BAHÁ’Í RADIO PROGRAM
DELIVERED OVER STATION "WHN,” NEW YORK
FEBRUARY 22-27, 1937
THIS CHANGING WORLD
EVERY man and woman who has reached maturity realizes that human life has undergone more fundamental changes during the past century than it had during the preceding two thousand years. Ever since the rise of science endowed the modern mind with power to manipulate the forces of nature and to a large extent to control them through mechanical invention, mankind has increasingly become subject to the law of change. At first this new power was felt to be identical with progress. The great war, however, and the political and economic revolutions which developed out of that world disaster, have compelled us to reexamine the very basis of our social activity and try to find ways to control the larger human movements that they may not overwhelm us with even greater destruction than has already brought misery and released fear in so many parts of the earth.
What is vitally needed is some social philosophy that will fit the facts of human life today with something of the same precision as that with which science fits the facts observed in the lower order of nature—some conception of the true principles underlying civilization that will enable the nations and peoples to find the way out from mutual antagonism and discord to mutual cooperation and peace, from mutual fear and suspicion to general assurance and amity, from the burden of poverty to the freedom and dignity of a well-ordered human existence. What has been gained if we have acquired mastery over the titanic forces of chemistry and physics, if at the same time we have become slaves to our ignorance of the laws and principles governing man’s own individual and collective life?
This need of a new and constructive human outlook was emphasized in the Bahá’í teachings many years ago, even before the war of 1914 shook the world. In the middle of the last century they taught, “That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race could neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this period of renewal and consummation . . . From every standpoint the world of humanity is undergoing a reformation. The laws of former governments and civilizations are in process of revision, scientific ideas and theories are developing and advancing to meet a new range of phenomena . . . This is the cycle of maturity and reformation in religion as well . . . And this reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world . . . the divine remedy for all human ailments.”
The same note is sounded even more assuringly in the following passage: “In this present cycle there will be an evolution in civilization unparalleled in the history of the world. The world of humanity in this cycle of its completeness and consummation will realize an immeasurable upward progress.” Such an affirmation might appear to be no more than an expression of hope and optimism repudiated by the facts of this changing world, unless we reflect carefully upon the true character of these recent earthshaking events that outwardly seem so incomprehensible and even appalling to the average man.
As we go more deeply into the Bahá’í
teachings, we find that they give a
clear and rational explanation of
the apparently chaotic condition
of this extraordinary age.
In the light of this interpretation we see
how all of these many social changes and
perturbations form part of one definite
historic trend. It is as though explorers in an
unknown country, surrounded by possible
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unexpected dangers
on all sides, were to be
given a map which would show clearly just
where they were and the true character of
the country about them. With this
accurate knowledge, they would
no longer fear
the danger of becoming forever lost.
Such a map the Bahá’í teaching gives to our confused world. This map, showing the strange "country” which modern civilization has become, makes clear that a long historic trend, covering countless ages,—the trend toward the separation of peoples into divided and antagonistic races and nations,—has in our time come to an end. Throughout all history, the movement of peoples has been one not merely of physical separation, but also of emotional, mental and moral diversity. The isolation of social groups, large or small, has been the basis of man’s collective experience since the dawn of time. The result of this movement of separation and diversity has been to establish firm and enduring differences of language, custom, belief and outlook upon every branch of the human race. Humanity has never really existed—what have existed were no more than separate and distinct tribes, nations and races, each denying to the other as far as possible the rights and privileges necessary to an ordered human life, even, in fact, the recognition of one common and universal God.
But now that vast and tremendous scattering of the peoples has come to an end. The fundamental movement underlying this modern time is toward unity. For the totally unforeseen result of the new power of science has been to destroy the very source and cause of social isolation throughout the earth. The nations, races and peoples are today, whether they relish it or not, living together in one unitary physical environment, one supernational economic civilization from which no race nor nation not people can possibly escape. As the Bahá’í teachings declare, "This handful of dust, the earth, is one home. Let it be in unity. . . . Fellowship is the cause of unity, and unity is the source of order in the world.”
To this unified physical environment, however, each organized society has brought its habit of separation and its long established differences and antagonisms, the inevitable result of the tribal outlook developed during past ages. Can this new household of mankind, this firmly-knit, worldwide society which science has produced, possibly survive disaster if the old tribal outlook, now in possession of armaments a million times more destructive than bow and arrow, sword and spear, continues to dominate the minds and hearts of men?
This menace of the calamity that would follow another explosion of the sinister power of modern armaments is something entirely new to human experience. It stands as a universal problem before every people and before every individual in the world. We live today under a threat of social disaster quite as real and far more portentous than the menace of physical disaster that has loomed over those unfortunate people who live beside flood-swollen rivers and who have not known from day to day, from hour to hour, whether the embankment would hold.
Thousands of anxious statesmen, economists, students and men of responsible affairs in all parts of the world, realize this social menace and are bending every energy to find a solution. Yet the conflict of policies and interests rises higher and higher year by year, armaments increase, and no adequate basis for a universal understanding of the essence of the problem has yet been found.
Now let us turn again to the Bahá’í map. There we discover that it does not deal primarily with these external matters of political and economic policy, but deals rather with human attitudes and relations. It sets forth that, "The most important principle of divine philosophy is the oneness of the world of humanity, the unity of mankind, the bond conjoining East and West, the tie of love which blends human hearts. . . . For thousands of years we have had bloodshed and strife. It is enough: it is sufficient. Now is the time to associate together in love and harmony. . . . The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement. . . . Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness of mankind is the primary foundation of them all.”
Here, in this striking and altogether new aspect of truth, the "oneness of mankind,”
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A group of the Bahá’í
school children of Ṭihrán, Írán.
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we have the essential
link between the social
problem on the one hand, and man's latent
and innate God-given powers on the other.
It is to the degree, and only to the degree,
that the race learns how to respond to this
conception of underlying oneness that we
shall be able to take the steps that lead from
strife to cooperation and peace. The Bahá’í
teachings come to us as nothing less than a
necessary re-education of the spirit of man
in the divine art of unity. The conditions
of the age are unprecedented; too obviously
our traditions and established customs fail
utterly to meet them; we require a new
presentation of spiritual, ethical and social
truth in terms of our altered environment in
order to transform the nations and races into
a true mankind.
No one would think of allowing his child to grow up without education or would send him out into this highly specialized industrial age with the unequipped and untrained personality of our primitive ancestors. Why, then, since we are all merely children in relation to the problem of world unity, should we so complacently trust that we can solve that problem and meet that emergency without preliminary training, without requisite knowledge of the underlying forces now controlling our destiny? We cannot go back to the simpler ways of our ancestors. We cannot halt the vast movement of modern science. The world has become one home. Somehow we must fit ourselves to live together in that home. And the first step is for us to become humble, with a humility that is willing and eager to learn new truth when new and unprecedented problems are to be solved.
The Bahá’í teachings tell us that what has happened to us all is that a new age and cycle have dawned: “This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed a garden and paradise. It is the hour of the unity of the sons of men and of the drawing together of all races and all classes. You are loosed from ancient superstitions which have kept men ignorant, destroying the foundations of true humanity. The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come.”
Thus the Bahá’í teachings summon us to the attitude of seeking and recognizing truth. Imbued with that attitude, we can take the first step of realizing that the changes of this age are a clarion call to the soul and conscience of human beings everywhere on earth. Rightly understood, these changes and perturbations mean that destiny has chosen this age for the race to learn greater lessons than any previous age was prepared to understand. When we come to see our fellow men as bewildered searchers after truth, even as you and I, then we can make contact with them on levels raised high above these confusions that in reality are but destroying a dead past that we may enter this dawning age of true advancement. “Of one tree are ye all the fruit and of one bough the leaves. . . . The world is but one country and mankind its citizens.”
THE DIVINE PHYSICIAN
We have seen how the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith help us directly in these perplexing times by explaining the true nature of the startling events throughout the world that cause us all such uneasy dismay as we read of them in the daily press. We found that, instead of indicating that our planet is rapidly drifting into a state of uncontrolled anarchy, chaos and destruction, as an uninstructed observer might well suppose, these far-reaching changes and perturbations are in reality the outworkings of beneficent forces, preparing for the advent of a new cycle of unimagined progress in human achievement and happiness,—a new age which lies just before us and awaits only the opening of our hearts and minds and the adjusting of our lives to its fundamental principle of world unity, the oneness of mankind. And these very events, though painful, even shattering at times, are themselves helping us to cast off the shackles of outworn beliefs and practices that hold us back from this true understanding.
How simple and naive today seems the
hopeful attitude that prevailed during the
last century, that in science and invention
modern man has found a miraculous power
to make the ancient dream of peace come
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true and to bring
plenty and happiness to
the earth! Granting the miraculous virtue
of that power to multiply material things,
greatly extending even the fertility of the
soil, nevertheless it has become only
too obvious that these beneficent results have not
transformed human nature; that, on the
contrary, they have intensified the
tribal instinct and enabled it to express itself in the
most destructive conflicts in all history. But
through these catastrophes we are slowly
learning.
Contrasted with the desolate waste which human greed and ambition threaten to make of the earth, the new age of which the Bahá’í teachings tell seems a veritable paradise in its freedom from those vicious qualities that make for separation, rivalry and war. Here we stand together in this waste land of struggle and violence, without security, lacking assurance, while before us lies that garden of fruitful labor and opportunity—that promised age of world unity and peace, the hope of which has never left us, even in our most desperate hours. The power of science to produce abundance for every human being is not to be doubted. That new force, properly directed and controlled, can fulfill the ancient vision of a better existence on earth. But, uncontrolled, or improperly controlled, it offers before our horrified eyes today only too convincing proof of the truth of the Bahá’í teaching: "Science cannot cure the illness of the social body. Science cannot create amity and fellowship in human hearts. Neither,” it goes on, "can patriotism nor racial allegiance effect a remedy. . . .” A single glance over the world makes this clear, as well.
Only a spiritual power can meet our need, these teachings say; the supreme power of a common faith, with the resulting common understanding of the fundamental nature and aim of life. This power is likened to the life in the human body, which harmonizes the differences of parts and members into mutuality and agreement, establishing so great a unity in the bodily organism that if any of its parts is injured or becomes diseased all the other parts and functions sympathetically respond and suffer, so perfect is the oneness which exists. And as this human spirit of life is the cause of coordination among the various parts of the human organism, so the higher spiritual forces are the controlling cause of the unity and coordination of mankind. "Today the greatest need of the world is the animating, unifying presence of the Holy Spirit,” Bahá’u’lláh writes. "Until it becomes effective, penetrating and interpenetrating hearts and spirits, and until perfect, reasoning faith shall be implanted in the minds of men, it will be impossible for the social body to be inspired with security and confidence. Nay, on the contrary, enmity and strife will increase day by day and the differences and divergencies of nations will be woefully augmented.”
This supreme remedy for the world’s
sickness is given to us only through
those outstanding figures in history,
the seers, the
prophets—the divine physicians. What
influence ever exerted upon earth is so potent,
so renewing both to the individual and to
the social group, as the creative Word
uttered by the chosen Messenger of
the Supreme Will? Under its dynamic force the
most abject and impotent peoples have been
raised from servitude to become the leaders
of civilization. For hundreds of years after
it is uttered the mysterious Truth is
treasured and revered, an enduring source of
vision, of courage, of wisdom, of integrity,
of humane character, of devotion to the
highest interests of the community. Where
before men were in the darkness of strife,
the revealed Truth brings light like the
rising of the sun. Where before the social
body had been weak and diseased, the Truth
came through the divine physician to heal
what human capacity could not heal. This
healing force “is the light from the Sun of
Truth bringing by its infinite power life and
illumination to all mankind; flooding all
souls with divine radiance, conveying the
blessings of God’s mercy to the whole
world.” So does the Bahá’í Faith explain
the power by which humanity, from age to
age, is given capacity to rise above itself.
"The divine Reality (God) may be likened
to the sun and the Holy Spirit to the rays
of the sun. As the rays of the sun bring
the light and warmth of the sun to the earth,
giving life to all created beings, so do the
Manifestations (the prophets) bring the
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power of the Holy
Spirit from the divine
Sun of Reality to give light and life to the
souls of men.”
Had there existed through the ages real agreement upon the basic principles of spiritual truth, we should never have developed these armed and competitive national societies. One who holds to the truth that his own being is subject to spiritual law and that all other men were similarly created cannot plot violence and destruction for his fellowman. International violence has gradually arisen because the realization of the divine will and purpose has been everywhere incomplete, inconstant and obscured by immediate human interests. We must not forget that primitive human society was founded upon religion and that all civil codes, cultures and philosophies depended upon a religious sanction. But each tribal god was jealously limited to the advantage and welfare of the tribe. And a heaven so filled with competitive, jealous gods meant that the origins of civilization were rooted in the fundamental assumption that mankind is not one kingdom of reality, but diverse races and peoples. We see this ancient tribal worship still practiced in our own day all too vigorously, in the attitude that man can have no higher loyalty than to his own class or race or state.
So, underlying any true and enduring basis of world unity, is the necessity of finding harmony and agreement in our recognition of the oneness of God and of the universality of spiritual truth. The Bahá’í teachings throw an illuminating light upon this vital need.
They show that the prophets, the divine physicians, who founded the great religions gave their teachings in two forms. One held the universal truths which are constant and eternal: in the other form they established ordinances of a secondary nature which were adapted in each case to the widely differing social and cultural conditions of the various peoples to whom they spoke. By holding to the universal truths, upon which all the prophets are agreed,-that there is but one God; that He commands love and unity—and by realizing the local and temporary character of the secondary matters, the peoples of this day can enter into a unity of the spirit so potent that it will bend our collective energies and social instrumentalities to the supreme task of establishing unity in the political, economic and other social fields throughout the world.
Another Bahá’í commentary upon the true nature of religion is that revelation is progressive, for each age and cycle disclosing an ever-enlarging measure of that truth which in itself is immeasurable. Man’s capacity alone limits the outpouring. As he develops, he may take a larger vessel to the inexhaustible well.
This progressiveness of truth constitutes a principle of the utmost importance. It serves to test the sincerity of every faith and belief. Religion as a progressive factor in man’s life gives us a door opened to the future. Without spiritual progress we are limited to a past which can never be restored. Can anyone say that human development has come to an end? Or can anyone deny that it has been through the revelation of new and larger truth age after age that mankind has successively attained the unity of tribe, or race, and then of nation? And surely it is unthinkable that these modern powers and resources, so new, so miraculous, have been given us solely to make warfare and strife the predominant human enterprise, as they are today.
Once more, as so often in the past, the
world is in dire need of renewal and
enlargement of the spiritual truth and power
that alone can produce order and justice in
society, for it alone can lift us from the
state of the rational, selfish animal, where
we seem for the most part to be, to the
state of man. To strengthen and encourage
us in our need, we are told in the Bahá’í
writings: “A new life is in this age stirring
within all the peoples of the earth; and yet
none hath discovered its cause or perceived
its motive. O ye children of men! The
fundamental purpose animating the Faith of
God is to safeguard the interests and
promote the unity of the human race . . . This
is the straight path, the fixed and immovable
foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this
foundation the changes and chances of the
world can never impair its strength, nor will
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the revolution of countless
centuries undermine its structure.”
THE NATURE OF MAN
The highest form of human society is that based upon the principle of voluntary cooperation and sustained by a mutual loyalty for the attainment of the general welfare. The lowest type of society is based upon coercion and force, motivated by fear, and made incapable of true progress because divided by suspicion inherently incapable of releasing the spiritual power of enthusiasm and inner fulfillment.
When we apply this truth to present-day civilization throughout the world, we find all too many areas reduced to the level of coercion, too few that permit self-respect and the voluntary cooperation characterizing human beings in a condition of equality. Since, therefore, the quality of the social structure depends ultimately upon the integrity of human character rather than upon formal laws and statutes, it is clear and evident that cooperation cannot be established among the nations, races and classes of earth until men themselves have acquired the necessary spiritual powers.
Long before the atheistic Roman statesman asked the question, What is truth? a greater and more heroic soul in Israel had raised the same question in this significant form: What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
What is man? Consider the appalling confusion that exists today in all matters of general social policy. Scarcely can two persons be found anywhere to agree fully on a solution of any phase of the world’s major problems. That confusion, which binds with heavy chains the struggling body of a suffering mankind, is nothing else than a reflection of the real confusion darkening this age, the ignorance concerning the nature and the possibilities of man. Until we have learned what man is, and what man can be, it is futile to build any social structure upon the shifting sands of ignorance and unbelief.
There could be no more poignant statement on this spiritual condition than these words of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith: "The vitality of men’s belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corruption of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent revelation can cleanse and revive it?”
What wonder, then, that so many conscientious persons today long for a return to the simpler age of living faith, when men sincerely believed in such mysteries as the soul, the love of God, the spiritual destiny of the race, and access to a guiding Providence and a sustaining Will?
But between us and that simpler age stands all the vast body of knowledge created by physical science. The telescope plumbed the skies and found no naive, primitive "heaven”; and the microscope probed all matter, including the stuff we are made of, and found no organ or visible instrument of the soul. Therefore a generation arose which felt it had to choose between faith and reason, between hope and truth—and it turned away from the convictions of the simpler age.
The Bahá’í teachings meet this supreme issue squarely. They re-establish the foundation of hope and faith, not by denying or neglecting the particular truths of science, but by carrying the scientific attitude forward and onward to deal with a higher order of truth. Their purpose is to identify faith not with credulity but with conscious knowledge.
The true scientist does not form his
opinion until he has considered all the relevant
facts. If a certain law is formulated, and
then new facts appear which obviously
contradict the law, he knows that it is not a
scientific law but only an opinion, and he
takes up the problem afresh. In dealing
with the facts concerning the nature of
man, the true scientist would not, for
example, base his conclusion merely upon a
study of infants and children, excluding all
adults. Neither would he confine his study
to the people of any one social class,
or nationality, or race. No—if we are to accept
as laws any formulas advanced concerning
the nature of man, we must certainly, and
above all, include in our range of vision
those who are the true and chosen leaders of
humanity, the seers and prophets, who in
their moral and ethical qualities are the most
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perfect of human beings.
We must also include in our vision that
vast realm of historic
truth which makes it so evident that these
seers and prophets have been the educators
of mankind and their influence the dynamic
principle of an evolving civilization. The
first principle of any valid psychology is
that man has capacity to transcend what we
call human nature when he responds to the
call of a higher type of being. In this call
he realizes a new measure of possibility
within himself, just as the possibility of the
seed is fulfilled through the mysterious
chemistry of the sun shining upon the earth in
spring.
"Education,” the Bahá’í writings testify, "is of three kinds: material, human, and spiritual. Material education is concerned with the progress and development of the body, through gaining its sustenance, its material comfort and ease. This education is common to animals and man. Human education signifies civilization and progress: that is to say, government, administration, charitable works, trades, arts and handicrafts, sciences, great inventions and discoveries of physical laws, which are the activities essential to man as distinguished from the animal. Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God: it consists in acquiring divine perfections, and this is true education. . . .
"Then it is clear and evident that man needs an educator, and this educator must be unquestionably and indubitably perfect in all respects, and distinguished above all men.
"Though man has powers and outer senses in common with the animal, yet an extraordinary power exists in him of which the animal is bereft. The sciences, arts, inventions, trades, and discoveries or realities, are the results of this spiritual power. This is a power which encompasses all things, comprehends their realities, discovers all the hidden mysteries of beings.”
This positive assertion is explained most clearly by the interpretation of the law of evolution found in the Bahá’í writings.
The world of nature, according to the Bahá’í teaching, has three different kingdoms or classes of existence. The first kingdom includes the mineral, and the principle of this kingdom is cohesion. The second kingdom or class is that of the vegetable organisms, which show forth not only the principle of cohesion but also that of growth. The third kingdom of existence in nature is the animal world, and here we see operating a third principle, that of sense perception and sensibility. The world of mankind, while it is immersed in nature, and subject to the laws and principles which control the three lower kingdoms, is raised above nature by its possession of two powers or qualities not existing in mineral, vegetable or animal organisms. The first of these exclusively human attributes is that of rational intelligence. The mind of man, with its capacity to perceive and understand abstract and universal truths, is nothing else than supernatural.
This startling fact is proved when we bring to the evolution and process of matter the new and higher interpretation which the Bahá’í writings contain. While the older, materialistic theory insisted that matter of itself rises from kingdom to kingdom, until through finer structure or more intricate arrangement it produces the human intellect, the spiritual view replaces this theory by an explanation which corresponds to the actual facts. According to the Bahá’í philosophy, the elements never by their own force rise from one kingdom to a higher type of organism, but are taken up and assimilated into the higher organism by the higher organism itself. For example, the mineral elements are drawn up by the vegetable kingdom, and assimilated into that kingdom. The vegetable kingdom, in turn, is taken up and assimilated into the animal kingdom; and the elements of the animal kingdom are likewise raised by man and transmuted into the conditions of his physical organism. The process, therefore, is not controlled or motivated by any presumable mysterious power vested in the atom to build the higher forms of life, but by the interaction of the higher organism upon the lower. The materialistic view of matter declares to all intents and purposes that the scattered bricks of themselves come together and build the house, whose architecture the bricks are somehow or other supposed to know in advance!
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This incredible assumption
is destroyed by
the true, spiritual teaching that the divine
Architect fashioned the pattern of each
kingdom of matter, and endowed each kingdom
with special qualities and attributes.
Just as the power of growth in the tree or
plant transcends the qualities of the mineral,
and just as the attribute of sense-perception
in the animal transcends the qualities of the
tree or plant, so is mind in man transcendent
to all other existence in the natural world. It
is a creation, a divine endowment and gift.
Rational intelligence, however, while completely supernatural in comparison to the animal world, does not, in itself alone, constitute the unique mystery of the human kingdom. The second higher power of man is his capacity of faith—his capacity to recognize the Creator as utterly transcendent to himself, and to center his being upon devotion to the supreme Will. The sign of this power of faith is free will; for man alone, of all visible nature, is free to decide whether he shall live in the animal world of selfish sensibility, in the unregenerate human world of rational intelligence employed for personal or partisan ends, or in the spiritual world of unity, cooperation and impersonal love. The pull of nature within us is so constant and so strong or insidious that the human will cannot, unaided, raise up the mind and heart to the spiritual level. Unless there were a higher kingdom of reality above man, reaching down and inspiring the heart and mind with new energy and direction, man would be like a king in exile, an orphan in poverty and abandonment, able to glimpse a realm of peace and fulfillment but never able to attain.
This brief summary of man’s place in nature, and his potential ability to live by spiritual rather than by natural law, culminates in the truth that the Creator has established a world of reality higher than man, just as He has created the kingdoms or orders lower than man. In the human being, the zenith of material perfection exists—the sum total of all the qualities and attributes developed in the lower realms. But man is likewise the beginning of spiritual perfection, the seed that must attain its fruitful growth and fulfillment in the qualities and attributes that yet lie enfolded in the narrow, dark husk of the physical self. Until we become conscious that a higher order truly exists, and is accessible to the aspiring soul within, we shall continue to regard man as nothing else than an animal who happens to possess the great instrument of intelligence for satisfying a mere animal desire.
Concerning the creative plan of God for human evolution Bahá’u’lláh has written: "Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation. . . . These energies with which the Day Star of divine bounty and Source of heavenly guidance hath endowed the reality of man lie, however, latent within him, even as the flame is hidden within the candle and the rays of light are potentially present in the lamp. The radiance of these energies may be obscured by worldly desires even as the light of the sun can be concealed within the dust and dross which cover the mirror.”
Thus it is made clear that human beings remain subject to nature until they find a truth that will link them to the higher, spiritual world. "Through the Teachings of this Day Star of Truth, every man will develop until he . . . can manifest all the potential forces with which his inmost, true self hath been endowed.”
THE NEW HUMANITY
When modern civilization shifted its center from agriculture to industry, from manual labor to the power-driven machine, our social life was shaken to its very foundations. In large measure, the international upheavals and the internal troubles which afflict all peoples today are the results of this profound change, and as we come to understand better its true significance, how far-reaching, how revolutionary its influence has been, the conclusion seems inescapable that these difficulties not only will continue, but in all probability will increase, until a new foundation has been discovered and been laid that will support the structure of this new and larger civilization.
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One of its most
conspicuous effects has
been to introduce into human affairs two
new and vital elements. On the one hand it
has broken down the walls of isolation and
self-sufliciency which characterized society
throughout the long era of agricultural
economy: on the other hand it has brought a
truly titanic extension and reinforcement to
the human personality. It will help us to
look at these two elements separately, and
then try to see what their combined effect
upon our social life has been.
Throughout the agricultural era, human affairs were restricted to relatively small areas and to relatively small numbers of people. The sustenance of the community and the raw materials needed for shelter and other necessities came for the most part from the particular locality. Such international trade as existed dealt chiefly in articles of luxury; the interruption of this trade for any reason affected only a few; it could not threaten the life of the community as a whole. But our present-day industrial economy requires an immensely greater area in which to operate. It cannot, in the first place, function on raw materials obtained only from the locality. Nor can it function with a merely local market. The existence, to say nothing of the progress, of this machine industry demands an economic area that must inevitably transcend established political divisions. Whether considered desirable or not, this condition has become an integral part of our social structure now quite beyond our control. Modern industrial economy cannot be artificially restricted to any one country or land. And since its successful operation has become the source of sustenance and life to so large a part of mankind today, it automatically compels the abandonment of isolation and restriction and the emergence into a world economy protected from artificial interference. It has given us the power to produce whatever and as much as we require for the material wellbeing of mankind. The tragedy is that mankind, however, has not yet learned how to employ such a new and unprecedented power.
The other contribution, the extension of man’s personality, is equally important and far-reaching. As long as his intelligence had no instrument to work through more effective than the skill and physical capacity of human beings, the range of thought and will was sharply confined. The era of manual labor was one during which human intelligence walked: it could not fly. Every undertaking was necessarily limited in its scope, and during that period mankind was well nigh exhausted by the sheer struggle to obtain sufficient food. Under this burden the chief expression of his intelligence was to overcome the difficulties and hazards of his physical environment. He lived deeply immersed in the conditions of nature. Nature, in fact, has been man’s chief environment up to the dawn of this new day.
Now, through the aid of science, we have achieved such a degree of mastery over nature and of conquest of the natural environment that our intelligence has been able to throw off its ancient burden. And in this freedom of the intelligence to employ the forces of nature for human aims and needs a revolution has taken place infinitely more significant than we yet realize. The will of man has been transformed from a state of servitude to nature into one of relative dominance over its forces and laws. The humblest modern family in using the radio, in turning for healing to the public hospital, in reading the daily press, and in a thousand other ways, has ready access to advantages which the mightiest of kings and conquerors could not have commanded a few hundred years ago. The extension of man’s personality is immeasurable.
What, then, is the significance of the entry of these two elements into our social life? It means that man’s most challenging, his most dangerous environment today is no longer nature; it is his fellow man.
Today our lives are immersed in the
movements of society as the lives
of our forefathers
were immersed in the conditions of nature.
With every betterment in civilization we
advance. With every breakdown in
civilization, whether by war, revolution
or industrial conflict, we are thrown
back to poverty
and helplessness. Our utmost hope and our
deepest dread both depend upon the direction
and movement of a society which has come
to include all mankind. This means that the
highest intelligence which we can muster
[Page 779]
should be set to work
to discover and formulate the laws of
right human relationships
with the same intensity that, in previous
ages, that intelligence was employed in the
investigation of the laws of nature. Just as
ignorance of those laws produced the
calamities of famine and pestilence in former days
which destroyed entire tribes and
communities, so continued ignorance of social laws
and principles can and will today inevitably
produce the larger famine of revolution, the
more universal pestilence of international
war. And events seem to be drawing to a
climax. The time in which to find and to
act upon the true principles of human
association may well be less than we know.
It is at this very point of world crisis, in the confusion and uncertainty of this possible turning point in our destiny, that the Bahá’í teachings have come to shed their clear and penetrating light. What is essential today, they explain, is an inner vision and outlook freed from the limitations of the past. To be alive in this new age, and to take full advantage of its opportunities, we must learn to think with an unprejudiced mind, and to feel in terms of brotherhood. We must realize that as airplane, radio and other instruments have crossed the frontiers drawn upon the map, so our sympathy and spirit of oneness should rise above the influences that have separated race from race, class from class, nation from nation, and creed from creed. One destiny now controls all human affairs. The fact of world unity stands out above all other interests and considerations.
As we enter into this oneness, we can look back and see how struggle and violence became so much a part of human relations that it perverted all our conceptions. In the early ages education was aimed chiefly to bring about cooperation among the members of the separate tribe or race. The conception of loyalty, honesty, fellowship, mutual effort and kindliness was limited to the single group. As between tribes or races, however, the conception of an obligation to be just or humane to one’s fellows was replaced by the exact opposite conception of struggle, violence and war. Two ethical codes, two moralities, even two religions, have been practiced by all races from man's beginning. One code was followed in relation to one’s own race; the other, just as conscientiously, was applied to all other races and peoples. One code was accepted as a spiritual teaching, usually identified with a great seer or prophet; the other code developed from the conditions of race experience. It was as though two totally different and mutually exclusive sources of social principle existed in the world—the principle of unity and fellowship, and the principle of struggle and hate.
The Bahá’í teaching abolishes this source of struggle and conflict in man’s consciousness today. It removes the cause of this destructive division in human nature. It declares that the essence and aim of all revealed truth has been to promote the universal spread of fellowship among men. Beneath the differences of form, name and organization, it points to the singleness of spirit that animates the word of truth in all ages and in all parts of the world. It also shows that the principle of organized struggle, however justified it may have been in the past, has now become a menace to every society. The same heroism that built up tribes, races and nations in the past is now desperately needed to build a world civilization. These two levels of truth—devotion to God and devotion to the welfare of the community—have at last been brought together and reconciled. Under the influence of these teachings the man of intelligence and good will is no longer divided in his loyalty. With the whole power of his spirit and with the whole power of his mind he can work to establish cooperation among all the peoples of the earth. Every people, this teaching tells us, has received its blessing of spiritual truth. All nations and races have found a path to the one God. All paths have led to the same goal. Only one light has shown, though the lamps have been many.
This same light shines in the following
words of Bahá’u’lláh: “The measure of the
revelation of the prophets of God in this
world . . . must differ. Each and every
one of them hath been the bearer of
a distinct Message, and hath been commissioned
to reveal Himself through specific acts. It
is for this reason that they appear to vary in
their greatness. Their revelation may be
[Page 780]
likened to the light
of the moon that sheddeth its radiance
upon the earth. Though
every time it appeareth it revealeth a fresh
measure of its brightness, yet its inherent
splendor can never diminish, nor can its light
suffer extinction.
“It is clear and evident, therefore, that any apparent variation in the intensity of their light is not inherent in the light itself but should rather be attributed to the varying receptivity of an ever changing world. Every prophet . . . hath been entrusted with a Message, and charged to act in a manner that would best meet the requirements of the age in which He appeared. God’s purpose in sending His prophets unto men is twofold. The first is to liberate the children of men from darkness and ignorance and guide them to the light of true understanding. The second is to insure the peace and tranquillity of mankind, and provide all the means by which they can be established.
“The prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the wellbeing of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. . . . It is towards the inmost essence of these prophets, therefore, that the eye of every man of discernment must be directed, inasmuch as their one and only purpose hath always been to guide the erring and give peace to the afflicted. These are not days of prosperity and triumph. The whole of mankind is in the grip of manifold ills. Strive, therefore, to save its life through the wholesome medicine which the . . . unerring physician hath prepared.”
It is well to note that this summons to unity has not been sounded in words alone, no matter how true and inspiring these may be. It has been written unmistakably in the movements of the world for more than seventy years. A new age has come into being —a new age that requires a renewal of man’s spirit. Can there be a nobler task than to respond to the appeal of the Bahá’í teachings to do away with the causes of prejudice and hostility and to make an end to the fear and hatred that prevent us from recognizing the true human-ness of our fellows across frontiers and beyond the seas? To become members of the new humanity?
A WORLD MESSAGE
As we look back along the highway of history, we find that the outstanding milestones mark the great discoveries of truth. The date when we learned that the earth moves around the sun, instead of the reverse, or when the principle of the steam engine was first stumbled upon before the kitchen stove, is far more important than the memorials which tell of the coming and going of conquerors and kings. But infinitely more far-reaching in its effect than even these revolutionary events is the discovery this age of the fact that spiritual law controls the movements of society just as irresistibly as the laws of physics control the processes of matter. And we are painfully learning that a universe governed by the forces of this higher law simply will not contain a humanity either compelled or permitted to exist in anarchy and chaos. Recognition of this truth, the Bahá’í teaching makes clear, is the first step for us to take toward an ordered society. There is, however, a distinction to be made between our relation to scientific laws and our relation to this higher law which it is important for us to understand if we hope to have a permanent basis for our civilization.
Obviously, the earth was serenely moving in its orbit around the sun all through those former ages when people believed that it was fixed and that the sun moved around it. The discovery of the true facts did not create them; it merely enabled intelligent people to conform to them. In the same way, the law of gravity was there and operating before it happened to be noticed and formulated. Whether anyone knew the law or not, the force of gravity was acting, and its action was favorable or unfavorable as men acted with it or against it. Knowledge of law, it is hardly necessary to say, simply means that we need not act against it, and that we can save ourselves from the penalties and disasters caused by disobedience to it.
But knowledge of natural law does not
involve any personal or social problem. That
kind of knowledge is mere passive information.
It applies to elements and forces which
lie outside our human personalities. Nothing
about mathematics, physics, chemistry or
[Page 781]
astronomy, for example,
touches our deeper
motives. That kind of knowledge is wholly
impersonal and does not within itself hold
causes of agitation and disturbance for the
nations, races, classes and creeds of mankind.
To a certain degree, there is resemblance
between natural and spiritual law. In both
cases, knowledge of the law brings added
power, and protection against the results of
disobedience to a higher force. In both cases,
the law existed before we became aware of it,
and the laws of spiritual truth treat our
ignorance of them just as do the laws of
nature. A sanction is applied.
But here the resemblance ends. The character of the higher law is such that it can never consist of mere mental knowledge or passive information. For example, honesty is prescribed for us all: it is a law applying directly to the deepest part of our being. We cannot merely “know” honesty—we must be honest. Life itself tests every man as to whether he is honest and truthful or not, and the test comes to each of us, as a rule, in the most difficult and subtle manner. Life is not a school where we obtain high marks for knowing that truth and honesty are spiritual laws—it is a school which settles whether we are truthful and honest. The test is not what we know but what we are.
For long ages, however, we have believed that, while these higher laws existed for the individual, they did not exist for the group, the nation. While we have admitted that each man should be honest, truthful, sincere, and perhaps even forbearing, we have failed to extend these laws to states and civilizations. This failure has not been a deliberate, conscious refusal to obey the law; it has been due to our ignorance of the fact that law is universal and that these higher laws rule the larger movements and issues of society as natural laws control the suns and planets of the physical cosmos. Great empires and mighty civilizations have fallen because their rulers and their peoples substituted an arbitrary human will for the power of social law. Ignorance of this law did not protect them from the consequences of its denial.
Knowledge of cosmic law came about only when men began to study nature as a whole. The wider the vision, the clearer it became that law and not chance or caprice controls the affairs of the earth and of the heavens. In this same way, knowledge of social law calls for a view or perspective over long periods of time. To discover the working of this higher law in human affairs, we must trace the working of cause and effect in the lifetimes of nations. The effects of honesty or dishonesty in individuals can be seen in a few years, no matter how carefully the inner motive has been concealed. But we require its record over centuries to find out whether spiritual law has been the controlling influence in the development of a civilization. And one of the most distinctive qualities of the Bahá’í teachings is that they give us a point of view which enables us to understand the working of this higher law as applied to the movements of society. They give us a clear interpretation of the meaning of history.
In this interpretation they tell us that there are four stages in the development of every civilization, and that these four stages together constitute a cycle or "social year” in human development. And we find that this view coincides with the facts of history. The first stage marks the birth of a civilization. We know how modern Europe arose from the ruin of the force of ancient Rome. But we have not realized, as the Bahá’í teachings point out, that its energy came from a renewed understanding of this higher law as revealed in the teachings of Jesus. From that knowledge came an inspiration under which an increasing community of men tried to live a new and better life. They felt that this law required the fullest possible conscious obedience. So they rose above the dead social conventions of the time and practiced a living unity together. And to realize the unfolding possibilities of this new unity, they developed the principles of a higher order of social life. Out of these principles the civilization of Europe gradually emerged. As the Bahá’í teaching explains: “When the Holy Manifestation of God, who is the sun of the world of his creation, shines upon the worlds of spirits, of thoughts and of hearts, then a spiritual spring and new life appear, the power of the wonderful springtime becomes visible and marvelous benefits are apparent.”
The second stage marks the time when the
[Page 782]
new release of faith
expresses itself in applying the vision
of unity and cooperation to
daily affairs. Those who first understand
the law realize that they can hold what they
have gained only by sharing it freely with
others, and by establishing a society which
reflects their new understanding of truth,
justice and love.
The third stage is when the civilization has acquired a culture and the social institutions necessary to the life of a great body of people. This third stage represents the full fruition of the working of the higher law.
Little by little, however, the original faith and understanding become changed into worship of the new instruments of power which men themselves have created. Individuals begin to grasp at personal power, the supporting bond of unity becomes weakened and the civilization moves into the fourth stage which the Bahá’í calls the "winter” of the social cycle. The instruments of justice become the means of injustice. Protesting classes, driven by oppression and poverty, organize for rebellion. The instinct of self-preservation grows stronger than the virtue of mutual loyalty. The civilization divides into struggling parties and interests, and the original spirit that created its unity cannot be restored. It is this process of life and death as applied to society that is the crucial challenge which confronts the world today. And the Bahá’í teaching makes clear that, if we fail to recognize this law of cycles, this recurrent heart-beat and pulsation of the creative force of this higher law, we shall be as blind as, and in all probability shall share the lot of, those ancient peoples whose only trace today is to be found in a few eloquent ruins.
It should be especially noted that these social cycles are not simple repetitions of group experience: they are the developing and evolving measures of human advancement, as the annual cycle in the world of nature measures its growth and ultimate fruition. And we find in all the world’s sacred Scriptures alike the firm assurance that faith and obedience to spiritual law will ultimately be fulfilled in a civilization that shall unite all peoples and races in one order, one faith and one universal law.
The Bahá’í message is a world message because it rests upon the certainty of that fulfillment: it is a world message because it enlarges the area of truth from the individual to the nation, and from the nation to the entire world. It tells us that this present day is one of final struggle between knowledge and ignorance, between faith and unbelief, between the partisan and the universal spirit. It renews our vision of eternal love behind eternal law. And it assures us of our capacity in this day to make world unity a living reality, when that capacity asks help from the only Source of help.
"And now in this divine age, see what development has been attained in the world of minds and thoughts, and it is now only the beginning of its dawn. Before long you will see that new bounties and divine teachings will illuminate this dark world and will transform these sad regions into the Paradise of Eden.”
“We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations . . . That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled . . . Yet so it shall be: these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shall come.”
“O people of Justice! Be as brilliant as the light and as splendid as the fire that blazed in the Burning Bush. The brightness of the fire of your love will surely fuse and unify the contending peoples and kindreds of the earth, whilst the fierceness of the flame of enmity and hatred cannot but result in strife and ruin . . . All men have been created to carry forward an ever advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all peoples and kindreds of the earth.”
A NEW WORLD ORDER
During this past week we have considered
in brief outline the Bahá’í teachings of the
new order which is gradually taking form in
the social life of the world, and we have seen
that this is being brought about by the
[Page 783]
normal working of
evolutionary forces, as their
nature and method are explained by these
teachings. The explanation is so new to us,
however, and strikes so directly at the heart
of the difficulties and dangers that threaten
every people today, and even civilization
itself, it is perhaps well to go over again one or
two of the points that have been brought
out before we end our series of talks.
One of the most important teachings is that the development of our higher areas of consciousness, that part of us where lie the answers to our social problems, goes forward under the influence of laws that follow closely the method of the laws which control the evolution of the world of nature. As nature advances in a pattern of annual cycles, with their four seasons, so our higher understanding unfolds in vast cyclic movements expressed in terms of civilizations. As life in the tree is quickened by the rays of the mounting sun in springtime, to press on to full fruition and then recede to the unproductivity of winter, so groups of people in different parts of the earth from time to time have felt the quickening force of a mounting spiritual power and, responding to it, have risen from relative inferiority and impotence to a civilization of immensely higher culture and power. Then, as the force which had built them up and sustained them passed the zenith of its influence, gradually their culture and power waned and they sank back into a period of spiritual unproductivity, a life largely materialistic, the winter of their civilization. The working of this law can readily be traced in history, which, for example, tells us of the rise and fall of Rome and its civilization, of ancient Persia, of the Jews and the civilization that flowered in the court of Solomon, and, nearer to us, of the Moslem forward thrust that fought its way to Spain and there gave to the world the glories of the Alhambra, the brilliant civilization of the Moors. Each of these historic movements in civilization fits into its place in the rhythmic pulsation of this law of cycles as expressed in the field of man's social consciousness. Here we see this higher law at work in the past. And it still works on, the Bahá’í teachings say; it does not rest.
Which leads to, perhaps for us, the most important of all the teachings, that in the cyclic course of this higher law a spiritual winter time is now ending; the world is today just beginning to feel the quickening force of a new forward movement in a cycle which is to bring us to a world civilization of unimagined perfection. The disturbing changes which are happening all about us, the more heartening events which sometimes do occur, are both alike the results of the increasing power of this higher law, preparing the way for a new world order that will rest upon the unshakable base of spiritual values. Now it shatters and sweeps away forms that stand in its path; now it combines into higher and more useful forms elements that are in harmony with its purpose, working out the chemistry of the new civilization, demonstrating the inspiring fact that today efforts directed toward the building up of a nobler form of social order have behind them the support of all the power of this higher law, the forces of evolution itself.
For the greatest chemistry of all is that which deals with the union and order of human beings in the state of society. In human beings the Creator has deposited powers and forces which, on the physical plane, represent the highest expression of elemental life; but which, on the mental and spiritual planes, contain attributes raised high above nature. History is our record of this powerful chemistry—the laboratory note book in which is set down the results of many social experiments, some describing notable successes, others grimly depicting those wars, revolutions and other human explosions by which societies have been utterly destroyed. The ingredient which the Bahá’í teachings, as well as all experience, show to be essential to the preservation of civilization is a mutual loyalty based upon the foundation of spiritual law. The ingredient invariably leading to social explosion is hate.
So sinister have become the influences making for hatred today that the time has come to learn the laws of that spiritual chemistry which settles the outcome of all human relations. The world has become a laboratory in which the very powers of life and death are being manipulated by the ignorant, the evil, and even the insane.
[Page 784]
The first principle
of civilization is that
no human being, however weak and lowly,
can be regarded as merely a brute, an outcast
whose fate is a matter of indifference to his
fellow men. Even though latent and undeveloped,
the attributes of man are divinely
created. Great emphasis has been given to
this spiritual endowment of man in the
writing of Bahá’u’lláh: “Whatever is in the
heavens and whatever is on the earth is a
direct evidence of the revelation within it of
the attributes and names of God. . . . To a
supreme degree is this true of man, who,
among all created beings, hath been invested
with the robe of such gifts, and hath been
singled out for the glory of such distinction.
For in him are potentially revealed all the
attributes and names of God to a degree that
no other created being hath excelled or
surpassed. . . . Man, the noblest and
most perfect of all created things, excelleth them
all in the intensity of this revelation, and
is a fuller expression of its glory.”
In the light of this truth, it seems evident that altogether too much power is attributed to those human organizations which employ material force and ruthless coercion to attain their ends. The following quotation indicates how fruitless are the efforts to establish the association of men on any other than a basis of spiritual truth: “Economic distress . . . together with political confusion, financial upheavals, religious restlessness and racial animosities, seem to have conspired to add immeasurably to the burdens under which an impoverished, a war-weary world is groaning. Such has been the cumulative effect of these crises, following one another with such bewildering rapidity, that the very foundations of society are trembling. The world, to whichever continent we turn our gaze, . . . is everywhere assailed by forces it can neither explain nor control. . . . Humanity, whether viewed in the light of man’s individual conduct or of the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen—however disinterested their motives, however concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; no doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the future of a distracted world can be built.”
The Bahá’í writings contain a further passage which at this hour has far-reaching significance. It describes how the light of this higher law is arising in this age to banish hatred and fear from the earth.
“In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, yet, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided, nay, even among the peoples of one and the same continent, association and interchange of thought were well nigh impossible. Consequently, intercourse, understanding and unity amongst all the peoples and kindreds of the earth were unattainable. In this day, however, means of communication have multiplied, and the five continents of the earth have virtually merged into one . . . In like manner, all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. Verily this is none other but one of the wonders of this wondrous age, this glorious century. Of this, past ages have been deprived, for this century,—the century of light,—has been endowed with unique and unprecedented glory, power and illumination. . . .
“Behold how its light is now dawning
upon the world’s darkened horizon. The
first candle is unity in the political realm,
the early glimmerings of which can now be
discerned. The second candle is unity of
thought in world undertakings, the
consummation of which will ere long
be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom
which will surely come to pass. The fourth
candle is unity in religion which is the
[Page 785]
cornerstone of the
foundation itself, and
which, by the power of God, will be revealed
in all its splendor. The fifth candle is the
unity of nations—a unity which in this
century will be securely established, causing all
the peoples of the world to regard themselves
as citizens of one common fatherland. The
sixth candle is unity of races, making of all
that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of
one race. The seventh candle is unity of
language, that is, the choice of a universal
tongue in which all peoples will be instructed
and converse. Each and every one of these
will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the
power of the Kingdom of God will aid and
assist in their realization.”
The first principle of civilization has already been described as recognition of the spiritual nature of man. The second is to become aware that a human society capable of solving its problems is no mere casual or artificial grouping of a large number of human beings, but the reflection and outworking of a creative spirit. These teachings tell us that such a spirit is moving the minds and hearts today throughout the world. Its necessary creation is a world society, and the path leading to that world society is a living belief in the oneness of mankind.
We of today live in a transitional age, the “forty years of wilderness” that lie between the old world and the new. The part each man plays is determined by whether he looks backward or forward, whether he responds to materialism or to the higher law, whether he is slave to the darkness or the servant of the light. As has been so poignantly expressed: “The whole of mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to unity, and to terminate its age-long martyrdom. And yet it stubbornly refuses to embrace the light and acknowledge the sovereign authority of the one Power that can extricate it from its entanglements, and avert "the woeful calamity that threatens to engulf it,
"Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, or city-state, and nation have been successfully attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is now striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle in its life.”
There are three periods in this movement toward world unity: first, when the need of the larger unity is denied and resisted; second, when the need of unity is admitted, but substitutes for the true unity are attempted; and third, the hour when all resistance and subterfuge are abandoned, and the spirit of unity is at last awakened among men. We have already passed through the first of these periods. At present we are still experimenting with incomplete measures and halfhearted efforts. But the law is silently at work. Signs are not lacking that many have begun to respond to the new world spirit, and are ready to serve its universal aim. For such, these words of Bahá’u’lláh will bring comfort and strength: "Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth, and is the Knower of things unseen.”
