Religion Returns (Baker)/Text

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COPYRIGHT 1945 By THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL Assizmnur or was BAHA’in or nu: UNITED STATES

Approved by the Reviewing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly

Printed in U.S./1.

Third Printing, 1953

[Page 3]RELIGION RETURNS

By DOROTHY K. BAKER

“/1 ml when Thou didst purpose to make Thyself known unto men, Thou didst successively reveal the Manifestations of Thy Cause, and ordained each to be a sign of Thy Revelation among Thy people.”

Ba/ui’u’llcih

RELIGION IS PROGRESSIVE

Religion is progressive, rushing forward like a giant river from God to the ages, watering the arid centuries to produce flowering civilizations and holy lives. God speaks, and the merciless opposers of His truth are swept into the limbo of the forgotten, while out of the lives of the martyr-revelators moves the age-old, two-fold process of the fall of an old order of things, and the rise of a believing people, endowed with the power to carry forward an ever advancing civilization.

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[Page 4]THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD

There has never been a prophet of a religion who has not been doubted. Through under-emphasis they have become dim historic figures who can be judged only by the results apparent in the world after them. In the light of the Bahá’í Faith, the shadowy forms of the world’s great Master Teachers stand out again in brilliant relief against the mediocrity of their times. Their wisdom is deathless. They stand alone against the world, arch—types, on a mount of vision, foreshadowing the perfections of an unfolding race. Bahá’u’lláh aptly calls them Manifestations of God. As heat manifests fire, as a ray manifests the sun, these J pure and stainless souls manifest the Will of God whose plan for spiritual evolution is written, chapter by chapter, in their lives and utterances. They are despised, mocked, imprisoned, crucified, but out of the crucible of their suffering religion is born again; they are proofs of the power of God.

4 [Page 5]THE POWER OF THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL

Abraham was a Manifestation of God. The son of a pagan priest in Ur, He was exiled because He taught the Oneness of God. He came over into the region of the holy land, a man alone against the world. By the power of religion, His exile became glorious. His descendants produced the prophets of Israel, and most of Europe and Asia came under the influence of the God of Israel.

At a later period Moses appeared, a man who was a stammerer, known among men as a murderer, who through fear had for a long time remained in concealment, shepherding the flocks of Jethro. Yet Moses, standing one day on Mt. Horeb, heard the voice of God, directing Him to free the Jewish nation. What

could a stammerer reply? Would He

be convincing, even to His own people? How could He command a Pharaoh?

[Page 6]“Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent,” He lamented, “but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” And the Lord said, “Who hath made man’s mouth? I Will be with thy mouth and teach thee what to say.”

After this Moses went into the market places of the Egyptians, teaching the children of Israel. He revealed the plan of God for the Jewish people and the people listened with increasing eagerness. Only when

Pharaoh’s lash descended more bru— '

tally they became afraid and turned away from Moses, for how could they believe in a single man, alone against the World, against Pharaoh’s chariots, against starvation and cruelty and poverty? How could they know that Moses, whose stafi was His only companion, would lead the Jews, six hundred thousand strong, into the wilderness and the promised land?

By the power of religion Moses fed, housed, and taught the people, purified their lives, gave them back their faith, brought them under His

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[Page 7]civilizing law, and bestowed upon them knowledge and love of God. Moreover, He set in motion a great civilization for those times. The children of Israel became the envy of the pagans. The civilization of the Pharaohs went down to utter loss. Literacy, government, and moral values continued for many centuries to make Jerusalem, the city of the Jews, the cultural center of the ancient world. To such a development did they attain that the sages of Greece came to regard the illustrious men of Israel as models of perfection. An example is Socrates, who visited Syria and took from the children of Israel the teaching of the Unity of God and of the immortality of the soul. A man found his highest tribute in the words, “He is like the Jews.” The power of religion had raised the lowest tribes of the earth to greatness.

REVELATION PROGRESSES TO CHRIST

Revelation is progressive, sweeping onward with the natural evolu 7

[Page 8]tion of the race. Jesus Christ appeared, the living Word of God, flashing like a giant meteor through the musty period of decline that marked His generation.

Born of Mary, nurtured‘ in the Jewish church, assisted neither by His own people, nor by the military powers of Rome, nor by the intel—_ lectual supremacy of the Greeks, Jesus of Nazareth brought into being, in .'a mere _three—year span of ministry, a Faith destined to cross seas and continents and enter at last every known country on the planet. Today hospitals, cathedrals, universities, and governments testify to the

power of religion through Jesus Christ.

Alone against the world, healing, blessing on the one hand, hurling fierce accusation into the very teeth of a hypocritical and dormant society on the other, Jesus became the primal point of a vast civilization. So great was His power, born of God, that Bahá’u’lláh in recent times

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[Page 9]wrote of it: “The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit . . . He it is who purified the world.”

His was a strange sovereignty. The stars were His lamps; He had no place to lay His head. Yet His was the sovereignty that could scourge the

money changers! His was the power’

to say, “Pick up thy bed and Walk!” His was the power to utter the divine words, “Thy sins are forgiven thee; go and sin no more!” All power in heaven and earth was given to Him, the humble carpenter. God does not prove His power by exalting the already exalted. From the upper chambers of communion with this Immortal Beauty, a handful of lowly fishermen conquered the world.

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[Page 10]THE GREAT PROPHET OF ARABIA

Islam leaves no less a proof that religion is progressive. The Arabic civilization in the sixth century was sunken into degeneracy. Drunkenness and moral profligacy abounded. Mecca, center of worship for the pagans, boasted no less than three hundred and fifty idols, including efligies of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Muhammad denounced the idols, preached against the practices of the people, and declared the singleness of God.

Muhammad never fought against the Christians; on the contrary, He treated them kindly and gave them perfect freedom. A community of Christian people who lived at N ajran Were under His care and protection. Muhammad said, “If anyone infringes their right, I myself will be

his enemy, and in the presence of,

God I will bring a charge against him.”

How appalling were the misfor-H

tunes that befell Muhammad! Alone

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[Page 11]against the world He preached the truth, and all the powers of Arabia leagued themselves against Him. That He dared to bless a girl child was pretex enough for stoning Muhammad. When He prayed much in the desert alone, the people flung refuse at His holy person. A thousand injuries He sustained in meekness, a man against the world.

The scene changes. We find the Arabians emerging to scientific and moral heights under the refining laws of Muhammad. Gambling and dnmkenness disappeared. The protection of Women was established. The arts flourished, the mathematics, astronomy, and literature of Cordova and Salamanca became world-famous. Moral life was purified. Political unity from Arabia to Spain drew tribal life upward to national sovereignty. In short, from the lowest human condition, the people of Islam formed for a time the most powerful center of civilization. Such is the power of religion.

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[Page 12]RELIGION MOVES IN SEASONS

But all religion moves in seasons. Cycles of civilization move slowly upward, rising and falling with the faith of man. With the coming of each religion 21 springtime appears, accompanied by storms of opposition. The stormy spring passes into summer; religion bears its fruit, and sinks at last into the cold winter, a petty tyranny of forms with little vestige of the master passion.

The nineteenth century bore the stamp of a spiritual winter. Gone was the fervor of the apostles; gone the summer heat of earlier faiths. Decay, intrigue, and division had swept away the Very foundations of Islam; division and lassitude had eaten into the fibre of Christendom; Judaism, a thing hunted, presented neither a strong nor united front.

Into such a world came Bahá’u’lláh1 preceded by the youthful forerunner and prophet, the Báb.2

-1_'I7he glory of God 2Door or gate

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[Page 13]The age in which they appeared was to unfold a story so tragic, yet so full of promise as to challenge every God—fearing soul. Dynasties were to fall, religious systems collapse, and moral standards sag to the breaking point. The earth, careless of inventions inviting a neighborhood of closely—knit human interests, Was to witness Wars of gigantic proportions, more terrible than any known to history. Out of such abys mal depths, mankind, chastened and‘

despairing, would need, more than at any time previously, the Wisdom of a Moses, the preciousness of Christ, and in the progressive experience of such recurring bestowals, a Physician for the specific ills of a new and travailing age. Someone has said, “In such times great religions perish and are born.”

THE DAWN OF THE NEW DAY

It was one hundred years ago, on May 23, 1844,, unheralded by the world’s leaders, that the Bahá’í Faith

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[Page 14]was born. The Báb received on that day His first disciple, and announced to him the dawn of a new religious cycle. The scene of the announcement was a humble dwelling in Shíráz, Persia.

The Báb Himself was a radiant

young Persian of some two and twenty years. He was a merchant by profession, practicing a trade, as had the Carpenter of Nazareth, two millenniums before Him. On that eventful day He went, a little before sundown, to the gate of the city. His tranquil beauty must have arrested even the heedless, as He stood scanning the faces of the passing multitudes. Among those in the Vicinity of the gate that day was a Shaykhi student, a young man of great inner perception, whose own heart promptings had irresistibly drawn him to Shi’réz, in search of a great Master. Husayn, like the Magi of old, knew that a time pregnant with divine power was again at hand. With what sudden inrush of joy he

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[Page 15]must have gazed for the first time upon the countenance of the Báb. Still uninformed, however, of the reason for his ecstasy, he accompanied His lordly host to the modest dwelling chosen to become the scene of the proclamation. An Ethiopian servant opened the door, and the gentle voice of the Báb addressed His youthful visitor saying, “Enter therein, in peace, secure.” On that night the Báb annpunced to Husayn His own mission and likewise the coming of a mighty prophet, “Him whom God would make manifest,” Whose coming would introduce the foretold age of unity and peace.

Except for the fragmentary reports of Husayn, the first disciple, little is known of the hours that flew in quick succession from sundown to dawn in the upper room of that house. The apostle is one of the mysteries of every religion. He attains the miracle of faith a little

before his world, unable to see the‘

end from the beginning, yet melting, I 5

[Page 16]flame—like into the heart of the Revelator. The commentaries that fell from the lips and pen of the Bab filled His listener with extreme inner excitement. “All the delights,” records Husayn, “all the inefiable glories, which the Almighty has recounted in His Book, as the priceless possessions of the people of Paradise — these I seemed to be experiencing that night.”

THE MINISTRY OF THE BAB

The holy and transforming power of the Báb is the first proof of our time that religion has come again to mankind. Through the pen of a chronicler We walk with Him on the lonely road to Sh1’ré.z, whence He has come to meet the armed guards who have been sent to seize Him; we hear the pleading of the captain of the guard that He escape to a place of safety lest He be delivered to His death; we listen to His softspoken reply, “May the Lord, your God, requite you for your mag 16

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nanimity and noble intention. N 0 one knows the mystery of My Cause; no one can fathom its secret . . . Until My last hour is at hand none dare assail Me ; none can frustrate the plan of the Almighty.”

We follow His path of exile as far as the city of Tabríz, a thousand excited citizens come out to meet Him. They kiss the stirrups that His feet have touched, and ofler their children to be healed. His mercy is like the mercy of Christ; it is given freely, without hope of reward.

We further watch through the eyes of chroniclers the long months spent in the prison fortress of MahKu, situated in the northern mountains. The rough tribesmen crowding at the gate are Kurds, wildest natives of Persia, and bitter traditional enemies of the people of the Báb. They listen to His chanted prayers; they learn to take their oaths in the name of the Holy One within the Walls of the prison, they yearn to

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[Page 18]attain His presence; their lives struggle upward.

A glimpse of His martyrdom is likewise Witness to the power of God. He is sentenced to death. A Christian colonel Whispers a plea for forgiveness. “Enable me to free myself from the obligation to shed your blood,” he entreats his noble Prisoner. “Follow your instructions,” the Bab replies, “and if your intention be sincere’, the Almighty is surely able to relieve you from your perplexity.” The Báb is suspended on ropes, to be shot. Seven hundred and fifty men led by Sam Igian, the Christian colonel, fire a volley of shots. The cords are severed by the shots but the Báb remains untouched. The soldiers of Sam Khan flee in terror and he thankfully retires from his ignoble task. Strangers are brought to commit the odious deed and the spirit of the Báb takes its flight. It is high noon. A dust storm from that hour to the going down of the sun awes the ten thousand

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[Page 19]witnesses of the scene. One is reminded of the passing of Christ. The strange paradox of suffering and sovereignty are again evident, marking a springtide in -the affairs of men. The efiects of the martyrdom of the Bab are far reaching. The Báb is dead but religion marches on.

Bahá’í.LA'.H, THE GLORY or GOD

More than twenty thousand preceded the Báb to a martyr’s grave; a bare handful survived Him. Among the few was Bahá’u’lláh, son of a Persian Vazir of high station and reputation.

As a young man, Bahá’u’lláh showed remarkable capacities, coupled with innate wisdom. In refusing the highest positions of State, He won the admiration of a generation steeped in bribery and petty ambitions, and the wisest men of the realm came to regard His destiny as above and distinct from others. “All that We can hope to achieve,” explained one dignitary of the nation

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[Page 20]to his own son, “is but a fleeting and precarious allegiance which will vanish as soon as our days are ended. . . . Not so, however, with Bahá’u’lláh. Unlike the great ones of the earth, whatever be their race or rank, He is the object of a love and devotion such as time cannot dim nor enemy destroy. His sovereignty the shadows of death can never obscure nor the tongue of the slanderer undermine.’ Such is the sway of His influence that no one among His lovers dare, in the stillness of night, evoke the memory of the faintest desire that could, even remotely, be construed as contrary to His wish. Such lovers will greately increase in number. The love they bear Him will never grow less, and will be transmitted from generation to gen eration until the world shall have‘

been sufiused with its glory.”

Bahá’u’lláh spread far and wide the teachings of the Báb and for a

time wisely withheld His own iden— M

tity as the One foretold. In 1852, 20

[Page 21]following the martyrdom of the great forerunner and prophet, Bahá’u’lláh Himself was seized and imprisoned as a Babi in the underground dungeon of Ṭihrán.

En route to this loathsome pit, He was stoned and derided by a populace incited by His enemies to acts of violence. An aged woman begged to be permitted to cast her stone. “Sufier the woman,” said the holy Prisoner. “Deny her not what she regards as a meritorious act in the sight of God.” With such calm resignation Bahá’u’lláh took up His toll of sacrifice for a Cause in which the Báb was the dawn and He the noon-day sun. With a few companions He was placed in the dungeon in stocks. His Words of endearment continued day by day to cheer their hearts, and no day passed without singing. “God is sufficient unto me,” ran their glad refrain, “He verily is the all—suflicing. In Him let the trusting trust.”

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[Page 22]In later years Bahá’u’lláh, with His family and over seventy followers, was exiled to ‘Akká, Palestine, a fortress city situated at the foot of historic Mt. Carmel. Here, in barrack rooms, the little band of first believers lived in such joy as to make them a source of Wonder to all. In these days Bahá’u’lláh wrote to some friends, “Fear not. These doors shall. be opened. My tent shall be pitched on Mt. Carmel, and the utmost joy shall be realized.”

This indeed was the case , His last years were passed at Bahjí on the plains outside of the city. Here He wrote and taught, and often in the summer, the cypress trees of Carmel offered shade to the world’s greatest Prisoner. This Was a fitting fulfillment of the writings of Judaism, Christendom, and Islam, which had so often extolled Mt. Carmel. Here the Christian world was wont to look for the return of the Spirit, Christ, and the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.

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[Page 23]Here Bahá’u’lláh wrote many of the Tablets to the kings, begun earlier in the exile, enjoining upon them the peace of the world and advising them of the Ways to attain it. Here, in a land Where women were often little more than chattel, He taught the equality of men and women. Here, in a World removed from science, He proclaimed the harmony of science and true religion. Here, in a despotic monarchy He espoused the cause of representative government, World language, a world tribunal, and federation of the nations. Here, in the midst of fanaticism and bigotry He proclaimed, “Consort with the people of all religions with joy and fragrance.”

Bahá’u’lláh counted all of the revealed religions as one and the same. “I have been preceded in this matter,” He wrote, “by Muhammad, the Apostle of God, and before Him by the Spirit, Christ, and before Him by the Interlocutor, Moses.” Recognizing the differences of emphasis

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[Page 24]from time to time in God’s revealed religion, He said, “In every Dispensation the light of divine guidance has been focussed upon one central theme. . . . In this wondrous revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is the consciousness of the oneness of mankind.”

THE FINAL PROOF

The final proof of a religion is its survival and its triumph over opposition. Were the walls of ‘Akká to obscure forever the hallowed light of Bahá’u’lláh? Could such a community outlive its founders? The rise of such a Cause out of the obscurity of an eastern prison gives promise indeed of a power beyond the ken of men. In a single century the newborn Faith encircled the earth; invaded sixty countries and seventeen dependencies; numbered within its ranks no less than thirty races and tore down the barriers between them;

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[Page 25]published and broadcast its writings in more than forty tongues; and established a world-wide spiritual commonwealth, indivisible by its very nature and universal in its goal. Through the unpaid missionary efforts of its adherents it has swept from dungeon to royalty, from Sh1'réz to far-flung outposts, and from the first humble disciple to the scholars and statesmen of the earth.

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THE SUCCESSION

The walls of the prison city closed around Bahá’u’lláh in 1868. At the time of the rise of the Young Turks in 1908, they opened to His Son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the appointed Center of His Covenant, who subsequently journeyed to England, France, Germany, and the United States. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. entered the prison city in His youth and left it an old man. The days of this noble successor among the Western friends were marked by striking victories, for churches, synagogues, and peace societies every 25

[Page 26]where opened their doors to Him. He who had never faced a public audience, nor attended a western school, nor moved in Western circles, became “all things to all people,” a universe of kindness, a loving father to high and low alike, to churchman and layman, lord and 'commoner. Though broken in health and aged by suffering, His teaching, characterized by brilliant simplicity and kingly humility, was as bountiful as the rain, and offered to the west the mirror of His illustrious Father,

A whom it would never know. ‘Abdu’l Bahá. gave to the West a profound message of social unity, and there appeared in His lifetime a World community dedicated to the principle of racial, national, and religious oneness.

In His Will and Testament ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. appointed His grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as interpreter and first Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. Today the Faith of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh has moved out of its

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[Page 27]apostolic period into a formative era, in which its world administration is slowly taking shape. Haifa, now a flourishing seaport across the bay from ‘Akká, is the chosen residence of Shoghi Effendi, whose World Order Letters have already made an indelible impression upon the stream of international life. Mt. Carmel, whose cypress trees once sheltered the holy Prisoner, now boasts the shrines of His family. On its terraces a Temple is destined to be reared, and the future Bahá’í International House of Justice will overlook the Mediterranean, a House dedicated to the service of that world community which must remain for all time inclined “neither to east nor west, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor poor, neither white nor colored; its watchword the unification of the human race; its standard the ‘Most Great Peace.’ ” “For out of Zion shall go forth the law,” sang the prophets. The holy land of Abraham, Moses, and

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[Page 28]Jesus is again glorious with religious aspiration. The religion of our fathers returns, opening a new chapter of revelation, and revealing a newly ordered World, to which the prophetic welcome of the Báb calls every soul ; “Enter therein, in peace, secure.”

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