Edition:Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era (1923)/The Way to Peace

[Page 139]

CHAPTER X

THE WAY TO PEACE

To-day, this servant has assuredly come to vivify the world and to bring into unity all who are on the face of the earth. That which God willeth shall come to pass and thou shalt see the earth even as the Abha (Most Glorious) Paradise.”—BAHA’U’LLAH, in Tablet to Ra’is.

Conflict versus Concord.

During the past century scientists have devoted an immense amount of study to the struggle for existence in the plant and animal world, and, amid the perplexities of social life, many have: turned for guidance to the principles which have been found to hold good in the lower world of nature, In this way they have come to regard rivalry and conflict as necessities of life, and the ruthless killing out of the weaker members of society as a legitimate or even necessary means of improving the race. Baha’u’llah tells us, on the other hand, that, if we wish to ascend the scale of progress, instead of looking backwards to the animal world, we must direct our gaze forwards and upwards, and must take not the beasts, but the prophets as our guides. “The principles of unity, concord and compassion taught by the prophets are the very antithesis of those dominating the animal struggle for self-preservation, and we must choose between them, for they cannot be reconciled. ‘Abdu’l-Baha says :—

• Tn the world of nature the dominant note is the struggle for existence—

the result of which is the survival of the fittest. ‘The law of the survival of the fittest is the origin of all difficulties, It is the cause of war and strife, hatred and animosity, between human beings. In the world of nature there is tyranny, egoism, aggression, overbearance, usurpation of the rights of others and other blameworthy attributes which are defects

of the animal world. ‘Therefore, so long as the requirements of the 139 [Page 140]140 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

natural world play paramount part among the children of men, success . and prosperity are impossible. Nature is warlike, nature is bloodthirsty, nature is tyrannical, for nature is unaware of God the Almighty. ‘That is why these cruel qualities are natural to the animal world.

“Therefore the Lord of mankind, having great love and mercy, has caused the appearance of the prophets and the revelation of the Holy Books, so that through divine education humanity may be released from the corruption of nature and the darkness of ignorance, be confirmed with ideal virtues and spiritual attributes, and become the dawning-place of merciful emotions. .. .

‘A hundred thousand times, alas! that ignorant prejudice, unnatural differences and antagonistic principles are yet displayed by the nations of the world toward one another, thus causing the retardation of general progress. ‘This retrogression comes from the fact that the principles of divine civilization are completely abandoned, and the teachings of the prophets are forgotten.”—Svar of the West, vol. viii. p. 15.

The Most Great Peace.

In all ages the prophets of God have foretold the coming of an era of “ peace on earth, goodwill among men.” As we have already seen Baha’u’llah, in the most glowing and confident terms, confirms these prophecies and declares that their fulfilment is at hand, ‘Abdu’l-Baha says :—

In this marvellous cycle, the earth will be transformed and humanity arrayed in peace and beauty. Disputes, quarrels and murders will be replaced by harmony, truth and concord; among the nations, peoples, races and countries, love and amity will appear. Co-operation and union will be established, and finally war will be entirely suppressed. . . . Universal peace will raise its tent in the centre of the earth and the blessed tree of life will spread to such an extent that it will overshadow the East and the West. Strong and weak, rich and poor, antagonistic sects and hostile nations, which are like the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the lion and the calf, will act toward each other with the most complete love, friendship, justice and fairness. ‘The world will be filled with science, with the knowledge of the reality of the mysteries of beings, and with the knowledge of God.”—Some dnswered Questions, p. 73+

Religious Prejudices.

In order to see clearly how the Most Great Peace may be established, let us first examine the principal causes that have led to war in the past and see how Baha’u’llah proposes to deal with each. [Page 141]THE WAY TO PEACE 141

One of the most fertile causes of war has been religious prejudice. With regard to this the Baha’i teachings show clearly that animosity and conflict ‘between people of different religions and sects have always been due, not to true religion, but to the want of it, and to its replacement by false prejudices, imitations and misrepresentations.

In one of his talks in Paris, ‘Abdu’l-Baha said :—

• Religion should unite all hearts and cause wars and disputes to vanish

from the face of the earth; it should give birth to spirituality, and bring light and life to every soul. If religion becomes a cause of dislike, hatred and division it would be better to be without it, and to withdraw from such a religion would bea truly religious act. For it is clear that the purpose of a remedy is to cure, but if the remedy only aggravates the complaint, it had better be left alone. Any religion which is not a cause of love and unity is no religion.”—Paris Talks, p. 180.

Again he says :—

“From the beginning of human history down to the present time various religions of the world have anathematized one another and accused one another of falsity. ‘They have shunned one another most rigidly, exercising mutual animosity and rancour. Consider the history of religious warfare. One of the greatest religious wars, the Crusades, extended over a period of 200 years. Sometimes the Crusaders were successful, killing, pillaging and taking captive the Muhammadan people; sometimes the Mussulmans were victorious, inflicting bloodshed and ruin in tum upon the invaders.

“So they continued for two centuries, alternately fighting with fury and relaxing with weakness until the European religionists withdrew from the East, leaving ashes of desolation behind them and finding their own nations in a condition of turbulence and upheaval. Yet this was only one of the ‘ Holy wars.’

“Religious wars have been many. Nine hundred thousand martyrs of the Protestant cause was the record of conflict and difference between that sect of Christian and the Catholics. How many languished in prisons ! How merciless the treatment of captives! All in the name of religion !

“The Christians and Muhammadans considered the Jews as satanic and the enemies of God. ‘Therefore they cursed and persecuted them. Great numbers of Jews were killed, their houses burnt and pillaged, their children carried into captivity. ‘The Jews in turn regarded the Christians as infidels, and the Muhammadans as enemies and destroyers of the laws of Moses; therefore they called down vengeance upon them and curse them even to this day.

‘When the light of Baha’u’llah dawned from the East, he proclaimed [Page 142]142 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

the promise of the oneness of humanity, He addressed all mankind saying: ‘ Ye are all fruits of one tree. There are not two trees, one a tree of divine mercy, the other the tree of Satan.’ Therefore we must exercise the utmost love toward one another. We must not consider any people the people of Satan, but know and recognize all as servants ofone God. At most it is this: some do not know, they must be guided and trained. Some are ignorant, they must be informed. Some are as children, they must be helped to reach maturity. Some are ailing, their moral condition is bad, they must be treated until their morals are purified. But the sick man is not to be hated because he is sick; the child must not be shunned because he is a child, the ignorant one is not to be despised because he lacks knowledge. ‘They must be treated, educated, trained and assisted in love. Everything must be done in order that all humanity may live under the shadow of God in the utmost security, in happiness of the highest type.”—Star of the West, vol. vill. p. 76.

Racial and Patriotic Prejudices.

The Baha’i doctrine of the unity of mankind strikes at the root of another cause of war, namely, racial prejudice, Certain races have assumed themselves to be superior to others and have taken for granted, on the principle of “ survival of the fittest,” that this superiority gives them the right to exploit for their own advantage, or even to exterminate, weaker races. Many of the blackest

_pages in the world’s history are examples of the pitiless application

of this principle. According to the Baha'i view people of every race are of equal value in the sight of God. All have wonderful innate capacities which only require suitable education for their development, and each can play a part, which, instead of impoverishing, will enrich and complete the life of all the other members of the body of humanity. ‘Abdu’l-Baha says :—

““Conceming the prejudice of race: it is an illusion, a superstition pure and simple, for God created us all of one race. . . . In the beginning also there were no limits and boundaries between the different lands; no part of the earth belonged more to one people than to another. In the sight of God there is no difference between the various races. Why should man invent such a prejudice? How can we uphold war caused by such an illusion? God has not created men that they should destroy one another. All races, tribes, sects and classes share equally in the bounty of their Heavenly Father.

“* The only real difference lies in the degree of faithfulness, of obedience [Page 143]THE WAY TO PEACE 143

to the laws of God. There are some who areas lighted torches; there are others who shine as stars in the sky of humanity.

“The lovers of mankind, these are the superior men, of whatever nation, creed or colour they may be.”—Paris Ta/ks, p. 136.

Equally mischievous with racial prejudice is political or patriotic prejudice. The time has now come when narrow national patriotisms should be merged in the wider patriotism whose country is the world, Baha@u’llah says :—

“Tn former ages it hath been said: ‘To love one’s native land is faith,’ but the Tongue of Grandeur hath said in the day of this Manifestation: ‘Glory is not his who loves his native land, but Glory is his who loves his kind.’ By these exalted words He taught the birds of souls a new flight and effaced restriction and blind imitation from the Book.”— Tablet of the World.

Territorial Ambitions.

Many are the wars which have been fought over pieces of territory whose possession has been coveted by two or more rival nations. The greed of possession has been as fertile a cause of strife among nations as among individuals. According to the Baha'i view, land rightly belongs not to individual men or individual nations but to humanity as a whole; nay, rather, it belongs to God alone, and all men are but tenants.

On the occasion of the Battle of Benghazi, ‘Abdu’l-Baha

said :—

“The news of the Battle of Benghazi grieves my heart. I wonder at the human savagery that still exists in the world: How is it possible for men to fight from morning till night, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men? And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! Even the animals when they fight have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks. How terrible is it that men who are of the higher kingdom can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings for the possession of a tract of land—the highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth.

. “Land belongs not to one people but to all people. The earth is not man’s home but his tomb.

• • However great the conqueror, however many countries he may

reduce to slavery, he is unable to retain any part of these devastated lands but one tiny portion—his tomb. [Page 144]144 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

‘If more land is required for the improvement of the condition of the people, for the spread of civilization . . . surely it would be possible to acquire peaceably the necessary extension of territory. But war is made for the satisfaction of men’s ambition. For the sake of worldly gain to the few terrible misery is brought to numberless homes, breaking the hearts of hundreds of men and women... .

“TI charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of his heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. When soldiers of the world draw their swords to kill, soldiers of God clasp each other’s hands. So may all the savagery of men disappear by the mercy of God, working through the pure in heart and the sincere of soul. Do not think the peace of the world an ideal impossible to attain. Nothing is impossible to the divine benevolence of God. If you desire with all your heart friendship with every race on earth, your thought, spiritual and positive, will spread ; it will become the desire of others, growing stronger until it reaches the minds of all men.”—Paris Talks, p. 23.

Universal Language.

Having glanced at the principal causes of war and how they may be avoided, we may now proceed to examine certain constructive proposals made by Baha’u’llah with a view to achieving the Most Great Peace.

The first deals with the establishment of a universal auxiliary language. Baha’u’llah refers to this matter in the Book of Aqdas and in many of his Tablets. Thus in the Tab/et of Ishragat he says :— =

“ The Sixth Ishraq (Effulgence) is Concord and Union amongst men. ‘Through the radiance of Union have the regions of the world at all times been illumined, and the greatest of all means thereunto is the understanding of one another’s writing and speech. Ere this, in Our Epistles, have We commanded the ‘Trustees of the House of Justice, either to choose one of the existing tongues, or to originate a new one, and in like manner to adopt a common script, teaching these to the children in all the schools of the world, that the world may become even as one land and one home.”

About the time when this proposal of Baha’u’llah was first given to the world, there was born in Poland a boy named Ludovic Zamenhof, who was destined to play a leading part in carrying it into effect. Almost from his infancy, the ideal of a universal language became a dominant motive in Zamenhof’s life, and the [Page 145]THE WAY TO PEACE 145

result of his devoted labours was the invention and widespread adoption of the language known as Esperanto, which has now stood the test of over thirty-five years and has proved to be a very satisfactory medium of international intercourse. It has the great advantage that it can be mastered in about a twentieth part of the time required to master such languages as English, French or German. At an Esperanto banquet given in Paris in February 1913, ‘Abdu’l-Baha said :—

“To-day one of the chief causes of the differences in Europe is the diversity of languages. We say this man is a German, the other is an Italian, then we meet an Englishman and then again a Frenchman. Although they belong to the same race, yet language is the greatest barrier between them. Were a universal auxiliary language in operation they would all be considered as one.

“ His Holiness Baha’u’llah wrote about this international language more than forty years ago. He says that as long as an international language is not adopted, complete union between the various sections of the world will be unrealized, for we observe that misunderstandings keep people from mutual association, and these misunderstandings will not be dispelled except through an international auxiliary language.

“Generally speaking, the whole people of the Orient are not fully informed of events in the West, neither can the Westerners put themselves in sympathetic touch with the Easterners; their thoughts are enclosed in a casket—the international language will be the master key to open it. Were we in possession of a universal language, the Western books could easily be translated into that language, and the Eastern peoples be informed of their contents. In the same way the books of the East could be translated into that language for the benefit of the people in the West. The greatest means of progress towards the union of East and West will be a common language. It will make the whole world one home and become the strongest impulse for human advancement. It will upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity. It will make the earth one universal commonwealth. It will be the cause of love between the children of men. It will cause good fellowship between the various races.

“« Now, praise be to God that Dr. Zamenhof has invented the Esperanto language. It has all the.potential qualities of becoming the international means of communication. All of us must be grateful and thankful to him for this noble effort; for in this way he has served his fellow-men well. With untiring effort and self-sacrifice on the part of its devotees Esperanto will become universal. ‘Therefore every one of us must study this language and spread it as far as possible so that day by day it may receive a broader recognition, be accepted by all nations and

Io [Page 146]146 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

governments of the world, and become a part of the curriculum in all the public schools. I hope that Esperanto will be adopted as the language of all the future international conferences and congresses, so that all people need acquire only two Janguages—one their own tongue and the other the international language. ‘Then perfect union will be established between all the people of the world. Consider how difficult it is to-day to communicate with various nations. If one studies fifty languages one may yet travel through a country and not know the language. Therefore I hope that you will make the utmost effort, so that this language of Esperanto may be widely spread.”

While thus encouraging the spread of Esperanto, ‘Abdu’l-Baha realized that it would have to be developed, improved and expanded before it could meet all the requirements of a universal language. In one of his London talks he said :-—

The love and effort put into Esperanto will not be lost, but no one person can construct a universal language. It must be made by a Council representing all countries, and must contain words from different languages.”—Abdul Baha in London, p. 95.

The development of the Esperanto language is now proceeding under the: guidance of an international ‘“ Lingva Komitato,” and year by year it is being enriched and its vocabulary enlarged by the addition of roots from various languages.

League of Nations.

Another proposal frequently and powerfully advocated by Baha’u’llah was that a Universal League of Nations should be formed for the maintenance of international peace, In a letter to Queen Victoria, written in 1865, he said :—

“© concourse of rulers! Compose your differences, then will ye no more need a multitude of warriors, nor the equipments thereof, but merely such as to protect therewith your realms and your peoples. . . 4 Be united, O concourse of Sovereigns, for thereby the winds of dissension amongst you will be stilled and the peoples around you find rest... . Should one of you arise against another, arise ye, one and all, against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.”

In 1875, ‘Abdu’l-Baha gave a forecast of the establishment of a Universal League of Nations, which is especially interesting at the present time in view of the strenuous attempts now being made to establish such a league. He wrote :— [Page 147]THE WAY TO PEACE 147

• Yea, the true civilization will raise its banner in the centre of the

world when some noble rulers of high ambitions, the bright suns of the world of humanitarian enthusiasm, shall, for the good and happiness of all the human race, step forth with firm resolution and keen strength of mind and hold a conference on the question of universal peace; when, keeping fast hold of the means of enforcing their views, they shall establish a union of the states of the world, and conclude a definite treaty and strict alliance between them upon conditions not to be evaded. When the whole human race had been consulted through their representatives and invited to corroborate this treaty, which verily would be a treaty of universal peace and would be accounted sacred by all the peoples of the earth, it would be the duty of the united powers of the world to see that this great treaty should be strengthened and should endure.

“Tn such a universal treaty the limits of the borders and boundaries of every state should be fixed, and the customs and laws of every government; all the agreements and affairs of state and arrangements between the various governments should be propounded and settled in due form ; the size of the armaments for each government should likewise be definitely agreed upon, because if in the case of any state there were to be an increase in the preparation for war, it would be a cause for alarm to the other states. The bases of this powerful alliance should be so fixed that, if one of the states afterwards broke any of the articles of it, the rest of the nations of the world would rise up and reduce it to submission. Yea, the whole human race would band its forces together to overthrow that government.

‘If so great a remedy should be applied to the sick body of the world, it would certainly be the means of continually and permanently healing its illness by the inculcation of universal moderation” (see Mysterious Forces of Civilization, pp. 134-140).

International Arbitration.

Baha’u’llah also advocated the establishment of an international court of arbitration, so that differences arising between nations might be settled in accordance with justice and reason, instead of by appeal to the ordeal of battle.

In a letter to the Secretary of the Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, in August 1911, ‘Abdu’l- Baha said :-—

• About fifty years ago in the Book of Aqdas, Baha’u’llah commanded

people to establish universal peace and summoned all the nations to the divine banquet of international arbitration, so that the questions of boundaries, of national honour and property, and of vital interests between nations might be settled by an arbitral court of justice, and that no nation would dare to refuse to abide by the decisions thus arrived at. If any

bu, [Page 148]148 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

quarrel arise between two nations it must be adjudicated by this international court and be arbitrated and decided upon like the judgment rendered by the Judge between two individuals. If at any time any nation dares to break such a decision, all the other nations must arise to put down this rebellion.”

Again, in one of his Paris talks in 1911, he said :—

‘* A supreme tribunal shall be established by the peoples and governments of every nation, composed of members elected from each country and government. ‘The members of this great council shall assemble in unity. All disputes of an international character shall be submitted to this court, its work being to arrange by arbitration everything which otherwise would be a cause of war. The mission of this tribunal would be to prevent war.”—Paris Talks, p. 145.

During the quarter of a century preceding the establishment of the League of Nations a permanent Court of Arbitration was established at the Hague (1900), and many arbitration treaties were signed, but most of these fell far short of the comprehensive proposals of Baha’u’llah. No arbitration treaty was made between two great Powers in which all matters of dispute were included. Differences affecting “vital interests,” ‘ honour” and “independence” were specifically excepted. Not only so, but effective guarantees that nations would abide by the terms of the treaties into which they had entered were lacking. In the Baha’l proposals, on the other hand, questions of boundaries, of national honour and of vital interest are expressly included, and agreements will have the supreme guarantee of the WorldLeague of Nations behind them. Only when these proposals are completely carried out will international arbitration attain the full scope of its beneficent possibilities and the curse of war be finally banished from the world.

Limitation of Armaments. ‘Abdu’l-Baha says :—

“ By a general agreement all the governments of the world must disarm simultaneously. It will not do if one lays down its arms and the others refuse to do so. ‘The nations of the world must concur with each other concerning this supremely important subject, so that they may abandon together the deadly weapons of human slaughter. As long as one nation [Page 149]THE WAY TO PEACE 149

increases her military and naval budget other nations will be forced into this crazed competition through their natural and supposed interests.” — Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, May 11-14, 1914.

Non-resistance.

As a religious body, Bahi@’is have, at the express command of Baha@’u’llah, entirely abandoned the use of armed force in their own interests, even for strictly defensive purposes. In Persia many, many thousands of the Babis and Baha@’is have suffered cruel deaths because of their faith. In the early days of the Movement the Babis on various occasions defended themselves and their families by the sword, with great courage and bravery. Baha’u’llah, however, forbade this. ‘Abdu’l-Baha writes :—

“When Baha’u’llah appeared, he declared that the promulgation of the truth by such means must on no account be allowed, even for purposes of self-defence. He abrogated the rule of the sword and annulled the ordinance of ‘Holy War.’ ‘If ye be slain,’ said he, ‘it is better for you than to slay. It is through the firmness and assurance of the faithful that the Cause of the Lord must be diffused. As the faithful, fearless and undaunted, arise with absolute detachment to exalt the Word of God, and, with eyes averted from the things of this world, engage in service for the Lord’s sake and by His power, thereby will they cause the Word of Truth to triumph. ‘These blessed souls bear witness by their life-blood to the truth of the Cause and attest it by the sincerity of their faith, their devotion and their constancy. "The Lord can avail to diffuse His Cause and to defeat the froward. We desire no defender but Him, and with our lives in our hands face the foe and welcome martyrdom’” (written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha for this book).

Baha’u’llah wrote to one of the persecutors of his cause :-—

“Great God! ‘This sect has no need of arms. All its efforts tend toward the peace of the world. Its armies are good actions; its arms, good deeds; its generals, the fear of God. Happy is he who is equitable.

“By God! ‘These men, by their patience, their tranquillity, their resignation and their contentment, have become the manifestations of justice. Their submission has reached the point where they let themselves be killed rather than kill; and this while these oppressed ones of the earth have submitted to that which hath not been recorded by the histories of the world, and which the eye of the nations hath never seen.

“How could they have endured such terrible misfortunes without stretching forth a hand to preserve themselves? What was the cause [Page 150]150 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

of their resignation and their tranquillity? It was the constant interdictions of the Pen of Glory, for these have seized the reins of the commandments with the force and power of the Master of the world.”— DEpitre au Fils de Loup.

The soundness of Baha’u’llah’s non-resistance policy has already been proved by results, For every believer martyred in Persia, the Bahai faith has received a hundred new believers into its fold, and the glad and dauntless way in which these martyrs cast the crowns of their lives at the feet of their Lord has furnished to the world the clearest proof that they had found a new life for which death has no terrors, a life of ineffable fulness and joy, compared with which the pleasures of earth are but as dust in the balance, and the most fiendish physical tortures but trifles light as air.

Righteous Warfare.

Although Baha’u’llah, like Christ, counsels his followers as individuals and as a religious body to adopt an attitude of nonresistance and forgiveness towards their enemies, he teaches that it is the duty of the community to prevent injustice and oppression, If individuals are persecuted and injured it is right for them to forgive and abstain from retaliation, but it is wrong for a community to allow pillage and murder to continue unchecked within its borders. It is the duty of a good government to prevent wrongdoing and to punish offenders.* So also with the community of nations. If one nation oppresses or injures another, it is the duty of all other nations to unite to prevent such oppression, ‘Abdu’lBaha writes :—

“Tt may happen that at a given time warlike and savage tribes may furiously attack the body politic with the intention of carrying on a wholesale slaughter of its members; under such a circumstance defence is necessary.”—Paris Ta/ks, fourth edition, p. 170.

Hitherto the usual practice of mankind has been that if one nation attacked another, the rest of the nations of the world remained neutral, and accepted no responsibility in the matter unless their own interests were directly affected or threatened, The whole

- burden of defence was left to the nation attacked, however weak and

t See also section on Treatment of Criminals, p. 137. [Page 151]THE WAY TO PEACE 151

helpless it might be. The teaching of Baha’u’llah reverses this position and throws the responsibility of defence not specially on the nation attacked, but on a// the others, individually and collectively. As the whole of mankind is one community, an attack on any one nation is an attack on the community, and ought to be dealt with by the community. Were this doctrine generally recognized and acted on, any nation contemplating an aggression on another would know in advance that it would have to reckon with the opposition not of that other nation only, but of the whole of the rest of the world. This knowledge alone would be sufficient to deter even the boldest and most bellicose of nations. When a sufficiently strong league of peace-loving nations is established war will, therefore, become a thing of the past. During the period of transition from the old state of international anarchy to the new state of international solidarity aggressive wars will still be possible, and in these circumstances, military or other coercive action in the cause of international justice, unity and peace may be a positive duty. ‘Abdu’l-Baha writes that in such case :—

«Even war is sometimes the great foundation of peace, and destroying is the cause of rebuilding . . . this war may be essentially attuned to the melodies of peace; and then verily this fury is kindness itself, this oppression is the essence of justice and this war is the source of reconciliation. ‘To-day, the true duty of a powerful king is to promote universal peace ; for verily this signifies the freedom of all the people of the world.” —

Mysterious Forces of Civilization.

Unity of East and West.

Another factor which will help in bringing about universal peace is the linking together of the East and the West. ‘The Most Great Peace is no mere cessation of hostilities, but a fertilizing union and cordial co-operation of the hitherto sundered peoples of the earth which will bear much precious fruit. In one of his talks in Paris, ‘Abdu’l-Baha said :-—

‘In the past, as in the present, the Spiritual Sun of Truth has always shone from the horizon of the East. In the East Moses arose to lead and teach the people. On the Eastern horizon arose the Lord Christ. Muhammad was sent to an Eastern nation. The Bab arose in the Eastern land of Persia. Baha’u’llah lived and taught in the East. All the great spiritual teachers arose in the Eastern world. [Page 152]152 BAHA’U’LLAH AND THE NEW ERA

«But although the Sun of Christ dawned in the East, the radiance thereof was apparent in the West, where the effulgence of its glory was more clearly seen. ‘The divine light of His teaching shone with a greater force in the Western world, where it has made more rapid headway than in the land of its birth.

‘In these days the East is in need of material progress and the West is in need of a spiritual ideal. It would be well for the West to turn to the East for illumination, and to give in exchange its scientific knowledge. There must be this interchange of gifts. ‘The East and the West must unite to give to each other what is lacking. ‘This union will bring about true civilization where the spiritual is expressed and carried out in the material. Receiving thus, the one from the other, the greatest harmony will prevail, all people will be united, a state of great perfection will be attained, there will be a firm cementing, and this world will become a shining mirror for the reflection of the attributes of God.

‘We all, the Eastern and the Western nations, must strive day and night, with heart and soul, to achieve this high ideal, to cement the unity between all the nations of the earth. Every heart will then be refreshed, all eyes will be opened, the most wonderful power will be given, the happiness of humanity will be assured. . . . This will be the Paradise which is to come on earth, when all mankind will be gathered together under the Tent of Unity in the Kingdom of Glory.”—Paris Ta/ks, p. 17.