Bahá’í World/Volume 8/Appreciations by Leaders of Thought
19.
APPRECIATIONS BY LEADERS OF THOUGHT
BY RUHÁNÍ’YYIH MOFFETT
READERS in many fields of thought are becoming aware of the Glad Tidings of the Bahá’í Faith, the Spirit of the New Age, which like unto leaven is slowly but surely rising and bringing new life into mankind. Many scholars, writers, scientists and leaders have expressed great appreciation and ardent interest in the Bahá’í Teachings of unity, peace and good will.
There are being expressed in both the written and spoken word, in unprejudiced and scholarly presentation, something of the basic principles of the Bahá’í Faith, its relation to other Faiths and the spiritual upliftment it gives to the whole pattern of life.
It is interesting to note that since the removal of the headquarters of the Faith in the Western World to the vicinity of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette in October, 1939, many significant statements by leaders of thought have been made. Some of these have come to the desk of the writer.
Mrs. Charles S. Clark, President of the Conference of Club Presidents and Program Chairmen, which encourages talented artists, musicians, dramatists and those who have a real message, is known and loved by artists from all over the world. She is active on many boards and her broad interests include many organizations of underprivileged people where her beautiful spirit sheds the fragrance of faith, courage and inspiration upon all. One of the sources of her inspiration is the Bahá’í House of Worship which she has visited several times. She writes:
“Something sublime in the architecture of the Bahá’í Temple affected me deeply. Something sublime also in the devotion of the Bahá’ís to the beauty of holiness, to the beauty and possibility of brotherhood, to the celestial beauty and earthly necessity for that peace of Christ which passeth understanding.
“They are opening the East windows of their souls to eternal and renewing ideas which I wish could become dynamic in all religion.”
Dr. Preston Bradley, Pastor of The People’s Church of Chicago of which he is the founder, is perhaps one of the best known, brilliant and most beloved speakers before universities, colleges, clubs and churches, and his radio broadcasts encircle the world. He is striving toward social regeneration by means of spiritual idealism practically applied. For years he has watched the progress of the Bahá’í Faith with deep interest, arranging tours of the Bahá’í Temple and sometimes quoting from the Creative Words of Bahá’u’lláh.
With deep appreciation and good wishes for the Bahá’í Faith, Dr. Preston Bradley wrote to the writer these sincere and impressive words:
"As a resident of Chicago for a great many years, I have watched with interest the development and progress of the Bahá’í Movement. I have known many whose lives were transformed because of their interest in this philosophy. The universality and inclusiveness of its idealism appeal to me as something unique and necessary in the world.
“Any movement which has for its purpose the integration of mankind, tolerance, and working for universal peace and international brotherhood, is needed today as never before.”
Mrs. Maude Roberts George, past President of the National Association of Negro Musicians and also past President of the Chicago Music Association, and much loved and honored by artists of all races who know her, is deeply impressed by the beauty of the idealism of the Bahá’í Faith, its wide inclusiveness and its emphasis on nobility of life. She wrote:
[Page 905]
"The Bahá’í Faith
is inspiring and impressive to our
people. The earnestness of the
followers and the high educational
attainments of the lecturers,
impress the young
people. The hope and guidance it brings to
all peoples are reflected in
the spirit of love and fellowship
which is felt in the meetings.
“I am grateful for the experience that I cherish when I was soloist in 1928 and was presented with one of the powerful books by the Inter-racial Amity Committee. May the great Bahá’í work continue and bring peace and understanding to all mankind.”
The ideals of the new age are finding fresh expressions in unique forms. One of the interpreters of these new ideals a French American, Dane Rudhyar, who is a most convincing and challenging interpreter of the latest as well as the oldest movements in music, art, poetry and civilizations. He is a man of profound and penetrating, far-reaching vision whose works lead from the dark crystallized and chaotic concepts of the past to a new spiritual order in music, in art, in words and in life.
That we may better understand this man who stands so courageously for the ideals of the new age and who is attracting nationwide attention by expressing these ideals in creative art, let us look at his works for a moment. He is a pioneer in creative synthesis. His music might be called cosmic, uplifting and interior and seems to stretch out into a new sense of space. In his search for the answer to why sound is such a powerful element in expressing sacred emotions, he created new musical forms in many compositions for the piano, orchestras and interpretations for the dance. His greatest orchestral compositions, expressing new spiritual urges, are “Soul Fire,” a symphonic poem for which he received a $1,000 award from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, "Ouranos,” “The Surge of Fire” and “Desert Chants.”
For many years Dane Rudhyar has been deeply interested in the chant, believing it to be an expression of man’s search for God. His compositions are many and masterful. He believes there are no absolute dissonances, even when two musical sounds have no apparent affiliation. He perceives the resulting sound may very well contain new elements of harmony that hitherto have been unknown, out of which new thought forms emerge. Therefore, his music rather than being theme music, expresses the element of growth from within or it seems like a widening beam of light. The same element of root forces at work struggling upward expresses itself in pure, clear color and symbolic form in his paintings. He makes the intangibles, tangible and seems to release the pent up life forces in higher expressions.
In his published books and hundreds of articles the element of upward-struggling-life-stuff is uppermost, while his motive is to open new channels of understanding to tradition-bound souls. To hear him speak on the surging life force is not just another lecture but a rare experience. His greatest concern is about the most vital problems of the age and he seeks to present through cultured activities a high spiritual and yet practical approach to life and its problems by means of which the “living person” or higher self in us may be made to act and to transfigure our lives and the world.
It was in 1919 that he began an intensive study of Oriental philosophies and cultures, and learned of the Bahá’í Faith, before he left for California where he was commissioned to write scenic music for the Pilgrimage Play (the life of Christ), and for some of Ruth St. Denis’s dances. He explained to the writer that it was in 1920 he translated a Bahá’í pamphlet “No. 9” into French, and in 1937 reviewed the BAHÁ’Í WORLD, Volume VI, for an American magazine. It was in the September, November and December 1939 issues of an American magazine that he wrote understanding and masterful articles about the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and of a New World Order of society which will come after the times of purgation now at hand. Dane Rudhyar in these articles sums up his analysis of the Bahá’í Faith in these compelling words:
"The Movement is quite unique in having
unfolded through three different periods and
being now in the fourth. Three great
Personalities are at the source
of it: The Forerunner (the Báb),
the Supreme Manifestation
(Bahá’u’lláh), and the Interpreter of
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the word (‘Abdu’l-Bahá).
Each of them
gave to the Movement a different keynote,
or, let us say, each was the center of a
particular phase of the Movement. The
passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá opened a new phase:
the phase of consolidation and
practical organization of what is
being called “The
Bahá’í World Order,” a complete system of
social, practical and religious organization
which, if applied, would transform basically
human society and the relations between
individuals and between nations.
“Both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh are acknowledged as ‘Divine Manifestations’—the former as ‘the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of God and the Forerunner,’ and the latter as the ‘Supreme Manifestation of God and the Day-spring of His Most Divine essence.’
“ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—and even still more Shoghi Effendi—belong to the more ‘human’ phase of the Movement. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appears in the light of being a man so transfigured by His devotion to His father and God that He became indeed a ‘demigod.’ If Bahá’u’lláh is God become-man, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is man-taken-over-by-God. He is thus the Bahá’í Exemplar. A God-incarnate cannot be an exemplar for mere men; but all men, theoretically, can, through the intensity of their self-surrender to God, live as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—as Servants of the Glory of God. Only with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá this ‘Station of Servitude,’ in which He glorified, was so complete and perfect that through it He became utterly ‘one with His Father.’
“It is through this utter ‘at-one-ment’ that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became the ‘Center of the Covenant’—the Interpreter of the Word of God, as pronounced by (or through) Bahá’u’lláh. On the other hand, Shoghi Effendi is the ‘Guardian of the Cause.’ His task is to preserve the purity of the Teachings, considered as infallible Revelation from God, and to apply or interpret them as practical needs arise. He is the prototype of the Bahá’í Administrator. The level of consecrated manhood is reached with him. The Ideal is being organized. The reality of the World Order is being built according to the plans laid down by Bahá’u’lláh.
“The Islamic cycle is a relatively small cycle; and the Báb, rather than fulfill that small cycle as such, linked it with a more universal cycle of which Bahá’u’lláh can truly be said to be the Divine Manifestation. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote symbolically: ‘We are in the cycle which began with Adam, and its universal Manifestation is Bahá’u’lláh.’ . . . The appearance of such a universal Manifestation causes the world to attain maturity. This doctrine of cycles—great and small, universal and racial—the ‘seeds’ of which are Divine Manifestations, is a very ancient one, and seems absolutely basic. In the cycle of Bahá’u’lláh the early Heroic Age of the Movement is ended. The Western world is beginning to awaken. The Message of Bahá’u’lláh was first announced in America in the Parliament of Religions at the World’s Fair in Chicago (1892).
“Since then the number of converts to the Bahá’í Faith has been increasing steadily. They are being organized in ways which somewhat make one think of early Christendom. Indeed the Bahá’í Movement as a whole is the only great religious movement of these last 2000 years which presents a remarkable parallel with early Christendom —notwithstanding the many things which on the surface differentiate the cause of the Christ from that of the Glory of God—the Cross from the effulgent nine-pointed Star, symbol of the new Faith.”
In a recent letter to the writer Dane Rudhyar makes this challenging appeal to the whole Bahá’í World:
“In this age, restless with insecurity and weary with the results of intellectual search, the Bahá’í Revelation stands as a tower of inspiration and a source of spiritual security for multitudes which otherwise would be swayed by forces of social and emotional disintegration. It embodies clearly the most basic keynotes of the collective spirit of the age which dawned with the breakdown of feudal and aristocratic Europe and which will become established when European nationalisms will be ground to dust and the continental unity of Europe will be fulfilled.
“The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh has
meaning in terms of the human family
as a whole
and its synthesizing message can be the
‘seed’ of a future era. To exhausted
communities it gives a vital impetus
which, we hope, will soon energize
new creative
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manifestations and
produce an inspired art, equal or
superior to that of
early Christianity. The
great Temple near Chicago is a forerunner
of this creative wave of inspiration which
America and the whole world needs so much
today.
“In order to reach such a fountain—head of creative spiritual power, the Bahá’ís should feel the emotional vitality of the Movement as an inner reality of their unconscious life; for great, inspired art can only arise from the unconscious depths of man’s psyche. Mere devotion does not produce great artistic fruits. The Ideal must not only be worshipped. It must become flesh—and Art is the first-born flesh of any great Movement which has the power to stir collectivities, once the heroic period of martyrdom is passed.
“We are therefore expecting a great birth of creative Art from the Bahá’í communities in which the living spirit of El Abhá has really become flesh. The vitality of such creative manifestations will prove the essential vitality of the Impulse among the followers of the ‘Glory of God’—for the ‘Glory’ is creative emanation; just as the photosphere of the sun rouses plants and trees from the soil of the earth.
“Open yourselves, therefore, to the Glory of this Sun of the Spirit, that the seed sown within by the Message may become great trees—'Cedars of Lebanon.’ ”
Joseph Sadony, writer, who is also a scientist, a psychologist, musician, poet and one of America’s distinguished thinkers, is profoundly interested in the great basic principles of the oneness of mankind and the establishment of peace and good will upon the earth. As a guest in his home in The Valley of The Pines, the writer was amazed to observe the way he has interwoven science and psychology with great spiritual values and demonstrates them all in his well equipped laboratories. His rich background of special service for Theodore Roosevelt, his renowned non-commercial laboratories for educational and scientific research, command attention. He edits the Journal of “Prevenient Thought” (intuitive understanding) and is giving to the world interesting pioneer research from his laboratories on the chemicoelectromagnetic nature of physical and mental phenomena. He is responsible for many contributions of philosophical and scientific and educational importance in the fields of electricity, magnetism, gravispheric analysis, visual education and their relation to spiritual values. He has written many articles and volumes in these co-related fields.
It was to a pioneer servant of mankind like this that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote in 1920 these inspiring words translated by Shoghi Rabbani:
"The great sages and the eminent philosophers have entertained good and benevolent wishes, but have failed through the power of their philosophy to realize their aims. But on the other hand, his Holiness Christ and the Apostles, by the power of the Word of God, have attained all their aims which centered around the common weal, and have been therein assisted. We, likewise, must aim at that which is the spirit of this age, such as the oneness of humanity, the establishment of universal peace, the investigation of truth, the elimination of misunderstandings among religions, the conformity of religion with science, the abandonment of racial, religious, and political prejudices, the extermination of antiquated imitations, the promotion of arts and sciences, the advancement of the world of humanity, the establishment of right and justice, the equality of both sexes.
“If, in the enforcement of these
benevolent purposes we hold fast
to the power of
the Word of God, there is no doubt that we
shall attain our purpose and aim. Thou hast
chosen a good place of residence,
art associating with many people,
art expert in
many sciences, and hast a pure purpose.
Strive, therefore, that through the influence
of the Word of God, thou mayest
promulgate thy benevolent purpose,
mayest become
the cause of the promulgation of the
heavenly teachings and the recipient of
merciful susceptibilities, so that thou mayest
be confirmed in both this world and in the
Kingdom, mayest become in the nether
world, the standard of the Love of God, and
in the world of the Kingdom, the bright and
resplendent morn, like unto the souls who
today, are striving in accordance with the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, and through the
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power of the Word of God,
are assisted and
secure remarkable results. I trust that thou
too, by the power of the Word of God,
mayest be assisted, and mayest leave behind in
the world of humanity, remarkable traces.
Upon thee be greeting and praise.”
The inspiration of these powerful words in this remarkable Tablet makes of great interest the reactions of the one to whom they are written, who is working in a new field of thought essential for the new age and a new humanity.
Few men have a better understanding of human nature and of the conditions of the world and their relation to life than has Joseph Sadony. Therefore, his views of the Bahá’í Faith and its teachings are of deep interest.
In the sweet pine fragrance of his little hallowed chapel, he spoke tenderly of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá whose picture hangs on the wall of his study beside that of Christ. He said, “I have mentally and spiritually contacted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and found in him a brother, a friend, a co-worker in behalf of unity, peace and all the highest ideals which have constituted my lifelong efforts before I knew of the existence of the Bahá’í Movement. Even now I know little of the external history or affairs. The spiritual understanding requires attention and receptivity to the spirit and soul rather than to the letter and outer body of things.
“May I say that though my contact with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was purely mental and spiritual, in our mutual recognition (I never met him in person) his Tablet to me has been sufficient basis for an attunement of direct understanding with the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, without the medium of outer affairs or interpretation by others.
“The Bahá’í Movement is one of the few faiths originated from and founded upon prevenient principles; therefore, it deserves the attention of every student of prevenient thought. I feel and believe in the spirit of their faith and efforts toward the end of love and unity.
“The Bahá’í Movement today is the fruit of a Branch which made its appearance early in the nineteenth century as the combined fruits of that same great Spiritual Root that produced Judaism, Christianity and Muḥammadanism. It marks the dawn of an era which has yet to be made manifest under requirements which demand the dissolving of walls and boundaries that prevent a consciousness of the oneness of mankind (the basic ideal of the Bahá’í Movement) in which the instinct of self-preservation will be lifted into race-preservation. Then will there be the inwardly prompted coöperation of all peoples for the greatest welfare of all.”
To meet Mr. Sadony is to meet one you seem to have known a long time, one who is frank, open, lovable, sincere and understanding.
It was a real inspiration to have Mr. Sadony state, “The Spirit of the age, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá himself well knew, demands other than mere affirmations of spiritual faith. It demands the living of life, of labor in the correlation of all things, to the end of bringing order out of chaos and providing for the still future Mansion of Universal Understanding, the absolutely unassailable foundations without which the conformity of religion with science, the illumination of misunderstandings among religions, and the abandonment of racial, religious, world and political prejudice cannot take place. This was anticipated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His Father Bahá’u’lláh.”
With great earnestness, Mr. Sadony spoke
of America’s part in the Divine Plan for the
world, and the writer was happy to see how
even without having read the writings from
the Pen of Bahá’u’lláh, he has caught the
spirit of the Word of God. He said, "We
here in America must realize our exceptional
position among the nations and in the course
of history, as a direct result, easy to be
traced, of the forces set in motion by the
particular efforts of Christ and His Apostles.
The fulfillment of His universal aims, and of
which an understanding is lacking in so
many professed Christians, demanded
conditions which did not then exist, but the need
for which throughout the centuries set in
motion the chain of events which
culminated in the birth of “America” as a refuge
of religious as well as political freedom for
all who had been persecuted because of what
they believed. Religious intolerance is
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therefore distinctly
and especially “Un-American,” since
it strikes at the very taproot of
what America was created to provide and
produce. Nowhere else on earth in
the history of humanity in its
present cycle of
existence, has there been a condition
so favorable to the religious tolerance that must
precede the attainment of religious unity.
So one of the cornerstones of the American
philosophy of liberty and tolerance that will
undoubtedly prove to be a foundation for
religious unity based on scientific
understanding, is the “Law of
Functional Limitation” which I have
therefore suggested
and dwelt on as one of the abutments of the
bridge between religion and science.
“It is the essence of this law that man thinks with what he acquires or is given to think with. Without regard to what is or is not the “truth,” each belief and every variation of each belief is understandable in terms of what the individual or group possess to believe with, or to think with in supporting or having arrived at that belief. If you sincerely and open-mindedly examine what each possess to think with, then you will understand why the primitives believe in idols, why savages believe in fetiches, and why every creed, ism, dogma and article of faith of all the denominations and religions are believed by those who do believe them. This may be understood, I have insisted, without raising the question or their truth or falsity. No belief need be ‘attacked’; no man need be killed. Even nature has means more economical and more humane than this: that plants or creatures, men or beliefs survive only as they are fed by food that sustains them, and as they conform to the laws under which they are holden. Reality is that which exists; truth is that which sustains that which exists. Nothing can continue to exist for long unsupported by truth. We need only bide our time and right will prevail. America is the testing ground for all the world; she is the laboratory in which the future course of history is being predetermined. It has been thus since her inception. Here was the last hope of liberty, and because we did not falter in our stand the principle of Freedom became effective in the world; but it depends upon us to maintain and perpetuate our demonstration of man’s fitness for freedom. Here too and likewise other ideals and principles have been and are making their last stand. Let us not forget this; for if we fail then upon our head falls the ensuing failure of mankind in its present state of civilization to achieve those ends. Though we take no part in the struggles of other nations, yet the final outcome is or has been predetermined on this continent. Why this should be so is beyond the scope of this communication to elucidate; I can only point out that it is so, and that there are men of other nations who also realize that it is so, hence cross the seas either to influence, or to test their policies among us.”
When asked if he considered this age as
the “Age of Reason,” Mr. Sadony replied:
“We are passing from the ‘Age of Reason’
to the ‘Age of Intuition.’ The law of the
age is the survival of the intuitively fit, not
merely the physically or the intellectually
fit. It has been and is one of my especial
responsibilities in virtue of gifts bestowed
upon me, to exemplify the functioning of
intuition in the mind of man as the fruit of
a simple mode of life. It is thus with a
method of thinking based on a method of
living normally and naturally, that I have
sought to inspire all those who have knocked
at my door, and by so doing to provide the
timber of thought for the unassailable
foundations so necessary for the fulfillment of
our mutual ideals. I have sought, too, to
provide otherwise missing blocks for the
conceptual structures by which both
religion and science may be incorporated by
universal education into the enlightenment
so essential to the realization of Unity in
mankind. I have sought and am seeking to
remove every obstacle in the road and to
pave more smoothly the way for the truth
to prevail; and it will prevail;
but its survival out of the
confusion of tongues and
viewpoints of our modern ‘Towers of
Babel,’ will be the more firmly assured and
the more quickly manifested by the
understanding tolerance that has ever
been exemplified more fully by the
founders themselves of every religious
or spiritual movement, than by the
followers, whose very
virtue of faithfulness and loyalty causes
them to violate the examples set them, as
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is so evident in the
history of the bitter
controversies among the professed followers
of Christ.”
At the conclusion of the conference with this unusual man he gave in a few profound sentences a digest of his inner understanding, through which glows quietly the light of the Spirit of Truth.
"He who is entirely without doubt, therefore, as to the presence of the power of the Word of God in his own efforts or the efforts of another, rests and labors in that greatest of all securities born of knowing that time proveth all things. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá labored, and now rests, in that certitude. Christ and His Apostles sacrificed their all in that certitude. Every wise and sincere man throughout history has lived his life and faced his death in that certitude. I silence the arguments of all skeptics and atheists by that certitude. I suggest that the sincere followers of every religious belief take refuge in that certitude, that time will prove whether or not it was a true revelation; and time will also prove whether or not its students and commentators correctly interpreted the spirit as well as the letter of ‘the words in which it was expressed. The seeker for truth will recognize the truth when and where he finds it; otherwise he could not seek it. If he fails to recognize it when found, then he sought it not, and it does not belong to him.”
With deep kindly eyes lighted by the Spirit he said: "My impressions of the Bahá’í religion therefore as a non-Bahá’í, although seemingly confined to the Tablet received from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, give me reason to believe it is an expression of the universal Spirit of Truth.”
Is it any wonder that hundreds, nay thousands make a path to his door?
“If love and agreement are manifest in a single family, that family will advance, become illumined and spiritual; but if enmity and hatred exist within it destruction and dispersion are inevitable. This is likewise true of a city. If those who dwell within it manifest a spirit of accord, love and fellowship, it will progress steadily and human conditions become brighter, whereas through enmity and strife it will be degraded and its inhabitants scattered. In the same way the people of a nation develop and advance toward civilization and enlightenment through love and accord and are disintegrated by war and strife. Finally this is true of humanity itself, in the aggregate.
“When love is realized and the ideal spiritual bonds unite the hearts of men, the whole race will be uplifted, the world will continually grow more spiritual, and the radiance and happiness and tranquillity of mankind will be immeasurably increased. Warfare and strife will be uprooted, disagreement and dissension, pass away and Universal Peace unite the nations and the peoples of the world.”
“What a magnificent symbol of unity, of beauty and of aspiration,” exclaimed Mr. J. Otto Schweizer after gazing in profound silence at the Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette. “The keynote of this age is unity,” he continued. “The law of the cells of matter, the law of the far-flung celestial spheres and the law of the whole human kingdom is Unity. How strange that man is only now awakening to the realization that the law of unity is the very heartbeat of human progress! What a symbol of this powerful and permeating idea of unity and its relation to all human progress is this magnificent Bahá’í House of Worship!” The kindly, scholarly eyes of Mr. Schweizer glowed with light as he studied the symbols and structure of the Bahá’í Temple in detail.
The impressions of the great Universal House of Worship as seen through the eyes of this great artist were most thrilling to the writer, who had the privilege of spending a day with Mr. Schweizer and his family guiding them through the Temple and discussing art and architecture in relation to the problems of the human race.
This artist is one of the torch bearers of humanity who from his early youth has realized that ultimately all of its problems, whether economic, social, political or national, are inextricably woven, and have their secret roots imbedded in the hearts and minds of man and are inherently spiritual in nature. In his art work he has tried to express the evolution of mankind to higher
The Bahá’ís of Khartoum, Súdán.
and greater spiritual capacity, oneness and peace.
Let us step aside a moment and glance at some of the influences that have come into the life of this true artist that we may understand a little better why this universal House of Worship, symbolic in every way of unity, made such an appeal to this artist of international fame; for he has breathed the culture of many lands and been tested in the school of difficulties. Mr. Schweizer was born some seventy years ago in the somewhat cosmopolitan city of Zurich, Switzerland. Even at the age of three the talent for his life work expressed itself in childish drawings and paintings which were admired by all who saw them. As he approached maturity he went to Dresden to study his art, first in the Royal Academy and then in the private studio of Dr. Johannes Schilling. After this for five years he pursued his artist’s calling in both Rome and Florence.
In 1934 circumstances brought young Otto Schweizer to America. Then began a period of twelve years of hardest and bitterest tasks and tests. As he became acquainted with the habits and thoughts of people in many lands during all these years of training and trial, his own attitude toward life broadened and deepened and he built up a sound philosophy of applied idealism which it would be well to put in the schoolbooks for the students of all races.
Molded thus in the school of life as well as by technical training, he became able to give expression to his feelings," thoughts and philosophy in some outstanding statues and relief panels. His works have been exhibited in various art academies and may be seen in many of our larger cities. Recently there was unveiled in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, one of his best known works, a group in honor of “The Colored Soldiery of Pennsylvania in All Wars.” His "James J. Davis Allegorical Group” at Mooseheart, Illinois, is much admired. Milwaukee possesses his large equestrian statue of General Von Steuben, and in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, may be seen his Molly Pitcher statue. His ideal groups, panels of “The Harmonics of Evolution,” “Lions on the Way,” “Light Bearers,” particularly express the idealism of the sculptor.
Delicacy of line, perfection of form, originality of idea, beauty of arrangement characterize his work. Profound meaning and aspiration are woven into every line.
Bahá’í Group of Tunis.
Seldom does one see such high idealism wrought in stone. He is truly an artist of the new age.
So as the little group stood under the dome of the great edifice gazing intently upward, this query was put: “To one who can see a vision of the far stretching path of evolution in a block of cold marble and patiently chisel it into our view, what does this great temple in its unfinished condition mean?”
“It is a divine inspiration from foundation to the crowning apex,” replied the artist, with glowing eyes and radiant smile. "At the very root of this materialization of a vision lie age old symbols of truth and wisdom with new light. It is expressed in an entirely new and most beautiful conception. There is nothing like it in the world. The nine-pointed star which dictates the ground plan and is reflected throughout the building up to the highest point of the edifice is the new symbol of a new age.
“Permeating the whole structure is the spirit of the lofty principle of the unifying of the races, religions, classes and nations of mankind into a new degree of togetherness. The proportions of the construction are perfect. See those nine gracefully curved lines of the nine ribs of the dome, which, rising, touch each other as fingers of upward stretching hands meeting in prayer over the glistening whiteness of the crystal dome. The fairylike openwork ornamentation, containing the religious symbols of the world, gives an air of ethereal refinement, aspiration and unity that harmonizes with the central thought of the whole structure.
“Even in this unfinished state,” Mr. Schweizer continued, "the interior offers to the eye of vision untold and marvelous possibilities of finishing and final expression. It can be truly said that the building has no back or front or sides. All the nine entrances lead to one center, the Creator, the God of Love and Wisdom. Though as yet devoid of decoration, the structural masses leading up to the first and second balconies produce a lofty and uplifting sensation. The intense desire arises in the heart that this beautiful edifice may soon be finished, finished in the same magnificent workmanship and in harmony with the priceless original designs of its inspired architect and creator, Mr. Bourgeois.”
Mr. Schweizer showed a keen appreciation, as did his radiant wife, of the permanency of the Bahá’í Temple when he said, “The technical construction is of a quality that will endure for hundreds of years and every precaution is clearly being taken toward that end. The spot where the Temple stands was {bwpage|8|913}} most wisely selected as through the guidance of a Divine hand. I can picture the Temple of the future, standing out like a sparkling jewel mounted on the golden rim of God’s earth. I repeat, there is nothing like it in the universe. When completed it will undoubtedly be the Mecca for millions of people from all corners of the earth. It will be considered as one of the great wonders of the world of architecture.”
Again Mr. Schweizer revealed the depths of the inner understanding of the meaning of the Bahá’í Temple, for just as we were about to leave he said: “It has been a great and inspiring moment of our lives to visit the Temple under your loving guidance. We have learned much of the religion of Love of which this is the exquisite symbol and beloved shrine for the people of the world. We of today must bestow the highest gratitude and credit upon those who are sacrificing so much to build this Temple. Their earnest conviction, their sincere purpose, their profound love form a piercing beacon light against the prevailing darkness and confusion of the world. They by their lives seem to be calling those souls who are ready to come forth to pray in a new spirit of freedom and unity and love. For when love is universally realized, the hearts of men will be united and the whole race will be uplifted.
“You teachers are certainly carrying the brightly shining torches as true light bearers to the children of God, pointing the way toward the ultimate goal—the Kingdom of God. I shall never forget this great privilege. I am deeply grateful to God that the Temple of Light is being constructed to promote the unity and progress of the world today.”
Amity Banquet held under the auspices of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Pasadena, California, December 3rd, 1938.