Prophets and ancient Israel. Has

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it ceased to operate in today’s world at a time when humanity faces not the possibility but the probability of a world-wide calamity unparalleled in recorded history, a calamity whose potential destructive power recalls the judgment so vividly described in the twentyfourth'chapter of Isaiah? Is there not then a prophetic Voice for our time, clearly illuminating the path ahead and guiding mankind safely to the promised land of the future — the Divine world civilization?

APPEARANCE or THE PROMISED TEACHER

In Haifa, Israel, about halfway up Mt. Carmel, there stands a majestic goldendomed building which is integrally connected with an affirmative answer to this vital question. An inquiry about the meaning of this unusual structure reveals, that Israel is holy not only to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but that it is also the administrative and spiritual center of the youngest world religion, the Bahá’í Faith.

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that the mysterious process of world religion repeated itself in the nineteenth century with the birth of this new world Faith. Yet, the challenging historical pattern of the great religions — that of Messianic expectancy, the appearance of the promised Teacher, His claim to being the Messenger of God, the revelation of Holy Scripture, and the eventual triumph of His Cause despite overwhelming opposition and persecution — did reoccur, and almost in our own time.

An examination of the history of this young Faith reveals that it arose out of the Messianic traditions in the Faith of Muhammad — a religion which affirms the Divine Missions of Abraham, Moses and Jesus — in the same way that Christianity emerged from Judaism. Its Forerunner, the youthful Bab, who proclaimed the coming of the great Messiah, suffered martyrdom under circumstances offering a remarkable parallel to the execution of John the Baptist and the crucifixion of Christ. Over twenty thousand of its first followers chose death, often through excruciating torture, rather than renounce their newly-won faith. A life of suffering and sacrifice, so typical of the past religious Founders, repeated itself in the life of its Founder, Bahá’u’lláh (Glory of God), who,

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like Moses, Jesus and Muhammad before Him was also a descendant of Abraham. The workings of a mysterious destiny eventually exiled Bahá’u’lláh from His native land of Persia, where His Faith was first proclaimed, and banished Him f om place to place until He was finally imprisoned by the Sultan of Turkey in the fortress-city of ‘Akká, Palestine, the very city designated by the Prophet Hosea as “a door of hope.” From this prison in the Holy Land, and in direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy (Isaiah 2:3, 4), Bahá’u’lláh directed His warnings and teachings to the political and religious leaders of the nineteenth century world — they in whose hands lay the immediate destiny of mankind — and He was ignored. The contrast between these warnings and teachings and the ominously-threatening nuclear holocaust hovering over mankind today, demonstrates conclusively that the fateful theme underlying the biblical dramas of Noah and the Ark and the Hebrew Prophets and ancient Israel has repeated itself in our time.

In His Message Bahá’u’lláh declared that, through the providence of God mankind has entered a new age, the age of world unity. A higher degree of faith and a more universal consciousness are absolutely necessary, He said, if man is to function successfully in this new day. The projection of the racial prejudices and narrow nationalistic attitudes of the past into the new era, and the continued insistence upon limited religious loyalty and understanding will bring unparalleled suffering to mankind. In this new age, Bahá’u’lláh affirmed, “It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”

THE ONENESS OF RELIGION

The universal understanding of religion which He inculcated stressed that all the great world Faiths are part of the plan of God. There is only one religion of God, Bahá’u’lláh explained further, but this religion is a dynamic, progressive Faith restated from age to age by the great Teachers, such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad to meet the needs of the age for which they come. Although seemingly different, these great Teachers possess the same Reality and reflect the same

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Light. If we would observe with discriminating eyes, He declares, we would “behold them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech and proclaiming the same Faith.” The eternal purpose of their teachings is to “heal the sickness of a divided humanity” by creating love and unity among the members of the community. In this new era when the world is pressed to become one community, the restatement of the Religion of God for our age, which Bahá’u’lláh declared God had commissioned Him to reveal, demonstrates clearly the fundamental oneness of religion and the fundamental oneness of mankind. It provides for the effective unity and reconciliation of the great world religions through the establishment of a universal world faith.

To Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh specifically wrote: “That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician.” That He was the "all-powerful and inspired Physician,” the “Father,” “Counsellor,” “Prince of Peace,” “Lord of Hosts” promised by Isaiah, that it was His Revelation which the Old Testament Prophets had extolled as the “Day of God,” Bahá’u’lláh affirmed in passage after passage of unequalled beauty and power. Addressing the Jewish people specifically He wrote:

“The Most Great Law is come, and the Ancient Beauty ruleth upon the throne of David. Thus hath My Pen spoken that which the histories of bygone ages have related.”

That the long—awaited Messiah, the “Father” promised by Isaiah, who would rule upon the throne of David, could have appeared seems too incredible to believe. Did we ever really expect this promise to be fulfilled — especially in our own time? Yet, if the assertion that the Messiah has come challenges our sense of reality, can it be said to be any more fantastic than the fact that an accident or the judgment of one individual can set into motion the unimaginably destructive process of thermonuclear war? What of the successful re—establishment of the State of Israel in our day — a hope and yearning that

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was transmitted through faith from century to century despite the seemingly utter impossibility of ever realizing such a consummation? It is clear that the signs and portents of our age require every devotee of truth and justice, every lover of humanity, and every believer in Almighty God to consider carefully the claims of the Founder of the first great world Faith to make its appearance in the world in over 1260 years.

THE UNFOLDMENT 0F GOD’S PLAN

To be a Jew is to share in the history, traditions and devotions of a unique people, and to be loyal to the highest ideals of that tradition. It is clear that in ancient Israel the religion of God was indissolubly linked with the national life of the people. The Holy Scripture, however, made it very clear that God’s religion would not remain the exclusive possession of one people, but would grow and extend its influence until it embraced all mankind. To attempt to preserve the religion of God in a crystallized exclusive outward form, instead of growing with it and imbibing its inner spirit, was to invite disaster, not for the religion, but for the nation. Moses, Himself, sharply reminds us of this in the following passages:

“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” (Deut. 18:15)

“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.” (Deut. 28:15, 28:63, 64)

God’s religion, in point of fact, continued to unfold through time. Its twin functions of elevating and ennobling the nature of man and meeting the social needs of an ever-evolving humanity were extended to include a much wider circle of mankind. It continued to prepare its followers for the appearance of the great Messiah, who would establish the Universal Divine Civilization, the Kingdom

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of God on earth. That the missions of Jesus Christ and Muhammad were associated with this high purpose was acknowledged by the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides, and was clearly set forth by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh and the authorized Interpreter of His Teachings during the course of His address at the Temple-Emanuel in San Francisco.

“Throughout Europe,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained, “there was not a copy of the Old Testament; but consider this carefully and judge it aright; through the instrumentality of Christ, through the translation of the New Testament, the little volume of the Gospel, the Old Testament, the Torah, has been translated into six hundred languages and spread everywhere in the world. The names of the Hebrew prophets became household words among the nations, who believed that the children of Israel were verily the chosen people of God, a holy nation under the special blessing and protection of God, and that therefore the prophets who had arisen in Israel were the Daysprings of Revelation and brilliant stars in the heaven of the will of God.

“Therefore His Holiness Christ really promulgated Judaism for He was a Jew and not opposed to the Jews. He did not deny the Prophethood of Moses; on the contrary He proclaimed and ratified it. He did not invalidate the Torah; He spread its teachings. That portion of the ordinances of Moses which concerned transactions and unimportant conditions underwent transformation, but the essential teachings of Moses were revoiced and confirmed by Christ without change.”

ETERNAL AND TEMPORARY ASPECTS OF

RELIGION

Earlier in the same address, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had elucidated this same point, declaring: “Each of the divine religions is separable into two divisions. One concerns the world of morality and the ethical training of human nature. It is directed to the advancement of the world of humanity in general; it reveals and inculcates the knowledge of God and makes possible the discovery of the verities of life. This is ideal and spiritual teaching, the essential quality of divine religion and not subject to change or transformation. It is the one foundation of all the religions of God.

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Therefore the religions are essentially one and the same.

“The second classification or division comprises social laws and regulations applicable to human conduct. This is not the essential spiritual quality of religion. It is subject to change and transformation according to the exigencies and requirements of time and place.”

If one is fair in his judgment, can he deny that with the appearance of Christ, the universalizing process of the religion of God entered a new and vital stage in its evolution? Who knows to what heights the Hebrew nation would have risen, had it hearkened to God at that critical point in the evolution of His Faith? Who knows how much further advanced the world itself would now be if a spirit of dedication to truth instead of outward conformity had prevailed at that time?

The past cannot be undone and the destruction of the Temple and the obliteration of Jewish national life some seventy years after Christ’s birth are now facts of history. A knowledge of the past is important insofar as it prevents the same or similar mistakes from recurring. The nation of Israel exists today because of the loyalties and strengths of the Jewish people, but primarily because of the mercy of God. Despite the past, God was faithful to His Promise. He restored their nationhood. Exactly as foretold in the eleventh chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, this great event took place during the “reign” of “the Promise of all ages” — Bahá’u’lláh the Lord of Hosts.

THE SECURITY OF ALL NATIONS

The promise of the return of the Jews to the Holy Land has now been substantially realized. Its further efflorescence depends primarily upon the fulfillment of that other great prophecy in the Old Testament, the establishment of world peace and “the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice upon the earth.” Indeed, the future well-being and security of all nations and peoples is indissolubly linked to the attainment of this supreme aim.

The Bahá’í Faith, “the mightiest instru 1185

ment” which God has ordained for the accomplishment of this glorious goal, has now firmly established itself in more than 250 countries of the world. It has won to its fold Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian, white and colored, European and Asiatic, and has emerged as a closely—knit, organically-united world civilization in embryo. This world community, founded upon the principle of the oneness of mankind, freed from all racial, religious, national and class prejudices, and embracing the diverse religions, races and nations of the world, offers a visible demonstration to an unbelieving world, that world order, world unity and world peace can be achieved.

“0, how blessed the day,” Bahá’u’lláh has exclaimed, “when, aided by the grace and might of the one true God, man will have freed himself from the bondage and corruption of the world and all that is therein, and will have attained unto true and abiding rest beneath the shadow of the Tree of Knowledge!” And again, “Verily, I say this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face and hear the Voice of the Promised One. The Call of God hath been raised, and the light of His Countenance hath been lifted up upon men. It behoveth every man to blot out the trace of every idle word from the tablet of his heart, and to gaze, with an open and unbiased mind, on the signs of His Revelation, the proofs of His Mission, and the tokens of His glory."

“The time foreordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the earth is now come. The promises of God, as recorded in the holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled. Out of Zion hath gone forth the Law of God, and Jerusalem, and the hills and land thereof, are filled with the glory of His Revelation. Happy is the man that pondereth in his heart that which hath been revealed in the Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Meditate upon this, O ye beloved of God, and let your ears be attentive unto His Word, so that ye may, by His grace and mercy, drink your fill from the crystal waters of constancy, and become as steadfast and immovable as the mountain in His Cause.”

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THE BAHA’l WORLD

4. A SAMPLER FROM MAHMUD’S DIARY By MARZIEH GAIL

WE tend to forget what a star ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in the worldly sense, what a dazzling personality. We would be much mistaken if we thought of Him as an ivory—tower philosopher, a desert saint or One who spent His days only among the poor—although He loved them so much. The truth is that He Who was the perfect model for all Bahá’ís was splendid, sophisticated, in the good sense a man of the world; that He was equally at home in a palace or a hovel, with a beggar, scholar, or prince. He excluded no class from what Queen Marie of Rumania has referred to as the “wide embrace”—the Bahá’í Faith—and none excluded Him. He would enter a city unknown, and His reception room would soon be overflowing. Weak and strong, known and unknown, they sought Him out, even Persian grandees who had persecuted His followers at home. Poets addressed odes to Him, artists painted Him, photographers took His picture. A number of word pictures exist, Browne’s for example of 1890:

“Seldom have I seen one whose appearance impressed me more. A tall, strongly-built man holding himself straight as an arrow, with white turban and raiment, long black locks reaching almost to the shoulder, broad powerful forehead, indicating a strong intellect combined with an unswerving will, eyes keen as a hawk’s, and strongly marked but pleasing features—such was my first impression of ‘Abbas Effendi. . . Subsequent conversation with him served only to heighten the respect with which his appearance had from the first inspired me. One more eloquent of speech, more ready of argument, more apt of illustration, more intimately acquainted with the sacred books of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muhammadans, could, I should think, scarcely be found even amongst the eloquent, ready, and subtle race to which he belongs. These qualities, combined with a bearing at once majestic and genial, made me cease to wonder at the influence and esteem

which he enjoyed even beyond the circle of his father’s followers. About the greatness of this man and his power no one who had seen him could entertain a doubt.”

And Lady Blomfield says of Him as He was in 1912: “He wore a low-crowned ta’j, round which was folded a small, fine—linen turban of purest white; His hair and short beard were of that snowy whiteness which had once been black; His eyes were large, blue-gray with long, black lashes and wellmarked eyebrows; His face was a beautiful oval with warm, ivory-coloured skin, a straight, finely-modelled nose, and firm, kind mouth His figure was of such perfect symmetry, and so full of dignity and grace, that the first impression was that of considerable height . . . inner glory shone in every glance, and word, and movement as He came with hands outstretched.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá did not return to His home until a year after He left America, December 5, 1912, exactly a year to the day. By then His three years of travelling in the West had, the Guardian writes, “called forth the last ounce of His ebbing strength.” The travel record is one of incredible accomplishments and triumphs. Mirza Mahmud Zarqani, official chronicler of the journeys, was a member of the Master’s suite and set down what he could of those dawn-to—midnight days, those incantatory words.Almost Boswellian in its immediacy, and including many a behind-the-scenes, informal glimpse, his Diary seems to bring us the direct presence of‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The notes, from which the following paragraphs were taken, begin with the Master’s voyage away from America across wintry seas to a final year of supreme effort in England and Scotland, and on the Continent far to the East. American Bahá’ís will rejoice some day to read the full text, where they are praised by‘Abdu’l-Bahá more than once, and where He says His heart was happy among them because of all their activities for the Faith.

[Page 1187]ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

ON the Celtic a woman came to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and told Him that she was afraid of death. “Then,” He said, “do something that will keep you from dying; that will instead, day by day make you more alive, and bring you everlastinglife. According to the words of His Holiness Christ, those who enter the Kingdom of God will never die. Then enter the Divine Kingdom, and fear death no more.”

They spoke of the temporarily quiet Atlantic, and He said: “One must ride in the Ship of God; for this life is a stormy sea, and all the people on earth—that is, over two billion souls—will drown in it before a hundred years have passed. All, except those who ride in the Ship of God. Those will be saved.”

In London He gave them this fragment of dialogue between man and the Prophets:

“Always, man has confronted the Prophets with this: ‘We were enjoying ourselves, and living according to our own opinions and desires. We ate; we slept; we sang; we danced. We had no fear of God, no hope of Heaven; we liked what we were doing, we had our own way. And then you came. You took away our pleasures. You told us now of the wrath of God, again of the fear of punishment and the hope of reward. You upset our good way of life.’

“The Prophets of God have always replied: ‘You were content to stay in the animal world, We wanted to make you human beings. You were dark, We wanted you illumined; you were dead, We wanted you alive. You were earthly, We wanted you heavenly.’ ”

That same day, He spoke of love. “In the world of man,” He said, “love is the brightness of the beauty of God. If there be no love, this is the animal’s kingdom, for the distinguishing feature of man’s world is love. Until love appears among men, there can be no full happiness and peace. Notice how, when a person sits with a friend, his heart leaps, how happy he becomes, but when he sits with an enemy, what a punishment! We must therefore foster brotherhood and universal love.”

Asked how to treat a personal enemy He answered, “Leave the opposer to himself.”

Asked, “What is Satan ?” He replied: “The insistent self.”

He would start the day by having prayers

1187

chanted, and Mahmud writes that these prayers “lay sweet on the palate of the soul.” The Master said: “It has been revealed in the Teachings that work is worship, but this does not mean that worship and the prescribed mentionings of God should be abandoned, for such worship is a requirement set forth in the Book of God. Prayer makes the heart mindful, it spiritualizes the soul, it causes the spirit to exult, it gladdens the breast, till Divine love appears and a man leans trustingly on the Lord and bows in lowliness at the Threshold of Grandeur.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá praised the British more than once, but He was unhappy in one of the great cities on the Continent and said of its inhabitants: “I see the people . . . like bees or ants, coming and going by troops, surging past like waves, continually engrossed in their business. But if you should ask them, ‘What are you doing? Why all this commotion 7’ you would find that they know nothing at all of their origin or their end, and that they look for no other good except eating and sleeping and assiduously pandering to their sensual desires.”

After praising the scientific and technical accomplishments of this greatest of centuries He commented: “Now it would be well for them to bring about the means of travelling to other planets.”

On being a Bahá’í He said: “Up to now, to believe was to acknowledge, to make a confession of faith, but in this greatest of all Causes, believing means to have praiseworthy qualities and to perform praiseworthy acts.”

Of duty He told them: “Man’s duty is to persevere and struggle, and to hope for God’s help. Not for him to sit idly by, proud and unconcerned. Since he cannot know the outcome of events, he must ever choose the way of righteousness, learning from the past, for the future.”

Asked if, the fewer material things a man has, the more spiritual he becomes, the Master said: “Severance is not poverty but freedom of the heart . . . When a man’s heart is free, and on fire with the love of God, every material benefit, every physical advantage, will only serve to develop his spiritual perfections.”

Illustrating, He told them: “There were once two friends, one rich but free of heart,

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one poor but tied to the world. On a sudden the poor one suggested a journey and they set out, leaving everything behind. The poor one saw that his rich companion had really abandoned all his attachments, his possessions and affairs and was journeying along with no thought of return. He said, ‘Now that we are on our way, wait a while, I want to go back, I have a donkey, I want to bring my donkey along.’ The rich one said, ‘You are no traveller. You cannot even give up your donkey. For you, I deserted all I had, my wealth and circumstance, and I came away, and I had no thought of ever turning back. I had everything, and you had just one thing, and you cannot wait to return for that one thing—that donkey.’ ”

On another day, the Master gave them a story out of His own life: “I was a child, nine years old. In the thick of those calamities, when the enemy attacked, they stoned our house and it had filled up with stones. We had nobody to help us. There was only my mother,] my sister,2 and Aqa Mirza Muhammad—Quli.3 To protect us, my mother took us away from the Shimiran Gate to the Sangilaj quarter, where in the back lanes she found a house. In that house she watched over us and forbade us ever to set foot on the street. But one day the problem of how to get food became so urgent that my mother said to me: ‘Can you go to your aunt’s house‘.N Tell her to find a few krans5 for us, no matter how.’

“Our aunt lived in the Takyih6 of Haji Rajab-‘Ali near the house of Mirza Hasan Kajdamagh. I went there. She tried everywhere and finally managed to collect five krans, which she tied up in the corner of a handkerchief and gave me.

“On my way back through the Takyih, the son of Mirza Hasan recognized me. Immediately he called out, ‘This one is a

THE Bahá’í WORLD

Babi!’ and the boys ran after me. The house of Mulla Ja’far of Astarabad was not far away, and I reached it and went into the entry. The son of Mulla Ja’far saw me but he did not put me out. Neither did he rout the boys.

“I stayed there till it was dark. When I left the place, the boys came after me again, shouting and throwing stones, following me until I got close to the store of Aqa Muhammad Sanduqdar. The children did not come on any farther after that. When I reached home, exhausted and terrified, I fell to the ground. My mother asked, ‘What ails you ?’ I could not tell her. I simply fell down. My mother took the handkerchief with the money and put me to bed and I slept.”

Later He added, “There was a time in Tihran when we had every means of comfort and luxury, and then in a single day they pillaged our house and robbed us of everything. Living became so hard for us that there came a day when my mother took a little flour and shook it into my hand instead of bread, and I ate it like that.”

Continually He repeated the basic theme of His life, that nothing really matters except the Cause of God: “Look at the plains, look at the hills: they are defeated armies, they are hosts that fell in heaps and were levelled with the ground; they are the dust of high pavilions, and palace and hall are the hole of owls that feed upon the dead, the roost of carrion crows . . . A11 gain is loss, except in the great business of serving God.”

1 The sheltered and beautiful Navvab, then at most in her mid-twenties.

Bahíyyih Khánum. the Most Exalted Leaf, then seven. An uncle E‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

A sister of Bahá'u‘llfih.

One-tenth of a tuman.

A place where religious plays were performed.

auburn

[Page 1189]Prologue

Voice

Prologue

Voice

Prologue

Voice

Prologue

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1189

5. THE LORD OF HOSTS IS HIS NAME

A Dramatized Reading of the Story of Bahá’u’lláh to be read by several voices against a background of music.

B} H. M. BALYUZI

It is not given to mortal man to portray in its full glory the life of a Manifestation of God, in Whom dwells the Spirit of God. What man can bring within the measure of his vision, the power and the majesty of the Ancient of Days? Yet man can utter the praise of his Lord, and here is such praise. Halting it is and ever must be, for no tongue and no pen is adequate to the theme.

(Long pause)

“O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.” (The Hidden Words)

God created man in His own image, and He made a Covenant with man.

“O Son of Man! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, d0 thou love Me, that [may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.” (The Hidden Words)

God revealed Himself to man through His Manifestations. They came down the ages, holding aloft the torch of guidance, leading man step by step, stage by stage to a destined summit of attainment.

“O Son of Being! With the hands of power I made thee and with the fingers of strength I created thee; and within thee have I placed the essence of My light. Be thou content with it and seek naught else, for My work is perfect and My command is binding. Question it not, nor have a doubt thereof.” (The Hidden Words)

Never was man bereft of guidance. Never was man bereft of light. And to him was given a promise—clear, bright, irrefutable.

Voice of Praise (Psalm XXXIII)

Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. . . .

Sing unto Him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right; and all His works are done in truth.

He loveth righteousness and judgment; the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. . . .

The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.

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Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. . . .

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. . . .

Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.

lst Voice of Prophecy (Bhagavad Gita) When there is decay of Righteousness And there is exaltation of unrighteousness, Then I, Myself, come forth For the protection of the Good, For the destruction of evil. I am born from age to age. The foolish regard Me not, when clad in human semblance, Being ignorant of My supreme Nature, the Great Lord of Being.

Voice of Praise (Psalm LXXXIV) How amiable are Thy tabernacles, 0 lord of Hosts! . . . Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee. . . . They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. . . . O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.

2nd Voice ofProphecy (Qur’án—Chapter 39: 69) And the earth shall be illumined with the light of its Lord, and the Book shall be laid open, and the prophets and the witnesses shall be brought up, and judgment shall be given between them, and they shall not be dealt with unjustly.

Voice of Praise (Psalm LXXXIX: 1—4) I will sing of the mercies Of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a Covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up Thy throne to all generations.

3rd Voice ofProp/zecy (Isaiah, Chapter 11)

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. . . . With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Voice of Praise (Qur’án—Chapter 3:6) 0 Lord, cause not our hearts to swerve from truth after Thou hast directed us; and give us from Thee mercy, for Thou art He who giveth. O Lord, Thou shalt

surely gather mankind together unto a day of resurrection.

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41/: Voice of Prophecy (St. Luke—Chapter 21 125—28)

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Voice of Praise (from the Lord’s Prayer) Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

5th Voice of Prophecy (St. John) When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.

6th Voice of Prophecy (Isaiah) And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

7th Voice of Prophecy (Isaiah—Chapter 47) As for our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is His Name, the Holy One of Israel.

The music is majestic and slowly rises to a climax

Voice of Despair Hope is gone and the world is lost. Greed, apathy, jealousy, selfishness—everywhere selfishness. Neighbour distrusts neighbour,nation distrusts nation. Words are vain and action is vain. Action and thought are poles apart. Moral values no longer guide. Expediency leads man to his doom. This is your twentieth century.

Voice of Certitude Yes, this is our twentieth century. But know you not the prophecies of old ? Know you not that the old world is dying unwept, that the new world, the world as its Maker meant it to be, is being born? Man—the world of your dreams, the world which your fairest minds beheld in their visions is being born. Man. the new world is being born.

Voice of Despair Away with your roseate dreams. The abyss gapes wide and threatening. Man stands on its brink and in it is nothing, nothing I tell you, but torture —tortures of the mind, tortures of the frail wilting body, tortures of the spirit, and extinction. Ah! blissful extinction!

Voice of C ertitude Yes, extinction; but not of Man. Extinction of the mean and the small—the small in mind, the small in sympathy, the small in love. Extinction of greed, gnawing, racking greed. Extinction of lust, lust for power, lust for gain, lust for dominion.

Voice of Despair And all that is Man. Today Man is greed and lust and tyranny and selfishness.

Voice of Certitude Today yes, but not tomorrow. The sun of Faith will shine once more upon the brows of men and the real man, the glorious, eternal child of the spirit will

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emerge. Not in a distant age, but in this day and this century. For the Lord of Hosts is come.

Voice of Despair The Lord of Hosts! That name rings familiar in my ears. But alas! Man has gone far on the way to perdition.

Voice of C ertitude Yet Man will be saved. For the Lord of Hosts is come.

Voice of Despair (Incredulous) “As for our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is His Name. The Lord of Hosts is His Name!”

Voice of C errimde The Word is renewed. The world is renewed. That which God promised is fulfilled. Listen to the story of fulfillment. Listen, listen, listen.

The music is triumphant

The Ist Narrator One day in the latter part of the year 1844, a young man, eager and zealous, arrived at the capital city of Trén with a great mission to fulfil. History knows him as Mullá Husayn. He was once a student of theology and metaphysics and had gathered immense knowledge. Now he had found a knowledge beside which all the rest paled and dwindled away.

The 2nd Narrator

Yes, Mullá Husayn had recognized in the Person of a young merchant of Shíráz that “Lord of the Age” whose advent the world of Islém ardentiy awaited. He was the very first to believe in the Báb—the youthful merchant of Shiréz now wielding the sceptre of divine authority. And the Báb had sent His first believer on a great, a very great mission. There in the capital city, the Báb had told him, dwells an exalted Being Whose rank excelleth all. Go and find Him and give Him a message from Me. Such was the mission entrusted to Mulla’t Husayn by his Master.

The Ist Narrator Beyond this Mullá Husayn had no intimation regarding the identity of Him Whom he sought. For a while his diligent search brought him no nearer to his goal, until . . .

The 2nd Narrator A certain midnight when he had a visitor—a learned man who had observed his conduct and his speech, and had felt impelled to pay his respects to him.

Mulla’ Muhammad “He did not expect me, but I knocked at his door, and found him awake seated beside his lamp. He received me affectionately, and spoke to me with extreme courtesy and tenderness.”

The 15! Narrator Mullá Husayn gave his visitor the tidings that the Lord of the Age had at long last come to the world. And finding him receptive, ventured with a question,

[Page 1193]ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1193

Mulla’ Husayn “Tell me, is there today among the family of the late Mirzá Buzurg—i-Nuri’, who was so renowned for his character, his charm, and artistic and intellectual attainments, anyone who has proved Himself capable of maintaining the high traditions of that illustrious house?”

Mulla' Muhammad “Yea, among his sons now living, one has distinguished Himself by the very traits which distinguished His father. By His virtuous life, His high attainments, His loving-kindness and liberality, He has' proved Himself a noble descendant of a noble father.”

Mullci Husayn “What is His occupation ?"

Mulla' Muhammad “He has none apart from befriending the poor and the stranger."

Mulla' Husayn “What is His Name ?”

Mulla' M uhammad “Husayn-‘Ali.”

Mulld Husayn “How does He spend His time?”

Mulld Muhammad “He roams the woods and delights in the beauties of the countryside.

9’

Mulld Husayn “I presume you often meet Him 7”

Mulla' Muhammad “I frequently visit His home.”

Mulld Husayn “Will you deliver into His hands a trust from me? Should He deign to answer me, will you be kind enough to acquaint me with His reply ‘2”

The 2nd Narrator Thus the Báb’s faithful disciple fulfilled his mission. The young Nobleman of Nur, the Son of a minister of the crown, who had abandoned the vanities of the court to minister to the poor and the wronged, heard the Call of the Báb and gave it His allegiance.

The 1st Narrator He—Bahá’u’lláh, “the Glory of God,” was then in His twenty—seventh year.

The music increases 1st Narrator

Soon the land of Írán was full of commotion. Indeed the entire world was full of commotion.

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Voice 1 O people! We bring you the tidings for which your souls have yearned. Arise, 0 people, arise! Arise for the Lord of the Age is come. Arise from your deathlike slumber.

Voice 2 O people! These heretics are foul, foul and vile. Uproot them, wipe them out. Have no pity for them. Think of the faith of your forefathers. Think of your heritage, for they would rob you of it.

Voice 3 Which way am I to follow? To which voice am I to listen? Shed your light on these matters, O God. Guide us to the straight path.

Voice 4 This is no concern of mine.

Voice 1 Awake to the truth of your Lord, O people.

Voice 2 Their own tongue testifies to their guilt. Destroy them.

2nd Narrator

The whole land was afiame. A decadent court, a decadent state, a decadent priesthood, a people ignorant, exploited by their selfish, self—indulgent masters, incited to murder and Violence, hurled their combined power against the new Faith. Harassed and hounded, the Bábis gathered at the hamlet of Badaflt to take counsel together.

Ist Narrator

To that hamlet in the North-East of lrén came many of the stalwart and heroic adherents of the Faith. There came the noble, learned and youthful Quddt’is—the last of the conclave of the Báb’s disciples whom He had called the Letters of the Living; the last, but the foremost in spiritual rank. There came Táhirih the Purethe young, brilliant, fearless poetess of Qazvin, another of the disciples, the only one of them who never met the Báb and yet gave Him her allegiance with all her heart and with all her soul.

2nd Narrator And there was Bahá’u’lláh—the shield and the defender of the poor and the oppressed, in Whom the Báb had foreseen the Promised One of all Scriptures, the Deliverer, the Redeemer of mankind.

Ist Narrator And that which happened at the Conference of Badaflt shook the Bábis to the core. They saw clearly and plainly what their Faith meant, and He who unfolded the truth before their eyes was Bahá’u’lláh.

2nd Narrator Quddt’is and Táhirih clashed at the Conference of Badasht.

Ta'hiri/l I deem him a pupil whom the Báb has sent me to edify and instruct. I regard him in no other light.

[Page 1195]ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1195

Quddtis She is the author of heresy and they who follow her lead are victims of error.

2nd Narrator One day, Táhirih appeared unveiled amongst men.

Ta'hiri/I I am the Word which the Qá’im is to utter, the Word which shall put to flight the chiefs and nobles of the earth.

[st Narrator The Bábis were dumbfounded by Táhirih’s audacious gesture. Her action was symbolic of emancipation, but people regarded it as shameful and disastrous.

Ta'hiri/I You, Quddt'is, have failed to promote the best interests of the Faith which you profess.

Quddtis I am not subject to the will and pleasure of my fellow-disciples. I am free to follow the promptings of my own conscience.

Voices

Shame, eternal shame; we are covered with shame.

1st Narrator Matters had reached a climax. The half-hearted could no longer bear the tension, and broke away.

Ta'hirih This day is the day of festivity and great rejoicing, the day on which the fetters of the past are burst asunder. Let those who have shared in this great achievement arise and embrace each other.

Voices We shall never outlive these humiliations. . . The past is dead. . . The future holds nothing for us. .. A new Faith demands a new outlook. .. Patience, friends, patience.

Ta'hiri/z

Verily amid gardens and rivers shall the pious dwell in the seat of truth, in the presence of the potent King.

2nd Narrator Then Bahá’u’lláh spoke. He showed them the truth of their Faith. They had to accept a new world and a new age. They had to grow out of the fear, and the superstitions and the prejudices of the past. And there came to the Bábis a new vision and a new resolve.

Voice Verily, amid gardens and rivers shall the pious dwell in the seat of truth, in the

presence of the potent King.

The music is joyous

[Page 1196]1196 THE Bahá’í WORLD

Ist Narrator And from Badasht the road led to fields of sacrifice and martyrdom. One by one the able lieutenants of the Báb fell in devotion to Him. Bahá’u’lláh set out to join the Bábis who were besieged in the dense forests by the Caspian Sea. He was intercepted and carried before a local governor, with the mob howling at His heels. He suffered grievously in their hands.

2nd Narrator At last the enemies struck at the person of the Bath, and on a summer day in the year 1850, they shot the Messenger of God, the Lord of the Age, in a public square amidst jeers and cheering.

Ist Narrator Darkness enveloped the fortunes of the new Faith. It seemed as if the enemy had won. The decimated community of the Báb hovered on the edge of extinction. Gone were its visions, its radiance, its magnetic powers. For at its head stood a nominal leader who was timid and fickle and treacherous. This was a half brother of Bahá’u’lláh, known as Azal, who dared not lift a finger in support of the Faith that he was expected to protect. His only concern was for his own safety.

2nd Narrator

Indeed the Bábis presented at this juncture of their chequered history, a very sad spectacle to the world. Were these divided, visionless remnants of a once dynamic community the heirs of those heroic martyrs and saints who in the annals of their Faith had written chapter after chapter of glorious achievement with their life-blood? True, Táhirih was still alive, but her days were spent in bondage. True, there were numbers in whose breasts the flame of devotion was kept bright and blazing, but they were for the moment in silent solitude.

Ist Narrator And the land in which such precious blood had flowed freely. . .

A Voice This land is sunk in a torpor punctuated by bursts of fanatical frenzy. It is ruled maliciously, tyrannically, incompetently by a king and court that seek personal gain and care not for the welfare of the people. Dark, immeasurably dark, is the scene and the setting.

2nd Narrator And the world.

Is! Voice We have travelled a long way since the dawn of this century. The life of the world has changed beyond recognition.

2nd Voice We are in the age of the machine. Now it is the machine which counts and not the man. Machine is our master.

1.” Voice

Yes, henceforth it is the precision of the machine and its calculable procedure which will determine our views and thoughts and conceptions.

[Page 1197]ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1197

2nd Voice Machine creates wealth and more wealth—commerce and industry expand. Money will be an idol—money and capital and markets, these will determine our actions.

15! Voice God will be banished from the mart and the public forum, perhaps from His universe as well. With the machine man will build a new empire of power.

2nd Voice

Power, power, man’s power. The music becomes harsh and strident

Ist Narrator Bleak were the prospects for the life of the Spirit.

2nd Narrator But hope endured; hope for the Kingdom promised by Christ, hope for a humanity reborn, hope for a world freed from the shackles of selfish pursuit.

A Voice Ring out a slowly dying Cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good.

Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

1st Narrator The Christ that is to be. . . There in the year 1852, He bore on His neck and His feet chains—heavy, ponderous chains that galled the flesh. He was consigned to a foul dungeon, accused of complicity in attempted murder.

2nd Narrator Three Bábi youths whose faculties were deranged by the cruel death of their Master and the carnage amidst their ranks, decided to kill the Sovereign in revenge. They made a poor attempt and failed and paid the penalty with their lives.

1st Voice Their dastardly act has unleashed violent storms. Tornadoes rage around us.

2nd Voice People! If proof was needed to show the danger in which our land and our Faith stands from these base heretics, here is proof evident and clear. They must be thoroughly uprooted, make no mistake—I say thoroughly uprooted.

[Page 1198]1198

15! Voice

2nd Voice

13! Voice

2nd Voice

Ist Narrator

THE BAHA’l WORLD

Our whole community is branded with this crime. Today they paraded Sulayman flan in the streets with candles flickering in his wounds. They tore holes in his body to place the candles.

And the woman, that sorceress must not be spared. Death to the sorceress!

Táhirih, the pure. . . Táhirih, the bright jewel in the crown of her generation, was strangled in the silence of the night and her body was thrown into a pit.

Mirzá Husayn-‘Ali, the son of the late Nuri minister, was the prime mover of this heinous deed. Why is He left in prison? He should be turned to the executioner.

Bahá’u’lláh, Whose blood the enemy demanded, lay imprisoned in the darksome dungeon of Tihran. In His own words:

2nd Narrator

1st Narrator

“We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. . . Upon Our arrival We were first conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellowprisoners numbered nearly a hundred and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen. Though crowded, it had no other outlet than the passage by which We entered. No pen can depict that place, nor any tongue describe its loathsome smell. . . God alone knoweth what befell Us in that most foul-smelling and gloomy place!”

Whilst Bahá’u’lláh, upon hearing the news of the attempt on the life of the Shah, had on His own accord ridden toward the royal camp and refused to go into hiding as His friends entreated Him to do, the timid Azal had left the capital in the guise of a dervish, seeking safety in the wilderness. Whilst Bahá’u’lláh calmly suffered untold agonies-in the prison cell, Azal roamed over the plains and the hills with terror in his heart.

2nd Narrator

Ist Reader

And it was in the murk and the deep shadows of the prison that Bahá’u’lláh became conscious of the Light of God shining in His own Self. As you now hear His own Words describing those moments of supreme effulgence, remember that you are listening to words unparalleled in the universe of God—they tell you of the advent of the Lord of Hosts. . .

“One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: ‘Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth—men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him."

[Page 1199]2nd Reader

3rd Reader

1st Narrator

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1199

“During the days I lay in the prison of Tihran, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear.”

“While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good-pleasure of God, and her Cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honoured servants. Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: ‘By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His Glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive.’ ”

The music is joyous and majestic

Eleven more years had to pass before the Sun of Truth could unveil Itself to the gaze of men.

(Long pause)

2nd Narrator

And now to Baghdad, where Bahá’u’lláh was exiled after four months of imprisonment. His property was confiscated, and in the heart of a severe winter, He was sent with His family over the snow-clad peaks of Western Persia into exile. They had scanty means to provide against the ravages of the elements and the fatigues and toils of a long, arduous journey. Enemies hoped that such hardships, coupled with the dire experiences of incarceration, would end the life of Bahá’u’lláh.

2nd Narrator

Voices

But men’s plottings could not defeat God’s design. Bahá’u’lláh survived the perils set in His patht Then treachery and base ambition reared their ugly heads. No sooner had Bahá’u’lláh risen to impart new life and vigour and purpose to the submerged community of the Báb, than Azal, racked by jealousy and goaded by a few adventurers, chose to obstruct His lead. . . . The same Azal who, but a short while before, had abandoned all to save his own paltry life.

Bahá’u’lláh has left us. . . The Beloved has left us. . . Once again we are left stranded in this wide world. . . . Once again darkness has come over us. . . . Bahá’u’lláh has left us. . . . The Beloved has left us.

[Page 1200]1200 THE BAHA’lWORLD

1st Narrator Bahá’u’lláh, wishing to avoid further rifts in the ranks of the Babis, betook Himself to the mountains of Northern ‘Iráq. His self-imposed exile was a clear proof for the friend and the foe alike that He did not seek pomp and power. His aim was not the attainment of a vain leadership, but the regeneration of a lost community.

2nd Narrator There, dressed as a dervish, He dwelt in the caves and the valleys, unknown to the people, a solitary Figure Who was always kind and considerate to those He would meet, Who was always ready with a wise counsel, Whom the children loved.

1st Narrator The learned and the mystic also came to visit this Dervish and found Him excelling them in knowledge. And thus His fame spread far and wide.

2nd Narrator And at Baghdad, His friends sought Him.

Voices Two years. . . Two long years. . . How can we endure it any longer?. . . Two long years. . . Light is gone. . . Life is gone. . .

2nd Narrator Yes, Light has gone out of the community of the Báb. They were sad and desperate and forlorn.

Ist Narrator

One day they heard of the wise, learned Dervish Who lived in the mountains. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá’u’lláh, then but twelve years old, knew at once that the unknown Dervish could be none except His beloved Father. Messengers were dispatched, and they found Him. To Bahá’u’lláh it was not only the entreaty of the Babis, but divine summons. Time had shown without any measure of doubt that Azal was devoid of those qualities required for the station which he was clamouring to arrogate to himself.

Voices Joy, oh dear joy. .. Our Master is again with us. .. He has returned. .. Our Beloved has returned.

2nd Narrator He returned and turned a broken community into a community of strength. The Babis could once again lift their heads to face the world. Harrowing sorrows gave way to ineffable joys.

1st Narrator And people came from all sides to visit Bahá’u’lláh. Devoted friends, sincere inquirers, savants, princes, divines, men of letters, all came—and enemies took alarm.

2nd Narrator Kings and divines and governments plotted and ordained yet another exile——to Istanbul.

[Page 1201]Voices

1st Narrator

Voice

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 120]

O cruel fate. . . Separation from our Lord is death indeed. . . Worse than death, my friends, worse than death. . . What will they do to our Lord? 0 cruel fate, what will they do to our Lord?

At last the hour struck. . . the hour which God had promised and man had prayed for.

Thy Kingdom come.

2nd Narrator

lst Reader

2nd Reader

3rd Reader

Ist Narrator

The hour struck. . . In the afternoon of April let, 1863, in the garden of Riḍván, outside the gates of Baghdad.

“The Divine Springtime is come, 0 Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the All-Merciful is fast approaching. Bestir thyself, and magnify, before the entire creation, the name of God, and celebrate His praise, in such wise that all created things may be regenerated and made new.”

“Canst thou discover anyone but Me, 0 Pen, in this Day? What hath become of the creation and the manifestations thereof? What of the names and their kingdom? Whither are gone all created things, whether seen or unseen? What of the hidden secrets of the universe and its revelations? L0, the entire creation hath passed away! Nothing remaineth except My Face, the Ever—Abiding, the Resplendent, the All-Glorious.”

“This is the Day whereon naught can be seen except the splendours of the Light that shineth from the face of Thy Lord, the Gracious, the Most Bountiful. Verily, We have caused every soul to expire by virtue of Our irresistible and all-subduing sovereignty. We have, then, called into being a new creation, as a token of Our grace unto men. I am, verily, the All-Bountiful, the Ancient of Days.”

The music rises to a triumphant climax

From Baghdad to Istanbul—from Istanbul to Adrianople—from Adrianople to the Holy Land in August 1868. Thus did the Lord of Hosts suffer banishment in the hands of men. He met with vile treachery, fierce hostility, taunt and ridicule.

2nd Narrator

1st Reader

He faced the world, the evil in the world and challenged the evil in the heart of man.

“O Befriended Stranger! The candle of thine heart is lighted by the hand of My power, quench it not with the contrary winds of self and passion. The healer of all thine ills is remembrance of Me, forget it not. Make My love thy treasure and cherish it even as thy very sight and life.” (The Hidden Words)

[Page 1202]1202 THE BAHA’T WORLD

2nd Reader “0 My Servant! Thou art even as a finely tempered sword concealed in the darkness of its sheath and its value hidden from the artificer’s knowledge. Wherefore come forth from the sheath of self and desire that thy worth may be made resplendent and manifest unto all the world.” (The Hidden Words)

Ist Narrator From the pestilential barracks of ‘Akká where Bahá’u’lláh, His family and many of His followers were incarcerated, from the prison of thieves and assassins, He, the prisoner of a mighty despot, addressed the sovereigns Of the world with the majesty of His divine mandate.

Voices The Shah of Iran. . . The Sultan of Turkey. . . Pope Pius IX. . . The Emperor of the French. . . The Czar of all Russia. . . The Queen of Britain and the Empire. . .

2nd Narrator To them all, Bahá’u’lláh gave the tidings of His advent. He called them to the path of peace and justice and righteousness.

1st Reader “He Who is the Lord of Lords is come overshadowed with clouds, and the decree hath been fulfilled by God, the Almighty, the Unrestrained. . . . He, verily, hath again come down from Heaven even as He came down from it the first time. Beware that thou dispute not with Him even as the Pharisees disputed with Him (Jesus) without a clear token or proof.”

2nd Reader “The Word which the Son concealed is made manifest. It hath been sent down in the form of the human temple in this day. Blessed be the Lord Who is the Father! He, verily, is come unto the nations in His most great majesty.”

3rd Reader “Hearken, 0 king, to the speech of Him that speaketh the truth, Him that doth not ask thee to recompense Him with the things God hath chosen to bestow upon thee, Him Who unerringly treadeth the straight Path. He it is Who summoneth thee unto God, thy Lord, Who showeth thee the right course, the way that leadeth to true felicity, that haply thou mayest be of them with whom it shall be well. . . . He that giveth up himself wholly to God, God shall, assuredly, be with him."

1st Reader

“Overstep not the bounds of moderation, and deal justly with them that serve thee. Bestow upon them according to their needs, and not to the extent that will enable them to lay up riches for themselves, to deck their persons, to embellish their homes, to acquire the things that are of no benefit unto them, and to be numbered with the extravagant. Deal with them with undeviating justice, so that none among them may either suffer want, or be pampered with luxuries. . .. Allow not the abject to rule over and dominate them who are noble and worthy of honour, and sufi‘er not the high-minded to be at the mercy of the contemptible and worthless.”

[Page 1203]ARTICLES AND REVIEWS 1203

2nd Reader

“Lay aside thy desire, and set thine heart towards thy Lord, the Ancient of Days. We make mention of thee for the sake of God, and desire that thy name may be exalted through thy remembrance of God, the Creator of earth and heaven. He, verily, is witness unto that which I say. We have been informed that thou hast -forbidden the trading in slaves, both men and women. This, verily, is what God hath enjoined in this wondrous Revelation. God hath, truly, destined a reward for thee, because of this.”

3rd Reader

“Now that ye have refused the Most Great Peace, hold ye fast unto this, the Lesser Peace, that haply ye may in some degree better your own condition and that of your dependents. . . . Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. . . Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your people find rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.”

Isl Narrator But the world made little response to the call of Bahá’u’lláh.

2nd Narrator And the world suffered grievously. The Lord of Hosts came as promised, and offered the world the cup of life, which the world scorned. And the world suffered grievously.

Is! Narrator They consigned Him to the grim barracks of ‘Akká. Thus the Lord of Hosts appeared in the Holy Land, and thus the prophecies of old were fulfilled. And one day, He—the Lord of Hosts—pitched His tent on Carmel—the Mountain of God.

2nd Narrator And that was what He had foretold whilst still confined by the bars of the prison of ‘Akká.

1st Narrator Those who bore His Name were shunned and despised and hated for His sake. And thousands gave their lives joyously for His sake. Thousands upon thousands accepted untold suffering and humiliation for His sake.

Voices

Had we a thousand lives we would still offer them at His Threshold. . . O peerless King! This I beg of Thee—confirm me in Thy love at my last breath, O Bahá, Baha. . . I walked on foot over peaks and deserts to attain Thy presence and die with peace in my heart. To Thy prison, my Lord, they admitted me not. I stood behind the second moat and dimly saw Thee behind the bars. That glimpse of Thee, my Lord, rent my heart and yet it was a balm to my agonized soul. . . Happy the day when on the hangman’s rope, I sing the praise of my King.

2nd Narrator Not only devotion did He inspire in the hearts of men. Those hearts He cleansed and purified and united. As His Light shone on the brows of men, they became of the new creation.

[Page 1204]1 204

THE BAHA’I WORLD

Bahá’u’lláh left His mortal temple on May 29th, 1892. He, the Lord of Hosts, the Spirit of Truth come in the station of the Father, remained a prisoner of the tyrants of this world, to the end of His life. Such was the measure of man’s gratitude to his Redeemer.

The world wronged Him, but His Word it could not efiacc. His love and His mercy, His grace and His power remain ever abundant to shed glory upon the world.

The music is triumphant