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WE must love all humanity as the children of God. Even if they kill us we must die with love for them. It is not possible for us to love every one with a personal love, but we must love all humanity alike.
“There are many stages or kinds of love. In the beginning God through His Love created man. Man is the highest product of His Love and the purpose of Man’s existence is to reflect this Love of God in his soul. But man in his egotism and love of self turns away from his Creator and thereby prevents the accomplishment of his divine plan. The Manifestations appear to show man the way to God through Love. By them, man is brought to the condition of severance from his egotism and being absorbed into the Ocean of Love Divine.
“There is a profound, a divine wisdom in Love. The Light of God shines in the eyes when the heart is pure. The home of Religion is the Heart.”
--PHOTO--
Tea House, Green Acre, Maine
--PHOTO--
Fellowship Home, Green Acre, Maine
| VOL. 15 | September, 1924 | No. 6 |
A LITERARY PHENOMENON without parallel in the course of history is due to the widely-diffused, high average of reading comprehension on the part of the population of this country. There have in history been instances of higher average intelligence in small centers of population, such as Athens and Florence, but never such intelligence diffused through a population of immense mass. It is this wide diffusion of intelligence that enables the more successful weekly and monthly magazines to obtain circulations of from one to two millions. Computing the readers as averaging five for each magazine sold, a magazine with a circulation of two millions wins an audience of ten million people for its articles. Discounting somewhat a possible over-optimism in these figures, it still leaves audiences of a size such as writers in the past have not one tithe attained to. Syndicated articles in newspapers of wide circulation reach perhaps a still larger number of readers. The immense influence of our popular writers thus becomes a matter of deep concern to the body public, as to whether this influence is exerted for good or for bad.
As in life itself, it would seem that the good and bad are mingled together on a news-stand. Fortunately, however, there is a natural segregation of vice. For the evil influences are all concentrated in certain magazines the reputation of which everybody knows. While on the other hand the great part of the newsstand magazines, those piles of printed thought, are wholesome in tone and beneficial. By means of them those writers who have helpful messages are enabled to spread them simultaneously to audiences of millions from the North to the South, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
MUCH GOOD is being accomplished by what may be called the uplift syndicate writers, whose short and breezy exuberations adorn the pages of our newspapers. A daily poem, a sermonette, a bit of helpful philosophy grasped from the welter of life, a vital editorial that rings out like a grand oration—to think that these daily messages are cheering and uplifting millions is in itself a bit of gladness to those who love their fellow men. It is also evidence of the longing of the great heart of humanity for the serious helpful handclasp, for the spiritual encouragement in times of depression or distress. The letters that come from all parts of the country to these syndicate writers, testimonials of heartfelt gratitude, are most touching. God, said Lincoln, must love the common people, He made so many of them. It is true also of these writers for the people that they have a great love and sympathy for the common man, their brother.
CO-OPERATlVE METHODS are to be studied intensively by a new international organization for that purpose, if the fifteen leading organizations interested in collective buying and selling carry out their present plans. Numerous colleges and universities have expressed a willingness to join in the investigations
and to furnish a home for the proposed international institute. Government officials will lend their aid and bankers are watching the movement with keen attention.
There is a general impression abroad in the world that too large a proportion of the ultimate price of commodities goes to the middleman and jobber, who are neither producers nor final distributors. In agriculture especially too much of profit goes to the financiers who manage the marketing of the products. The co-operative movement is therefore of extreme interest for two reasons, first, that it promises greater justice to both producer and consumer; and secondly, because co-operation is the spirit of the century and a form of human activity which, as all Bahá’ís know, is destined to create marvelous new values for the human race.
GREEN ACRE is coming into its own. Shoghi Effendi’s noteworthy statement, “We are all hopeful that it may become, whilst the work of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is in progress, the focal center of the devotional, humanitarian, social and spiritual activities of the Cause,” is having a marvelously inspiring effect upon the Green Acre consciousness. At the annual meeting held in August the idea was announced and enthusiastically received that Green Acre is in reality Bahá’í and that its success lies in the closeness of its adherence to the sources of such aid and confirmation. One of the most significant results of this new spiritual stimulus was the decision to hold at Green Acre next summer a week’s convention of Bahá’ís and others interested in a universal platform. This convention will undoubtedly have most important results in bringing to the Bahá’ís of America a greater realization of the spiritual power and atmosphere of Green Acre, as well as in bringing to Green Acre a greater interest and devotion on the part of all who love to see its universal principles more widely established.
THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY is the latest dream of educators and workers for world peace. The President of the World Federation of Educational Associations, Dr. Augustus Thomas, has been investigating for the Federation the feasibility of establishing a World University. Offers were received from Barcelona, from The Hague, and from San Diego, Calif. The proposal was to establish a four-year course, half of which should be spent in foreign travel.
In Brussels there is already in existence a remarkable clearing house for international intellectual co-operation—the Union des Associations Internationales, with a membership of over two hundred international associations of various kinds (science, health, law, economics, literature, education, trade) a bibliography of some twelve million cards, and a library of more than one hundred thousand volumes upon international matters. It has also an international archives department, an international museum, an international summer school, and plans for an international encyclopedia. This Union is now planning for the establishment of an international university to form a center for higher international education. It proposes to complete the intellectual education of a certain number of students by instructing them in the principal aspects of all leading problems, and in this way, in the course of a few years, to create among these men, who will be called upon in their respective countries to exercise influence in public affairs, in politics and in education, an “elite” consisting of several thousand individuals qualified to co-operate in the establishment of an international entente and in the work of the League of Nations.
In a more distant quarter of the world in India, Rabindranath Tagore has recently expanded his school for boys into an international university, the aim of which is to spread through the East the knowledge and understanding of its own various cultures, and then to bring about
an interchange between the East and the West which may result in the greater unity of mankind.
And it is known, of course, to all who have followed the history of Green Acre, not only that Sarah J. Farmer set aside a magnificent site on the hill named Monsalvat for an international university which she had conceived, but also that ’Abdu’l-Bahá in visiting Green Acre went to this site and assured those who were present there with him that such a university would assuredly crown Monsalvat, nay, that this international university was actually in existence in the world of reality.
Of all such international institutions, the university pre-eminent, that which will undoubtedly become the center of the whole world’s education, is the one to be established on Mount Carmel. In days to come the greatest scholarship of the world will flock to this holy spot; and to obtain one’s education, or even a part of one’s education there, will be esteemed the greatest prize of the intellectual life.
GREAT DEMAND is being made for instruction in religion in the public system of education. In Minnesota this has resulted in a course in religion worked out by the Minnesota Council of Religious Education to which the public schools of Minneapolis will devote three half-hour periods each week. Pupils are to be excused to attend these classes during school hours, and the work is to be under the direct supervision of an interdenominational committee of ministers. This is a step in the right direction. In the common lack of any religious instruction in the home, the hour given weekly to this subject in the Sunday Schools is far from sufficient. If true religion permeated more the daily life, there would be less crime, suicide and insanity; and there would be more righteousness, love and happiness in the life of the family, the city and the nation.
"THE HEART OF MAN is a garden. The real garden is in order, well planted, watered and cultivated. This is not so with the jungle. The jungle gives no evidence of cultivation. Where there is no gardener, disorder prevails. Wild growth produces nothing. Human education is of great importance. It is especially necessary to educate the children. They are the young tender trees of God’s planting. But the supreme education is Divine Teaching. Through it the most ignorant become wise and the lowest are elevated to the loftiest heights. This transformation in man is made by the Manifestations of God. Through them the wicked become righteous, the weak firm, the barren fruitful. One day’s education under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is better than ten years’ material training in the universities of the world. Bahá’u’lláh has said that two steps are necessary for human development: Material and Divine Education. . . . Education makes of man a man. Religion is Divine Education. There are two pathways which have been pointed out by the Heavenly Educators. The first is Divine Guidance and reliance upon the Manifestations of God. The other is the road of materialism and reliance upon the senses. These roads lead in opposite directions. . . . Divine Education is the sum total of all development. It is the safeguard of humanity. . . .
“In this age every face must turn to God, so that spiritual enlightenment will go hand in hand with material education. Material education alone cannot make the world happy. Spiritual civilization must assist the material civilization.
"THE powers of mind are the bounties of God given to man to lead him toward spiritual happiness.—’Abdu’l-Bahá
OUR MODERN WRITER, H. G. Wells, sums up success as follows: “The only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have been and what we might have done on the one hand, and the thing we have done and the thing we have made of ourselves on the other.”
According to Wells, complete success depends on perfect productivity. Every thing was created for a purpose. The purpose of an apple tree is to produce apples. The purpose of a vegetable garden is to produce vegetables. The purpose of man is to produce an individual expression of human life.
Each human being feels that he is a little different from anyone else. Instinctively he clings to that tiny stifled kernel of individuality which he vaguely apprehends somewhere within him. That individual kernel is the particular aspect of life that animates each of us. It is the special capital which you and I have to invest in the business of life.
In the business world the most perfect investment of capital is the one that will yield the greatest amount of content, happiness and financial return to the greatest number of those individuals who are directly or indirectly connected with the investment—whose lives are directly or indirectly influenced by the fluctuations in the productivity of that particular investment, of that particular capital.
And so it is with our capital of life. Our life is a success in proportion as its investment brings happiness, not only to ourselves, but to other members of the human race that contact us directly or indirectly.
Everyone is seeking happiness, but the acquirement of that happiness depends on how perfectly we fulfill the purpose of our creation.
We were created to manifest the potential possibilities of our nature. “Each soul has a degree of perfection to which it can attain.”
The Divine Source of all perfection, like a Great Sun, is seeking expression through His creation. “Life radiates throughout all creation according to the degree of receptivity.”
Each individual member of society is like a mirror, which attracts and reflects the rays of the Supreme Sun in proportion to its capacity, its power of receptivity. Our mirror is our physical identity; and as there are no two phenomena exactly alike in creation, the radiation of life intelligence from each human existence is different. You and I are distinct and different from anyone else in the world, and we are different from each other.
It is only when all individuals reflect in completeness the best and highest intelligence that is in them that the human race will attain its zenith of perfection. Not until then will the purpose of creation be attained.
You and I have a special individual contribution that the whole race needs. All the people in the world need what we have to give them, and we need what all other men have to give us. We are all members of the human race Do you realize that you and I stiffer by the degeneracy or lack of development of any part of the race?
Man is most truly a social being. In the social mass which surrounds him on every side, he must exist, he must find his highest possible development, he must find his happiness. In this human mass, by way of this mass, because of this mass, he must live, he must produce, in order that he may raise the consciousness of the whole mass.
A complete production, a perfected
race consciousness is the purpose of creation. The world of thought, the world of things, and the world of created beings await each human contribution. The latent powers of all humanity must find expression if the race consciousness is to reach its highest level.
How is this individual and universal unfoldment of life to take place?
Man is faced by two obvious extremes—the unknown and the known, the abstract and the concrete, the Infinite and the finite, the Ancient Essence and its activity in the world of nature. These two extremes must be drawn together if our life experience is to produce a complete circle of enduring significance.
Man, each individual man, is a center around which this circle of eternal existence may be drawn. Complete man has found his individual center and described his circle. Incomplete man is, as it were, standing in the midst of existence. On one side of him is the Unseen Reality of eternal significance, the world of spirit, the Source of Life. On the other side is the world of matter with its phenomena of particulars.
Man stands at the point where material life ends and spiritual life begins. Man is at the apex of material creation. Physically he is the product of the evolving elements. He contains within himself the perfections of all the kingdoms below him—the mineral, vegetable and animal. Spiritually he has the possibility of individualizing some of the perfections of his Creator. ’Abdu’l-Bahá has said that the world was made for man, and man was made for God.
The success of man depends on learning to keep his balance in life. By turning to the direction of the Eternal Essence he receives all inspiration; and by turning back to the material side he can find a place to put that inspiration into active use.
“We manufacture ourselves—and the shape we assume is after the pattern afforded by the fortuitous impacts of the world. We conform, we strike a mean with other men and the material world. Too often we become artificial entities, standardized parts, a cog in a machine that goes ‘flipping around and around with the rest of the clockwork.’ The infinite depths of selfhood are dutifully glazed over, hidden from the world, so that even to himself a man becomes a shallow and obvious thing—his motives to be calculated like motions of a linotype machine.” Too often do we relegate that better and infinite self to a vast distance while we whittle down our soul to make a pawn of ourselves. Our equilibrium is gone, and we are lost in the whirl of material things.
Take the man who loses himself in the mere material aspects of a business life. He revolves pitiably and perpetually in his vicious orbit—doing more business that he may make more money, making more money that he may do more business; striving to lift himself by his own bootstraps, to manufacture by his persistent ardor that “worth of life” which inexorably evades him until he finally dies, disgruntled, in the harness, or adopts the inadequate subterfuge of a “hobby or suicide.” He has set himself to the task of molding material things; and they have molded him.
Just as much danger of lost opportunity lies in going too far on the other side, in the direction of the Unknown Spiritual Essence.
Three distinct types of so-called spiritual men live in a precarious condition if real success be their aim.
1. The man who spends his whole life denying the existence of matter is in danger of becoming a rank giant of materialism. One cannot deny a thing he does not recognize. Denial is recognition. If you really want to remember a thing, just try to forget it.
2. A man who constantly affirms the existence in himself of a perfect Divinity may produce two destructive results:
- His reiteration of the “I am perfect”
idea is likely to augment an already enlarged ego.
- The effort to keep his mind concentrated
on an unseen, abstract Reality will cause the man to become lost in the wilderness of his own imagination.
3. The praying mystic who never mingles with the masses cannot make a success of his life, for ideas are of value only as they are put into action.
Everything in the world can speak to us of God—for each is His creation. Every created thing manifests some of the perfections of its Creator. Just as in a painting we recognize some of the qualities of the artist who painted it, so in every created object can we discover some attribute of the Creator.
From a study of the micro-cosm or little world we gain knowledge of the macro-cosm or greater world. “Do not think thy body a small thing—for within thee are deposited the mysteries of the universe.” From a study of the known we can gain knowledge of the unknown—for the seen is a reflection of the unseen.
Our ideals must find concrete expression if we are to discover the true worth of life. Our work, our daily life supply the time and place for putting our inspiration into active use. The secret of success is to hold the balance between the two extremes.
If we are to make a complete success of life we must acquire such powers of insight, of memory, of equilibrium that we can plunge wholeheartedly into the turmoil of the workaday world and at the same time retain the desire and the power to return to the Fountain of Life for renewed inspiration.
The truly successful man makes each task the most important thing of the moment. He glorifies labor—for he is putting into that work his vision of the Infinite. He holds his balance, as it were, in the center of the significance of things.
The man who has made a success of his life has brought into active expression the innate perfections of his individuality. He has accomplished an organic union of all experience. He has attained a constructive existence. He has united in his life the ideal and the practical, and has contributed his best gifts to the race.
Why does Abraham Lincoln live in our memory? Because he made a success of his life. He individualized the perfections of his nature to such an extent that the mere mention of his name makes us think of justice, freedom, tolerance. Lincoln accomplished an organic union of all experience. He was inspired with ideals and he found a way to make his ideals of concrete benefit to the human race. In his emancipation of the colored race is one of the world’s most striking examples of an ideal, ardently conceived, and later carried into action. Through his own effort, Lincoln described an eternal circle of enduring significance and made of his life a success.
A few years ago I had occasion to visit a mammoth copper works and watched copper pass through its numerous and varied stages of cleansing and refinement before it was ready to be melted and molded.
Indelibly stamped on my memory is a scene in the furnace room of that copper mill. The object of peculiar attraction was what appeared to be a huge fire dipper, about a yard in diameter, attached to a long metal arm that held it in midair.
As I looked with wondering gaze a giant furnace opened its door and revealed a solid bed of fire at white heat. Almost immediately the mysterious fire dipper began to move toward the furnace—propelled by some device that held its long metal arm.
The cup entered the furnace and turning on its side dipped deep into the flaming bed and brought up a full measure of liquid fire.
Slowly the great hot cup of liquid was drawn out of the furnace and with uncanny exactness swung a half circle and stopped above a row of metal moulds.
An invisible power turned the handle of the dipper and copper-fire was poured into moulds to cool.
The picture stirred hidden thoughts within me. Out of the pregnant atmosphere there sprang an idea. Before me was a perfect symbol of a human soul that had attained to eternal individuality.
Immediately I wanted to know what the dipper was made of that would allow it to hold its shape while it carried molten copper. The guide informed me that it was made of steel, a metal that had a higher melting point than copper. The wonder of the idea increased. I imagined how the steel dipper must have looked before it began its work of carrying molten copper. It was cold and black like steel; but as it dipped and carried and poured it gradually took on the qualities of fire. Its own qualities of steel were gradually replaced by qualities of the fire. Its coldness became heat; and its darkness took on the luminous radiance of the fire. The only thing it retained was its shape and its strength. If it had not retained its individual form it could not have been of use in conveying molten copper to the moulds. If it had melted in the fire as the copper did it would have been one with the fire; but it could not have been used as an instrument for service.
Let us think of the fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, Infinite Love, Knowledge and Wisdom.
The cold, steel dipper represents the natural man, the incomplete, untrained man, dominated perhaps by hate, prejudice or selfishness, the man whose spiritual susceptibilities lie dormant, the man who is in danger of being lost in the mad whirl of material things.
The red-hot dipper of fire suggests the awakened, regenerate man in whom ignorance has been replaced by knowledge and science, the man in whom understanding and wisdom have taken the place of prejudice, a man in whom hate and selfish desire have been consumed by the fire of love for the universal good. The red-hot dipper symbolizes an eternal individuality that is of use to its Maker.
A man has stood at the balance point of life. He has dipped deep and often into the Unknown Essence of Truth and Inspiration; he has then turned to the side of earthly experience and put that dipper full of knowledge or inspiration into practical moulds. Always he holds his balance.
This process of alternation between the ideal and the practical develops in the man great resiliency and powers of equilibrium. He holds his balance always.
As the tipping, balancing and moulding process continued, the coldness and darkness of the steel cup of the natural man was gradually replaced by the heat and radiance of the fire of a Supreme Reality—until the stage of evanescent service was consciously reached—until at the ardent desire of the tenant of the human house, the Divine Owner of that house entered his own domain.
Propelled by the unseen force of Universal Law, and animated by the qualities of an All-Perfect Essence, the man finds his highest use in letting the Supreme Intelligence use him. A natural man, living a natural life, in a natural world has become dominated, saturated with the inspiration of ideals that animate him.
In the happy accomplishment of his work man thus finds his highest form of worship; and in the perpetuation of his kind he contributes his individual characteristics to promote the progress of the human race.
We all want happiness, but we can only find it through the happiness of all mankind. Instinctively we desire a permanent
existence of individual significance. We can only find it by making our life of service to the race. By selfless service to the universal good, all work will become a joy.
Do you crave success? Then be yourself—your ideal self. Stamp the world of thought, the world of things, and the world of created beings with the best and highest intelligence that is within you!
Find the center! Hold your balance! Work! Be happy! Put all your love and energy into a complete production for the race.
Man is truly successful in proportion as he voluntarily yields himself to a complete expression of the particular aspect of Divinity that is seeking individualization through him.
Such a man proves the statement that “He who would find his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life shall find it.”
But someone asks, “How can I find my center? What is my special Work? How can I know when I am fulfilling my destiny?”
The answer is so simple, and yet for some so difficult to fulfill. Live one day at a time. Know that each day will bring forth just what you are fitted to meet at that time. Know that each task, each problem, no matter how simple or how complicated, is your special duty, your special opportunity, your special work for that day.
Everything that comes to us is an opportunity for growth. The Divine Urge within us is ever seeking to make us more perfect instruments for Its use. No matter what the work is that each day brings forth, it is the special work for us that day.
If we can do that work, meet that problem, even accept that bit of suffering with the best, happiest and most perfect part of our nature, for the love of service for the universal good, we have not only made a success of our day, but we have created in ourselves the capacity for greater service. ’Abdu’l-Bahá says that the reward for service is a greater capacity to serve.
“Radiant acquiescence” is the key that will free one from the prison of self and its limitations. Radiant acquiescence makes us strong, increases our capacity for doing.
The minute we have greater capacity, more work will automatically be sent to us. If we go out to search for our special work we will never find it. But if we meet the tasks of each day in the highest and most perfect manner possible for us at that time, we are preparing ourselves for our special work. And when we are ready for it, for our special work, it will come to us.
It is coming to us every day. It is seeking us. Our capacity is a magnet that attracts it.
Live each day as we would live if we knew it was our last day on earth. Make each task as a form of worship and gradually our outer life will become illumined by the Creative Fire that animates us—and our individual destiny will find fulfillment.
THE DOORS OF HIS GRACE are open to us, wide, wide open, but we must try; we must be attentive towards God; we must be occupied with the service of the world of humanity; we must be more alert and mindful; we must appreciate the bestowals of God, and we must conform to this ever.
You observe how darkness is overspread in the world, mankind being submerged in the sea of materialism and occupied with the world. They entertain no thought save that of the possession of this earth, having no desire save this fleeting mortal world. Man’s utmost desire seems to be to obtain for himself a livelihood, comfort of mortal type and to be content with simply the physical enjoyments which constitute the happiness of the world of the animals, and not the happiness of the human world.
THE HONOR OF MAN is dependent upon another type; the happiness of man is of another kind; the benediction of man is of another type; the joy of man is through the gladtidings of God. The honor of man is through the attainment of the knowledge of God, the happiness of man is through the love of God, and man’s greatness is dependent upon his servitude to God. The utmost development of man is in being ushered into the Kingdom; and the result of human existence is the quintessence of eternal existence. If man becomes bereft of these Divine bestowals, and if his joy and happiness be confined to the material kind, then what distinction or difference is there between the animal and man, for the animal happiness is greater in magnitude, as its means of livelihood are more feasible! Man must strive in order to acquire natural livelihood; and in order that he may be comfortable; but man’s need is in the acquisition of the Bounties of God. If, from the Bounties of God, spiritual susceptibilities, and spiritual gladtidings, man becomes bereft, his life in this world has not yielded any worthy fruitage; but, together with the physical life, he should be possessed of the spiritual life; together with the physical comforts he should enjoy spiritual comfort; with the bodily pleasures he should enjoy Divine pleasures; then man may be worthy of the title man. . . .
"YE SHALL KNOW them by their fruits.” What are the fruits of the human world? They are the fruits of man. If man be bereft of those fruits, he is precisely like a tree fruitless; and the man whose effort is lofty, who has self-reliance, will not be content with suffering his life to be entirely animal in type. He will seek to be one of the Kingdom, he will long to be in heaven, though he might be walking on earth; though his outward visage be earthly in form, he will endeavor to have his real innate visage that of heaven. Until this station be attained by man, his life will be utterly devoid of results. The span of life will pass away in eating, drinking and sleeping, and then this life will be left with no results, no fruits, no traces, no illumination, no potency, no spirituality, no life everlasting, and no arrival at the plane of the utmost attainments of the human world!
WHAT MUST BE the result of a human life? It is evident that the goal is not to eat, sleep, dress and repose on the couch of negligence. No, it is to find one’s way to reality and understand
the divine signs; to receive wisdom from the Lord of Lords and to move steadily forward like a great sea. . . Every soul is known by his conduct, manners, words and deeds. Therefore, we must strive with life and heart that day by day, our deeds may be better, our conduct more beautiful and our forbearance greater. That is, to cultivate love for all the world, to attain beatific character. . . Man becomes pure through the power of strength, through the power of intelligence and understanding. He becomes simple through the great power of reason. He becomes sincere through the power of intelligence not through the power of weakness. When man attains to the great state of perfection his heart becomes pure, his spirit becomes enlightened, his soul becomes tender and receives these qualities through great strength. This is the difference between the perfect man and the child. Both have the great, simple underlying qualities. But the child through the power of weakness and the man through the power of strength.
THE CAUSE OF GOD is like unto a college. . . The college is founded for the sake of the acquirement of sciences, arts and literature. If the sciences are not therein and the scholars are not educated, the object of the college is not achieved. The students must show the results of their study in their deportment and deeds; otherwise they have wasted their lives. Now the friends must so live and conduct themselves as to bring greater glory and results to the religion of God. To them the Cause of God must be a dynamic force transforming the lives of men.
What is the sum total and upshot of farming, ploughing, sowing the seeds and irrigating? Is there any other thought behind all these labors save the gathering of crops? If the sheaves are only green and verdant but having no grains of wheat or barley the result is not achieved. The aim has been not the luxuriant verdancy of the field but the richness of the harvest. I hope all will do their utmost to crown their lives with abundant harvest.
THE HUMAN REALITY stands between two grades, between the world of the animal and the world of Divinity. Were the animal in man to become predominant, man would become even lower than the brute. Were the heavenly powers in man to become predominant, man would become the most superior being in the world of existence.
It is possible to so adjust one’s self to the practice of nobility that its atmosphere surrounds and colors all our acts. When these acts are habitually and conscientiously adjusted to noble standards with no thought of the words that might herald them then nobility becomes the accent of life. At such a degree of evolution one scarcely needs to try to be good any longer; all our deeds are the distinctive expression of nobility.
The test of the truth (of God) lies in the influence the conception has on our lives. If it makes us kind and loving in our relationship with our fellowman, we know it is a true one. In other words it must produce in our hearts a love of God which must be transmuted into love for man,
IT IS CLEAR that the honor and exaltation of man must be something more than material riches; material comforts are only a branch, but the root of the exaltation of man is the good attributes and virtues which are the adornments of his reality. These are the divine appearances, the heavenly bounties, the sublime emotions, the love and knowledge of God; universal wisdom, intellectual perception, scientific discoveries, justice, equity, truthfulness benevolence natural courage and innate fortitude; the respect for rights and the keeping of agreements and covenants rectitude in all circumstances; serving the
truth under all conditions the sacrifice of one’s life for the good of all people; kindness and esteem for all nations; obedience to the teachings of God; service in the divine Kingdom; the guidance of the people and the education of the nations and races. This is the prosperity of the human world! This is the exaltation of man in the world! This is eternal life and heavenly honor!
These virtues do not appear from the reality of man except through the power of God and the divine teachings, for they need supernatural power for their manifestation. It may be that in the world of nature a trace of these perfections may appear; but they are not established and lasting; they are like the rays of the sun upon the wall.
As the compassionate God has placed such a wonderful crown upon the head of man, man should strive that its brilliant jewels may become visible in the world.
- Within our gates has come,
- A Messenger Divine;
- The Cup-Bearer of Oneness,
- Bringing Immortal Wine.
- Drink this Wine Celestial,
- Oh! Thirsty ones of earth;
- ’Tis soul refreshing nectar,
- To give us all new-birth.
- It fills our hearts with love,
- Eternal, pure, sublime;
- Transforming all creation,
- Into a Heaven born clime.
- It glows within our souls,
- Like sun at noon of day;
- Purifying and cleansing,
- Taking all sin away.
- Oh, Nectar from on High,
- Poured forth on all the world;
- One drop is worth a ransom—
- One drop a priceless pearl.
- All hail! ’Abdu’l-Bahá!
- Oh! Messenger Divine;
- May all the nations praise Thee,
- For this Immortal Wine.
Dr. Forel is the world’s great authority on ants. His collection now lodged in the museum of Geneva is the largest in existence. He has added three hundred to the known species. In addition, he has in former days been a psychologist of note, a great temperance worker and a distinguished humanitarian. His connection with the Bahá’í Cause is remarkable. At the age of seventy, discovering that Bahá’u’lláh had years ago enunciated principles such as his own soul had evolved and longed to see put in practice, he felt it but logical to call himself a Bahá’í and follower of that great Prophet. ’Abdu’l-Bahá, a few years before His passing, wrote a long Tablet to him in answer to his inquiries in regard to the nature of existence, which was published in The Bahá’í Magazine—the Star of the West. This Tablet, satisfying the venerable scientist’s metaphysical inquiries, made him a still more devoted Bahá’í.
THIS IS NOT a fable, but a little pilgrimage to the home of Dr. Auguste Forel, who admires the life of ants more than he admires the life of men. In his latest book, “Man and the Ant” he asks in all seriousness—“What can we do to become more like the ants while still remaining human beings?”
Man, he finds, has not yet reached the stage of true social development. “By hereditary disposition man is a natural egoist,—individualistic, passionate, rapacious, dominating, vindictive and jealous, eager to exploit his fellow beings, to tyrannize and oppress them in order the better to enjoy life himself.—But,” he goes on to say, “the social instinct of the ant, little by little accumulated in his hereditary memory and coordinated by it, is much more sapient than that of the ‘homo sapiens’ of Linneus.”
It was this lover of the insect the life of which represents the most successful social organization on this planet,—it was Dr. Auguste Forel, specialist in psychiatry, life-long ardent worker for temperance, and the world’s greatest authority on ants, whom we were privileged to visit.
“I have just received your card,” he wrote, “and I pray you to come and dine informally with us at noon Monday next. Our house is called ‘The Ant’s Nest’ and is fifteen minutes from the station of Yvorne. I will come to meet you if you will telephone the exact time of your arrival.”
So Monday morning found us,—my wife, Lady B., and myself, starting on our pilgrimage to greatness. Through the windows of the train shone kaleidoscopically the splendors of the Lake Geneva littoral, Vevey, Montreux, Territet that scenic gem, the Castle of Chillon, Villeneuve, and at last Yvorne, charming village at the entrance of the Rhone valley on the Simplon route and the goal of our journey.
Upon our descent, there peered at us, through blue glasses, eyes the keenness and intelligence of which were later revealed to us in the privacy of the home; and there advanced to greet us a man old in years, crippled physically by a partial paralysis, but with a mind and heart of eternal youth.
On the twenty minutes walk to his home he talked to us eagerly of his work for temperance, emphasizing chiefly his efforts to raise the Good Templars above the dogmatism of nationality and religion, so that they could concentrate fully on the one important problem of temperance for which purpose they were organized.
“Why,” he had said to a bigoted Protestant clergyman who was at odds with a Catholic priest in one of the
Austrian chapters of the Good Templars, “Why spend your time arguing about the next world when you should be working to perfect this?”
By such sturdy common sense, by his insistence upon universality, he finally won his point and achieved the neutrality, as regards politics or religion, of the Good Templars in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Switzerland,—countries in which religious differences had long been a source of controversy and difficulty in the work for temperance.
Dr. Forel, it will be remembered, was one of the first to demonstrate the evil effects not only of drunkenness, but also of that habitual moderate drinking which produces upon the body the effect called “alcoholism.” Strong as are the arguments for prohibition furnished by the disasters, individually and socially, of drunkenness, they do not weigh with the average mind as heavily as the facts which have come out as a result of the psychological tests into the state of chronic though mild “alcoholism.” It was the proof furnished by Forel and others, that even mild habitual consumption of alcohol produces temporary paralysis and chronic degeneracy of the nervous tissue, diminishing greatly the quantity and quality of the work done in such a state, that brought into the temperance movement in America the rank and file of manufacturers and business men. The financial and moral support given the prohibition movement by these men of affairs was one of the chief causes of the successful passing of the Nineteenth Amendment.
“America is ahead of Europe,” said Dr. Forel. He is still working indefatigably for prohibition in Europe, where whole populations are alcoholized. On purchasing his own estate at Yvorne he had the vines pulled up, and turned the vineyard into a fruit and vegetable garden. He himself neither drinks nor smokes, and his diet is of the simplest. He has worked ardently for temperance since 1885.
He told us with deep disgust of how in a recent trip to Brussels, in searching for lodging, he happened into a house where four drunkards surrounded one poor woman with their noise and ribaldry. To him these things seem disgusting and abnormal, and cause him to point to the life of the ant as more admirable than our own.
While talking we pass through the simple village of Yvorne and reach the “Ant’s Nest” where Madame Forel greets us with simple and unaffected cordiality. While we wait for dinner Dr. Forel tells us of his studies in hypnotism and the cures he has effected by use of it. On the wall he shows us an oil painting done by a grateful patient of his, who after a fall from his horse had been unable to paint until healed hypnotically by Dr. Forel. Often he has used hypnotism to cure inebriety.
Finding I was interested in the subject and could read German, he gave me before leaving a copy of his book “Der Hypnotismus, oder die Suggestion und die Psychotherapie,” not yet translated into English or French. Dr. Forel, by the way, writes with equal facility in German or French, the greater part of his writings being in the latter language.
Madame Forel now announced dinner, and we were shown to our places around a long table where were gathered in addition a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a guest, and seven grandchildren spending here their summer holidays. Truly did the house deserve its name!
But all went smoothly, as in a true ant society. The children were quiet and happy, the adults enjoying simultaneously a good dinner and an inspiring conversation, while Madame Forel, unflurried, dispensed food and hospitality.
After dinner came the longed for visit to Dr. Forel’s study, which was of the kind that every writer and scholar
longs for,—large, lined with book-shelves overflowing into two rooms. Space in which to think, space in which to gather materials for study. On different shelves were collected pamphlets and books bearing upon the subjects he was most interested in. In addition to his specialty, the ant, he has made a deep study of the chief problems of humanity.
War and Peace, Prohibition and other humanitarian subjects have absorbed his attention and attracted his pen.
Then we are shown his own publications, most important of which are his “Fourmis de la Suisse” and “Le Monde Social des Fourmis.” In addition to his bound books were two shelves full of articles and pamphlets written by him. There were also translations of his works into Russian, Dutch, Italian and other languages.
With trembling hands he took down and showed us the most precious volume of his library, “Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis Indigenes” by Pierre Hubert, Geneva, 1810; a book which his grandmother, noting his already deep interest in ants, had presented to him at the age of eleven, and which had inspired him to make the study of ants his life work.
In answer to my question as to how early he had begun to study the ant, he told me that this passion was manifest from the age of seven. At the age of eleven, indeed, he made a discovery in regard to slavery among ants which not even Hubert nor other writers on the ants had noted. During his school life he spent every Saturday afternoon and every Sunday in observation of these fascinating insects. In addition to this he utilized every opportunity he could while walking the two miles to and from school each day.
He also remarked that while his theories had changed with the years, the actual observations and facts noted as published in his first book on the ant at the age of twenty-four, “Fourmis de la Suisse,” have stood the test of fifty years of maturer research and are included practically unchanged in the latest edition of his work. This, he thought, was a striking example of the superiority of fact, as derived from direct observation, over theoretical speculations.
I thought as I heard from his own lips of the early display of his great life specialty, how important it is not to belittle or restrain the hobbies of childhood; how these hobbies may and very likely will prove of greater import than the studies inflicted upon the child by the maturer judgment of a teacher or of an educational system.
Evidently Dr. Forel has the same opinion, for in his book “Man and the Ant” in which he compares the social life of each and draws lessons from the life of the insect to benefit the life of man, he says, “The universities must be decentralized as well as the scholastic authorities of all ranks, in order to liberate the pupils from the yoke of bureaucracy and from the terror of examinations. The pupils should be organized as in the “New Schools”—(schools of the freer type in Europe corresponding to the “Progressive Schools” in America)—and there should be the least possible obligatory instruction.”
After a most interesting tour of his library, in which among other things we noted the pictures of Goethe, Haeckel, and Darwin, favorites of Forel (though he told me he found Haeckel much too dogmatic, contrasting unfavorably with the modesty of Darwin),—he insisted upon our sitting down in a trio around him while he bestowed upon us the greatest possible pleasure,—that of hearing him expound to us his chef d’oeuvre, “Le Monde Social des Fourmis.”
Holding the five volumes one after another on his lap and turning the pages with his left hand on account of the paralysis of his right hand, he gave us for upwards of an hour a lecture on
the life of the ant illustrated by the pictures in his book.
How wonderful is the mind of genius, never aging. This great thinker, crippled in body and brain though not in mind, expounded to us the habits and life of his beloved insect with the joy and enthusiasm of youth, and with a mental clarity which defied all infirmities.
“See,” he said, “I will show you something very interesting. The ant has a social stomach.”
What that meant we were soon to see by aid of an illustration showing the ant as having two stomachs, the anterior one being the social stomach, the posterior one only being devoted to individual uses! Over fifty years ago, Forel told us, he had demonstrated the uses of this social stomach. Segregating several ants and causing them to fast for two days, he had then allowed one kept separated from his mates to partake of a liquid food dyed blue by means of cobalt so as to aid observation. A marvelous thing was noticed. With a self-abnegation that only the ant is capable of, this little creature did not absorb the food but kept it stored in his social stomach. As soon as he was allowed to go to his mates he regurgitated this food and fed them with it, not until then permitting a small amount to enter his own stomach for personal nourishment.
The opening from the social to the individual stomach is controlled by four valves which seem to operate by will. But this will, as has been shown, is not one of egoistic greed, but of social self-sacrifice. In general, Forel told us, nineteen-twentieths of the food eaten is devoted to social uses, and only one-twentieth to personal uses.
Can one refrain from admiring such abnegation of self; or from drawing from it an application to our human needs? Forel does both. His interest in the ant is illumined by a vision of what humanity might be, were it organized on this social basis.
Many other wonderful things Forel explained to us,—things which are perhaps commonly known but which took on new life from his zeal: the keeping of slaves; the devotion of ant nurses; ant-battles; assassin ants who steal into nests and kill the ant-larvae; and other fascinating details of ant life.
One subject explained by him is worthy of full elaboration here. When ants are attacked they secrete and eject a sticky substance which gums up the antennae of their foes. Since ants not only smell and touch through their antennae, but use them largely instead of their eyes for guidance, an enemy with befouled antennae is as helpless as a wireless station similarly injured. But what most interested Forel in this affair was the marvellous chemical power of the cell which manufactures on sudden demand this gummy substance. He showed us a picture of such a cell magnified five hundred times. There being no heart in the ant, each cell has control of its own supply of blood. Upon notice of danger, this particular cell draws from the blood at its command the chemicals necessary for the manufacture of the gum.
Forel’s observations in the world of nature furnish him with the material for his philosophy, which is strongly monistic. In the intelligence, skill, and self-sufficiency of this little ant-cell, which magnified five hundred times is not as large as a cent, Forel sees a world of significance. In the microcosm he sees the macrocosm. He is not only a naturalist of the highest order, but a great humanitarian and philosopher.
He condemns mankind for being far too egocentric. Though wonderfully advanced in the arts of civilization, man has failed to develop a social instinct sufficient to organize the world he lives in. He has still the savage instincts of the jungle, and his inherited anti-social individualism threatens now to destroy
the very civilization which his intelligence and creative imagination have built up.
Forel, for the last decade, has been working out an ideal program for humanity based upon the social life of the ant. He has elaborated a very feasible method of international union which would inhibit aggressive nationality and abolish war. His program also includes ideas which if put in practice would bring to pass a world culture based on the enlightened application of science to social problems, on justice and unselfishness.
It is a splendid civilization which Forel has envisioned. “The world organization of the nations is inevitable,” he said. “There is bound to be a world state, a universal language, and a universal religion. The Bahai movement for the oneness of mankind is, in my estimation, the greatest movement today working for universal peace and brotherhood.”
At this moment the bell rang announcing tea, and we descended to the dining-room to partake of that farewell hospitality before starting for the train. Dr. Forel was tired, but as his wife assured us, not harmed by his mental and physical exertions of the day. These last moments with him were the sweetest and most intimate of all.
“I regret,” he said, “that I cannot do more now for humanity. As you see, I cannot lecture, nor work much.”
It is to be noted that Dr. Forel has little use for the life of thought only. His observations of the ants, and his own good heart make him value above all things action for the common good.
To comfort him I said, “But by thinking and acting in the past, you can act now without acting. It is like money accumulated in the bank, which earns interest. So your past life of thought and achievement goes on producing its influence, though you are crippled as regards activity.”
He was pleased with this idea, but said, “One must not exaggerate personality.”
How absolutely modest he is! There is no shadow of a thought of personal greatness, of fame, in his consciousness. Only a love of work, of truth; and a burning desire to further a happier organization of humanity, along the lines of social service exemplified by the ant.
It is for this vision of a socialized humanity that I love Forel; of a glorious civilization where each serves each and work is for the benefit of all, not for self only. This is the dominant thought and motive of his life.
Forel, humanitarian, thinker, I salute you in spirit as I saluted you when I left your house, humbly and lovingly. And I catch in return your smile, wise and kindly, and your great word of farewell—
“I regret that I cannot work more for the cause of humanity.”
"UNITY OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE is one of the principles of Bahá’u’lláh. We may think of Science as one wing and religion as the other; a bird needs two wings for flight, one alone would be useless. There is no contradiction between True Religion and Science.
We are familiar with the phrases “Light and Darkness,” “Religion and Science.” But the Religion which does not walk hand in hand with Science is itself in the Darkness of Superstition and Ignorance. If Religion were in harmony with Science, and they walked together, much of the hatred and bitterness now bringing misery to the human race would be at an end.
Truth is One. When Religion, shorn of its superstitions, traditions, and unintelligent dogmas, shows its conformity with science, then there will be a great unifying, cleansing force in the world, which will sweep before it all wars, disagreements, discords and struggles—and then will mankind be united in the Power of the Love of God.”
BY HOOPER HARRIS
“And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established. in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.”
IS there any spiritual significance in the somewhat strange phenomenon that the United States persists in remaining aloof from the League of Nations, in spite of the fact that Woodrow Wilson was the father of it?
All of the prominent political leaders of the nation recognize that the question of the League of Nations is one which must be approached with the utmost caution. In fact, in their recent conventions, both of the great political parties found a way to rid themselves of the responsibility of dealing with this monentous question directly, one of them by substituting for the League of Nations a something that it vaguely denominates “A World Court,” and the other suggesting that the question be disposed of by a referendum to the people.
Those who are still old-fashioned enough to believe in divine Providence and that the Almighty uses nations to achieve His purposes and who are familiar with the teachings of ’Abdu’l-Bahá on the subject of universal peace, are not at all surprised at the attitude taken by the politicians, but, on the contrary, are pleased to see them take this attitude, since the question of World Peace is distinctly a religious one, as indicated by the quotation from Isaiah above, and too big, and too sacred to be made a political issue by contending political factions.
In his Tablet, or letter, to the Hague, ’Abdu’l-Bahá wrote: “Although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace; but The Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has described will fulfill this sacred task.” . . . and again, “Universal Peace is a matter of great importance, but unity of conscience is essential, so that the foundation of this matter may become secure.”
It seems strange indeed that the name of God is never mentioned in the discussion of this great question. Yet that the Great Peace, or “The Most Great Peace,” as Bahá’u’lláh calls it, would come, is the central thought in every one of the great religions of the world, and there is no teaching on which they are all so perfectly agreed as that of the coming of the “Millennium” or the “Reign of Happy Time” or the “Perfecting Period” or the “Day of God” or the coming of Him who would rule “The Sea-girt Earth without a rod and without a sword.”
The effort to establish Universal Peace and to bring in the long hoped for Era of World Amity and Concord cannot possibly succeed until God is recognized as a party to the agreement. To make it possible it is necessary that there should first be unity of world conscience to afford what the lawyers term “a sufficient sanction.” No Nation would venture to defy the united conscience of mankind. Therefore ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in his Tablet to the Hague says that to the principle of Universal Peace there must be added the independent investigation of reality; that is to say, the right and duty of every
soul to investigate reality for itself; the oneness of the human race; the recognition of the truth that religion should be the cause of fellowship and love; a universal language; the unity, or equality of men and women: the most appealing solution of the industrial problem by means of profit-sharing (a principle that the great industrial concerns, many of them, are more and more recognizing); the rehabilitation of religion as “a mighty bulwark,” the freedom of mankind from captivity to nature, through an “ideal power ;” the combining of the material and divine civilizations; and the promotion of justice and right.
Until the world’s conscience is unified with respect to these apparently elementary principles, for no one will deny them and yet few seem willing to abide by them, the establishment of Unviersal Peace is very difficult, if not impossible, and certainly requires something more than a mere diplomatic arrangement to bring it about.
The establishment of The Most Great Peace is God’s affair, not man’s, for, says Bahá’u’lláh: “Religious hatred and rancour is a world consuming fire and the quenching thereof most arduous, unless the hand of divine might render assistance.”
When we add also racial and national prejudices, the task becomes almost hopeless. However, those who have faith in the promise of God through all His Divine Manifestations and who have seen evidences of the truth voiced by Cowper, that God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, feel sure that the hand of Divine Might has given and still is giving powerful, if unseen, assistance in accomplishing the Desire of the Nations and establishing the Mountain of the Lord’s House in the top of the mountains, which is none other than the Supreme Tribunal decreed by Bahá’u’lláh.
Of course we are not prescient enough to be able to say just when or how this great country is to fulfill the mission it has already undertaken, but we feel sure that it was not for nothing that ’Abdu’l-Bahá prayed for the American flag, and begged that this great country which was free from the ancient hatreds and prejudices of the old world would lead the other nations of the world in the effort to establish lasting peace. While in this country he repeatedly emphasized this hope, to create in us the belief and to stimulate the desire to accomplish this, for he already knew the great part we were to play.
When Mrs. William H. Hoar was in Acca in 1900, she asked ’Abdu’l-Bahá the interpretation of the second verse of the second chapter of Isaiah concerning the Mountain of the Lord’s House, and the following is his reply in part, as taken from her notes:
“Since the time of the appearance of man this land has prospered and in the future it will be the ‘Land of Desire.’ Building up Zion also means the improved condition of the country itself. Before the coming of the Manifestation, Syria was in a very bad condition but by the blessing of God it is blessed (Isaiah 2:2). Within twenty years war will cease—peace will begin in 1917.
“(This truth is to come to the President of the United States and it will spread to the other heads of nations through our country.) ”
The last paragraph, the one within the parentheses, Mrs. Hoar omitted from the typewritten copies of the notes which she distributed because the statement was so startling that she thought the interpreter, Mrs. Lua Getsinger, might have misunderstood. When this country went into the great war in 1917 she understood something of what ’Abdu’l-Bahá had meant, but it was not until the war was over that she confided to the writer what she had done and showed him her original notes with the paragraph in question designated by a cross mark before and after it. If we take this statement in connection with the statement made to several
people both in Europe and the United States, that one spark from the Balkan War would explode the powder magazines of Europe and bring on the great war and that it would occur in 1914, we can readily understand that ’Abdu’l-Bahá was conscious in a world beyond the knowledge of mankind, and that he knew even then the part the United States was to play. But the great spiritual teachers never bind the consciences of men by laying down programs in definite terms. They love to speak in parables and to give hints, leaving the working out of the program to the power of the Spirit.
In the notes, ’Abdu’l-Bahá is quoted as saying: “Within twenty years war will cease—peace will begin in 1917.”
There is a vast difference between peace and “the beginning of peace.” On one occasion Christ said to his Disciples, “Do not be afraid of the world, I have conquered the world.” He did not say that he would conquer it, but that he had conquered it, and yet he was on his way to his own crucifixion, and those whom he was addressing were on the sure road to martyrdom, for everyone of them was killed. In spite of that, however, Christ knew that He had conquered it, and He saw millions upon millions of people and the proudest and greatest nations of the earth acknowledging Him as their King, and following, however poorly, His teachings as their religion. In the spiritual sense, when the seed is planted in the ground of will the thing is already accomplished; and when, in what seems to be the fulfillment of a Divine plan, the United States, through its President, called upon the heads of the other nations of the world to join it in the establishment of World Peace, a seed was planted in the conscience of mankind that will surely bear fruit; and though we may not be able to see it, the Victory of Peace has already been achieved.
"MAY THIS American Democracy be the first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the universality of mankind. May it be the first to upraise the standard of the ‘Most Great Peace,’ and through this nation of democracy may these philanthropic intentions and institutions be spread broadcast throughout the world. Truly this is a great and revered nation. . . . The intentions of its people are most praiseworthy. They are indeed worthy of being the first people to build the tabernacle of the great peace and proclaim the oneness of the world of humanity.
"THE PURPOSE OF PEACE is to destroy antagonism by finding a point of agreement. We cannot induce men to lay down their arms by fighting with them.
“Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings are the health of the world. They represent the spirit of this age, the light of this age, the well-being of this age, the soul of this cycle. The world will be at rest when they are put into practice, for they are Reality.
“These Precepts were proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh more than fifty years ago. He was the first to create them as moral laws. Alone and unaided He spread them. Writing to the sovereigns of the world He summoned them to Universal Peace, proclaiming that the hour for unity had struck.”
ONE OF THE MOST hopeful signs of the reconstruction of the world on the principles of true civilization appeared in the 94th. Annual Meeting of the British Associatiion for the Advancement of Science recently held in Toronto, Canada. It might be said that the keynote struck by the most responsible speakers was the necessity for the constructive use of the discoveries made by the masters of mathematics in the interest of the physical well-being of humanity and of international good will and unity.
Although nominally a meeting of British scientists, the international spirit was evidenced by the fact that there were present French aeronautical experts, Swedish meteorologists, Hindu physicists, a Polish count (whose paper on The Science and Art of Human Engineering is worthy of a special article in the Star), and a number of mathematicians and specialists in several branches of science from the United States.
Much of course was said about the value of science and its power to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world. A paper was devoted to the subject of “Modern Developments in Science Teaching,” in which up-to-date methods and experiments were described, and a comparison made of science teaching in varous countries.
Professor D’Arcy W. Thompson, in one of the most inspiring public lectures that the writer has ever heard, entitled “The Shell of the Nautilus,” traced for the enraptured listeners the beauties of natural forms prevalent in nature back to their common basis in the logarithmic spiral. The title of the lecture proved to be a mere “shell” on which the speaker built a word picture of the majesty and inner meaning of the phrase “God geometrizes,” that it would be impossible to convey without a verbatim report. This beautiful curve, this mystical form appears everywhere, in the shells brought from the sea, in the construction of the spider’s web—appearing mysteriously as the female of the species laboriously forms the section of her home with mathematical correctness—in flowers, in the spiral nebulae; and always, to him, suggesting an instinct so unerring, a law so universal that he was convinced, by its repetition in such widely different expressions, of the existence of a great Universal Designer Whom he dared not name, but before Whom he must stand in silence and in awe.
A true vision of the Creator’s intention in endowing man with the intellectual capacity for scientific methods of gaining control of nature was revealed by the President of the Association in the Presidential Address on the establishment of universal health through science, in which he closed with these words:
“Science, indeed, knows no boundaries of nations, language, or creeds. It is truly international. We are all children of one Father. The advance of knowledge in the causation and prevention of disease is not for the benefit of any one country, but for all—for the lonely African native, deserted by his tribe, dying in the jungle of sleeping sickness, or the Indian or Chinese coolie dying miserably of beri-beri, just as much as for the citizens of our own towns. We have come out into the light. Man has come into his heritage and seems now to possess some particle of the universal creative force in virtue of which he can wrest from Nature the secrets so jealously guarded by her, and bend them to his own desire.”
How significant are such utterances of a growing awareness of the Principle that Science and True Religion must go hand in hand!
IN CAIRO, among the glorified men and servants of God, among the Bahá’ís we met there, was one, a Sheikh, who had come from the desert country south of the Soudan; a Mohammedan by birth and training; a very beautiful soul, a glorious man to look upon; the very incarnation of all the desert men who have ever lived. The voice of Mohammed was singing in him as he chanted his Koran. He had memorized the Koran, a book about as large as our New Testament, and was able to recite at will any part of it; a Mohammedan by training, now a Bahá’í, a beautiful man in spirit, a very high man.
One day I asked him this question: “What, according to your idea, is the central and essential principle of the Bahá’í Teaching?” He looked at me with his deep desert eyes and said: “This is a very wise question!” Then he answered: “To me the central principle of the Bahá’í Teaching is that God is speaking in this Day through the mouth of His appointed Messenger, purifying the souls of men from superstitions and ignorances.” . . .
This was the Sheikh’s answer to my question; a very great answer, great because it is simple. It takes a high and lofty soul to voice a great truth in a simple way. And this was a simple answer because it was great, for the Truth of God, the Religion of God is always simple and never complex. This was an answer directly to the point of the question. I would have crossed the ocean to receive this answer from Shiekh Hassan as to the essence of our Teaching.
Now if he had asked me this question, I would have answered him in this way: “The essencial principle of the Bahá’í Teaching is the unification of the religious systems of the world.” And these two answers are one, because the method by which the religious systems of the world can be unified, and the only way it will ever be accomplished, is to purify the minds and hearts of men from superstitions and ignorances which now becloud them and cause them to differ. It is on account of superstitions and ignorance that we have all this divergence and variance, this division into different religious systems.
Therefore unification is only to be attained by purification from superstitions and ignorance of God, for when men come to see God aright they will come to see Him alike . . . .
All the religious systems, Brahman, Buddhist, Mohammedan, Christian, Zoroastrian, Jewish, await the coming of a Manifestation who will accomplish this Unity and bring about the Brotherhood of Man. There would be no use for Him to appear if He did not accomplish it. If a Manifestation appeared to the Mohammedans alone, He would only intensify present conditions and not correct them. If He appeared only to the Christians, He would be repudiated by the other six systems and would not fulfill His promised mission of unification. He must appear to all as the Divine Messenger who is to establish unity; otherwise He is not the promised one to any. This great promise, I say, is a fixed principle in all the religions, that a Divine Man shall appear, the Manifestation of the Word in the flesh shall come and accomplish the unity of man with God and man through the unification of knowledge.
How does Bahá’u’lláh do this, practically? How does He effect this wonderful miracle? How has He been able
in these “latter days” to number with Him as His followers, millions of men and women from all the religious systems of the world? Has such a miracle as this been witnessed in the history of the centuries? How is it that in some fifty years or more, the Bahá’ís are distributed throughout all the countries of the world and represent the earnest, thoughtful, truth-seeking element of all the religious systems? Is this of man, or of God, this miracle of Unity?
It is easy to see how Bahá’u’lláh accomplished this blessed result. First, by appearing as the essence, fulfillment and outcome of all the Religions, He embodies and completes their prophecies. Then having appeared to them as the Promised One, He reveals Teachings which purify them from superstitions and ignorances—Teachings which solve the vexed spiritual, philosophical and scientific difficulties in each. He answers their questions of interpretation with a Divine illumination and unlocks mysteries of symbolism which have confused and perplexed minds and souls for centuries. And so it comes to pass that the divergencies existing within each system of religious belief are healed, and still more blessed is the result that harmony and reconciliation of each system with the other systems is brought about. This is indeed unification, the true unification through knowledge. And this is of God not of man; opening the seals of all the Heavenly Books, opening the souls of the Religions by the breath of the Holy Spirit. This is the miracle of His Manifestation.
But still further. After Bahá’u’lláh, the Manifestation of God has appeared to all the Religions in such a way that no one who knows his own religion or his own Prophet can deny or oppose; after He has breathed upon them the Spirit of Unity through knowledge, we find His Word setting up the true Kingdom of Bahá’í belief, setting up the true Willdom of God “within us” as Christ promised, by a central Bahá’í requirement, by the essential Bahá’í Teaching of Unity through Love. That is to say, although we may be unified in belief in Him as the Promised One, and unified in the knowledge He reveals, yet we are still below the standard of true Bahá’ís unless we are unified in Love for each other.
This is the Unity that ’Abdu’l-Bahá was ever pleading for, continuing the benediction of Jesus Christ, “A New Commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you;” continuing Mohammed’s vision of the Kingdom, “Ye shall sit upon thrones, facing each other; your salaam shall be Peace; all grudges shall be taken out of your hearts; ye shall love each other freely.”
So the Command of God to the Bahá’ís is that we must live together in love, harmony and agreement, not only as a race, nation or community, but as a great human family, as humanity, as children of the same God. Unless we do this we are not the true people or true followers of the Light, for we cannot receive Him as the promised Manifestation of God and disobey this His central teaching. There is no other principle in the Religion of God than Unity through Love, for God Himself is Unity and Love. . .
(From an address by Mr. MacNutt delivered in New York after his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.)
JINAB’I-FADIL has been most active in his very effective service as teacher and speaker in the several Cities he has visited in the last few months, and every one appreciates his wise and experienced assistance. Since the Convention in April, he has been in Washington for a closing season there; then in Philadelphia for a few days; later in Brooklyn, New York and vicinity for several weeks. From there he and his family traveled to Worcester, Mass., where he renewed acquaintances and filled the engagements made on his previous visit. After which he spent several weeks in Dublin, N. H., where he met many prominent people, and with his illumined talks and explanations, interested his hearers in the Light of the New Day. The last two weeks in August were spent at Green Acre where again there was opportunity to enlighten those who were searching for Truth. His talk on the “Evolution of the Knowledge of God” was one of the most instructive he has ever given. It was a clear explanation of the preparation and education necessary to the understanding and acceptance of the Divine and Authoritative Word of all the Prophets. Likewise his talk on “Immortality” which is so comprehensive now with his improved English presentation, is a spiritual gem which clears the vision, and which makes the life everlasting very real—proving so conclusively that “this grand and glorious creation, man, does not terminate in mortality.” The several morning classes which he conducted were the means of bringing deeper and deeper truths to the consciousness of those who availed themselves of the opportunity to travel further on the path of Truth. Sometime during the month of October Jinab’i-Fadil and his family will leave for the Pacific Coast Cities for an extended visit.
Miss Agnes Alexander has been on a teaching tour in the Hawaiian Islands, and has been divinely confirmed in her noble efforts to spread the Bahá’í Teachings for world unity. She is really thrilled with what is being accomplished in the Islands, especially in the schools where all have equal chance for education. She has addressed people of various races and beliefs, and the field is ripe with eager souls who have awaited the coming of a severed teacher. In churches, Y. W. C. A. gatherings, in High Schools and Buddhist Temples, she has given the Message of PEACE, and her talks have been widely published in both English and Japanese. All state “We have never known any one more deeply spiritual.” With such attainment—so essential and dynamic—it is no wonder that she is winning all hearts. A Japanese, Souno Inouye, who was educated in this country and who served in France during the war, has an article in “The Honolulu Advertiser” which gives a fine estimate of the work accomplished. He writes:
“That even this staid district is keeping pace with the changing world—not only in material things but also in the higher concern of the spirit—is happily evidenced by the wide interest aroused hereabout over the Bahá’í Revelation. . . . Its Utopian doctrines are now captivating both the haole (white) residents and the younger Orientals. . . . the local expounder, Miss Alexander, is a widely travelled lady, possessed of radiant eloquence and much charm. She addressed audiences at the high school, the Christian church and the Buddhist temple—which certainly testifies to the amiable and all-embracing character of her message. . . .
“Forty years ago the only religion preached here was a dogmatic brand of Christianity suitable to the native minds of the day. Later on, Buddhism and
rational Christianity arrived; and now comes this highly sophisticated Bahá’ísm. All this proves that Kona is truly progressive, even in her spiritual yearning.
“Among its up-to-date features the Bahá’í religion advocates the spreading of a universal auxiliary language, Esperanto. If such a lingo really prevailed throughout the world, this territory, the dwelling place of assorted races, would have been spared among many other annoyances, the infinite bother of posting at the public places proclamations and notices composed in six or seven varying languages. Also, that official nightmare, the language school, might never have sprung. Assuredly an international speech, when widely adopted, would do more to slay petty prejudices and erase provincial ideas than all the religions and languages have accomplished hitherto among the erring tribes of mankind.
“The founder’s original Teaching champions a religion purely based on science and reason—minus all miracles and superstition; it declares an equality between men and women; it offers a tempting solution of the economic problems; and noblest of all, it preaches the eradication of all national and racial prejudices. . . . Miss Alexander is proceeding on her well-arranged program of speaking at all the principal settlements of Kona. May this desirable Movement for charitable and liberal thinking, so auspiciously started here, abide and flourish to the lasting benefit of this land.”
ON MONDAY, AUGUST 4TH, many Canadian writers were gathered at Muskoka Assembly, Lake Rosseau, Ont., for the celebration of Canadian Literary week. On this occasion, Dr. Albert Durrant Watsori of Toronto addressed the Assembly on “The Larger Christianity as Reflected by the Modern Persian Mystics,” the speaker taking this opportunity to impress upon the large group of progressive scholars assembled, the significance of those principles of unity and universality which are the central sanction of the Bahá’í renaissance.
After giving a brief account of the history of the Bahá’í Movement, the speaker impressed the necessity for the abolition of all prejudice of race, religion, and nationality, in order to unite the peoples of the world in a new era of love and light and peace. The address was heard with enthusiasm, many inquiries for information and literature being one of the immediate fruits. The Assembly is a permanent institution and further progress is expected here.
A TAHITIAN BAHÁ'Í goes home: “and they accompanied him to the ship.” This they did in the days of Paul, in the days of brotherhood. It was, therefore, with courtesy and commendable good spirits that a group of San Francisco Bahá’ís accompanied Ariane Drollet to the ship upon which she was embarking for her far-off home, Papeete. Ariane had spent well nigh two years in the cheerful home of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bosch at Geyserville, Calif. During that time she had inquired deeply, studied faithfully, and thus came to treasure in her soul many of the great meanings of the Bahá’í Teachings. A ready soil, that under the Master’s guidance will bear rich fruitage amidst the islands of the seas in days yet to come. Sometime ago Ariane's father visited the San Francisco Assembly, and full well do the friends there remember the Bahá’í meeting at which he prayed most reverently in the soft-toned Tahitian tongue the prayer “O God! O God! Unite the hearts of Thy servants!” And probably this was the first time in all history that such a service was rendered. As the friends listened there seemed to awaken within them a veritable “soul-reflex” outborn of that oneness that had even then conceded the common claim, “Verily, Thou art their Helper and their Lord.”
WE SHOULD PRAY out the bad and pray in the good; dismiss from our mind the trouble which seems imminent and restate emphatically the great promises of God; forgive the sinner and accept forgiveness for the sin . . . .
MARVELOUS RESULTS will come if one will turn in thought to God and Heaven, deny the existence in Heaven of the wrong thing felt or thought, and then realize that in God and Heaven the opposite condition prevails. One must dismiss from his mind completely the thought that the wrong thing felt or seen is permanent, and then follow instantly with the realization that the opposite condition exists here and now.
“LET US consider how we can turn the strength derived in the quiet hour into the daily routine of the world of action. For the test of every life is, after all, how do the hours of contemplation harmonize with the hours of action? . . . .
“We should be living in the Kingdom of God a little more vitally all day . . .
“The moment one awakes to the fact that one lives in God’s world here and now, one begins to see in every event that comes a part of the beautiful symmetrical plan of God . . . .
“Gradually this practising the presence of God, or living in the Kingdom of Heaven, will become a habit . . . .
“Take in all of God that you can, and practise frequently the deep breathing of the soul. In other words, one can enter the Kingdom only by prayer and meditation.” (Glenn Clark, in The At- lantic Monthly.)
"RETURN TO THE WEST! Thy time for peace has not come. Thou wilt commit some errors yet. Only be pure in spirit—vanity is the worst impurity—and through thy errors thou wilt learn.
“He paused, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, they were clear and keen. He said to me,—
“India needs love. The West has given her criticism these many years, therefore give the West love, till she learn to love this land of the Sages. I am quite clear in what I am saying, love her; and she will fulfill her destiny. The West still believes that knowledge will give her God; we think that God can be found by Bliss alone. A decade of intense loving will enable her to accomplish a century of God-realization.
“But Holy One, I cried, I am most pained and bewildered. What of conversion? Shall I go West as a missionary of Brahman? . . . .
“Thou of thyself canst convert no one, my son, he replied . . thou mayst not convert, but speak thou of God to any one who has time to waste . . . .
“People should not be converted from one religion to another, but from all religions into the Eternal Religion . . .
“Desire then to convert the human into the divine, the temporal into the timeless, to convert all men not to one religion, but to the essence of all religions!
“The following week, I set out on another pilgrimage to the New World. . . . . And on the western horizon I saw dimly, but ever growing more and more clear before me, the beloved Face of my Brother.” (Dhan Gopal Mukerji, in The Atlantic Monthly.)
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صفحه 1 - 2
و روحانی برای عصر صلح عمومی شهادت میدهد این طبیعی است که استفهام شود چرا بچنین اضطها و قاسیانه از رفقای هموطن خودشان معذبّ شده اند و بچه جهت ایرانیهای متعصّب این امور را آنطور ملاحظه کردند که اگر ممکن بشمشیر استصال و بآتش افنا گردد جواب مختصر این است که تعالیم بهاء الله که ذاتا عمومی ترین و آزادترین تعالیم است در ابتدا بقوّۀ کلمات و اعمال در محیطی ابلاغ و انصاع شد که ارتجاعی ترین محیط بوده و ناچار آن تعلیمات به اموری که در آنجا سالها ریشه داشته اساس نمود و لذا آن قوای متقاربه بر ضدّش متحّد گشته و جزآنکه منفجر شده و و اعمال جبر و عنف نمایند دیگر چه میتوانستند کرد با امثال این تعالیم که زنان در هر چیزی با مردان مساوی هستند و آنکه اساس همه ادیان یکی است و هر عقیدۀ دینی که مطابق علم باید چنین ملاحظه شود که مرسوم است و هر کسی باید شخصا آزادانه فحص از حقیقت نما ید و یک زبان دیگر عمومی باید در جمیع مدارس عالم تعلیم داده شود و ملل و ممالک باید یک جملۀ برای فصل مسائل متنازع فبهای ممالک عالم انتخاب نمایند که جنگ را سدّ نماید و طبقات تعصّبات قومی و دینی باید جدّاً دور انداخته شود با چنین اصولی که موجب انقلاب و تغییر کلیّ در عالم افکار است حتیّ در این مملکت در یک عصر پیش مانند ایران 1860 انقلاب فوق تصوّر میشد آن تأثیری است که اوهام مستقرّه هزاران ساله را منقلب نماید تعجبّ از این نیست که ایران بهائیان را به قتل آورد بل از این است که این پیام اتّحاد عالم که روحانیاً محترم و معذالک در اسلوب علمی ابلاغ شد بتمام و کمال به نامنوّرترین مردم عالم داده شد و بتوسطّ آنان متدرّجا در ممالک سائره نشر یافت مانند مصر، هندوستان ، چین ، ژاپون و جهت غرب باروپ و ایالات متحّدۀ امریکا و با آن ادبیّاتی را آوردند که در حال واحد برای مشرق از هر نظر نهایت قدمت را دارد و برای محقّقین مغرب تعالیم حیات بخش عصر حاضر است بسی هزاران از قراء جریده هنوز شمائل عبدالبها را که بصورت انبیای قدیم بنظر میآمد بخاطر دارند وقتیکه در 1912 در مجمع حضّار دارالفنون کلومبیا و چندین کنائس و مجامع ادبی و صلح در نیویورک پیام اتحّاد و اخوّت را ابلاغ نمود براستی واضح شد که روح این عصر حاضر است پروفسور برون در مقدّمۀ ترجمۀ طلوع باب ابتدا مختصّه واضحی از شمائل بهاء الله را بیان نموده چنین میگوید و همین را که من در آن تفرّس کردم هرگز نتوانم فراموش نمود اگرچه آنرا وصف نمیتون کرد سپس مینویسد یک آهنگ لطیف موقرّ مرا امر به نشستن کرد و عقب آن بدین بیان آغاز نمود « الحمدلله شما وارد شدید و برای ملاقات این مسجون منفی بمدینة الله ما خیریّت عالم و مسرّت ممالک را میخواهیم لکن آنان ما را مرتکب نزاع و فساد و مستحقّ اسارت و نفی گمان میکردند آنکه کلّ ممالک باید در ایمان یکی شوند و تمام مردان مانند برادران گردند و عهود مودّت و اتحّاد مابین بنی آدم محکم شود آنکه تغاثر ادیان زائل و اختلاف اقوام باطل گردد آیا درین چه مضرّتی است و این میشود این نزاعهای بی ثمر این جنگ های مخرّب باید از میان برود و صلح اعظم یابد آیا شما نیز در اروپا محتاج این نیستید آیا این همان نیست که مسیح اخبار کرد لکن ملوک و رؤسای شما را مشاهده میکنیم که در صرف اموال برای اسباب هلاک جنس انسان آزادانه اصراف مینمایند بیشتر از آنچه اسباب مسرّت نوع انسان است این منازعات و خونریزیها و خصومت باید منقطع گردند و تمامت بشر مانند اقارب یکدیگر و یک عائله شوند پروفسور برون در آخر مینویسد که قارئین این سطور خود ملاحظه کنند که چنین عقاید آیا استحقاق قتل با زنجیر دارد و آیا عالم به نشر آن ممکن است سود یا زیان نماید » این نکته در آخر شایان ملاحظه است که آخرین حادثه محزن در تاریخ امر بهائی قتل ماجور ایمیری در ضوضاء متعصّبین در همان طهران واقع شد که دو سال بعد از شهادت باب ، بهاء الله در حبس غار زیر زمین در غل و زنجیر بود اگر این واقعه سبب شود که حکومت ایران
صفحه 2 - 2
آزادی ادیان و عقاید را که قانون پارلمان ایران کفالت کرد الغاء نماید تا کلّ اهالی مملکت بلا استثناء در ظلّ قانون عادلانه مملکت به تساوی و آزادی مستریحا زندگانی نمایند نام ماجور ایمیری الی الابد بنام عدل و حریّت محترما پاینده خواهد بود .
ندای نجم باختر
چنانکه حیات هر فرد انسان از حرکات و آثارش ظاهر است حیات هر جامعه نیز بدان ممکن میباشد چه که هر جامعۀ مانند یک فرد حیات و ممات و ترقیّ و انحطاط و سائر صفات خیریّه را داراست و از آثارش بر درجه ترقیّاتش استدلال توان نمود همیشه بالاخص در این اعصار اخیره بزرگترین آثار انسانی تألیفات و زائیده افکار اوست که شاهد و معرّف باقی و صادق مقامات فکریّه او میباشد هر وقت گفتگو از جامعۀ میشود اوّل و آخر آن است که ظهورات افکار و آثارش کدام است و چه دقائق و حقائقی از عالم غیب فکر بعرصۀ شهود آورده اند و در معرض ملل نمایان متاعی که دلیل بر ثروت و غنای حقیقی یک جامعه ایست همانا ادبیّات آن است که جواهر افکار نویسندگان نامی آن میباشند لاسیما در این عصر که فی الحقیقه عصر قلم و ادبیّات و دور نشر صحف و تألیفات است اگر چشم عام بینی روی زمین را ملاحظه کند در هر آنی هزاران ادباء شعراء مؤلفین قصص و علوم و صنایع و جرائد و روحانیّات را مشاهده مینماید که در ممالک متنوّعه بالسن مختلفه و در مابین احزاب متغایره نشسته و پرقیمت ترین جواهر را از مجاری افکار خود درآورده بر صفحات کاغذ برای ملاحظه و مطالعه نشان میدهند عالم تألیفات و ادبیّات مانند اقیانوس عظیم در موج است و فوج فوج کتب و جرائد و افکار تازه است که از مطابع بیرون می آید و این از آثار طلوع شمس حقیقت در این عصر است که انوار معرفت از مشرق عقول انسانی اشراق نموده و مجاری عیون قلوب که بخس و خاشاک ظنون و اوهام مسدود بود مفتوح و به نبعان و فوران آمده و اصول معارف حقیقیّه و کلمات تامّات جامعه که از مصدر امر صادر در مخزن کنوزی است بی پایان و منبع حکم و حقایقی است برتر از وصف و بیان و نفوس زکیّه که بسعادت و فضل حکمت خفیّه بدان رسیدند باید در چنین عصری بمیدان آیند و در نمایشگاه افکار عالم خصوصا به بیان و قلم آنرا بمعرض آرند و در این میدان قلم و ادبیّات جولان نمایند فی الحقیقه روز آن رسیده که دوستان این آثار مقتبسان این انوار یک نهضتی در عالم ادبیّت نمایند که اقتدار پیروان این انوار را نصب العیون اهل عالم سازند اینک این جریده پس از سالیان متعدّده که در دنیا به نمایندگی این امر عظیم ممر گشته و هرکس از عنوان و اسمش رسمش را می شناسد و بالطبع میخواهد آثار اقلام نویسندگان این امر را ببیند و از آن بوستان گلی بچیند سزاوار چنان است که یک گلستانی از اوراد و ازمار متنوّعه افکار و اقلام مقتدرین این امر گردد اینک جریدۀ نجم باخترمیدانی برای جولان اقلام اهل بهاء باز نموده کلّ را ندا مینماید و بغل برای مقالات محرّرین نامی گشوده و منتظر است که آثار آنرا مشاهده نماید .
مصنف روحانی گرین ایکر
نجوم روحانی در سرزمین سبز و خرّم گرین ایکر در این موسم گرما باجتماعات و خطابات و انجذابات یصافی گرم و روشن است .
جمع عظیم الفت سیاه و سفید در فیلادلفیا
مصاریف تهیّه این کنونشن را ابتدا هزار دلار بازدید کردند اهل بها در این دوّمین شهر عظیم امریکا که این اختلاف نژاد در آن قوّت دارد مباهی اند که این کنونشن را باکمال وجه فراهم آرند .
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نجم باختر
جلد 15 . شماره 6 .سپتمبر 1924
مجله روحانی اخلاقی عمومی است . ماهی یکبار نشر و توزیع میگردد
صفحه 1 – 1
ترقیّ و تجدّد
از بدیهیّات است که ترقیّات هر کائنی مبنی بر سلسلۀ تغییرات و تجدّداتی است که در ایّام حیات آن رخ میدهد چنانچه گیاهی نوخیز و نهالی نورسته هرگاه بقابلیّت مادر استعداد طبیعتش و بتأثیرات عوامل و قوای خارجه تغییر و تجدّد نیابد نموّ و ترقیّ آن تحققّ نپذیرد نوع انسان که بمنزلۀ یرورهیکل نامتناهی عالم خلقت است و پیوسته در خط ترقیّ مجهول الانتهائی سائر و سائر انواع را نیز به قلادۀ اطاعت خود گرافته و میراند انفرادیّا و اجتماعیّا به قابلیّت استعداد ذاتی و فاعلیّت مؤثرات مادیّه و معنویّه ظاهره و باطنه طفل حیات تازه تری و حالت عالیتری تولدّ می یابد و لذا تاریخ عالم انسانی چیزی جز همان تغییرات و تجدّدات و انقلابات است که بتوالی اعصار و تعارف ادوار مادیّا و معنویّا در حیاتش حاصل گشته است . ولی در مقابل یک حالت طبیعیّه دیگری در او موجود که درست در طرف ضدّ این قوّه تجدّد و ترقیّ قرار گرفته است و آن انس و الفت تام باعتقادات و عادات محیط ولادت و پرورش و تقلید و پیروی نیاکان و تمسّک شدید بآنچه از آنان رسیده است چنانچه با هر امر جدیدی که هادم امری از امور وراثی از عصر کهنه است مقاومت نموده یا هرگاه آنرا قبول نماید شکلش را تغییر و تبدیل کند تا موافق با قدیم گردد و ازاینرو است که ببطوء و کندی تجدّد در حیات انفرادی و اجتماعی انسانی وارد میشود و بتدریج سپاه راکده و هوای محتتن رفته و سپاه صافیّه جدیده وارد و نسیم تازه بمشاه ها میرسید . در صفحه فهرست تجدّدات متنوّعه در حیات قدمت صفات انسانی از تغییرات در مأکول و مشروب و البسه و ابنیه و غیرها گرفته تا تجدّدات عظیمه در انواع علوم و فنون و صنایع حتیّ در کمینات جسمانیّۀ انسانیّه ستون تجدّدات و تطوّرات متتابعۀ مجهول الابتدای و سنیّه بخط جلی و فوق کلّ ثبت است و تا آن عصر هزاران سال قبل که بقوّۀ علم و سعی از آثار انسانیّه مدفونه تحت الارض و غیره اقدم مدنیّت ملل و اقالیم عالم الی اکنون در دست آمده واضح و معلوم است که همیشه بناء تمدّن اقوام انسانی بر بنیان دیانت قرار گرفته و به تجدّد یعنی ظهور تکاملی آن چنان قوّۀ نبعان و نموّی در عقول و عواطف حاصل که سائر شعب و فروع مادّی و معنوی تمدّن نیز تجدّد و تکامل میگرفت . این طلوعات جدیده در محیط آن طبیعت و جباتّ شدیده انسانی همانا یگانه معجزه باهرۀ در عالم انسان و دلیل تعلقّ و ارتباط نفس ناطقه ملهمه به عالمی پنهان است که حسب تعلقّ به آن عالم اسرار سراسر انوار استفاضه و از آن بحر نامتناهی اعتراف نماید و این ارتباط که درّ معنوی لطیف دقیقی است منزّه از شوائب جهانیّه و مقدّس از علائق مادیّه مانند قوّۀ تلفن بی سیم است که بدون واسطۀ محسوسه ظاهره تغنیّات جذ ّاب دلربا و معانی جمیلۀ جانفزائی را از محیطی غیر مشهود بسمع جان میرساند نفوس نورانیّه ئیکه مرکز این تجدّد و در درجه دویّم نفوس طیّبه ئیکه پیروی از آن نموده اند در عصر خود مانند شمس و ستارگان پرانوار و از طبقه علوّ در شمار بوده اند چه که
صفحه 2 - 1
وارستگی ایشان از عالم مادّه و تقالید کهنه و بستگیشان بعالم حقیقت بقدری بود که مبداء و منشاء حقایق بدیعه و تعالیم جدیدۀ گشته و سبب حیات و ترقیّ جدیدی در عالم انسانی شدند نفوسی که در تعلقّ بعقاید و عوائد موروثه و محیط زندگانی چنان تنیده شده و محدود بودند که بارقۀ تجدّد بآنها را نیافته و هم آنان همیشه اکثریّت جمعیّت را تشکیل مینمودند و نه تنها از درک مقاصد و نوایای تازه تری عاجز بوده و چندان بمعلومات و معتقدات و عادات خویش مسرور و راضی و مغرور بودند که پیرامون حقیقت و استفاضۀ تازۀ نمیگشتند بلکه با تمام قوای مادیّه و معنویّه خصمانه باعدام و اهلاک آن قیام میکردند ولی بالاخره بتدریج خودشان با اخلافشان بآن افکار تازه انس گرفته و در محیط آن پرورش یافته و دورۀ پیش از میان رفته و دورۀ جدید و برتری بعرصۀ ظهور قدم میگذاشت و طولی نمیکشید که متدرّجا در آن دوره نیز همان جمودت بمیان می آمد که در عصر سابق آن تا بالأخره کهنه گشته و اندراس یافته و عصر تازه تری طلوع مینمود و اقلم جرّاء . در مدّت مابین دورۀ قدیمه و دورۀ جدیده که امزاج بین الفصلین و یا بین الطلوعینش توان گفت فقط قدر و مقام نفوس معلوم و به ترازوی امتحان نفوس از یکدیگر ممتاز میشوند که راز صفا و نهار از وجی و مهری از جدی و ضعف از قوّت و ثبات و مرات از حیث امتیاز می یافتند نفوس بحقیقت نزدیک آن را شناخته و بدان میرسیدند و پروانه وار حول شمع اصول زندگانی مجتمع گشته و از عشق بآن خود را باخته و مسوختند و میگداختند ولی نفوس منغمه در لجۀ مألوفات و عوائد میراثی از آن محروم و محجوب میشدند چه سعادتمند بودند آن نفوسی که بقلۀ تائف قل الله ثم درهم فی خوضهم ملیبون رسیدند و چه عالی همّت بودند آن ذواتی که بمصداق خطاب صوای « یا محمّد کن آیسا من الخلق فلیسن بایّد بهم شیئ و اجعل صحبتک معی فانّ حبّک الیّ ولا تجعل قلبک متعلقا بالدنیا فماخلقتک بها » دل بحقیقت باقیّه بسته و از آنچه فانی بود بریدند و چه جنتّ اطمینان و سروری است آنان را که برای وصول بحریم و حال ندای انقطاع از مادون او بر کشیدند و برای تأسیس سعادت عالم انسانی تحمّل هر بلا و مصیبتی را بر خود پسندیدند . هرچند در برخی ادوار طلوعا ت جدیده حسب احتیاج و اقتضای محیط بانبیا قوّت و قدرت ایّام کهنه باندک زمانی سپری و منطوی شده و دورۀ جدید بساط بدیه خویش را بوسعت و حراست گسترد ولی مانند آن در تاریخ نادر و اغلب بایستی جریان تدریجی خود را بپایان رساند و الا هرگاه طیر قدسی تازه مولود متجدّد پیش از آنکه قوّتی گرفته و بال و پری قوی ساخته بپرواز میآید ناچار از سقوط بود ولی چون جریان تاریخی خود را بعمل آرد هرچند امتداد طویل یابد چنانچه در دوره مسیح قریب سیصد سال امتداد یافت چنان در عروق و سرزمین ارواح و قلوب قرار گیرد که مانند فطرت و خلقت ثانیه گردد ولی علی ایّحال چه مدّت بین الفصلین طولانی بالغیر باشد تکافح افکار قدیم و جدید و ثابته نیز در محیط صورت می یافت ملاحظه در وقوعات ایّام اوّلیّه اسلام مقدّس
