6.
REFLECTED IN THE WEST
BY GARRETA BUSEY
JUST four hundred years after the discovery of America the physical presence of Bahá’u’lláh passed from this earth, and the long outpouring of Revelation for this day was finished. For four centuries the new hemisphere, as yet unaware of its divine destiny, a destiny implicit in that Revelation, had been developing lustily. It lay, a rich and teeming world, as yet unlighted by the new Sun which had risen on the Eastern horizon, and not until the next year, sixteen months later, did the first direct ray of that Sun touch it. On September 23rd, 1893, while the western hemisphere commemorated its own discovery, it heard for the first time the Word of God as revealed by Bahá’u’lláh. At that moment the keynote for a new order was struck in the West and America began to learn her destiny.
It is the purpose of this paper to place the jewel of Baha’u’llah’s utterance, quoted by Dr. Jessup, in its contemporary setting by trying to evoke out of the past that historic moment of the Parliament of Religions at the World’s Columbian Exposition. The published records give us a stenographic report of a session seventeen days long, during which the most enlightened thinking of the time on religious subjects was set forth by men and women from all parts of the earth, whose words express a sense of the importance of the occasion better founded than they knew. "I have seen all the expositions of Europe during the last ten or twelve years,” said Dr. Momerie of London, “and I am sure I do not exaggerate when I say that your exposition is far greater than all the rest put together. But your Parliament of Religions is far greater than your exposition.”
The importance of the Fair itself is not generally appreciated. It was a milestone in the development of a young nation, one growing into a newly acquired unity. The black struggle of the ’60’s was over, that fiery ordeal which had proved the validity of the federal system now so important to the peace of the world. The most bitter days of the reconstruction after that war had run themselves out, and the aftermath of savage passion was in a measure calmed. An unparalleled period of expansion had joined the east of the continent with the west. And a host of inventions was opening up to the people a vision of undreamed-of accomplishment.
Culturally, the nation as a whole was very crude: In New England that strange flowering of the mind and spirit centered in the Transcendentalists was declining: Emerson and Alcott were both dead, and the spirit of their thinking, although it had been disseminated far beyond New England, was spread very thin. The rest of this vast nation was still preoccupied with the material problem of wresting an increasingly rich livelihood from the blood and bones of the earth. The Middle West, later to be called by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the heart of the continent, was only beginning to look up from its exhausting pioneer labors and to yearn for the reward of those labors—beauty.
To the young men and women crudely nurtured on prairie farms or in rude, struggling villages, the World’s Fair was a dream city, a heaven set down in the mud and toil of their everyday lives. It is almost impossible to estimate the stimulation
Bahá’í display in a store in Wilmette, Ill., during the Convention of 1942.
which that incredible vision exercised upon the spirits of the sons and daughters of the pioneers. Here was unbelievable beauty, not remote and imagined, but solid and concrete before them. A whole new range of possibilities was opened to them.
But they were of a race which reveled in possibilities. The American people, fresh from the tremendous tasks of conquering itself and its environment, young, lusty, full of confidence, reached out to embrace the world. This fair was a World’s Fair. The very reason for its being was one which had global significance. For was not the voyage of Columbus the essential act which was in the course of time to make the globe materially a single unit? And now the American continent, freed from Europe and united in itself, was beginning to feel its kinship with the whole. That newly awakened consciousness is implicit in all that is written about the World’s Columbian Exposition.
As early as 1890, Charles C. Bonney, not content With the celebration of material achievement at the exposition, conceived the idea of inaugurating a series of congresses which would set forth the social, political, artistic, and religious aspirations of the age, and at his suggestion, an auxiliary to the fair was formed. Two hundred committees began working on the project, and the State Department of the United States government included in its announcement to the world the following significant statement:
"Among the great themes which the congresses are expected to consider are the following: The grounds of fraternal union in the language, literature, domestic life, religion, science, art, and civil institutions of different peoples; the economic, industrial, and financial problems of the age; educational systems, their advantages and their defects, and the means by which they may best be adapted to the recent enormous
Bahá’í Book Exhibit, Gordian Book Store, Wilmette, Ill., on display during the 1942 Convention sessions.
increase in all departments of knowledge; the practicability of a common language for use in the commercial relations in the civilized world; international copyright and the laws of intellectual property and commerce; immigration and naturalization laws and the proper international privileges of alien governments and subjects and citizens; the most efficient and advisable means of preventing or decreasing pauperism, insanity, and crime, and of increasing productive ability, prosperity, and virtue throughout the world; international law as a bond of union and a means of mutual protection, and how it may best be enlarged, perfected, and authoritatively expressed; the establishment of the principles of judicial justice as the supreme law of international relations and the general substitution of arbitration for war in the settlement of international controversies.”
By 1893 the two hundred committees had brought their plans to fruition. Between May 15th and October 20th of that year, twenty departmental congresses met, with two hundred congresses under them. Of these meetings, the most celebrated was the Congress of Religions, the first of its kind and in many ways unique.
It opened on the morning of September 11th with ten strokes of the "new Liberty Bell,” which bore the inscription, “A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another,” each stroke of the bell denoting one of the ten religious organizations represented. In the Hall of Columbus, a part of the Memorial Art Palace on the shores of Lake Michigan (now the Chicago Art Institute) four thousand people awaited for the representatives of the great religions of the world to take their places. A contemporary account discribes the scene:
“The mass of people was so wonderfully quiet that the fluttering of wings was heard when a tiny bird flew through an open window and over the vacant platform. The organist played "Jerusalem the Golden” in the interval of waiting, and the triumphant strains fitly expressed the feeling of many intensely expectant hearts.
“At the appointed hour . . . the crowds
in the right-hand aisle of the auditorium
parted in quiet step, and two and two the
royal delegates of the one Great King, escorted
[Page 770]
by the managers of the parliament,
came slowly into view. Heading the procession,
and arm in arm, were President
Bonney and Cardinal Gibbons, following
whom came Mrs. Potter Palmer and Mrs.
Charles Henrotin. Next in order, moved
a stately column, composed of men of many
tongues, of many lands, of many races;
disciples of Christ, of Muḥammad, of
Buddha, of Brahma, of Confucius, in the
name of the common God, for the glorification
of the Father. The sight was most remarkable.
There were strange robes, turbans and tunics,
crosses and erescents,
flowing hair and tonsured heads. The
representatives marched down the center aisle,
and amid the cheer that welled up from the
hearts of 4,000 men and women, took their
seats in triple rows upon the platform,
beneath the waving flags of many nations.
In the center of the company, and seated
in the huge chair of curiously wrought
iron, was His Eminence James (Cardinal)
Gibbons, magnificent in his robes of red;
on the right sat the priests of the Celestial
Empire in their long flowing garments of
white; on the left were the patriarchs of
the old Greek Church, wearing strangely
formed hats, somber cassocks of black, and
leaning on ivory sticks carved with figures
representing ancient rites. . . . The Chinese
secretary of legation wore the robes of a
mandarin; the high priest of the state
religion of Japan was arrayed in flowing robes,
presenting the colors of the rainbow.
Buddhist monks were attired in garments
of white and yellow; an orange turban and
robe made the Brahman conspicuous; the
Greek Archbishop of Zante, from whose
high head-gear there fell to the waist a black
veil, was brilliant in purple robe and black
cassock, and glittering as to his breast in
chains of gold. . . .”
The historic assembly was called to order by President Bonney, and suddenly, ”from the great organ in the gallery, broke forth to the strains of ‘Old Hundred,’ the inspiring measures
- From all that dwell beneath the skies
- Let the Creator’s praise arise.
”. . . After the song had died away, a moment’s silence, which the uplifted hand of Cardinal Gibbons sustained, then his voice began: Our Father, who art in heaven,’ and was lost in the rush of voices which followed the well-known universal prayer. The supreme moment of the 19th century was reached. Africa, Europe, America, and the isles of the sea, together called him Father. This harmonious use of the Lord’s Prayer by Jews, Muḥammadans, Buddhists, Brahmans, and all divisions of Christians, seemed a rainbow of promise pointing to the time when the will of God will ‘be done on earth as it is done in heaven’.”
For seventeen days the Congress met to discuss religion and the religions from almost every point of view. Widely divergent ideas on ”revelation, immortality, the incarnation of God, the universal elements in religion, the ethical unity of different religious systems, the relations of religion to morals, marriage, education, science, philosophy, evolution, music, labor, government, peace and war, and many other themes of absorbing interest” were set forth freely and for the most part a spirit of harmony, or at least of tolerance, prevailed, interrupted by only a few harsh, discordant notes. But it was the thirteenth day, the 23rd of September, out of which was to come (all unknown to its participants) the fulfillment of all the hopes of the Parliament. For on that day Bahá’u’lláh spoke to the religions of the world, and so provided that creative germ which would eventually unite them all.
On the pages of the record, that morning stands out clearly after fifty years. Once more those earnest men and women assembled in the Hall of Columbus, this time to consider the international obligations of religions. The Rev. Walter M. Barrows, of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, President of the Committee, was in the chair. He opened the session with “the universal prayer” and introduced the first speaker, J. W. Hoyt, Ex—Governor of Wyoming, who advocated an international court of arbitration. “Let us thank God,” he said, "for the dawn of a better era—that time is coming, aye, is at hand, when no nation on earth will dare to draw the sword, or set forth the glistening bayonet without the universal consent of mankind.”
The next speaker was A. M. Powell of the Society of Friends of New York, who pointed out, among other evils not consonant with the Christian spirit, the injustice with which the American Indian had been treated and the shameful dealings of Christian nations in China. The Rev. Alfred W. Momerie of London reminded the audience that the founders of all religions had emphasized, not metaphysics, but right conduct. Thomas J. Semmes of Louisiana, advocating international arbitration, made this startling statement: "President Grant, in his message to Congress in 1873, mystically said: ‘I am disposed to believe that the Author of the Universe is preparing the world to become a single nation, speaking the same language, which will hereafter render armies and navies superfluous’.”
Then Jenkin Lloyd Jones, founder of the Lincoln Center in Chicago, introduced Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, from whose tongue fell a distillation of bitterness when she spoke of the failure of American Christians in their conduct towards her people. Such passages as these set into appalling relief the misuse by professing Christians in America of their religion: "Religion, like every other force in America, was first used as an instrument and servant of slavery. All attempts to christianize the negro were limited by the important fact that he was property of a valuable and peculiar sort, and that the property value must not be disturbed, even if his soul were lost.” "When mothers saw their babes sold by Christians on the auction block in order to raise money to send missionaries to foreign lands; when black Christians saw white Christians openly do everything forbidden in the Decalogue; when indeed, they saw, as no one else could see, hypocrisy in all things triumphant everywhere, is it not remarkable if such people have any religious sense of the purities of Christianity?” She ended with this conclusion: “The hope of the negro and other dark races in America depends upon how far the white Christians can assimilate their religion.”
Mrs. Williams was followed by Rabbi Joseph Silverman, who spoke briefly on misconceptions concerning the Jew, closing with the hope that the true brotherhood of man would speedily be realized, "in which there shall be no distinction as to nationality or creed.”
Then came the address of the Rev. Dr. Henry H. Jessup of Beirut, Syria. His subject was “The Religious Mission of the English-Speaking Nations.” He pointed out that, by their history, their geographical position, their political principles, and their moral and religious history (which, in the light of some of the foregoing addresses, he seems to have overestimated), the English-speaking nations were in a position to uplift and enlighten the world and to bring about international arbitration. ”This, then, is our mission: That we who are made in the image of God should remember that all men are made in God’s image. To this divine knowledge we owe all we are, all we hope for. We are rising gradually toward that image and we owe to our fellow men to aid them in returning to it in the glory of God and the beauty of holiness. It is a celestial privilege and with it comes a high responsibility. From this responsibility there is no escape.”
And now, at the close of this address, the high, the supreme moment of the Congress, were spoken those words in which America heard for the first time the Creative Word of the New Age. I quote (exactly as it was recorded) the end of Rev. Jessup’s message to the assembled Religions of the world:
"In the palace of Behjeh, or Delight, just outside the fortress of ‘Akká on the Syrian coast, there died a few months since a famous Persian sage—the Babi saint, named Beha Allah, the ‘Glory of God’—the head of that vast reform party of Persian Muslims who accept the New Testament as the word of God, and Christ as the deliverer of men, who regard all natives* [sic] as one, and all men as brothers. Three years ago he was visited by a Cambridge scholar, and gave utterance to sentiments so noble, so Christlike, that we repeat them as our closing words:
" ‘That all nations should become one in faith, and all men as brothers; that the
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*Probably a misprint for ”nations."
Bahá’í Temple Model displayed at San Jose County Fair, California, October, 1941, expressing the theme of United Prayer for All Nations.
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; what harm is there in this? Yet so it shall be. These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the "most great peace” shall come.
“ ‘Do not you in Europe need this also?
“ ‘Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.’”
In this simple statement, having the accent of authority, nay, even of command, the vexed questions were all solved—the crooked made straight and the rough places plain. For behind these words lay the voluminous Writings which constitute the Revelation of God for this age, the education needed for the regeneration of the world. In them Bahá’u’lláh had shown the way to national and racial unity; He was the union of religions. And behind His Writings, in the mysterious recesses of the Divine Will, was already moving the Power which was to bring into being, after suffering undreamed of then, a new order of life for mankind. And the world discovered by Columbus was already destined to become its inaugurator.
As the Parliament of Religions drew to a close, its participants were conscious of a great exaltation, a feeling that something momentous had occurred, something which they tried, on that last evening, to express, using terms more significant than they knew. One said: "By this parliament the city of Chicago has placed herself far away above all the cities of the earth. In this school you have learned what no other town or city in the world yet knows. The conventional idea of religion which obtains among Christians the world over is that Christianity is true, all other religions false. . . . You know better, and with clear light and strong assurance can testify that there may be friendship instead of antagonism between religion and religion, that so surely as God is our common Father, our hearts
Bahá’í Book Display in Main Lobby of Racine Public Library, 1940.
alike have yearned for Him, and our souls in devoutest moods have caught whispers of grace dropped from His throne.
“Then this is Pentecost, and behind is the conversion of the world.”
Another said: “Fathers of the contemplative East; sons of the executive West—behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. The New Jerusalem, the city of God, is descending, heaven and earth chanting the eternal hallelujah chorus.”
