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HE IS A true Bahá’í who strives by day and by night to progress and advance along the path of human endeavor, whose most cherished desire is so to live and act as to enrich and illuminate the world, whose source of inspiration is the essence of divine virtue, whose aim in life is so to conduct himself as to be the cause of infinite progress. Only when he attains unto such perfect gifts can it be said of him that he is a true Bahá’í. For in this holy dispensation—the crowning glory of bygone ages and cycles—true faith is no mere acknowledgment of the Unity of God, but rather the living of a life that will manifest all the perfections and virtues implied in such belief.
--PHOTO--
Bahá’í Orphanage at Tokyo (earthquake orphans). No one can study these earnest and strong faces of Japanese children
| VOL. 16 | May, 1925 | NO. 2 |
POWER OF ACHIEVEMENT is not always conditioned upon or proportionate to length of years. Inspired youths have written much of the world’s most beautiful poetry, composed many of its loveliest songs, carved out empires, and, founded vast religious movements. In fact, there is a natural connection between youth and creativeness. This is the period of pure idealism, of ardent rebellion against wrongs, of divinely inspired urge toward reform which reckons not of consequences. Such was the state of ’Ali Muhammad when in 1844, at the age of twenty-five, he set bravely out to reform Islam. The conditions of the church as he had seen it around him in Shiraz were unbearable. Making a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of Persian Muhammadanism, in the hope of there finding the true faith, he returned as Luther did from Rome, bitterly disappointed, and resolved to inaugurate a cleansing movement in the priest-ridden religion of his native land. The danger of a reform movement in a theocracy like Persia, where both religious and political power were concentrated in the hands of the clergy, ’Ali Muhammad did not consider. That these clergy would bring about his own death, that they would cause within a generation the greatest number of martyrdoms that any religion has known in the early years of its history—these dangers, inevitably concomitant to the flaming zeal with which he denounced the evils of the church as it existed around him, entered in no way into his calculations. Inspired youth does not calculate, it acts. And ’Ali Muhammad acted to such good effect that presently all official Persia trembled before his spiritual power.
THE LIFE OF ’Ali Muhammad, the Báb, is told elsewhere in this issue; and the story of how the movement for better religion, for true spirituality, for a more perfect humanity, inaugurated by the Báb, has, through the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and the ministrations of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, grown into a vast world religion which is uniting all races and all creeds, can be found in any history of the Bahá’í Movement." But we wish here to pay reverence, in this month of May, the twenty-third day of which is the anniversary of the Báb’s declaration at Shiraz, Persia, to that flaming youth whose spiritual power was so dazzling that the greatest, most gifted, and most learned divines of Persia could not withstand him in open debate; who was so dedicated heart and soul to his holy mission that he won the humble and steadfast allegiance of some of the leading scholars and theologians of Persia, men themselves of mighty powers which when dedicated to the Cause of the Báb brought manifold accession to his ranks of followers. No story in history is more fraught with the thrill of great and noble adventure than that of the life of the Báb, from the day in which he first gave forth that challenge to spurious religion, which will ring out down the world’s ages, to the day when his martyred body was smuggled across Persia and miraculously brought through a thousand dangers to its present repository upon Mount Carmel, where at last it rests in peace. And such a peace! Those who have had
the privilege of visiting the Tomb of the Báb on gentle slopes of the Mountain of God, can testify to a power which still operates, seventy-four years after the martyred body gave up its spirit to God.
THERE ARE THOSE who question as to why a great world movement, a universal religion destined to found a divine civilization upon earth, should arise in Persia. Why should it not have been an outgrowth of the Christian religion, and have arisen in one of the great civilized countries of the world? The answer is twofold. First, that all religions have arisen in the East, which appears to be the germinal ground of the Spirit. And secondly, that no movement originating in the West would become universal, for the reason that the East would never lend itself to an Occidental religious movement. In all the years that Occidental Christianity has labored to missionize Islam, the results have been so slight that it is claimed more Christians in the last hundred years have become Muhammadans, than there have been Muhammadans who have become Christians.
Orientals as a rule are not sufficiently broad-minded or ratiocinative to accept a movement which did not rise in their midst. Americans, on the other hand, are better able to see and welcome light from whatever point it comes. It is to the glory of our western race that we know well how to evaluate things, from material inventions to ideas and religions. Americans do not ask, “Where did this come from?” But “What can it accomplish?” We aim at efficiency and are open-minded enough to welcome any instrument that will accomplish the desired result. If a universal language comes from Poland, we have no antagonism to it for that reason. If a universal religion comes to us from the East, that ancient home of religions, we do not reject it on that account.
Furthermore, this country has in the last generation made a wide departure from theological dogmas that bind the spirit, toward that freedom which seeks the spirit of truth apart from form. Therefore intelligent and broad-minded Americans are able to examine the Bahá’í Cause dispassionately, and approve or disapprove according as they see good resulting from it and forthcoming benefits apparent.
In fact, conversion to all religions, and to all reforming movements within religion, has ever been through the influence of the character and lives of its exponents rather than through the force of doctrines. When the first five converts made by Buddha after his illumination turned forth to begin their sacred mission, people asked, “What makes your faces shine so?” There is the true sign of an authentic religion. A shining face expressing a shining heart will win converts anywhere. Shining things attract all, from animals, savages, and babes, to adult men and women. And when that shining thing is of the spirit, its power to attract is mightily contagious and is self-perpetuating. That is why a religion spreads out in geometric ratio. Every convert becomes a missionary, a converter.
THE MANY FACES without light that one sees upon the streets, in hotel corridors, in public gatherings, are sufficient argument that the western world is in desperate need of something that will make hearts sing and faces shine. It is a period of transition. Old religions are dropping away. But man cannot live without religion; he cannot subsist on material means, but only by the Word of God. Nothing is more pathetic than the materialistic, vice-sullied lives of those who by departing from a too severe, too antiquated form of religion, have gone to the extreme of discarding all religious concepts, all spiritual truth, all thought or knowledge of a soul, of a Divine Being, of an immortal life, and
of those things that make for an eternal righteousness.
Into such a decrepit world come a host of new spiritual movements claiming to have the solution to earth’s ills and to be able to point the way to truth and to a perfected humanity. How is one to choose? It is said, “Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good.” This is the proving-time. In the friendly competition between these new spiritual movements, that movement is destined ultimately to succeed which has the greatest potency over the lives of its followers. Humanity is searching for perfection. It will discard half-truths, and in the fullness of God’s time, attain to Truth.
TRUE BEAUTY is a spiritual essence, the mirroring, on this earthly plane, of the realities as they exist in a diviner world. Every great work of art is the result of inspiration, of the breathing-in of an atmosphere of higher potency, enabling the artists to create forms more glorious than those that surround us here. These forms of beauty created by the artist, as a result of inspiration, have in turn the power to inspire others, a vibration that distinguishes them from all else the work of man upon this earth-plane. Not all who are called artists—whether of words, of lines and colors, or of sounds—achieve this beauty. And even those who have this highest power are unable to lift all their work to the level of the true creation.
Thus it happens that much which passes for art is not art at all, but only attempts at art. And since the essence of art is spiritual rather than material, in a material age little great art is created; and the general public being unperceptive of beauty and deprived of a true criterion of art, is easily satisfied with spurious things.
A tenth, perhaps only a hundredth of what passes for art, is really art. But that little is of a perfection so superb as to lift one into another world—a world of paradisal forms. Those exquisite beauties that have somehow fluttered into our world like butterflies born on unknown currents, are hints of the gifts which art will bring the world when humanity becomes more spiritual.
THAT A GREAT ART will be the outcome of the coming Bahá’í civilization is inevitable. Every civilization created by a great religion in the past has flowered into forms of beauty. Sculpture, painting, architecture, music, drama, poetry, have been the natural expression of greatly inspired epochs. Religion should not be conceived of as a mere insistence upon duty, a heightened ethics. If true religion is a revelation of goodness to the world, it brings with it also a revelation of beauty. The heart that sings in and with the love of God must of necessity create. The inspiration is powerful. The result is great art. The revealed truth of Bahá’u’lláh will not only inaugurate a more perfect civilization upon this globe; it will also give rise to art forms surpassing in beauty the utmost that the world has known. In music especially there will be a heightened power of creation, a vibrating power that will reveal to the soul of man the ineffable beauties of the spiritual kingdom.
The magic carrying power of the radio and its immense distributing power, will ultimately act as powerful stimulus both to beauty of composition and to beauty of performance. Instrumental music, which is now but in its infancy, will pass through an undreamed of evolution. Harmonious sound, said to be the language of the angels, will become a desired part of the daily life of man, and will freshen his inner and outer being.
Religion is not a part of life removed from the world. It is life itself, in all its glowing fulness.
MIRZA ’ALI MUHAMMAD, who took the title of Báb (i. e., Gate) had much the same relation to Bahá’u’lláh as John the Baptist had to Christ. As a young man of twenty-four, in his native land of Persia, he announced his mission and began to teach and train a band of disciples, heralding the dawn of a new era and proclaiming the approaching advent of one greater than himself, whom he referred to as “him whom God shall manifest.”
At that time (1844) Persia was in a state of deplorable decadence. The dominant religious party was the Shi’ah sect of Muhammadans, who were noted for their intolerance and bigotry, and regarded Jews, Christians, Zoroastrains and even Muhammadans of other sects as people of error, considering it a merit to insult and revile them. If a Muhammadan took money from a Jew or a Christian he had to wash it before he could put it in his pocket. If one of these infidels stepped on his carpet, the carpet was defiled. On the other hand, the Jews cursed and execrated both Muhammadans and Christians; the Christians, in their turn, considered Muhammad as a false prophet and looked upon all non-Christians as outside the true faith; while the Zoroastrains lived in communities apart, regarding their fellow-countrymen of other faiths as polluted and unfit to associate with!
Among the Muhammadans women were secluded in harems and had to be closely veiled if they appeared in public places. Western science and art were proscribed as unclean. The administration of justice was corrupt and inefficient. Bribery and dishonesty pervaded all ranks. Pillage and robbery were of common occurrence. Roads were bad and unsafe for travel. Education and sanitation were shockingly neglected.
Yet, nothwithstanding all this, the life of the Spirit was not extinct in Persia. Amid the prevailing wordliness and superstition could still be found some saintly souls who longed for the establishment of God’s Kingdom and were eagerly awaiting the coming of a promised Messenger of God, and confident that the time of his advent was at hand. Prominent among these were two great teachers, Shaykh Ahmad and his successor Sayyid Kazim, men noted for their purity of life, piety and profound learning, who constantly urged their followers to watch and pray for the coming of this promised One and announced to their more intimate disciples the signs by which he would be recognized. He would be, they said, a young man, richly dowered with the gifts of the Spirit, but outwardly meek and humble. His Kingdom would not be of this world. Like the holy prophets of old he would be oppressed and persecuted by the great ones of earth, and his followers tormented and slain.
The bulk of the Shi’ahs were also expecting the Mihdi (Mahdi) whose coming Muhammad had foretold, but their expectations were of a very different nature. They believed that he would come as a proud conqueror with an irresistible army, would make the Muhammadans triumphant and put his foot on the necks of the infidels, raise the dead from their graves, perform all manner of prodigies, and establish an earthly sovereignty unprecedented in power and splendor.
When the Báb appeared and modestly yet fearlessly announced his mission, the disciples of Shaykh Ahmad and Sayyid Kazim for the most part eagerly accepted his claim, recognizing in him the signs they had been taught to look for. His youth and beauty, the blameless
purity of his life, his piety, sincerity and nobility of aim, the evident inspiration of his utterances and writings, his profound knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, his boldness in denouncing wrong and eloquence in upholding truth, his steadfastness in confronting opposition and serenity amid all manner of hardships, his utter selflessness and complete devotion to God and to the service of “him whom God shall manifest,” all marked him out as the one for whom they were seeking, and they scattered into all parts of Persia and many of the surrounding countries proclaiming the glad tidings of his advent.
The Shi’ah leaders, however, bitterly opposed him. He was imprisoned, scouraged, haled before tribunals, dragged, from one place of confinement to another, and at last, after some six years of indignities and ill-treatment, was publicly shot in the barrack square of Tabriz, on the 9th of July, 1850. His teachings, however, and the tireless labors of his devoted followers, aroused great commotion throughout Persia and the Muhammadan world. His adherents grew and multiplied despite the fierce opposition of their enemies. Even the martyrdom of their beloved Master but fanned the flame of their enthusiasm. Their houses were pillaged and destroyed, their wives and children carried off. Many were beheaded, hanged, blown from the mouths of cannon, burned or chopped to pieces, but for every one who was martyred many joined the Cause.
Among the first and foremost of the Báb’s supporters was Mirza Husayn ’Ali, better known by the title of Bahá’u’lláh (i. e., Glory of God). He was two years older than the Báb, having been born in Tihran, the capital of Persia, on November 12th, 1817. His family was one of the noblest and wealthiest in Persia, and his own unfailing goodness and generosity had earned for him the title of “Father of the poor,” but this did not prevent his being thrown into prison and bastinadoed when he espoused the Cause of the Báb. . . . Bahá’u’lláh declared to some of his followers the glad tidings that he was the one whose coming had been foretold by the Báb, the one whom God had chosen to inaugurate a new era in the world—an era in which the various religions, races, nations and classes would become reconciled and united, in which the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man would be universally acknowledged, and all mankind become as one family and the whole earth one home.
. . . The more we study the lives and teachings of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and the progress of the Movement they founded, the more impossible does it seem to find any explanation of their greatness, except the one put forward by themselves, namely, Divine Inspiration. They were reared in an atmosphere of fanaticism and bigotry. They had no contact with Western culture; no political or financial power to back them. The great ones of earth ignored or opposed them. They were shut up in prisons, and the publication of their books banned. They had no help but that of God, yet already their triumph is manifest and magnificent. (From “Baha’u’llah and His Message.”)
BAHA’U’LLAH has not claimed Himself to be greater than Christ. He gave the following explanation: That the Manifestations of God are the Rising-Points of one and the same Sun,—that is, the Sun of Reality is ONE, but it is shining upon several mirrors.
Bahá’u’lláh has not abolished the Teachings of Christ. He gave a fresh impulse to them and renewed them; explained and interpreted them; expanded and fulfilled them.
DECLARATION OF THE BAB
’ABDU’L-BAHA SPEAKS ON THIS IMPORTANT EVENTTHIS IS MAY 23RD, the anniversary of the message and declaration of His Holiness the Báb. It is a blessed day and the dawn of manifestation, for the appearance of the Báb was the early light of the true morn whereas the manifestation of . . Bahá’u’lláh was the shining forth of the sun. Therefore it is a blessed day, the inception of the heavenly bounty, the beginning of the divine effulgence. On this day in 1844 His Holiness the Báb was sent forth heralding and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, announcing the glad tidings of the coming of His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh and withstanding the opposition of the whole Persian nation. Some of the Persians followed him. For this they suffered the most grevious difficulties and severe ordeals. They withstood the tests with wonderful power and sublime heroism. Thousands were cast into prison, punished, persecuted and martyred. Their homes were pillaged and destroyed, their possessions confiscated. They sacrificed their lives most willingly and remained unshaken in their faith to the very end. Those wonderful souls are the lamps of God, the stars of sanctity shining gloriously from the eternal horizon of the Will of God.
His Holiness the Báb was subjected to bitter persecution in Shiraz where he first proclaimed his mission and message. A period of famine afflicted that region and the Báb journeyed to Isfahan. There the learned men rose against him in great hostility. He was arrested and sent to Tabriz. From thence he was transferred to Maku and finally imprisoned in the strong castle of Chihrik. Afterward he was martyred in Tabriz.
This is merely an outline of the history of His Holiness the Báb. He withstood all persecutions and bore every suffering and ordeal with unflinching strength. The more his enemies endeavored to extinguish that flame the brighter it became. Day by day his cause spread and strengthened. During the time when he was among the people he was constantly heralding the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. In all his books and Tablets he mentioned Bahá’u’lláh and announced the glad tidings of his manifestations, prophesying that he would reveal himself in the ninth year. He said that in the ninth year “you will attain to all happiness;” in the ninth year “you will be blessed with the meeting of the promised one of whom I have spoken.” He mentioned . . . Bahá’u’lláh by the title “Him whom God should make manifest.” In brief, that blessed soul offered his very life in the pathway of Bahá’u’lláh even as it is recorded in historical writings and records. . . . .
Consider how His Holiness the Báb endured difficulties and tribulations; how he gave his life in the Cause of God, how he was attracted to the love of Bahá’u’lláh; and how he announced the glad tidings of his manifestation. We must follow his heavenly example; we must be self-sacrificing and aglow with the fire of the love of God. We must partake of the bounty and grace of the Lord, for His Holiness the Báb has admonished us to arise in service to the Cause of God. . . . Therefore this day May 23rd is the anniversary of a blessed event.
His Holiness the Báb was the Door of the Reality . . . Bahá’u’lláh declared the Báb’s mission to be true and promulgated his teachings. . . . Between Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb there was communication privately. (Pro. of U. P.).
His Holiness the Báb gave the glad tidings concerning the appearance of the Manifestation of God, and His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh, was the Promised One of all the nations and religions. The Báb was the Morning Star heralding the glorious dawn of the Sun of Reality. . . . His Holiness the Báb was the Mom of Guidance. . . . The Blessed Perfection (Bahá’u'lláh) and the Báb are unique and peerless in this dispensation. . . . (Bahá’í Scrip. p. 284).
THE BAB and BAHA’U’LLAH had no professors. . . . The sun emanates from itself and does not draw its light from other sources. The divine teachers have the innate light; they have knowledge and understanding of all things in the universe; the rest of the world receives its light from them and through them the arts and sciences are revived in each age. . . .
How can those who depend on mortals be divine messengers? How can a lamp which has to be lighted be eternal? The divine teacher does not come to acquire knowledge, for this tree of life is a fruit tree by birth and not through grafting. Behold the Sacred Tree which spreads its shade over the whole world. This is the mission of Bahá’u’lláh, for under this Tree all questions are solved!
I congratulate you on this sacred day, the anniversary of the declaration of the Báb—the day when for the first time on this earth Bahá’u’lláh’s name was mentioned, and in the world the dawn appeared on the horizon. (Div. Philos. p. 53).
ACCORDING TO the text of the religion of God and the irrefutable command, May 23rd is the day of the Declaration of His Highness the Supreme (the Báb—may my life be a sacrifice to Him)! Consequently they must celebrate and adorn that blessed day in the name of the Declaration of that Orb of regions; make rejoicing and happiness, and impart the glad tidings of heavenly beatitude to each other. For that holy essence was the Herald of the Most Great Name. . . . This blessed day must become known as the Day of the Declaration of His Highness the Supreme (the Báb) and the beginning of the effulgence of the Sun of Reality. You must on this account be engaged in rejoicing happiness and gladness. (Tablets Vol. 3, p 575.).
AS FOR THE BAB. . . . —at a youthful age, that is to say, when he had reached the twenty-fifth year of his blessed life, he stood forth to proclaim his cause. It was universally admitted by the Shiites that he had never studied. in any school, and had not acquired knowledge from any teacher; all the people of Shiraz bear witness to this. Nevertheless, he suddenly appeared, before the people, endowed with the most complete erudition. Although he was but a merchant, he confounded all the Ulama (doctors of the religion of Islam). All alone, in a way which is beyond imagination, he upheld the Cause against the Persians, who are renowned for their religious fanaticism. This illustrious soul arose with such power that he shook the supports of the religion, of the morals, the conditions, the habits, and the customs of Persia, and instituted new rules, new laws, and a new religion. Though the great personages of the State, nearly all the clergy, and the public men, arose to destroy and annihilate him, he alone withstood them, and moved the whole of Persia.
Many Ulama and public men, as well as other people, joyfully sacrificed their lives in his Cause, and hastened to the plain of martyrdom.
The government, the nation, the doctors of divinity, and the great personages, desired to extinguish his light, but they could not do so. At last his moon arose, his star shone forth, his foundations became firmly established, and his dawning-place became brilliant. He imparted divine education to an unenlightened multitude and produced marvelous
results on the thoughts, morals, customs, and conditions of the Persians. He announced the glad tidings of the manifestation of the Sun of Bahá to his followers, and prepared them to believe.
The appearance of such wonderful signs and great results, the effects produced upon the minds of the people, and upon the prevailing ideas; the establishment of the foundations of progress, and the organization of the principles of success and prosperity by a young merchant, constitute the greatest proof that he was a Perfect Educator. (Ans. Ques. p. 30.)
THE BAHÁ'ÍS believe that the incarnation of the Word of God, meaning the changing of the nature of Divinity into humanity and the transformation of the Infinite into the finite, can never be. But they believe that the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh are Manifestations of a Universal Order in the world of humanity. It is clear that the Eternal can never be transient, neither the transient Eternal. Transformation of nature is impossible. Perfect Man, the Manifestation, is like a clear mirror in which the Sun of Reality is apparent and evident, reflected in its endless bounties.
- Unto my Quiet House there came a
- Guest;—
- He said no word, and yet I knew Him
- there,
- For O, so lightly on my brow and hair
- His tender fingers did a moment rest,
- While through my heart such ecstasy
- was prest
- I rose transformed,—an angel unaware,
- And all my Quiet House was passing
- fair
- With holy sacraments His hand had
- blest. .
- Yet though the splendor fade and fall
- from me
- As strange earth-shadows over me are
- thrown,
- The Vision lingers in my memory
- To light my face with Beauty of His
- own;—
- Beloved Light!—that needs must filter
- through
- For all the world to see,—in paler hue.
THE BAB, the forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh, was known- as Mirza ’Ali Muhammad in his youth. He was of the “pure lineage,” that is to say a descendant of the prophet Muhammad. He was born in October, 1819, in the city of Shiraz, in Persia. His father died when the child was but a few years old and the Báb was brought up by his maternal uncle, Mirza Seyd Ali, a cloth merchant. Upon reaching maturity he engaged himself in the business of cloth selling, and was pursuing this occupation at the time he received the revelation of the New Dispensation.
This event occurred on the 23rd of May, 1844. Mirza Ali Muhammad being then 25 years of age.
UP TO THE time of this announcement there had been nothing of particular note in his life, and nothing remarkable had been seen in him, except that he had a gravity of demeanor most unusual in so young a man, a remarkable purity of life, a thoughtful and contemplative temperament and a sweetness of disposition which attracted to him the hearts of all with whom he was associated; The education which men ordinarily account as learning was unknown to him. He had followed his business of cloth selling, as any ordinary merchant.
Some six months before his announcement, he had retired into seclusion, no one knows where, and during that time he became conscious of the mission for which God had chosen him. From now on his career was to be a stormy one: and, as he himself said, “the days of his gladness” had been the days before his announcement. Nothing but the malignant hatred of implacable enemies, torture, persecution and death were now before him. This he well knew and accepted the conditions with a joy and courage which during the succeeding six years never for a moment deserted him.
IN SPITE OF the lack in Persia of modern means of intercommunication, news is rapidly spread and in an almost incredibly short space of time he gained adherents and followers in all parts of the country and was himself surrounded by a considerable number of eager and faithful disciples. Among those who accepted him as the Announcer of a New Order of Things, were men of all classes, for noble and peasant, rich and poor, learned and ignorant were alike drawn within the circle of his wonderful influence. He had that remarkable power which, to use the language which Renan applied to Jesus, made him a “charmer of hearts.”
Nothwithstanding the sweetness and gentleness of his character, he did not hesitate to boldly and fearlessly proclaim the Truth which had been born in him and attacked superstition and ignorance in their very strongholds. Like the ancient Hebrew Prophet Elijah who challenged the priests of Baal to a contest before the king he invited the whole assembly of the Ulama (priests) to an argument before the Shah to determine whether he or they were right.
Although the Báb was still practically a boy and had had no advantages of scholarship, the mullahs were entirely unable and therefore unwilling to meet him, knowing only too well the power of his argument from former experience. They therefore adopted the usual course of the ignorant and the intellectually helpless. They made sundry untrue
accusations and set afloat a number of false rumours, charging the Báb with being a socialist, an anarchist, a heretic, and whatever else occurred to their imaginations. Poisoning the mind of the Shah and in collusion with various officials, they commenced a persecution which has since become famous in history, because of its atrocity. It became a fashion and a craze to hunt up and kill the Bábis.
A period now commenced of malignant persecution and slaughter on the one hand and of patient endurance on the other.
IN SEPTEMBER, 1845, the Báb was bastinadoed and imprisoned. His disciples had now spread throughout Persia so that despite his imprisonment his cause continued to grow. Meanwhile the chief constable to whose charge he had been committed, won by the charm of his personality, had become his friend and supporter, and secretly released him from prison.
In the Spring of 1846 with two of his disciples he went to Isfáhán, where he found a powerful friend and adherent in the Governor, Manucher Khan. At this time the Governor, who offered to preside at the meeting, issued an invitation to the assembly of the Ulama to discuss religion with the Báb publicly. It is said that during the year that he spent at Isfáhán under Manucher Khan’s protection, that Governor, whose power was second only to that of the Shah himself, offered to him the support of an army and represented to him that with this aid his cause could easily be made victorious. This offer the Báb positively declined, saying that God had sent him to teach the people to love each other and not fight.
Manucher Khan died and Gurgin Khan, his successor, who was a bitter enemy of Bábism, sent the Báb a prisoner to Tihran. When he arrived there the Shah desired to see him, but the Prime Minister fearing the influence that his personality might have over the king, by various representations made to the king, prevented the meeting and had the Báb sent to the prison fortress of Maku, the Governor of which was a creature of his own. An escort of Nusseyri Cavalry was selected to accompany the Báb from Tihran to Maku because they were not Muhammadans; knew nothing of the Koran and the traditions and were therefore considered more nearly proof against their prisoner’s charms. Nothwithstanding these precautions some of the escort became Bábis before their destination was reached.
IN SPITE OF his imprisonment some of his followers found occasional means of communicating with him and his cause continued to spread. At Maku, the Báb was haled before a group of his enemies for a mock trial of his principles. A series of absurd questions were asked him, no chance given him to reply, and then a garbled report was given out to the public. One is reminded of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. To prevent any communication between him and his followers, the Báb was placed in still closer confinement at the city of Chirik. Here they could reach him only by means of brief messages placed in articles of food.
It was during these times of imprisonment when his disciples were without his leadership and when communication with him was all but impossible, that the battles at Sheykh Tabarsi and Zanjan, so famous in Báhai history, took place.
But what the soldiers of the Shah could not accomplish, starvation did. Upon their enemies’ swearing on the Quran that if they would surrender they should have life and liberty, they laid down their arms. Food was set before them, and while they were peacefully eating, they were set upon and massacred. As the siege of Zanjan was a repetition
of Sheyhk Tabarsi, the details need not be related.
The clergy and the Government now really alarmed at the growing power of the Báhai cause and the indomitable courage of its followers, decided upon the death of the Báb. Ignoring the fact that he had always taught that his Revelation was in no way final, but that another and a greater was to come after him, they vainly imagined that his death would stamp out the movement. They tried first to frighten him into recantation by threat of torture. Failing utterly in this, they then mocked at his pretensions, saying that when the Mahdi they were expecting came, he would subdue the infidels and establish the universal empire of Islam. The Báb made this memorable reply:—
“Through just such vain superstitions did all the former peoples reject and slay the prophets sent unto them. Did not the Jews profess to be expecting their promised Messiah when Jesus the Son of Mary appeared in their midst? And did not they reject and slay him who was indeed their Messiah, because they falsely imagined that the Messiah must come as a great conqueror and king to re-establish the faith of Moses and give it currency throughout the world? The Muhammadans are acting now as the Jews acted then, because they cling to their own vain superstitions, refusing to see that the kingdom and victory spoken of are spiritual and not material.”
ON THE 9TH OF JULY, 1850, without even the semblance of a trial, the Báb was condemned and martyred. This murder was enacted in the great Square by the citadel in Tabriz known as “The Square of the Lord of the Age!” The Báb, with his young disciple Aká Muhammad Ali were suspended by ropes from staples driven into one of the walls, in such manner that the head of the disciple was on his master’s breast.
The firing party was arranged in three files, and as it took up its position the young disciple was heard to say, “Master, art thou satisfied with me?” and the Báb replied in Arabic, “Verily Muhammad Ali is with us in Paradise!” When the smoke of the volleys cleared away, the Báb had disappeared. The lifeless body of his disciple, however, was found at the foot of the wall riddled with bullets. To the superstitious the Bab’s disappearance was a miracle, and indescribable excitement followed, during which the fate of Islam and of the Kajir dynasty, hung trembling in the balance.
However, the Báb (whose bonds had been cut by the bullets while he himself was untouched) was found seated in a guard house close by, to which he had retired during the confusion of the moment. To convince the people that he was really human, an officer slashed him with a sword; and when the red blood was seen to flow they allowed the soldiers to retake him and complete their work. To do this, however, the officials were compelled to send for another firing party, as the first one could not overcome their superstitious fear and flatly refused to obey their officers. Thus ended the brief, but glorious career of the Báb.
All his writings show that during his various imprisonments his sole anxiety was for the manner of the reception which would be accorded “Him whom God should manifest” when he appeared. In them he repeatedly entreats the people not to behave towards that “Great One” as they had behaved towards him and exhorts them to incline to belief rather than doubt, telling them that when He appeared His very personality, together with His wonderful knowledge and inspiration would be his sufficient proofs.
THE word “Love” recalls to every individual something in life, past or present. The average definitions given the term Love would be human love and the Love of God. But there are many stages of Love. The elementary or material stage is that which is the cause of the existence of all phenomena, and its absence therein is the cause of its disintegration and non-existence. This power of cohesion expressed in the mineral kingdom is the result of attraction through affinity expressed therein. In the next higher phase, the vegetable kingdom, we find an increased power of attraction in the cellular admixture which produces through growth the body of a plant. This is the result of added natural attraction.
In the animal kingdom we find “the attractive power binding the simple elements as in the mineral, plus the fuller cellular admixture as in the vegetable, plus the phenomena of feeling or susceptibility.” In this kingdom we find also the beginning of fellowship.
“In man, we find the power of attraction among the elements which compose his material body, plus the vegetable or growing power, plus the attraction of the sensibilities of the animal kingdom, plus the attractions of the heart.”
Obviously the sovereign of the natural world is love. In the human kingdom it has established the household and from that the community. For cooperation is the self evident foundation, since one must materially serve another; each by a trade, a profession, a business.
The elementary thought has been: “What shall I do for myself?” Then: “What shall we do for our household?” Then: “What shall we do for the progress of our country?” These are all good and ideal according to the stages in which they have been proclaimed. And with that evolution which comes alone through Love, humanity cries: “What shall we do for the comfort of our race?”
To quote from a great source: “Among the human race, the bonds of, and means for, love are numerous, for man cannot live without it, nay rather, human life is dependent upon friendship and affection. Both the material and intrinsic development of man are conditional upon amity and love and the greatest honor and pleasure in the human world is love; but the ways and means are different. Sometimes the cause of love is simply relationship and kinship; and sometimes it is a racial bond, patriotism, political affairs, etc. But through all these various bonds and means it is impossible to obtain a real and pure love; it is rather superficial and temporary. Such love may easily be changed into enmity and rancor, for it is affected by the slightest manifestation of hostility; whereas a true and ideal love is faith and assurance.”
Handed down through many centuries from among numberless jewels, we have the following most heavenly statement, uttered through one of God’s spiritual channels:
“GOD was a Hidden Treasure. He desired to be known. Therefore He created creation in order that He might be known.”
We find that there are five kinds of love: “First: The love of His own perfections which caused God to create, that His beauty might be made manifest and appreciated: Second: The love between sanctified souls for the attributes of the divine which they see reflected in one another. Third: God’s love to man individually that is gained according to the measure in which a man turns to GOD. Fourth: Man’s love for GOD,
the Creator. This is the cause of his life, progress and happiness. Fifth: The love of self, which if directed to the ego will deprive man of all true development; but if the love of self is a realization that one is a creature of GOD and must therefore attain to the station appointed for him, this love will be an uplifting one.”
The fifth station is our danger station, for in the material world man’s ego brings about all of his ordeals through the manner in which he meets these ordeals. It is a subtle station, and an equally subtle fact.
The Love of GOD being eternal and the love for GOD being the first principle of real heart growth, that Love “makes man pure and holy,” delivering him from the personal to the universal; from the ephemeral and selfish stages to those of the divine and selfless. It is the essence of the Golden Rule which has been in each age enunciated by the great teachers of the highest law of guidance for the human race . . . . . . . . . .
The Love of GOD reigning in the human heart is the highest power. It is the only one foundation which will bring universal peace and rest in a disordered and confused world. “It is the lodestone of hearts” and the language of the universe. It is greater than peace for peace is founded upon the Love of GOD.
Every nation must lay down its human standard before this one standard of universal brotherhood. And, worn out, all will at last do this.
I will close by quoting the most incomparable definition of Love ever given to us as a human household:
“Love is the mystery of Divine Revelation:
Love is the effulgent manifestation;
Love is the spiritual fulfillment;
Love is the light of the Kingdom;
Love is the breath of the Holy Spirit inspired into the human spirit;
Love is the cause of the Manifestation of the Truth (God) in the phenomenal world;
Love is the necessary tie proceeding from the realities of things through divine creation;
Love is the means of the most great happiness in both the material and spiritual worlds;
Love is a light of guidance in the dark night;
Love is the bond between the Creator and the creature in the inner world;
Love is the cause of development to every enlightened man;
Love is the greatest law in this vast universe of GOD;
Love is the one law which causes and controls order among the existing atoms;
Love is the universal magnetic power between the planets and the stars shining in the lofty firament;
Love is the cause of unfoldment, to a searching mind, of the secrets deposited in the universe by the Infinite;
Love is the spirit of life in the bountiful body of the world;
Love is the cause of the civilization of nations in this mortal world;
Love is the highest honor to every righteous nation.
If the hearts of the people become void of the divine grace—the love of GOD—they wander in the desert of ignorance, descend to the depths of ruin and fall to the abyss of despair where there is no refuge. They are like insects living on the lowest plane.”
“Bahá’u’lláh heralds the hour of unity which has dawned on all mankind. All are the children of one Father; all the inheritors of that future peace on earth. He admonishes men to banish prejudices. Religious, patriotic, racial prejudices must disappear, for they are the destroyers of human society.”
BAHA’I CAUSE
HORACE HOLLEYAFTER eighty years of existence, the particular genius inspiring the Bahá’í Cause, clearly expressed by its founder and universally accepted by all its adherents, is the ideal of unity consciously binding the hearts of men.
Both as a spiritual doctrine and as a living movement rooted in well-nigh incredible sacrifice and heroism, the Bahá’í Cause can best be presented in the light of the gradual working out of that ideal.
The origin of the Cause itself coincided in point of time with the beginnings of what all thoughtful people discern to be a new era in the development of mankind. Here in the West, the new era manifested itself most visibly through the abrupt industrial revolution produced by the influence of scientific discovery; in the East, less visibly, the same ferment and universal spirit of change also had its effects in the realm of feeling and thought.
It was in that country of the Orient least touched by western influence—that country, Persia, least known to the people of the West and least significant to them politically, economically or morally—that country most firmly bound to its own separate tradition and to all appearances most incapable of throwing off the fetters of the dead past—that Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Cause, arose with a message instinct with the enthusiasm of a new day.
History, that greatest of romancers, surely never played a drama of human destiny upon a stage so completely in contrast with the players or with the theme! All the machinery of daily life in Persia at that time was devised to resist change; external assistance or accidental reinforcement for the purpose of Bahá’u’lláh there was none; the idea of progress even in the economic aspects of life did not exist; arts, crafts, professions, education, creed and custom all combined to sanctify the excellence of what had been; available only to this pure spirit was the innate influence of his unswerving faith, indomitable courage, singleness of purpose, willingness to sacrifice ease, comfort, honour and life itself upon the path, and a mind able to impress other minds with the integrity of new principles and ideals.
But for the message of Bahá’u’lláh due preparation, in fact, had already been made.
Between May 23rd, 1844, and July 9th, 1850, occurred that remarkable series of events known to history as the “Episode of the Báb.” Within the brief compass of six years a single youth had succeeded in shattering the age-long inertia of the country and animating thousands of people with an intense, all-encompassing expectation of an imminent fulfillment of their profoundest religious belief. The teaching had been quietly spread even before the appearance of the Báb that the time had come for a new spiritual leader—one who should restore the foundations of faith and open the gates to an expression of universal truth. A survey of the religious experience of other peoples would reveal the working of the same influence here and there both in the East and the West at that time.
It was the presence of this quiet yet powerful undercurrent of hope that gave the Báb his commanding position among the people, for his teaching expressed their own inmost thought and gave vital substance to their secret dreams. The martyrdom of the Báb in 1850, consequently, was but the extinguishing of a torch which had already communicated its flame far and wide. To extinguish
the flame itself proved impossible, though the annals of the world’s religions contain no records of deliberate persecution more cruelly imposed, nor suffered voluntarily by so many believers. The figure most generally accepted of Bábi and Bahá’í martyrs is in excess of twenty thousand souls. Such was the price paid. for faith in the promise of the Báb—such the spiritual heritage the Báb in passing handed on to him whom he had heralded, Bahá’u’lláh!
To take up this spiritual heritage—to arouse this vivid expectation in thousands of faithful hearts and to inspire them with permanent principles—to establish a mould of doctrine and new custom for this fluid fire—was, Bahá’u’lláh, the descent from a position of highest material comfort and authority to the lowest degree of poverty, imprisonment, suffering and exile. All that wordly men cherish and long for, Bahá’u’lláh freely sacrificed in order that his vision of God might be fulfilled and perpetuated in the conscious unity of men.
The teachings which Bahá’u’lláh gave his followers were, in large measure, written teachings—letters or “tablets” sent to individuals and groups in response to questions they were unable to address to him in person by reason of his exile; messages sent by Bahá’u’lláh from prison to the European and Oriental rulers; or works of devotion, meditation and spiritual interpretation, as well as of scientific and sociological character, dictated to secretaries among those who shared his prison life.
The essential distinction between religion and philosophy is perfectly illustrated by the effects which the words of Bahá’u’lláh had upon his followers. Not as mere images to be admired by the mind’s eye, but as seeds to be planted in the earth of the heart—seeds to be watered with sacrifice and adoration until they produced the flower and the fruit of a new life—such were and are the utterances of Bahá’u’lláh to those who follow him. From all ranks and stations they came, all types and temperaments, all degrees of training and experience, bringing with them the innate differences of a whole humanity, but moved by a common recognition of one organic, central faith. To produce and maintain unity among these thousands of followers, without offering them hope of material gain or earthly honour and well-being, was in itself a superhuman accomplishment.
Bahá’u’lláh’s teaching reflected no acquired learning—it was an immediate experience in the soul of one who turned wholly and directly to God. “Oneness, in its true significance,” he has said, “means that God alone should be realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things, which are but manifestations of its energy.”
From this fundamental concept—or rather realization—the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh flow forth with single, harmonious essence, like waters from the same spring.
To Bahá’u’lláh, those various standards of truth which sway human society; one standard in religion, another standard in science, a third standard in polities, a fourth standard in industry—this conflict of standards is the source of all the worlds ills, the spiritual ignorance which all the prophets came to remove. To Bahá’u’lláh, religion is not one of life’s several aspects, but the predominant spirit which expresses itself through all aspects, producing, in its purity, harmony among the diverse elements of will, imagination, feeling and thought. First in order of experience, the realization of God; then the realization of self; last of all, the realization of one’s relation to his fellow-men and the world.
The true meaning of all history, to Bahá’u’lláh, reveals the nearness of men to the realization of God or their remoteness therefrom; he teaches that all the founders of religion are successive, co-related expressions of the will of God—identical as to purpose and function, separate and diverse only in that each
founder adapted the one divine teaching to the particular needs of his time. The glory of this age, according to Bahá’u’lláh, is its capacity to understand the oneness of all religions; and his inextinguishable vision of united humanity vitalizes a method of unity based upon that understanding.
This point is essential to any consideration of the Bahá’í Cause. Let us turn to Bahá’u’lláh’s own words: “God, singly and alone, abideth in His place which is holy above space and time, mention and utterance, sign, description and definition, height and depth. God hath been and is everlastingly hidden in His own essence and will be eternally concealed in His identity from the sight of eyes. Nay, there hath not been nor will be any connection or relation between the created beings and His Word.
“Therefore God hath caused brilliant Essences of sanctity to appear from the holy worlds of the spirit, in human bodies, walking among mankind, in accordance with His abundant mercy.
“These Mirrors of sanctity fully reflect that Sun of existence and Essence of desire. Their knowledge expresses His knowledge, their dominion His dominion, their beauty His beauty, their power His power, and their manifestation His manifestation.
“Whosoever is favored by these shining and glorious Lights and hath attained to these luminous, radiant Suns of truth during every manifestation, hath attained the realization of God, and entered the city of eternal life.
“Those who earnestly endeavor in the way of God, after severance from all else, will become so attached to that city that they will not abandon it for an instant. This city is the revelation of God, renewed every one thousand years, more or less.”
It is a fair estimate of the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh, I believe, to consider it as being made up almost equally of an interpretation of that which is fundamental and true to all religions alike, and of encouragement and exhortation to respond, with spirit, mind and soul, to the new and greater religious possibilities of this age. “Know that in every age and dispensation all divine ordinances are changed, accordingto the requirements of this time, except the law of Love which, like unto a fountain, flows always and is never overtaken by change.”
But it is not the experience of one soul alone which establishes a religion; rather is it the sharing of that experience with others under conditions which raise the others to the level of the experience, transmuting them while maintaining the source undefiled. The supreme test of every religion is its power of spiritual continuity after the passing of the founder himself.
Bahá’u’lláh departed from this world in 1892, leaving among his papers a will or testament appointing his eldest son, ’Abdu’l-Bahá, the executive head of his Cause and the interpreter of his teachings. Whether or not the Bahá’í movement deserves the name “living religion” today is solely dependent upon the administration of ’Abdu’l-Bahá during the thirty years that intervened between the death of Bahá’u’lláh and his own ascension in 1921.
By 1892 the Cause had spread to India, to Egypt, to Turkestan, to Palestine. Even a sympathetic observer might readily have considered it inherently limited in its appeal to the Oriental character and tradition. But forces were already at work which eventually extended the boundary of the Cause to include adherents in Europe and America as well. A returned missionary, for example, speaking at the Congress of Religions held at the World’s Fair in Chicago, during 1893, made the statement that there had just passed away in Aqá one whose spirit was so broad and universal that his teachings might well be studied as a means of restoring true religious faith. A number of people from America shortly afterwards visited Aqá in order to investigate the teachings, with the result
that in ’Abdu’l-Bahá they found a living manifestation of the spirit of universality they were seeking. The return of this group of students to America was, however, not the first point of contact between the Bahá’í Cause and the West. Previous to this event, Edward G. Browne, Orientalist of Cambridge University, had already made his memorable journey to Persia and Aqá, described in the introduction of his translation of “A Traveller’s Narrative” written to illustrate the Episode of the Báb; still other European scholars who had studied the Cause being Baron Rosen, of Russia, and Comte de Gobineau, of France.
It was directly to the influence of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, nevertheless, that the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh owes its acceptance by thousands of people in the West. ’Abdu’l-Bahá himself was their first and most valid proof that through Bahá’u’lláh a new spiritual force had been revealed to this age; and it has been through the words and writings of ’Abdu’l-Bahá that the essential principles of the Cause received their direct application to problems peculiar to Western civilization.
Careful comparison of the writings of ’Abdu’l-Bahá with those of Bahá’u’lláh shows not the slightest divergence of essential principle. One is the Religion; the other the application of the Religion to a new and broader field of life. One is as a sun; the other as the circumferential rays of its light. The statement may be made without reservation that no previous religious teaching ever dealt with the innumerable problems of daily existence with such a degree of purity as ’Abdu’l-Bahá maintained for the message of Bahá’u’lláh.
What unique claim, one may well ask, has this message upon our attention? What element does it bring not already contained in the older religious systems of the world? How can this new Cause contribute to a solution of those world problems under which humanity staggers today?
“Guidance,” said Bahá’u’lláh, “hath ever been by words, but now it is by deeds.”
True to this counsel, ’Abdu’l-Bahá first applied to his own life those ordinances and principles he received from the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. What ’Abdu’l-Bahá gave to the world in words he had previously given as established facts. Before he announced to any Western audience the principle that the foundation of all religions is one, ’Abdu’l-Bahá had already created a bond of sympathy and understanding between members of all religions. Before he spoke of the essential harmony of religion and science he had himself explored the world of spirit and, with inward gaze, found the expression of love imprinted in nature and in man.
Between 1911 and 1913 ’Abdu’l-Bahá, but recently released from two score years’ constant imprisonment, journeyed through Europe and America, delivering his father’s message to audiences representing the Western industrial civilization in every aspect and phase. The principles developed by ’Abdu’l-Bahá under such conditions may fairly be considered his characteristic solution of the problems of the age.
Let us attempt a brief summary of these principles, bearing in mind, however, the essential fact that, shorn of the spirit of love with which they were uttered, and lacking the will to unity to which their appeal was made, they must remain inoperative until further suffering has purified the hearts of men.
Foremost among ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s principles is that of the independent investigation of truth.
Another of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s principles is that of the oneness of mankind.
Another principle expressed by ’Abdu’l-Bahá is that the foundation of all religion is one.
A fourth principle which ’Abdu’l-Bahá enunciated was that religion must be in accord with science and reason.
’Abdu’l-Bahá has also expressed as an
organic, universal principle the equality of man and woman; emphasizing again and again the fact that the solution of our spiritual as well as social problems is dependent on the attainment of this equality.
Another principle laid down by ’Abdu’l-Bahá is that of the solution of the economic problem. The solution of the economic problem ’Abdu’l-Bahá has declared to be a distinctive characteristic of religion in its universal aspect; for no human power or alliance of powers hitherto has been able to work out a solution.
Another principle strongly emphasized by ’Abdu’l-Bahá is the establishment of an international auxiliary language.
But the principle by which ’Abdu’l-Bahá is most widely known, and for which he has been most extensively quoted, is that of universal peace. The assurance that this is the century of universal peace, the age of the elimination of warfare, the day of the most mighty surging of the spiritual waves and the full illumination of the sun of righteousness—this assurance is ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s steadfast covenant with those who follow him.
The arch which these social principles of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, like pillars, are intended to support—the structure which fulflls their purpose and directs their use—is the principle of an international tribunal.
Thus, in brief, has the successor and interpreter of Bahá’u’lláh established a vital contact for his followers with the fundamental needs of the time—a contact which carries religion into the very heart of life, yet without impairing its essential sanctity and holiness. To produce a world civilization reflecting the oneness of God in the harmony of mankind—a civilization which is not merely the exploitation of nature but rather a fitting environment for the soul—such was the ideal of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, and the purpose inspiring his difficult and arduous journeys of teaching throughout the West. The social aspects of the Bahá’í teaching are supremely important at the present day.
Just as a lighted lamp is to be measured, not, by its physical size, but rather by the area covered by its rays, so a living religion should be estimated, not in terms of numbers nor of property, but by the area of human experience it is able to illume through its innate force of truth. Were we to follow, sympathetically and understandingly, those beams of conscious love that shine so brightly through the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, never again could we bring ourselves to use the term “religions” but rather should we behold successive outpourings of one same Divine Love, undivided and indivisible—infinitely humble, the very spirit of meekness, outwardly soon overthrown, yet returning again and again through the ages, the teacher, the consoler, the reconciler of all mankind. None can claim that he is a follower of Bahá’u’lláh until, in spirit, he is a follower of every messenger who has brightened earth with the glad tidings of the victory of God. None can claim that he is a follower of Bahá’u’lláh who conceives any portion or aspect of life as non-religious, non-contributive to the eternal ascent of the soul. None can claim that he is a follower of Bahá’u’lláh whilst secret intolerance separates him from any fellowman. Above all, none can claim that he is a follower of Bahá’u’lláh whose heart remains barren, fearful or indifferent in this present age—the day which is witness to the overthrow of the foundations of materialism, and the kindling of human hearts with the spirit of universal knowledge and love. (Address written by Mr. Holley and delivered by Mr. Mountfort Mills at the Conference of Living Religions within the British Empire, held in London a few months since.)
IT IS ONLY to a few that the work of the poet-historian Nabíl and the story of his eventful life are familiar, yet his unique services to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh have put the whole Bahá’í world under a deep debt of gratitude and given him a peculiar claim on our interest.
Nabíl, whose original name was Yár Muhammad, was born in the district of Zarand on the 18th of Safar, 1247 A. H. (i. e. 30th July, 1831 A. D.). His forefathers had been nomadic Arabs occupying the Northeastern part of Persia and one of his great-grandfathers enjoyed the leadership of the whole tribe. Of a family of six children he was the second son, and his early childhood was spent with an uncle, as his father was an invalid and confined to his room. At the age of nine he was sent to a small school where he learned to read the Qurán, and his pious father wept for joy to see his son so interested in that work. He had, however, to be content with the mere reading of it, for if he dared to ask his teacher about the meaning of a word or phrase he was told that it was beyond his powers to comprehend such things!
When the boy had grown a little older, the father and uncle thought it best to find him some work; but in order to satisfy his desire for study they decided to send him to school during the autumn and winter seasons, while in spring and summer he should go to the country as a shepherd. It was about this time, at the age of twelve as he tells us, that he began to write verse, and he was greatly encouraged when he read one of his poems to the chief of a neighbouring village and won the great man’s cordial approval! As with many more famous men before him, the verdant highlands of Persia and the bright colours that shine in its clear atmosphere seem to have instilled in him the Persian’s imperishable love of poetry; and the experiences of his shepherd life may well have filled his mind with a sense of awe in the presence of God’s mighty handiwork.
It was when visiting a small town in which one of his uncles lived that he heard one day in a little mosque two men by his side mentioning the name of the Báb and the claim that He had put forth. The conversation arrested his attention and led him to enquiry and investigation. His search was difficult at first owing to the caution and secrecy which was the only protection of the early followers of the Báb against the enemies who surrounded them on every side and persecuted them remorselessly; but, nothing daunted, the boy went from one follower to another and travelled from town to town until he found what he sought. It did not take him long to enlist himself among those chosen few, most of whom fell victims to their savage enemies and gave their lives as martyrs in the path of their Beloved.
Years passed by, however, before he was taken to Tihran to see Bahá’u’lláh who at that time had opened his home to the followers of the Báb and was the main source of inspiration to the persecuted enthusiasts of the Bábí faith. There for the first time he met both Bahá’u’lláh, and ’Abdu’l-Bahá who was at that time a child of six. Many were the happy recollections of those days which our poet-historian used to recall.
Many years afterwards, in Baghdad, he again had the joy of meeting Bahá’u’lláh and ’Abdu’l-Bahá, but this time was very different from the previous one. In the interval he had suffered four months’ imprisonment in his own native place, had traveled extensively throughout Persia and had stayed for a considerable time in Kazimayn patiently awaiting the appearance
of Him whom the Báb had foretold. He tells us the story of how one day in his own little room in Kazimayn he was seized with a deep feeling of despair, and thought in his heart that after the ghastly martyrdom of the Báb it was hardly fitting for him to remain any longer in the world. Shutting himself in his room for three days he spent the time in reading and re-reading to himself a tablet which Bahá’u’lláh had revealed to him, and composed a few lines of poetry addressed to God, in which he declared that his heart was consumed with longing to meet Him and having no other present to bring he had resolved to cast his own head at the feet of his Beloved. Having written this verse he started reading the prayer of Bahá’u’lláh for the last time, intending thereafter to cut his throat. Hardly had he finished the prayer when the door which had been locked and which many during these three days had tried in vain to open was flung wide with one vigorous push and one of his most intimate friends stepped into the room. Finding Nabíl in a desperate state of mind he at once took him to his home and took good care of him. A few days afterwards, however, our hero felt a strange feeling of greatness in himself and started to write in the style and form of tablets and called the people around him to come and follow his leadership. But some of his friends treated him very wisely and at last induced him to go to Baghdad to meet Bahá’u’lláh there. He at once started on the journey and on reaching Baghdad went straight to the home of Bahá’u’lláh. There he met Him for the second time, but this time to fall at His feet and accept Him as his long-sought lord and master.
For many years thereafter Nabíl lived in Baghdád and met Bahá’u’lláh very often, but again he returned to Persia to teach the new faith to his countrymen. Later his travels carried him as far as Egypt where in Alexandria he was cast into prison by the Persian Consul. One day, seemingly by the merest accident, he learned that the ship in which Bahá’u’lláh was being banished to Aqá was even then in the port of the City. He repaired to the roof of his prison and with eager eyes but heavy heart watched the boat sail on its way.
Soon afterwards he was released and permitted to proceed to Anatolia. From that place he left for Cyprus, from Cyprus to Beirut, and thence to Aqá. He was forbidden to remain there, however, lest the enemies of Bahá’u’lláh should cause a disturbance, and without having seen his Beloved he left for Jerusalem. He soon returned to Aqá, but, being prevented from entering the town, went and stood opposite the fortress in which Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned. Bahá’u’lláh appeared at a window and beckoned to him, and for the space of about half an hour, he tells us, from his distant station outside the third moat, he gazed with tear-dimmed eyes on his beloved Master.
It was in Aqá, for the most part, that Nabíl spent the rest of his life, and by the wish of Bahá’u’lláh he undertook the writing of an extensive historical narrative of the Bahá’í Cause.
A few words on Nabíl’s works may not be out of place. He was a very prolific writer and his poetry might fill many volumes, but not all of it was of a very high grade. A few of his lyrics are extremely touching and beautiful, while some of his longer poems on the history of the Cause have no great literary merit. His main contribution to the Bahá’í literature, however, from which the following gems have been taken, is an extensive work dealing with the whole period from the days prior to the appearance of the Báb until the last days of Bahá’u’lláh. It can hardly be called a history, as the lack of any systematic arrangement or classification of his materials would not justify such a name, but undoubtedly it is a valuable mine of historical materials, and as such is probably unsurpassed by any other work on the same subject and dealing with the same period. The fact that among his principal authorities
were some of the closest associates of Bahá’u’lláh, notably Mírzá Músá, gives to his book a unique value and establishes it as an invaluable work of reference to the student of Bahá’í history.
A few gems from Bahá’u’lláh which Nabíl recorded from memory follow:
The time is past when with the two words of admittance (i. e., “There is no God but God and Muhammad is His prophet”) a man should be considered a believer in the Divine Unity and be counted as one of the faithful. The time has come when Bahá’u’lláh, seated on the Throne of Glory, addresses all the world, saying:
Know this, O thou who seekest thy Beloved,
Whose heart doth yearn His Presence to attain,
That till in thee His Attributes appear,
In exile and astray thou must remain.
Bahá’u’lláh gave utterance to this all-sufficing, blessed Word:
Had the people of Islam but observed two words of the Lord of Omniscience, all would have attained to the Supreme Guidance and have reached the court of acceptance and the joy of re-union, and would not have been afflicted by all these spiritual diseases and selfish designs. Then would they not have martyred the Solace of the eyes of the prophets (i. e., the Báb) . . . nor arisen against that Promised One. But in the day of his Manifestation they made the temple of that luminous Orb the target of their bullets. “O our Lord, judge thou between us and our people with righteousness, and verily Thou art the best of judges!”
And those two blessed words are these: O ye who are believers, fear God and be of the sincere, and be not of those who have hardened their hearts against the remembrance of God.
And further in the same connection the Lord of mankind says that if a person be quick and keen in his powers of perception and discernment the moment a godly person enters his house he will perceive that the air becomes fragrant and the taste of his food and drink becomes delicious, pleasant and exhilarating, while on the contrary if an ungodly person enters, the air becomes oppressive and the victuals lose their flavour. “We seek refuge in God from the evil of the ungodly.”
Again he says: Beware that ye hold not fellowship with the wicked, and again: Treasure the friendship of the righteous, but withdraw both hand and heart from association with the ungodly.
When Bahá’u’lláh opened the door of gladness and joyful tidings before the face of the people of the world, He uttered this Most Great Word:
To gather jewels have I come to this world. If one speck of a jewel lie hid in a stone and that stone be beyond the seven seas, until I have found and secured that jewel, my hand shall not stay from its search.
In like manner He says: For the bringing forth of jewels from the mine of humanity, the True One, may His Majesty be glorified! hath in every age sent a faithful Messenger. Today the command of God and His decree is that the multitude of paths and diversity of ways should not be made a cause and a source of enmity and hatred. These plain and firm Paths have all been manifested from one Source and have issued from one place of origin, and these diiferences were in accordance with the requirements of diverse times and ages. O people of unity! Gird up the loins of effort, haply the world may be freed from religious rancour and hate!
Prayer of Nabíl: “O my GOD! Amid my want and poverty I tell of Thy hidden treasures. Withhold not Thy Grace, and aid me to bring forth deeds that shall be worthy of Thy Day!”
THE separation of school, church, and state has been one of the apparently necessary outgrowths of our democracy, in that men and women have thus been left free to think and worship as they please, this has been a wholesome development; but in so far as the results have appeared, religion has gradually been removed as an influence from the life of the state, of the school, of the world of affairs, this movement of separation marks a retrogression rather than an advance in human culture. For if religion means anything, it means an interpenetrative influence that affects every act of man, whether in private or public capacity. And while we would not wish a narrow dogmatism, a required theology, to be put upon us by legislative fiat, we do wish that American culture be characterized in fact, as in theory, by Christian ethics.
A remarkable movement, never before attempted by any city, has arisen in Des Moines, Iowa—an attempt to apply Christ’s gospel to the whole of life. As reported by Sherwood Eddy in “The Christian Century:”
“For an entire week a score of speakers presented the message—personal and social—to the whole life of the city. The week began with a great mass meeting in the Coliseum, addressed by John R. Mott, with more than seven thousand in attendance. During the week following, mass meetings were held nightly in six parts of the City in the largest auditorium of each district. For the last three nights hundreds were turned away who could not gain admission. From twenty to thirty thousand people were touched daily, or one in five of the entire population. Meetings were held daily, or thrice during the week, in the five colleges and universities and in all the eight high schools and junior high schools, followed by personal interviews conducted by a trained staff of interviewers all day long. The entire situation was altered in some institutions—sins were confessed, restitution was made, lives were adjusted.
“Fifteen civic clubs opened their meetings to receive the message. The Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, Cosmopolitan, Caravan, and all of the other principal civic and service clubs held meetings. The state legislature adjourned and held a combined meeting of the senate and house to hear a presentation of a direct religious message bearing upon present political conditions, the child labor amendment and the world situation. . . . .
“The cooperation of the entire city was remarkable. The colleges cleared their decks for the challenge of a full gospel. Unlimited time was given to speakers to present their message for an hour each day, with optional forums, free discussions and personal interviews arranged for scores of students. All the high schools in the city cooperated. Meetings were held in every high school, where the students were faced with a most direct Christian message, but without proselytism or anything to which any one could reasonably have objected. Some principals called their entire staff together to lay upon them the responsibility of following up the meetings and placing character-building first in their program of activities.
“Daily Dr. Graham conducted a noon meeting in the Capitol theatre, which was offered free by the Jewish proprietor. The attendance at the theatre meeting rose from eight hundred to fifteen hundred as Dr. Graham spoke on Jesus Christ, God, prayer, and Jesus in
human relations.
“The application of Christian teaching was made to personal life, to the home, to the school, to the college, to business, to conditions in industry, to race and human relationships, to war and peace, to clean politics, and to all branches of civic and social life . . . . . .
“The whole movement sprang from the churches, was backed by the churches, and into the main stream of the church life it will return with its quickening and life-giving power. Yet from start to finish it was a laymen’s movement. It grew originally from the vision of three men who met once each week to study the teachings of Jesus applied to modern social and civic conditions. Believing that the city should be challenged with the social gospel, they brought four religious leaders to the city last year to address Sunday afternoon mass meetings. Over two thousand persons attended each of these meetings, where an uncompromising social message was proclaimed, applying the gospel to industry, race and war, klan and anti-klan, personal and social sins. After hearing these four messages, the leaders of the City called for more, and a week of meetings to present a whole gospel was arranged. Thirty of Des Moines prominent citizens went into a camp at the foot of the hills fifty miles away to consider ‘what would happen if we set out seriously to live the full Christian life’ and ‘what would happen if we followed “in his steps.” Gathered about the campfire in the evening, these men brought their business life and their human relations, their personal, family and civic responsibilities, under the searchlight of the Christian gospel. How could Christianity be applied to the competitive system, to industrial conditions, to the relations of capital and labor, to race prejudice and segregation, to a world of strife and war, to wealth and poverty, to the church and the unchurched masses? They determined to call the entire city to face these questions and the greater question as to how this city should be brought to God. These thirty laymen widened their circle and enlisted twelve hundred workers to prepare and conduct this city-wide experiment. Christianity was to be placed in a test tube, and tried out in the life of a city for one week. . . . .
“Mr. Carl C. Proper, a magazine publisher and chairman of the laymen’s committee, says, ‘This movement is the beginning of a great crusade, with its ultimate goal the winning of Americans to a life which Jesus characterized as a ‘fellowship of brotherly men.’ The strength and genius of this movement lies in the fact that while it began in a small way it has now broadened out so that it can be applied to an entire community.’ . . . .
“On the closing Sunday afternoon thirty-eight hundred persons, picked leaders representing all the hundred churches from all parts of the city, men and women, white and colored, gathered in the University Church of Christ and associated themselves in a permanent movement. Commissions were appointed, not to bring in idle resolutions, but to study and report back to the entire body, to shape the policy of the city in its Christian service and social life.’’
These commissions will deal with such problems as—prayer and its hidden power; the stewardship of property and the support of Christian and philanthropic enterprises of the city; human and industrial relations; race relations; international relations; evangelism.
Mr. Eddy closes his report with the statement: “A Christian movement has started in Des Moines. The meetings were not the end, but the opening of a great onward march of the City. A whole city has been challenged with the whole gospel applied to the whole of life. If one city can do this, why not others?”
This is indeed a remarkable movement, and one in the right direction; for
it must be realized that Christ’s mission was not so much to establish a doctrine as to create a new life, a spiritualized humanity expressing itself in daily living of a kind very different from that which the world had known. Humanity as a whole has not yet begun to live that life. When it does begin to do so, the Kingdom of God will have been established on this earth.
The Bahá’í Cause has for its purpose this very thing, to establish Christ’s spritual principles in the daily life, and to help bring to earth the Kingdom of Heaven. On all the problems of the daily life—to be studied into by the commissions mentioned above, Bahá’u’lláh has enunciated marvelously clear teachings which go to the root of each matter and offer a perfect, because spiritual, solution.
Thus Bahá’ís are equipped with a definite body of teaching adapted to the soultion of all the present ills of humanity—a foundation, so to speak, for the New Jerusalem. Where, in a few instances, whole communities have become Bahá’í, we see the accomplishment of that which the city of Des Moines is striving to bring about—the application of God’s laws to the daily life in all its phases, and the fundamental unity of the social, educational, commercial, political and religious life of the community, not in a way that binds, but in such a way as to sublimate all secular activity to the station of spiritual guidance and expression.
Truth is love among the children of men. Truth is the proclamation of Justice. Truth is Divine guidance. Truth is the illumination of the realm of man. All the Prophets of God have been Heralds of Truth. All have been united and agreed on this principle. Every Prophet predicted the coming of a successor and every successor acknowledged the Truth of the predecessor. Moses prophesied the coming of Christ. Christ acknowledged Moses. His Highness, Christ, foretold the appearance of Muhammad and Muhammad accepted the Christ and Moses. When all these Divine Prophets were united with each other why should we disagree? We are the followers of those holy souls. In the same manner that the Prophets loved each other, we should follow their example, for we are all the servants of God and the bounties of the Almighty are encircling every, one.”
Editor’s Note: The following hitherto unpublished description of a night of prayer spent in the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh is of special interest, because it dates back to the very early days of communication between America and the prison city of Aqá. In 1905 ’Abdu’l-Bahá was still held a prisoner in Aqá by the Turkish Government. The period from that date to 1908 was one of grave hardship and danger for the "World’s Greatest Prisonar,” as he was called, for it was a period of especial persecution by Turkish authorities. But the prayers of those who loved him were at last answered; and at the very darkest hour, when removal to the death-dungeons of Tunis was imminent, the prison doors suddenly swung outward, and ’Abdu’l-Bahá was free.
TO me, while at Aqá in the Spring of 1905, each day, hour and moment were fraught with deep and impressive experiences; each incident, if drawn apart and studied separately, affords reflection for both mind and heart.
The event which stands out preeminently was the Anniversary of the Departure of Bahá’u’lláh on the 28th of May.
After a sojourn with those beloved people of nearly seven weeks, and my visit was about completed, it seemed like leaving Paradise, and I thought that my heart would break. To leave an atmosphere of love, which like the fragrance of rare exotics, permeated every thought, and where every service rendered was divine, was almost beyond the power of human will. How glad I was therefore when ’Abdu’l-Bahá told me that I was to remain until after the “Night of Departure” and receive its blessing.
On that evening all of the Bahá’ís repaired to the Holy Tomb (which is about two miles outside of the City)—there to spend the night. Here we met all the members of the Holy Household and the believers.
The Tomb is connected with the main building (“the Behje”) by a kind of chapel or enclosed garden, at the entrance of which you remove your shoes and advance to the Holy Threshold to kneel and pray.
The rooms were brilliantly illuminated with lamps and candelabra, and thickly carpeted with rugs, all of which are love offerings of many pilgrims from all over the world.
The Tomb proper was covered with a most beautiful Persian shawl, and thickly strewn with flowers. The night was wondrously beautiful. The full moon was shining with such magnificence that it was almost as light as day. Through the open window we could see the blue Mediterranean in the distance, and the air was heavy with the fragrance of jasmine and roses. The only audible sound was the wail of a solitary night bird, which seemed like the cry of some lone wanderer whose lamp had become extinguished and who was calling for help. Within the chapel the aisles were filled with kneeling women, and one was chanting prayers. The sky, the air, the sea, and even the flowers with which the room was profusely decorated,—were in perfect concord. The solemn chanting and those prostrate forms was a scene to be forever remembered. There we remained until midnight. Then we retired to the room on the left of the chapel, and the men in like manner filled the places so recently occupied by us. In that gathering were venerable men who had suffered years of imprisonment, and whose shining faces beamed with holy light; young men were there, too, whose every look spoke of the deep veneration and love with which they dedicated their
lives to the Holy Cause; even the little grandchildren were there, whose gentle and subdued manner spoke of holy reverence. One of the venerable believers chanted the Holy Utterances and Prayers, and for three hours they remained in solemn devotion.
During that time there was a singularly phenomenal occurrence. While from the open window we could distinguish the sea and sky in the distance which were beautifully calm and clear—not a cloud to be seen—yet where we were there was quite a heavy thunder storm. The lightning flashed and the reverberations of the thunder through the heavens seemed as if GOD were speaking. The bowed forms of the worshippers and the solemn chanting made one feel as if they stood upon the boundary of an invisible world—“One not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens.”
At three o’clock the men retired, the women entered the chapel, and prayers again were chanted. Three of us went into the “Holy of Holies”—the Sacred Tomb and there prostrated ourselves in prayer.
I have often wondered if the believers in other lands could imagine the burden of our supplications that night? While no one spoke, I afterwards learned that the release of our beloved Master was the burden of all hearts poured out at the Holy Threshold of the Exalted and Divine Father.
In the early dawn we passed out and walked in the fields. The full moon was still above the horizon. The blue of the distant sea, the paling of the stars, the pure sky without a single cloud, the purple line of the low mountains in the east and the plain of Aqá which has been the scene of some of the earth’s greatest conflicts—were all before us. As we wandered in the early dawn, there was a calm such as would follow a night of deep excitement, and a feeling of expectancy as if we were waiting for something. It would take a mightier pen than mine to describe the wonderful emotions which took possession of us, and I could only think of the holy women of nineteen hundred years ago watching at the Tomb of our crucified Savior, Jesus Christ!
As the dawn advanced the birds began to chant their morning matins, and as the sun burst forth upon our expectant vision in all of its splendor and poured a flood of golden light over the world, I could but exclaim: “The Lord is risen; yes, He is risen indeed!”
O my beloved friends! How powerless are my words to make you see and feel what I experienced on that memorable night! It was like standing in some holy sanctuary on the borders of a world beyond where one had entered into the cred Place of the Most High and Communed with the Angels. A few hours of such recollection will suffice for a life time. It is an experience never to be forgotten. It seemed as if we could never leave such an influence.
But where this night was ’Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant, the Lover, the Friend of all the world? He was not with us. A prisoner, his Holy Feet had not pressed the earth outside of the City gates for four long years.
In a little room at the top of the house He dwelt, from whence He could see the Holy Tomb, he kept his lonely vigil. No, not alone, for who can tell what Heavenly Angels were there ministering unto him, and like the Prophets of old, he may have talked with GOD. When we saw him the next day, his face was resplendent with Divine Glory and the Voice of the Holy Spirit rang clear in his every utterance!
sufficiently reflected in its power and purity in all our dealings with our fellowmen, however remotely connected and humble in origin, can we hope to exalt in the eyes of a self-seeking world the genuineness of the all-conquering love of God. Not until we live ourselves the life of a true Bahá’í can we hope to demonstrate the creative and transforming potency of the Faith we profess. Nothing but the abundance of our actions, nothing but the purity of our lives and the integrity of our characters, can in the last resort establish our claim that the Bahá’í spirit is in this day the sole agency that can translate a long-cherished ideal into an enduring achievement.
With this vision clearly set before us, and fortified by the knowledge of the gracious aid of Bahá’u’lláh and the repeated assurances of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, let us strive to live the life and then arise with one heart, one mind, one voice, to reinforce our numbers and achieve our end.
“IF WE COULD dedicate ourselves to a cause of understanding each other better, and strengthening the ties of our friendship to assure peace in the Pacific region, America and Japan would not co-operate in vain in the worthy cause of assuring peace and justice in the Pacific region and indeed among nations of the world.” (Tsuneo Matsudaira, Japan’s new ambassador to Washington, in an address before the Japanese Society of America in San Francisco.)
“THE IRRESISTIBLE force of Nature is closely linking the East to America. . . . The policies, ideals and measures of America therefore have a deeper significance for Japan than those of all other nations on the globe combined. . . . Japan’s ambition is to contribute to the great social heritage of mankind and through her unique gift to enrich the accumulated civilization of humanity. This can be attained only by the realization of the one hope in the Japanese mind—that is, the amalgamation of the civilizations of the East and the West. Japan knows that she is in a position best fitted for that task, and also that for the attainment of that glorious work the peace of the Pacific must be maintained, and she has a firm determination to keep that peace with her greatest neighbor, America. Japan has shown her determination recently by sending to America one of the most distinguished sons of the empire, Mr. Tsuneo Matsudaira, who by his natural ability as well as family tradition stands for the best of the nation. America will realize through him and his charming wife that Japan is intent on keeping a permanent peace with the great republic across the Pacific.” (Yusuke Tsurumi in The Saturday Evening Post.)
“THE WALTER HINES PAGE School of International Relations, besides being a memorial to the former Ambassador to Great Britain, is defined by the Johns Hopkins committee purporting it as something new in education, in that it will afford an opportunity ‘for first-class minds working on world problems.’
“The school also, according to announcement, is to be an institution without parallel in the country. It will conduct research work into the underlying facts and conditions of international life, including international law, trade, economic relations, racial psychology and all the technique of international intercourse and diplomatic customs.” (Wash. Post.)
“HONOLULU IS a place where many races meet and from time to time interracial gatherings are held in Central Union Church. The text, or inscription in the church chancel—“Love Never Faileth” must be prophetic and harmony inspiring as it looks down, upon occasion, over congregations with folk of Hawaiian, Portuguese, Filipino, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and American birth or ancestry.” (Dr. Albert W. Palmer in “The Friend,” Honolulu.)
THE PAN PACIFIC UNION does try out some of the social experiments quietly. For some months it has been having in the rooms of the Pan-Pacific Club a series of unique Friday interracial luncheons. On the first Friday of the month a dozen of the younger Japanese and an equal number of the young American business men are brought together; on the next Friday twelve of the younger American and twelve young Japanese women are brought together; twelve each of the older Japanese and American men and women lunch together on other Fridays. Lately American-Chinese groups have been formed, and now the plan is that half a dozen tables be set for 24 each on Saturdays and all of the groups meet at the same time. The tables are always square, six on a side, so that each has a clear vision of everyone at the table, all flowers must be laid on the table and no
decorations that obstruct the view are permitted. Each table has its own speakers, who do not rise to address the group. The place cards are so arranged that no two people of any one nationality sit next to each other.
The most distinguished men and women in Hawaii of the several racial groups attend these lunches and the most intimate questions are discussed freely. In addition to this the Pan-Pacific good relations clubs of the several races have their dinner meets every week. In every way the union is drawing the social leaders into closer acquaintance and co-operative effort for community welfare, in preparation for the conference of conferences in 1929. (The Honolulu Advertiser.)
“HAWAII HAS PEACE in the midst of her cosmopolitan life because she has had the grace and the statesmanship to exercise interracial goodwill.” (Dr. L. L. Wirt in “The Friend,” Honolulu.)
“THE WAR IS only an episode, communication marks an epoch,” said Professor G. F. Nicolai in his “Biology of War,” written during the World War in what is probably the most important book on war ever written.
Communication began when man, “the symbol-making animal,” as Aristotle called him, developed language and made a sound a universal. After unknown ages, came hieroglyphics, then the alphabet, and finally “Gutenberg made thought cosmopolite.” Today the telephone and radio are annihilating space and time, and the American Radio Relay League is considering an international language as becoming almost a necessity for their business. . . . It is as tremendous in its possibilities as the railroad or radio have been. The reviving interest in the matter is shown by the increase of Esperanto journals from twenty or thirty at the close of the World War to about seventy now. After eighteen sittings at the College de France, Esperanto, with certain modifications, was favored by the savants as the most desirable. It is a language which, like any living language, can grow.
To establish the widespread study of the auxiliary language, normal classes authorized by governments and preferably sponsored by the League of Nations should prepare to teach the secondary schools of the world. Thus all business clerks, bankers, librarians, commercial agents, journalists, world travelers, and delegates to international congresses would in one school generation acquire facility, and would be the persons who would control the avenues of influence which govern policies and legislation. . . .—(Lucia Ames Meade in Journal of Education.)
I HAVE NEVER seen any description of Heaven which was even tolerable. To me the conception of Heaven as a place of refuge from pain and drudgery is unthinkable. Joy in work is my ideal of existence, here or hereafter. The new religion to come will recognize that there is nothing ultimate within its knowledge. It will seek an open field, constantly shifting, and will not pretend any final recommendation of any sort.—Charles W. Eliot, nonagenarian President-emeritus of Harvard and grand old man of New England. (Current Opinion.)
“CHINA ADMITS quite frankly that she needs something from the West. The West still knows so little of the real China that it has not yet realized that China has much of value to offer to our breathless civilization.”—(“Foreign Affairs”)
“LIVES THERE a man with master mind who could unravel the tangled web of religious theories, leaving us the golden cord of truth? Such a task is beyond the power of finite man. We must wander on in this bog of uncertainty unless there is a divine torch of truth to guide us.”—(Signs of the Times Magazine.)
SOME places seem destined to be spiritual centers. Such is Green Acre, blest by nature, by the spiritual efforts of many great souls, and by the living presence of ’Abdu’l-Bahá. Situated on the banks of the famous tidal Piscataqua, “river of light,” this beautiful spot was consecrated to Peace as far back as history records, having been used by the Indians as a sanctuary between warring tribes and as a place for councils of conciliation. And who knows what may have been its spiritual history in the prehistoric past!
These fair fields overlooking at eventide one of the most glowing and gorgeous sunsets the world affords, were consecrated a generation ago to high spiritual purposes by that lofty-souled woman, Sarah J. Farmer.
It has been said that it takes great audiences to make great orators. Green Acre has from the first produced such audiences, whose supporting and creative attitude, responsive at every turn to the speaker’s intention, has inspired lectures that were alive and soul-moving, and left with the speakers a blessing as ample as that which they bestowed.
This favored spot, made into a spiritual clearing-house, an open platform from which any worthy and forward-looking movement could be presented, was destined by the grace of God to make connection early in this century with the Bahá’í movement, then in its infancy in this country.
Truly it seemed that this ground had from the very beginning been made holy for the due arrival of the world’s Greatest Truth. At Green Acre the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh—that perfect plan for a world brotherhood based on human affection, on mutual understanding, on cooperation in and for the love of God—found a natural and receptive platform. And the participation of Bahá’ís in Green Acre affairs grew to such a point that when in 1913 Miss Farmer on account of failing health was no longer able to carry on her work, the Bahá’ís took over the management and the financial support of Green Acre, which they have maintained as a universal platform for the presentation of humanitarian movements, of the arts, and of the spiritual life.
In the summer of 1912 ’Abdu’l-Bahá blest Green Acre with his presence. Those holy feet, walking those fields and hills, those words of power issuing from lips which never moved save for some spiritual purpose, left we know not what dynamic influence of purging, of consecrating, of enabling.
Working unseen but perceived by those who have perception this sacred influence has at last brought Green Acre to the point where it must stand forth as wholly God’s. This thought, enunciated at the annual business meeting last summer by one who was not herself a Baháí, spread rapidly and harmoniously among all present, resulting in a proposal, also by one not a Bahá’í, that there be held at Green Acre this coming summer a great Bahá’í Congress. The proposal was unanimously adopted by the meeting. Then it was that the trustees offered Green Acre as a site for the annual Bahá’í Convention; Montreal generously abnegated her privilege in this direction; and Shoghi Effendi heartily confirmed the matter.
Could there be any more fitting place this year for the Bahá’í Convention than at Green Acre? Here is a spot already formed for spiritual devotion and meditation, impregnated with a holy atmosphere which reminds one of that quiet, soul-compelling spirit pervading Palestine. It is easy to think high thoughts here where worldly things all drop away. As at Haifa, so here, time is held still and the world no longer revolves. The power of God’s love holds the soul spell-bound.
Shoghi Effendi has high expectations of this Convention. It is our part to fulfill them!
