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| VOL. 18 | NOVEMBER, 1927 | NO. 8 |
| Page | |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 227 |
The Candle, a Poem, Dorothy Aoki | 229 |
The Coming of the Glory— I. The Argument, Florence E. Pinchon | 230 |
Reflections of a Bahá’í Traveler, Siegfried Schopflocher | 237 |
The Master Builder, Mary G. Collison | 243 |
Crime Control, Rosa V. Winterburn | 247 |
Bahá’u’lláh, a Poem, Shahnaz Waite | 246 |
The Danish Folk High Schools, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 249 |
On Earth As it Is in Heaven, Keith Ransom-Kehler | 251 |
World Thought and Progress | 254 |
of Mi'rza Ahmad Sohrab and Dr. Zia M. Bagdadi: preserved, fostered and by them turned over to the National Spiritual Assembly, with all
valuable assets, as a gift of love to the Cause of God.STANWOOD COBB | Editor |
MARIAM HANEY | Associate Editor |
ALLEN B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
Subscriptions: $3.00 per year; 25 cents a copy. Two copies to same name and address, $5.00 per year. Please send change of address by the middle of the month and be sure to send OLD as well as NEW address. Kindly send all communications and make postoffice orders and checks payable to Baha'i News Service, 706 Otis Building, Washington, D. C., U. S. A. Entered as second-class matter April 9, 1911, at the postoffice at Washington, D. C., under the Act of March 3, 1897. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103 Act of October 3, 1917, authorized September 1, 1922.
--PHOTO--
--PERSIAN WRITING ON PHOTO--
A glimpse of the Garden, of Ridván; the mark 9 shows the seat occupied by Bahá'u'lláh. (See page 252.)
| VOL. 18 | NOVEMBER, 1927 | No. 8 |
through meekness; again, through pride, is he degraded to the lowest
station.”-Bahá’u’lláh.AS MAN RISES from the lower, animal state of nature to the plane of intelligence and refinement, he overcomes or sublimates the grosser evils of passion, cruelty, lust, and gluttony. But one sin remains, which, cancerous like, eats into the very heart of spiritual progress—the sin of pride or egotism. This quality, besides being innate in human nature, is prone to grow stronger the more one advances in intelligence, in achievement, and in the respect of one’s fellow men. Hence of all the faults which man must overcome in the spiritual ascent, pride is the most insidious and parasitic, feeding upon the very progress and achievement which is made.
It might be thought that pride, being so natural to man, so deftly persistent, and so apparently innocuous, would be overlooked or condoned by the Divine Power. But the contrary is true. Of all the sins of man, that of pride is most seriously and drastically punished in accordance with those immutable laws of Divine Justice which regulate not only the movements of the spheres but the interactions of all existing beings. Whether one has learned to read these inner laws of being, or draws his lesson from the outer events of life and history, the truth becomes apparent to all possessed of vision that the inevitable ultimate consequence of pride is failure, degradation and humiliation. And this holds true of nations as of individuals.
THE LAW of punishment for pride is as infallible as those august principles of mathematics according to which planets, constellations, universes, fulfill their course and turn and come again. Indeed, the law is capable of mathematical demonstration. For since there is but One God, One Divine Ruling Power, it follows as precisely as one plus one equals two, or two plus two equals four, that there is no opportunity in the universe for other wills than His to be expressed.
Were individuals of powerful will, of pride (which means the ascribing of all achievement to one’s own powers and abilities) and of egotism (the desire that the self be advanced to position or honors over others),—were such individuals permitted to go on continuously and successfully progressing in achievement, in position, and in the development of the will to power, it is clear that what we call the universe would not be a universe at all, but only a chaos of conflicting and battling wills.
Even on the plane of material existence this would be disastrous. How much more so on the plane of the spirit, where every inner vibration is immediately realized and has its effect not only on the spiritual
atmosphere but even an effect in action.
CLEARLY, the Kingdom of God has no room for other wills than that of God. Into the world of spirit no one may advance with envy, pride, self-seeking in his heart. If sensitized souls feel keenly and disturbedly the vibrations of pride, envy, hostility while still on this physical plane, how much more sensitive to these vibrations must be the souls in the Heavenly Kingdom. It would not be Heaven if such vibrations were to exist there. No, the Abha Kingdom is absolutely free from all such vibrations, which means that no one prone to creating such vibrations is allowed to enter there. “Know, verily, the heart wherein the least remnant of envy yet lingers, shall never attain My everlasting dominion. * * * ”
This is a stern law, but only upon such a law could be constructed a monistic universe based upon the orderly growth and development in power of created beings of infinite number. The mercy and love of God permit of and encourage powers and gifts in His creatures. But these powers and gifts must ever be ascribed to Him, else they become a spiritual dynamite by whose cataclysmic force the proudest, the most lofty, the most titanically powerful of individuals come at last to abrupt. and abysmal ruin.
A STUDY of history reveals this truth. The ancient Greeks, noting the frequent, nay, universal downfall of men in whom power and pride dwelt conjointly, ascribed the cause of their ultimate ruin to the jealousy of the gods. The Alexanders, Caesars, Napoleons, drunk with power and with egotism, have crashed to ruin! The same parabola describes the ascent and downfall of
myriads of minor personalities, No individual is too great, no individual is too small to escape this immutable law which is not personal, as the Greeks anthropomorphically conceived it, but majestically impersonal and as absolute as are the laws of mathematics. The heart which sees aches to impart somewhat of this potent truth to all mankind, that they may be saved from those subtle dangers of the spirit which are so intimately involved in all progress and development. For those very individuals who are most gifted, who have the greatest capacities and powers to use for the benefit of man, are unfortunately the ones most susceptible to the attacks of pride. Many an otherwise great and noble soul has succumbed to this most insidious spiritual sin.
HOW THEN CAN one guard against pride and vanity, which are in reality a declaration of self as separate from God? Only by turning to God for help and guidance in the utmost of humility on all occasions; only by constantly acknowledging that God alone is the Source of power and glory; only by realizing that we are not original creative forces but only channels for the Divine Force to flow through.
It takes constant prayer—constant reliance upon the aid of the Holy Spirit—to gain this grace of humility. Pride, like a somber shadow of the soul, tends to follow man even when he progresses toward the Sun; and to become darkest and deepest when most exposed to Light and Glory. Meister Eckhardt, who for years had been inspiring audiences of thousands with his spiritual discourses, suddenly one day halted. pale and speechless in the midst of a great sermon, came silent down from the pulpit, and preached not again for the space of two years. Two years of struggle in the wilderness,
two years of prayer and spiritual meditation it took him to free his soul of the taint of that pride which success and adulation had been accumulating in him. Then Meister Eckhardt returned to his pulpit and never after did he fail from pride.
AS THE OCEAN, by lying low, receives all streams into it, so man who attains sincere and deep humility can safely receive, entrusted to his care, the needs, the plaudits and the love of many men. Such was Abraham Lincoln, the supreme human attainment of humility upon a throne. That saintly Bahá’í philosopher, teacher and apostle, Mirza Abu’l-Fadl, was in the custom of praying for long hours before dawn with ardor and weeping. Thus he kept himself in true humility and love before the Threshold of God. If a character so pure and severed, so deeply spiritual, felt the need to exercise such force of prayer, how can we of lesser clay hope to achieve humility and severance save by much praying—and through the aid of the Holy Spirit?
May we all ultimately attain to that station of severance, of humility, of love, described by Bahá’u’lláh in the “Seven Valleys”—“When the lights of the splendor of the King of Oneness are seated on the throne of the heart and soul, His Light becomes manifest in all the parts and members. * * * In this case the Owner of the house becomes manifest in His Own House (the heart) and the pillars of the house are all illuminated and radiative through His Light.”
and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Behold a candle, how it gives its light! It weeps its life away drop by drop in order to give forth its flame of light.”
- Your flame burns bright,
- And through the night
- You gleam and glow-
- But drop by drop
- Your wax falls hot
- Onto the sill below.
- And though you die
- You do not sigh;
- You are content—
- You changed the night
- From dark to light;
- In service spent.
In seven chapters of this series the author pictures in a novel and fascinating way the story of the Bahá'í Cause; and with an appreciation of the scope of her subject she states, “If the seas of the world were turned into ink, and the leaves of the forests into paper, I could not render adequate justice to my subject." The first chapter, “The Argument, explains why and how a new spiritual dynamic is pulsating through the arteries of mankind today. The next chapter, “Night,” will follow in the December number.-Editor.
THERE were five of us gathered on the lawn beneath the shade of the old elm tree, on that summer afternoon, all students at the university, and, as it happened, representing in our more specific interests, science, history and religion, with Mary perhaps to personate intuition or heart. I was, so to speak, the odd man, and these were my special friends.
We had been idly discussing many things—sport, politics, literature and art—until, plucking up courage—, I ventured to ask: “Have you fellows ever heard of the Golden Age?”
Their answer was a shout of laughter. But I was not dismayed, for I felt I had something to say on the subject.
“The Golden Age!” exclaimed Oliver, the budding scientist of our little party. “It makes me think of chasing butterflies on a day like this; or of lambs—not lying down with the wolf, but frisking about among the daisies in the spring.”
“The phrase,” contributed Arthur, who was specializing in history, “always conjures up for me a vision of my old nursery—a guarded fire, a tawny rug, and a small boy pouring over a brightly-colored book of fairy tales. Curiously enough, I never can disassociate the Golden Age from the sailing of the Argo and the quest of the Holy Grail. It somehow seems to imply a spirit of romance and adventure; a childlike or poetic soul for belief in its possibility.”
Peter, whose father had destined him for the Church, declared: “It makes me think of the Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven. How preposterous it sounds though, doesn’t it? And some words in the Old Testament: ‘The glory of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.’ Perhaps that is a forecast of something of the kind, ay?”
And the youngest, swinging gently in the hammock, concluded, “It may be just a myth; but one likes to believe that such, a time might come some day, in some way, as one likes to believe in love and in survival after death.”
“Well, old Socrates, I think that you ought, first of all, to give us your pet version of the subject. How, to begin with, would you define this Golden Age?” demanded Oliver.
“The Golden Age seems to me,” I answered, “like a new Spiritual Springtime for the world. The dawn of a new day or of another cycle in human history, in which righteousness shall reign on the earth, and a new civilization, such as the world has never before known, replace the old. A time when universal peace shall be established, and the oneness of all mankind, irrespective of color, class, or creed, be recognized. When all religions shall have become purged of their materialism, dogma, and superstition, and shall have realized that in essence they are one. When science, harmonizing with a purified religion, shall have become a great
unifying, cleansing force. When liberty, justice, universal education, and a universal language shall be the order of the day. When love and wisdom, gradually gaining dominance over our animal natures, shall eradicate social evils, poverty, and disease, and solve our economic problems. When inventions, discoveries, science, and art, directed to constructive, instead of destructive purposes, and inspired by noble ideals, shall unite to create a ‘new earth!’”
“Humph! That’s a truly wonderful picture, old man,” exclaimed Oliver. “You have, in fact, sat with the poet ‘in a golden chair, and splashed at a ten-leagued canvas with brushes of comet’s hair.’ But if you ‘worked for an age at a sitting and never were tired at all,’ you couldn’t hope to produce anything like that in the world. For there are, I beg to point out, several simple facts that would make the realization of such a beautiful state of affairs impossible. Human nature would have to undergo a pretty drastic change to begin with. And in biology there is no evidence at all to prove that it can ever change—radically.”
Yet isn’t change the law of life? Transmutation and change are requirements of life. Modern science teaches that even minerals are subject to this law; that changes, either slow or gradual, or seemingly sudden and dramatic, are going on continuously among creatures of all grades. Minerals melt at boiling-point—the solid becomes a liquid, the liquid a gas, the seed germinates, the grub grows wings, the babe is born. And as you have read, I know, Professor Drummond’s “Natural Law in the Spiritual World,” I am sure you will be ready to admit that the same great law applies in the finer realms of being to the higher life of the soul of man. Under certain influences a person’s whole life—viewpoint, desire, and activity—has been known to radically
alter. Our bodies completely change every seven years. Why should human nature alone be a static thing?
“You mean,” observed Peter, “that a man can become, as the Bible puts it, ‘born again’ or converted into a higher type.”
Certainly, and the transformation with him also may be effected either by the sudden flash that, for instance, transmuted a Saul into a Paul, or by the more gradual process that made an apostle of your (excuse me) somewhat cowardly namesake.
Besides, religion and education are both based. on the assumption that human nature can be changed, indeed radically transformed.
“You seem to have forgotten, old chap, that we have had a World War and quite disproved your beautiful assumption,” said Arthur. “‘Scratch a Russian and you find a Tartar’ is true of us all. Neither psychology nor sociology support your argument. War, the outcome of fear and greed, is apparently an ingrained instinct-a kind of biological necessity. All the records of history teach one that.”
But history can show us the evolution of an idea. No doubt primitive man thought like you as he slew his brother. Then forced to realize that only by cooperation could he preserve his own life, the united with his kindred to form a tribe. Then tribes united for mutual safety, then countries, then nations. And now the late war has taught us that international cooperation and peace are absolutely essential to the maintenance of civilization itself. As a certain writer has pointed out, today is a race between education in these ideals or complete world catastrophe.
“But shall we succeed in the race? Think of the changes that must be effected in human character and affairs before this one ideal can be realized, to say nothing of all the others!”
All these ideals I have outlined are really interdependent. The attainment of one involves and necessitates the attainment of the others. And, I frankly admit, apart from religion and the operation of spiritual forces within man himself, there is no hope of my Golden Age.
“True, my friend,” said Peter, “but what is religion? As you know, I am to become a Protestant clergyman. My chum at college expects one day to be a Rabbi. And the other, if we discuss religion, swears by the Qur’án. We all agree that we ought to love God and one another; but beyond that we don’t know where we are. What we are taught appears out of date-a mixture of dogma and credulity, and some of it is contrary to reason.”
Unhappily that is so. Love itself is fundamental to all the world’s great Faiths. But the outward ordinances, and laws alter according to the times in which they were given. For even religions, you know, are subject to that great law of creation—change. Take a flower. It comes forth from the seed in springtime; it reaches a state of maturity, then dies. A man develops until he attains a certain age, then begins to decline. The same is true of the world’s chief religions. They are initiated by a Moses, a Christ, a Muhammad. They blossom out, fulfill their guiding, educative, transforming mission, reach their zenith, then begin to fade away, their pure outlines blurred by changing conditions of human need, by narrow conceptions and materialistic interpretations.
“You imply then that this must be the old age or winter, so to speak, of all religions, as we know them?”
Yes. But taking an analogy again from nature—if winter comes, spring must swiftly follow. Her seeds are already germinating warm beneath the snow, ready to burst forth simultaneously into new life of all kinds
when the sun shines again. Yet it is not so much a new life as life renewed.
“I see,” struck in Oliver, “that’s what you mean by a spiritual springtime. A kind of rebirth of everything—like a bud bursting into flower, a caterpillar into wings-old ideas and modes of life getting completely transformed, and things speeding up until humanity too bursts into what—an angel?”
Into a finer, deeper state of consciousness quite different from the old. Into the flowers of human nature, which are spiritual qualities. Or, to put it scientifically, into a higher rate of vibration, this higher vibration implying a condition of aspiring energy, peace, and harmony, good will, and love,
“I have just been trying to remember,” came thoughtfully from the hammock, “the various books I have read on the social conditions of the future—books by Bellamy, Wells, Shaw, and many modern prophets, to say nothing of the poets. I think Walt Whitman believed in the dawn of a new and finer social order; Tolstoi said that all the faiths would eventually have to come into one humane universal faith.”
“Yes,” added Arthur, “and one naturally approves of much that is written by the idealists and thinkers of today. But the trouble is that they don’t all agree in their ideas; some of their ‘forecasts’ are positively alarming, while even their Utopias are not altogether inviting, even were their materialization possible.”
I think that is only natural, because, however clear their vision may be, they are but mortals and see “through a glass darkly” or just through one small pane.
“Then take all the numerous societies and ‘isms’ that are working for constructive purposes. How divergent their ideas! And each one seems so sure that their particular method
is the best. But do you honestly think that, if tomorrow the whole world could turn, say, either Christian Scientist or Theosophist, New Thought or Spiritualist, Adventist or Socialist, Communist or Vegetarian, or join one of the leagues for peace and freedom, all its problems would thereby be solved?”
No; not by a long way. For the simple reason that the panaceas and remedies they each offer for the world’s sickness are only partial ones, and the medicines themselves are often blended with undesirable elements. Or attention is focused upon only one or two of our vast modern problems, while others, equally important, are neglected. Each reflects, as it were, more or less clearly some ray of Truth, but none the whole sun.
“Then perhaps it needs,” continued Arthur, “what Sir Philip Gibbs in his ‘Hope of Europe’ suggests—a unification of all these progressive movements. Some focal point where all could find a common center—as an axis is the focal point of a wheel. Some authoritative spiritual leadership to unite them, so that their differences could merge in one supreme loyalty—a unity in diversity. But he does not see how it could be done—neither do I.”
If we had been left without clear guidance and to our own devices, there is no doubt that for an indefinite period of time we should continue to have this tangled mass of cross purposes in religion and education, in political, social and governmental affairs. Our leaders would maintain an endless struggle with overwhelming difficulties and no coherent policy. The garden of man would remain more or less a jungle.
“But where,” demanded Peter, “is clear guidance to be found, and is there a way out?”
Yes. I believe there is. But for it we shall have to come back to religion. You remember those words in Isaiah: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
“Oh, you do believe in the Bible, then. I wish one could understand it better. Don’t you think that Jesus really predicted the last war and the other world troubles when he spoke of: ‘Upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things that are coming upon the earth’.”
“I could quote you, too,” he continued eagerly, “ever so many passages in the Old and New Testaments which seem to refer to some special period of time, or some particular event, but when or what nobody really knows, or if they think they do, their explanations are unconvincing. Joel, for instance, says: ‘Verily the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it?’ Jeremiah: ‘Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it.’ And then there is that verse in Daniel which speaks of the ‘Day of preparation’ and the ‘time of the end’ when ‘many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased.’ Then there are all the predictions about the Jews going back to Palestine; and the signs by which we should know that a Second Advent was near, given by Christ himself.”
“I once asked our Bishop whether these were those ‘last days’ referred to. ‘Certainly,’ he said, ‘for we are living in most amazing times.’ ‘Then,’ I replied, ‘of course you are trying to prepare people for the “Coming of the Son of Man,” for didn’t Christ indicate that by these things we should know that “the hour of your redemption draweth nigh.” He just
stared at me in astonishment and said, ‘Oh, my dear boy, I am glad you know the Bible so well. It means that He would come again in our hearts. The kingdom of heaven is within you,” you remember.’
“In a way, I suppose, he was right. But it didn’t really explain anything. And when, the other evening, I heard that wonderful ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ by Handel, and thought about the words afterwards, I simply couldn’t see how they referred, as we are told, to Jesus. You all know them, of course: ‘The government shall be upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.’ For war has never ceased, nor its cessation even thought of since A. D.—until quite within recent years. Nor has it been His precepts that obtained in governments and councils. Far from it!
“Anyway, I don’t think orthodox Christians, as a whole, hold any definite ideas of or belief in the fulfillment of these prophecies. And, of course, they are rather vague.” * * *
He stopped abruptly, quite out of breath.
Not so much “vague” perhaps as “veiled” by clouds—the clouds of preconceived and limited ideas. As a rule, prophecy is never understood, save by a few, until after its fulfillment. Sometimes not even then. Take the Jews. You remember Christ said: “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will take the things that are mine and reveal them unto you.”
There is to be a progressive Revelation, you see. As a matter of fact, not only our own Bible, but all the Sacred Scriptures of all the world’s chief religions contain references, both clear and veiled, to the “Coming” of a new day or age, at the time
of the advent of another Messiah or Messenger of God, And the adherents of these religions are, like ourselves, perplexed, at variance, expectant. In many hearts all over the world there is a genuine longing for some divine deliverance; a belief, although indefinite and blind, in its possibility.
“Now I come to think of it,” observed Mary, “there is a sort of expectancy ‘in the air’—a feeling that something might be going to happen on a bigger scale than usual. Everything around us and we, ourselves, seem to be changing so quickly, we scarcely know where we are, so to speak.”
Yes, I replied, those who care to do so, can see that profound changes are rapidly taking place in all human ideas, relationships and institutions. For instance, H. G. Wells has recently pointed out that “there is a biological revolution in progress of far profounder moment than any French or Russian revolution that ever happened.” And this will ultimately have the effect of so preserving and prolonging life that it will alter our whole outlook.
It is evident that there is a kind of universal disturbance and awakening. New aspirations are inspiring every department of human activity. Religion is broadening and showing an inclination to become more unified. Indeed, all the signs point to the fact that we are entering into a stupendous, universal renaissance—the Springtime of a world.
“Then you consider that these are all indications of the approach of an age called by some Millennium?” asked Arthur.
I believe them to be the effects of a great spiritual, but as yet generally unrecognized Cause and Dynamic; the beginning of a big advance by humanity; the coming in of the Golden Age.
Nature provides us with endless analogies. Watch that moving
amœba, how it projects forward on its pathway a fingerlike filament! See the strain on that foremost point, as the whole body pulls forward to a definite, though to us, infinitesimal advance. Humanity is not unlike the amœba, time after time projecting out into its future path a great filament—a pioneer-idealist. The weight and strain of the body of humanity is laid upon Him. And the advance can only be made if, on the one hand, He holds absolutely true to the Light within Him, true to the goal desired, and on the other, binds closely to Him with the bonds of love and compassion the inert minds and hearts of men. If these conditions prevail, the world follows Him.
Thus it is with the Saviors of the race—with Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, and in a lesser degree, with all the pure souls who were their followers in spirit. They are the mighty Filaments of humanity, the Movers of mountains, the Leaders and Dynamic Force of Progress.
“You infer, then,” remarked Oliver, “that great cycles in human history are always initiated by, or the result of, some Manifestation of what you call God appearing in the world of men and acting-as a lever.”
Yes, Moses, you remember, laid the foundations of Jewish law; Jesus of the Christian era; Muhammad made of savage tribes the mighty Arabian civilization.
“But,” objected Peter, “we Christians have always understood that Jesus Christ was the one and only Savior or Manifestation of God to men.”
Muhammadans think the same of Muhammad; the Jews of Moses. But do you think it reasonable to believe that God, the Eternal Spirit, should have revealed his Will and Purpose only once throughout all the countless centuries of human evolution? Did not the vast civilization of China, whose beginnings are lost in the
mists of antiquity, need the wisdom and humane ethics of a Confucius; the diverse peoples of India the illumination of a Buddha; the ancient kingdoms of Persia the purity of a Zoroaster; the wild Arabs the restraining influence of a Muhammad? Might not all these have been sent by a Supreme Intelligence as Educators and Guides of mankind, leading them forward on the endless pathway of spiritual progress and development?
“But,” struck in Oliver, “what you call ‘God’ is not an Entity, but a great creative Energy—the vital essence of Life itself, and so quite beyond human knowledge and comprehension.”
Certainly. Both science and philosophy agree that to knowledge of this Divine Essence “the way is barred, and the road impassable.” How dare one pretend to define or describe the Infinite First Cause? Yet its effects are everywhere apparent. Creation is a continual emanation of the bounty of this Originating Will; and it is evident to science that throughout the universe one increasing and unchanging Purpose runs. Everything, in its degree, reflects this unknown Power, as material objects reflect the light of the sun. A stone reflects Him. In the savage we can trace faculties that speak of a wonderful Creator. Geniuses, poets, saints—above all the Founders of world religions reveal His attributes. These last as pure mirrors transmit His Image to mankind in the highest and most perfect degree.
“Well then, my dear chap,” cried Arthur, “where is this Mighty Filament or Perfect Mirror of which you speak? Where are we to find the guidance and leadership that a whole world could and would acknowledge, that focal point?”
“Why,” exclaimed Peter, “for this it seems to me, we should need nothing less than Carlyle’s ‘fresh Revelation,’
and that in terms of a new World’s understanding—a spiritual Unifier, another Educator, such as you described; but this time for the whole of humanity—in fact, a Universal Messiah!”
You are indeed right! And what I want you to let me do now, is to give you a few facts of modern history, which will, I feel sure, convince any unprejudiced, reasoning mind that to our weary, chaotic world God has already granted this “fresh Revelation.” That our mighty need has met a mighty Supply. That a Messenger has come, as He was promised in our own and other Scriptures. A divinely inspired program and principles, capable of universal application, ideally practical, all-comprehensive, are laid before us. A new spiritual dynamic is pulsating through the arteries of mankind today, which will enable us to rise above former conditions of earth life into a finer consciousness. And this will imply the incorporation of all these
ideals and principles into everyday life and activities.
For today is, in truth, the “Day of the Lord” so long foretold, though the clouds of ignorance, prejudice, and indifference as yet hide His, Glorious Face. He has come “as a thief in the night” and we have forgotten or neglected to watch. The glory of the Golden Age already glimmers across the hilltops. And with your help, “ere you are old and gray and full of sleep,” the visions of the poets, prophets, saints, this goal toward which humanity is journeying, these noble aspirations of the brightest and best among us, this “far-off divine event to which the whole creation moves,” will have begun to materialize. And the world will, at least, have entered the threshold of an era of unity, peace, happiness and progress such as it “hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive.”
But I will let history speak for itself. The sun is the proof of its own shining.
that disperses all shadows; in the same way does Truth scatter the shadows of our imagination. As the Sun gives life to the body of humanity, so does Truth give life to their souls. Truth is a Sun that rises from different points on the horizon. Sometimes the Sun rises from the center of the horizon, then in summer it rises further north, in winter further south—but it is always the selfsame Sun, however different are the points of its rising. It is the same Sun. In like manner, Truth is One, although its Manifestations may be different. * * * Those who in truth adore the Sun itself will recognize it from whatsoever Dawning-place it may appear, and will straightway turn their faces toward its radiance.”
This is the first of a series of travel stories by a successful business man, owner of large and flourishing manufacturing plants, yet who considers his greatest business that of crystallizing his Bahá'í ideals into action—“love in action,” as he himself has so often stated. He travels the world over and feels a kinship with all peoples. He firmly believes in the Oneness of the human family, and as a "follower of the Light” he tries to spread the doctrine of tolerance, understanding, and brotherly love, making his deeds the emphasis to his words. His recent travels have been in South America, and this first article is about his visit to Brazil.—Editor.
TO THE close observer, a peculiar experience comes when he embarks for a long ocean trip, and that is the realization that when people are taken from their own sphere of activity they manifest a sort of diffidence and reticence, which suddenly bring before us the words of ’Abdu’l-Bahá that “man cannot live alone.” But this condition soon changes on board ship. It is like precipitating men back into solution, a solution which presents a different aspect of things from that to which they have been accustomed. It takes but very little to fuse human material; love and sympathy, a friendly “good morning” or a hearty “good evening.” And to the traveler, who has had the bounty and privilege to come in contact with the light of Bahá’u’lláh there becomes apparent the truth of the words of that other great Prophet Muhammad: “When a man salutes you, do not ask him, “Are you a Moslem?’” The understanding of the wisdom of this utterance causes us, in only a short time, to find ourselves in a new world and, much to our astonishment, comfortable and at ease in any surroundings. We have, to state a fact, broken down the barrier of our own seclusion, whether self-imposed or induced by education, custom or habit. No effort is being made to convey something new—everyone is acquainted with books on travel; travelogues and lectures have made us visualize to what extent commercial and tourist travel have increased. Every highway and byway has been combed for
this purpose, the novelty is gone and accounts are no more interesting. It is left to the Bahá’í traveler to find the Way to the hearts of people—to penetrate into the corner of the soul of the race and nation. It becomes an adventure as thrilling as the travels of a Marco Polo or Vasco de Gama, because the follower of Bahá’u’lláh can see the world responding to a new impulse and motive. Only he understands the real significance of every detail experienced on the trip.
Comparatively few people have traveled extensively enough to acquaint themselves fully with other than the ordinary routes of travel. There are, it is true, fast liners plying between northern Atlantic ports, but on these vessels conditions are against a thorough understanding. In most cases, seasickness keeps people in their customary seclusion until the short voyage is over; but ships trading to South America present a different atmosphere altogether. In the first place, the time occupied is longer and much beyond the period of the most protracted attack of mal-de-mer. There one meets people of different hue and different nature and brought up under different conditions all contained together within one hull, bound for the same destination, subject to the same conditions and united in one purpose. There are probably representatives of all walks in life–men who are engaged in commerce, whose office it is to buy and sell, to attend to the interchange of commodities and merchandise which are needed here and can be supplied at
the other end, and vice versa. There are ladies who are going to join their husbands and their families and are eager to reach their new home. There are others who are going to resume their activities in their new field of endeavor with increased interest and ardor, after a visit to their birthplace.
The trip from New York to Buenos Ayres occupies about three weeks and the larger boats run without stop to Rio de Janeiro, a distance of about forty-five hundred miles. It is most interesting to notice how, as time goes on during the voyage, the different elements of the ship’s human freight become acquainted. The scientist will find relief in conversation with the business man, and the understanding between them is all the greater when the man of business realizes that business, after all, is nothing more than a form of moral obligation and that the acquisition of material wealth is not his sole aim; that apart from the necessity of buying and selling he brings with him a spirit of good will and better understanding and visits foreign lands not only to take but to give to the foreign friend what is really needed and not what it is most advantageous to himself to give.
The scientist is readily appreciated for the great work he has done. For example, there were the representatives of a great United States Institution who went down to investigate a small outbreak of yellow fever, although there had been just one or two cases. Only twenty years ago, most of these South American places were fever-ridden—plague spots where people found life difficult and dangerous. Since then, through the concerted action of the United States and the Central and South American Republics, and with the assistance of modern business methods, these pestilential places have been converted into something approaching health resorts, where one can live in health
and amid excellent conditions of sanitation.
Here again we have evidence of the spirit of the new age! We meet men and women, whose chief suffering is the suffering of others and whose joy is the happiness of others. We see the scientist who leaves his native country and risks his life in order that people of other countries may live and flourish on the fruits of his knowledge and skill. Twenty years ago it would have been like signing a death-warrant to send a man to certain places in South America; but the spirit of the age, operating through science and the heart of man, has changed all this and plague has been banished. Man is learning to find his own salvation in the happiness and comfort of his neighbor.
As we approach the port which is the first objective of our trip, we come to hospitable shores ready to welcome a brother. It is true that a trip to South America entails a good many formalities. There are special visés of passports, certificates as to character and reputation to be furnished by police officials and judges of the courts, finger-prints and certificates vouching for one’s health and even one’s sanity. One of these certificates read as follows: “This is to certify that the bearer, Mr. S., is not a criminal and not insane.” These requirements may, on first sight, appear to be preposterous or ridiculous, but they constitute a protection to the people of the country and whatever is done in that respect is done in the spirit of the words of Bahá’u’lláh: “Outwardly it is the burning fire, while inwardly it is calm light.”
Brazil is a vast country and probably the fifth largest country in the world under one control. To know and understand a country, one must know something of its history; only then can we realize its progress and development.
In the year 1500, the Holy Inquisition was functioning perfectly, working
overtime in fact; the Iberian Peninsula was securely under the sway of the Kings of Spain and Portugal; Columbus had just made a present of North America to the King of Spain, and Vasco de Gama, recently returned from Calecut (now Calcutta) had introduced to the notice of the King of Portgual the continents of Africa and India. Thus it came about that a Portuguese mariner (one Pedro Alvarez Cabral by name) was commissioned to prepare his ships with supplies for the purpose of acquainting the people of India with the convincing properties of gunpowder and the overpowering charm of rum. On his way, he picked up, off the West Coast of Africa, a liberal supply of naked Negroes who only knew that they were being taken away from their homes and little realized that they would never see them again; but they found themselves eventually not in India, as Cabral expected, but on the shores of Brazil, upon which country he had stumbled in his effort to reach India.
It is not within the scope of this article to dwell at length upon the development of this continent, which, after all, seems to have been left very largely to what we choose to call chance. The King of Portugal needed gold and silver for purposes of pomp and power and, accordingly, the mines of Brazil were worked by Portuguese, Indian, and Negro slaves. Even today, we may see a monument to the hideous slave labor of those days in the beautiful viaduct which was built to carry water from the mountains to Rio de Janeiro. I visited this relic with a friend, a ship companion who had become a very dear friend and much more than a brother, and I shall never forget his disappointment and disgust upon finding that the viaduct is being dismantled to provide a road for the ever-increasing motor traffic. It might well have been left as an awful example to posterity of a former age
of slavery, injustice, and distress, which has been supplanted by the new spirit of love, amity, and brotherhood now quickening the world.
For a long period Brazil was the principal source of gold and precious metals, and when the supply gave out and the Kings of Portugal and the Grandees had become less secure in their high stations, the slaves, who worked on the condition “no returns, no food,” were left to their own resources and formed a mingled race of their own. The horses and cattle which had been imported from Portugal were likewise left to roam and these, having increased and multiplied in their wild state, now form the great population of the Pampas and a source of great wealth to the country.
The new race, which came about as the result of these conditions, is an interesting study. It is a blended unity with absolute political and social equality, although different nationals have come to keep to themselves apart from the “native population.” Frenssen, in describing the Negro population of the United States, was greatly impressed when he found among them purely Aryan features which had, as it were, acquired a beautiful tint quite beyond the possibilities of art. Similarly, one can see in Brazil, in all walks of life, ladies with a carriage and bearing that a queen might envy, of exquisite features over which has been lightly laid by nature this same beautiful tint.
It would appear that all the efforts of the populace and the greater part of the taxes are lavished upon the making of Rio de Janeiro the most beautiful capital in the world—a jewel in a lovely natural setting of sea and mountains. The harbor is admittedly the most beautiful in the world, and all the ships afloat, mercantile or otherwise, could find accommodation in that harbor with sufficient space to make their presence
hardly noticeable. There are hundreds of miles of water front, with great depth of water and a background of mountains, three thousand to four thousand feet high, with electric trains, easily accessible, connecting peak and peak by means of aerial lines.
Engineering skill has assisted nature. The famous Avenida Niedermeyer, the roadway running around the harbor along the mountain side, cannot be approached by any other in the world. The famous Sugar-loaf, and the Finger of God, and other mountain peaks commanding the entrance
--PHOTO--
This photograph shows only a part of the beautiful harbor of Rio de Janeiro
to the harbor, are already too well known to those who have read much about travel to require particular mention.
The beauty of the capital city of Rio de Janeiro is hard to describe, but a Bahá’í finds even greater interest and charm in studying the population.
The railroad communications are inadequate to the size of the country, but probably give sufficient access to the regions which have been developed. On the other hand, the
commerce for centuries followed the river lines, boats plying up and down for commercial purposes, etc. There is coastal communication by water as well, but the boats furnish neither convenience nor speed.
It was a matter of much concern to me not to have visited the city of Bahia, in northern Brazil, where lately Bahá’ís had answered the call of ’Abdu’l-Bahá and had done useful work for humanity in these regions; but it will give you some idea of the extent of the country and the character of the communications when it is stated that it would have taken a
week to go from Rio de Janeiro to Bahia and about three weeks to have visited the friends there. However, every effort is being made by our Brazilian brothers to establish better communications within their country; and when we remember what marvels have been accomplished there within the last twenty years, and when we reflect what conditions have been removed or remedied in our own country within that period, it does not behoove us to criticize a new country like modern
Brazil, but rather to expect great improvements and developments there within the next decade or two.
The Bahá’í traveler will always remember that he must not judge but that he is being judged, and so enable himself to prove by example and belief, manifest in deed and action, that the world is really very eager to discard its preconceived ideas. By this means only can he stand forth as a reflection of reality and the spirit of a new age, and not a shadow of the unreal.
The most important cities visited, apart from Rio de Janeiro, were Sao Paolo and Santos. From Rio de Janeiro the train mounts to a plateau two thousand feet above sea level, and the traveler passes through a beautiful and interesting country, with opportunities to observe its people and its customs, to arrive at Sao Paolo at an elevation of thirty-five hundred feet. This city is the manufacturing center of the Republic. Industries are encouraged by the Government to settle there,
where water power is in abundance, very largely under development. The growth of this district has been phenomenal, helped by a climate which is most temperate and while only twenty degrees south of the Equator, offers a greater degree of comfort to the European on account of its altitude. More than half of the population consists of Italians and Germans, with the former greatly in the majority. The train descends from Sao Paolo to Santos, which is the great coffee port; probably fifty to sixty per cent of the world’s supply of coffee passes through this port.
It can easily be imagined how beautiful is this descent from a height of thirty-five hundred feet to sea level within a short distance. In truth, one can see the port of Santos almost at one’s feet very shortly after leaving Sao Paolo. But I believe the beauty of the country is best described in the words of the dear friend whom I have mentioned above. I did not have the pleasure
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A glimpse of the drive along the miles of water front in the beautiful city, Rio de Janeiro
of meeting him again, as I expected to be at Parque Balneario; but a few months later I was rewarded by the receipt of a letter from him which I am sure I would have his permission to quote from as follows:
“I took the steamer from Santos to Paranagua, which has a perfect paradise of a harbor, rather intricate and full of little islets which are high and wooded. Then a six-hour ride by train to Curityba, climbing to a high tableland or plateau nearly five thousand feet high. The ride through these mountains was simply gorgeous. The train seemed to cling to the edge of forbidden-looking precipices, where you could look down in places for about half a mile, the mountains being covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, the bright raiment of a semitropical spring. Many of the trees were in flower and queer orchids and parasitic plants were to be seen on all sides. Occasionally, coming through the gorges of these age-old sentinels, there were beautiful waterfalls sometimes two hundred feet high, presenting a picture too difficult to describe but recalling to my mind a poem by Whittier:
- ‘Touched by a light that hath no
- name,
- A glory never sung,
- Aloft on sky and mountain-wall
- are
- God’s great pictures hung.’
“It surely is a most beautiful world in spite of what the pessimists may say about it. It brings to my memory a man I once met who had traveled all over the globe, visiting many of its hidden and mysterious places. When I asked him casually where he had found the most beautiful place, his answer was: ‘In my heart.’ I was too young to realize then just what he meant, but the older I get
the more I realize the truth of what he said. It required a great blow to make me realize the truth of this lesson, and then I found out about five years ago that the greatest happiness we can experience is through service to our fellow man.
“You have brought this truth to me from a different source or perhaps it would be better to compare it to the fountain-head of a spring, one spring coming out on one side of a mountain and another on a different side but the source of each is the same. I believe that all good and all the finer and spiritual characteristics in man emanate from God, the Great Fountain-head. * * *
“I am reading the books you have so kindly given me and have learned many new truths and have had many others confirmed which are not generally taught by the churches. * * * I believe that this Movement takes root more quickly with the man or woman who has given deep thought as to why we are here than with those who have been accustomed to having their thinking done for them.” * * *
And we are quite willing to agree with our friend, for “the first Principle of Bahá’u’lláh is the independent investigation of Truth. God has not intended man to blindly imitate his fathers and ancestors. He has endowed him with mind or the faculty of reasoning by the exercise of which he is to investigate and discover the truth; * * * he must not rely implicitly upon the opinion of any man without investigation; nay, each soul must seek intelligently and independently, arriving at a real conclusion and bound only by that reality.” This quotation from the writings of ’Abdu’l-Bahá is only one of many similar statements on the importance of the independent investigation of Truth.
BLUE PRINTS have a peculiar fascination. Evidently many people share this passion, since house plans are featured so often in popular magazines. Who can estimate the hours spent in pouring over plans for model homes? But are we as interested in the proper housing of our mind and spirits as in the material habitation of our bodies? Granted the interest, where will thinking men and women find blue prints for a mental and spiritual home suitable for this age?
A child is born into a particular environment. Before he enters kindergarten, he has unconsciously acquired many prejudices and characteristics of that environment. He accepts without question the verbal opinions of his parents and teachers if they do not conflict with his personal desires, while their mental, social, and religious attitudes are even more faithfully copied. At election time he throws stones at the little Democrat next door or votes a straight Republican ticket in the straw vote at high school because his ancestors to the third and fourth generation were all ardent Republicans. He becomes a member of the Episcopal church because his family has always been Episcopalian. He has a smattering of all kinds of knowledge except the knowledge of how to think for himself. So he approaches physical maturity with a full equipment of second-hand reactions to any stimulus.
But if our young man is to become one of the thinking minority, he will one day awaken as from a hypnotic sleep. Often this awakening comes at college age; sometimes before and frequently later in life. For the first time he then sees with
some clarity the home in which his mind and spirit are living. Too often he finds it impossible for a healthful development. The foundations are unstable; the walls are no longer plumb; so many windows have been boarded up that the light of Truth shines but dimly within; it lacks the equipment for the best type of modern life; all beauty of proportion is lacking; the structure is too small for full development; the abuse of former generations is everywhere evident and the whole place is hideous with the filth and vermin of superstition and prejudice. In disgust he begins to tear down this tenement and resolves to build a Temple of Reality in which he may house an abundant life.
A young enthusiast, afire with a new vision, can seldom see any good in the wreckage of the old abode but sooner or later he returns to find among the débris much sound material which will add strength and beauty to the new structure. Other material, however, is needed, so our thoughtful youth begins his search for Truth, the only building material worthy of use in a Temple of Reality. He seeks in every direction and investigates every rumor of possible Truth. Each effort produces some satisfactory material and gives a fascinating glimpse of some feature of the completed edifice. His study of natural science reveals alluring doorways to Truth. Psychology, theosophy, sociology, Christian science, psychic research, all yield substantial blocks of Truth. From time to time he visions a glorious window, an imposing entrance, a well-proportioned arch or an inspiring tower but the design of the entire structure ever eludes him.
As the years pass his parts of Truth accumulate with surprising rapidity. The very volume and diversity of the collection often confuses him but still he holds doggedly to his purpose. He must build for his mind and spirit a Temple in which all Truth shall have a place. In despair he asks himself, “How can I ever bring a unified whole out of this confused mass which after all is but a small portion of all Truth? Has anyone a vision of such magnitude?” Recognizing his own inability, he realizes that he needs an architect, no ordinary architect but a Master Architect, a Divine Architect who is familiar with every phase of Truth and sees perfectly the relation of each part to the whole.
God has revealed his plan for the World through many Master Architects. Which one should design the Temple of Reality for the thinking man of today? What are the criteria by which an Architect should be chosen?
From the dawn of civilization until today there have doubtless been human architects who were actuated by the same general purposes. All have attempted, first, to create a center of life and shelter from the difficulties of life; and, second, to satisfy the needs of the people for whom they built. Practically every structure from a mud hut to a skyscraper was designed as a center for some form of life—family, commercial, military, religious, or educational. Each attempted to shelter that life from the hostile forces of nature and human society.
The second purpose of human architects varies as the requirements of the age change. When the average family numbered ten, a breakfast nook was not a desirable architectural feature; a modern
bathroom would be little appreciated in a community without water and sewerage systems; we would not be favorably impressed by plans featuring a moat, extensive slave quarters, or a dungeon. The desirable architect of any age is the one who most completely meets the requirements and solves the problems of the people of his time.
So it is with a Divine Architect. All through the ages God has been manifesting His Spirit through human Messengers Who give to mankind God’s plan for a more fully developed personal life and for an advancing world civilization. Each of these Divine Architects in succession becomes a magnetic center of life drawing toward Him and unifying through the power of love many elements of human society. Each offers to groping humanity a shelter within Himself from the opposing influences of man’s ego. But in addition to this fundamental purpose, every Master Architect brings a special message to the age in which He manifests. This part of the divine plan changes in accordance with contemporary needs, but it always offers a complete solution for all man’s problems, whether individual or universal.
If our thinking man grasps this idea of a revealed Truth given with greater and greater fullness through successive Manifestations, he will realize that the Master Architect whom he needs is the one who solves with a divine comprehension the tremendous problems of today.
Here then is a key to the situation. What are the world difficulties which so urgently require a solution? The crying need of the world today is peace. How can we obtain peace in the individual heart; peace within any special group; peace among the Christian sects; peace among different social classes, races, religions;
peace between science and religion; peace among nations? The world is sick unto death with discord. Where is the remedy?
The problem is so vast and has so many ramifications that it is almost impossible for the human mind to see it in its entirety. Therefore we find in the world many groups of earnest, intelligent people working enthusiastically but often with limited vision for one phase or another of that extensive program which God has revealed for the guidance of His people and which is embodied in the Bahá’í Teachings. The Bahá’í Movement is the only well-balanced, constructive, world plan with spiritual dynamic to carry it through to success.
Every Truth-seeking man or woman will eventually hear of the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
Bahá’u’lláh sees universal peace as already existent in the mind of God and rapidly approaching manifestation in the visible world. This universal peace is the result not of legislation or the idealism of a few great leaders but of the love of God and all mankind in the hearts of vast numbers of people. The immediate cause of war may be the greed of a few individuals for wealth or power, but the real cause lies in the ignorance, prejudice, and limited vision of the great masses of humanity.
Bahá’u’lláh foresees the cessation of war in the independent investigation of Truth by each individual, in the abolition of personal, racial, national, and religious prejudice, in an appreciative recognition of the interdependence of all mankind, in the universal education of the people, in a universal auxiliary language, in the equality of men and women, in a truly representative League of Nations and International Tribunal, in the realization that all religions are of God. Bahá’u’lláh gives definite constructive suggestions for the solution of the economic situation. He states that science and religion are in perfect accord and point the way to a clear understanding of that harmony.
However, these principles should not be enough to convince a spiritual as well as an intellectual man that Bahá’u’lláh is the Divine Architect of this progressive age. Without a “mighty divine power and heavenly energy” back of them, the Bahá’í principles would avail nothing. The supreme proof and our greatest need is that Power which enabled millions of people to believe the message of Bahá’u’lláh and to radiantly persist in their belief in spite of the most bitter and determined opposition. That Power has made the Bahá’í principles to some extent the mental equipment of every progressive thinker throughout the world, although they were radically new ideas only sixty years ago when Bahá’u’lláh gave them to the world. That Power alone will enable man to put into effect these working principles and achieve universal peace in this century.
If our thinking man in need of a Master Builder for his Temple of Reality can take this “step of the soul,” he will accept Bahá’u’lláh as his Divine Architect and receive from Him the blue prints for his Temple. As he carefully studies these blue prints a vision of the finished structure begins to form in his mind. He sees a beautifully proportioned Temple with two great wings—one of science, the other of religion. It embodies all his ideals and hopes and reveals undreamed-of possibilities for future effort. The spirit of prayer and meditation permeates every stone and fills every room.
Again, he examines the building material which he has laboriously gathered from different sources. To his surprise every fragment of Truth has a definite place in the Temple. With fresh enthusiasm and vigor he checks over the necessary material to find out what he already has and what he must obtain. Most of his material may be for the wing of science, or possibly science has previously been neglected. In any case he sees clearly where he, an individual spirit, stands in relation to universal Truth. His past efforts, blind and undirected, were often inefficient but now he knows definitely what he needs and where to get it.
With this superb home enthroned in mind and heart, our thoughtful man begins to erect a Temple of Reality. He is guided by the blue prints of the Divine Architect and assisted by the “mighty divine power and heavenly energy” of Bahá’u’lláh; and as he builds he prays that other thinking men and women may be attracted by his Temple to the Master Builder for this age.
On the occasion of the anniversary of His birth, which is commemorated every year on November twelfth by Bahá’ís throughout the world—Editor.
- O! for a thousand tongues aflame,
- That I might speak Thy praise!
- O! for a voice of seraphim
- My song of Thee to raise;
- That I might waken every heart,
- Enkindled with desire
- To know of Thee and read Thy Words
- Filled with celestial fire.
- O! for a Pentacostal power
- To utter forth Thy Name,
- With all its glorious Light Divine,
- Its wonders to proclaim;
- Thy Name which stirs the universe,
- Creating thru Its might
- A world renewed, a heaven renewed,
- Revealed unto man’s sight.
- O! for a heart all crystal pure
- And calm as summer sea,
- That it might catch Thy rays divine
- And so reflect but Thee!
- Thou art God’s manifested Love,
- His glory for all time,
- His Sun of Truth omnipotent,
- His Majesty Sublime!
“It has been ascertained that among civilized peoples crime is less frequent than among uncivilized; that is to say, among those who have acquired the true civilization, which is divine civilization—the civilization of those who unite all the spiritual and material perfections. As ignorance is the cause of crimes, the more knowledge and science increases, the more crimes will diminish.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
THE criminal is not responsible for crime. Of course, legally interpreted, only a responsible person can be held a criminal. But back of the criminal there are conditions that have brought not only him into existence but also his crime and the so-called crime wave that is sweeping the world. A criminal is a person of retarded development, or he is significantly lacking in some essential of human completion; but he is rarely to blame himself for either condition. Society usually waits until a crime or misdemeanor has been committed, and then punishes the offender as the one solely responsible for his deed. Too often, alas! this punishment is some form of imprisonment among other criminals, where the already hardened one grows more bitter and revengeful, and the young offender learns how to be more efficient in his business of crime and more adept in outwitting the law.
Society is only beginning to awaken to a realization of the whole range of conditions that are the causes of crime—conditions of which the criminal is ignorant or which he absolutely cannot control or combat; conditions that society carelessly allows to continue; conditions that develop children into criminals and transform unstable adults into threats and menaces to all human life. When the road of crime has been definitely entered upon, when a human being has consciously accepted that road as his, then the struggle of society against him and his kind
becomes well nigh hopeless, for then the criminal is using all the ability and shrewdness of his human skill to defeat the efforts made to turn him into lines of safer living. Hope of really vanquishing crime lies only in the removal or prevention of its causes.
Our industrial system, that makes it possible for some men to become prosperous while others sink into want; that gives to some uncounted wealth and to others grinding poverty and hideous despair; such a system can but produce wastrels at both of the two extremes of wealth and poverty. It can but tend to create scorn and indifference in the more fortunate, and bitter hate, rebellion, and crime in the one who cannot or will not stand firm against disaster. It is with the deepest relief that one sees approaching many changes in that system. The great religious spirit of this age is moving in the minds of many who are still unconscious of its Source. Intelligence, justice, and a profound brotherhood of man are finding expression in many business enterprises, in great corporations, in legislative enactments. Better wages, shorter hours, legal protection are bringing the means and the opportunity for fuller happiness in life. Few people who enjoy these privileges will turn to the uncertainties and disgrace of crime; but only the spirit of God can bring about these changes in the hearts of men. As civilization progresses and man’s life approaches more closely the power and perfection offered it by the love
of God, man sees and understands more of his own possibilities of greatness. This is what is coming slowly but persistently in the whole field of industry and in the complete life of man. It will continue until poverty will be a horror of the past, looked back upon with surprise and amazement; and with poverty will disappear the crime that poverty now causes.
With this increasing intelligence of man will come many mighty changes that will strike at the roots of crime. Outstanding among them will be the fuller care of children. We are realizing today more than ever before that our children are the future. Many parents have always offered up themselves on that altar of sacrifice, or our world of today would not be; but mankind, as a whole, is but just awakening to the possibilities that cluster in childhood. Education so long thought to be the mental training of young brains, is slowly taking its place as the training of body, mind, and spirit from the embryo to the gray-haired finish. Study the child to learn what are his powers and capacities. Train him accordingly. Let him fit into the work that he can do best and most happily. As defects and handicaps in the individual appear, and they will be legion, train the child to minimize his personal weakness and to make best use of his strength. Whenever the necessity is sufficiently great, those who are unfit or unable to make their own way in the world must be segregated from those who are safe and fit. Give these unfortunates the work that they can do, and see that they do it. Give them all the simple happiness and content that their lives can respond to; but keep them out of the dangers of world contacts and of the propagation of their kind. Give the capable ones the training suited for their greater powers. Investigations and experiments are already under way for this new kind of education, and no one can yet estimate the good that it will do when rightly handled.
The most serious problem in child training yet remains. It arises from the failure of the home, the most common and disastrous reason for the delinquency of youth. Here there seem but two roads open. The first and best is the training of every generation to be capable and trustworthy parents of the next generation. So many are the successes that come out of our homes of today that the heart warms to the God-loving parents who are the real saviors of the young. When the home does prove inadequate, however, we seem forced to follow the other road to safety, progress, and happiness: the state or the church must take over the children and see to it that they receive the care of real homes. The tie between parents and children should be the last one to be broken; but when the home fails, or worse yet, teaches the child to go astray, then a higher power should intervene for the protection of the child and the safety of civilization.
I know a great-hearted man, a real social worker, one who acts as a voluntary probation officer for boys who have already gone astray and as a tireless friend for those who are not yet on the wrong road. During some years he has taken nearly a thousand boys out of jails and reform schools on probation. Nearly all these derelicts were the products of failing or broken homes. All but about ten per cent have gone straight; and some of those have probably done so, but they have been lost track of. Ninety boys out of every hundred, between twelve and twenty years of age, taken out of jails and reform schools, going straight because they had a friend to tell them what to do and to make
them do it. No easy task for one man, busy early and late in his own office; but that is the story told by his carefully kept record. What then might be done by organized, humane, godly society!
Crime and its causes eat their way most horrifyingly through all our present life. But the New Day is dawning. Its Light has already shone into many hearts. Such changes as those already mentioned are working through mankind. There is but one Source of this light; it is the love of God. Prosperity will not do away with crime; education does not; philosophy cannot. It can be conquered only by the progress of the divine civilization that transforms the hearts and lives of men; that drives away the darkness and shadows of evil by its glowing light of love and faith and service. The knowledge of that God power and a participation in it must become the life control of every soul that is awakened; and he must serve, serve unceasingly, in awakening others to the hope and achievement possible through such knowledge of the God power.
One of the most interesting of the educational activities of the world is the Danish folk high schools of which the author tells us in this brief and interesting article. It is a unique form of education. The ideals and practices in these schools have special interest for Bahá’ís.—Editor.
IS EDUCATION a process of instruction or a process of inspiration? This was one of the questions that came up for discussion during education week at the conference of the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order held at Hillsdale, Mich., last summer (August, 1927). The obvious answer, of course, is that both are necessary, but the question opens up others: Which shall come first, instruction or inspiration? When is the psychological moment for inspiration? How shall the teacher inspire?
The speaker who stirred us most deeply in his plea for the inspirational in teaching was Mr. H., a Danish-American, who has for some years conducted a real Danish folk high school in Minnesota. We were eager to know more about these
schools which have been conducted for three-quarters of a century in Denmark but which the average American is only just beginning to appreciate.
These schools are open to young people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, usually offering a five months’ term in winter for the men and a three months’ term for the girls in summer. The young people who avail themselves of the privileges of these schools have completed the usual common schools at the age of fourteen and have had at least four years of real life working on the farm or in factory. The aim is first of all to awaken them, enliven them, as they express it, rather than to enlighten them. Instruction, indeed, is not aimed for at all, although some is necessarily incidental to the inspirational talks which are
given on history, literature, biography. A large place on the program is given to group singing, sports, and gymnastics. The schools seem as much like our summer conferences for young people as anything we have in America, but they are simply like themselves, unique.
The idea of the Danish folk high school was conceived by Bishop Gruntvig in the early part of the nineteenth century. Although he himself was not successful in establishing one of these schools, he lived to see the plan carried out by some of his followers. The schools are small residence schools of from seventy-five to two hundred pupils, conducted by the owner with a few assistants.
Although the schools are not avowedly religious there seems to be a true religious fervor back of them, a belief that life is more than meat and that man does not live by bread alone. To awaken the life of the spirit and thereby of the intellect is the aim of each director, and the “living word” as Bishop Gruntvig expressed it, is the instrument made dynamic by the life, sympathy, and love of a great soul. No text-books are used and no assignments are made, but there is always a library available. It is the testimony of those who have studied Danish life and customs that the Danes are a reading people. The book store in Denmark is found in even the small communities, being quite as common as the tobacco shop in America.
A much-traveled gentleman recently remarked, “Copenhagen is noticeably different from any other city that I visit, but I never took the trouble to find out why.” In his “Light from the North” Mr. Joseph K. Hart tells us why not only Copenhagen but all of Denmark is different, more advanced, more civilized than other countries. There cooperation is a practice not a theory. Practically
all the country’s business is carried on through cooperatives. There are no extremely rich and no extremely poor. In spite of poor soil and unpleasant climate the Danes are economically independent and advanced in governmental and civic institutions to a degree beyond most peoples. If Mr. Hart is correct (and Mr. Edgar W. Knight comes to the same concluion in his book, “Among the Danes”) the reason for the remarkable advancement of the Danish people is to be found in the Danish folk high schools.
These schools by no means take the place of the usual instructional schools. Denmark has its splendid technical schools and universities which rank well with other European schools. But to an observer who is looking at the Danes not at first hand but through the eyes of other close observers, it would seem as though this people, through its folk high schools was showing the true meaning of education, the awakening of the whole man: mind, heart, spirit. In these schools the young people receive the awakening, the inspiration which enables their education to continue through life and shows in all national as well as personal affairs. Does not this illustrate the truth of these words of ’Abdu’l-Bahá?
“It is most clear and manifest that national affairs will never revolve around their proper axis until the whole people have received instruction and public thought has been directed to a single end. The most important of all the matters in question and that with which it is most specially necessary to deal effectively is the promotion of education. No freedom or salvation could be imagined in the case of any nation which had not progressed in this greatest and most important matter; just as the greatest cause of degradation and
decadence of every nation is bigotry and ignorance. If necessary make this even compulsory, for not until the veins and tendons of the nations stir with life will any study and adoption of improvements be of any avail; because the nation is like unto the body, zeal and resolution are like unto the soul, and the soulless body cannot move.”
In these schools have not the Danes given at least one answer to the question: Is education a process of instruction or of inspiration? There comes a period in the life of the young man or woman when his mind and heart are ready to be opened, to be freed. With this freedom
of the spirit the individual takes on new growth both intellectual, moral, and spiritual. Then the nation must of necessity “stir with life” and take its place in the first ranks of civilization.
In passing it is interesting to notice that a few of these folk high schools have grown into international people’s colleges attracting young folks from different countries. At one of these in Helsinger (Elsinor) Miss Martha Root, one of our inspired Bahá'í teachers and travelers, found a warm welcome and eager listeners. The folk high school idea is spreading throughout Europe, especially in Germany and the Scandinavian countries.
This is the fifth in a series of Excerpts from the Diary Letters of Mrs. Ransom-Kehler, scholar and gifted author. The first was published in the November, 1926, Star of the West; the second in March, the third in June, and the fourth in October, 1927.—Editor.
THE days are quite hot now. Accho means “sand-heated.” Many Bahá’ís think that Accho and Achor in Bible references are interchangeable names for the same place. The valley of Achor, which means the valley of Trouble, where Achan was slain,* and to which Hosea refers† as “a door of hope” lies between Jerusalem and Jericho, and should not be confused with Accho, an ancient Phœnician city, which was amalgamated with the tribe of Asher‡ when the Jews took over the land of Canaan. At the time of our Lord Jesus the name had been changed to Ptolemais, at which port Paul touched on one of his missionary journeys.§ But a thousand years later, at the time of the second crusade, the name had been restored to
| * Josh. 7:26. | † Hosea 2:15. |
| ‡Judges 1:31. | §Acts 21:7. |
Acre when the city was besieged by Richard Coeur de Lion.
The green mound standing over against the city is the breastworks thrown up by Napoleon during his fateful Syrian campaign. Was it indeed by accident that at that very moment English ships had arrived bringing a fresh supply of ammunition to the British garrison within the gates of the ancient city? The successful sortie of an English officer who sacrificed his life but repulsed the French attack, is commemorated by the marble placque, affixed to this old wall, scarce noticed by the passerby. Napoleon said that if he could have captured Acre (the spelling now used is ’Akká) he could have changed the face of the globe. Surely his Syrian campaign was the most vain and exorbitant of all his gigantic undertakings except the Russian,
and all that remain to mark its careless extravagance in human life and effort are a green mound and a marble slab.
The little hill whereon Napoleon placed his cannon stands between ’Akká and the Garden of Ridván. There is to me a mysterious significance in this juxtaposition. Napoleon marks the perigree of human egotism and selfishness; Bahá’u’lláh the supreme exaltation of sacrifice and self-effacement; and here standing before the “Beloved City” are these two emblems of the diverse roads stretching out before mankind; the signs of the eternal battle between the forces of corruption and the forces of righteousness in the world: that mound the artificial handiwork of a man bent on the destruction of his fellows; this island garden, “seated upon the waters of the river,” a haven for the harassed of heart. In this garden the prophecy of Isaiah is literally fulfilled. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree: instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”*
That is a question that I ask myself about this garden and about this Shrine. When we see some of the monstrous perpetrations built on sacred sites of the Christian faith, we wonder if these lovely natural spots can withstand the blight of future orthodoxy. Or if some new inspiration will seize the neophyte of a new age. Each religion has developed its own art form; will ours?
I find no qualified judge who presumes to say that any piece of architecture has ever surpassed the Parthenon.
A third-rate Balkan city, ugly and unimaginative, lies stretched below
* Isaiah 55:13.
the Acropolis, and yet this tiny spot that crowns the plain has made of Athens the most unforgettable city of the world. Partial destruction has in no wise touched the imperishable chastity of this temple’s beauty.
At Constantinople a new breathlessness of glory awaits one in the mosque of Santa Sophia (meaning Holy Wisdom and not some forgotten woman). It was built for Justinian as a Christian church and is of imperial proportions. By one of those inspirations that marks the miraculous in art the architect has crowned his work with a dome the like of which has never been known. Everyone who has visited Rome has strained the back of his neck to view the lofty vault of Saint Peter’s. But in Santa Sophia the great dome is upheld by four half domes, in such a manner that on entering the mosque one looks right away up into its airy vastness, so delicately poised that it seems to detach itself and float.
I am constrained to believe that it is much more attractive in its habiliment as a mosque than it would be as a church; as usual the floor is covered with what appears to be an acre of fine rugs; dozens of individual prayer rugs woven into each stretch of carpet; and suspended from the high overaching roof hundreds of chandeliers containing about twenty-four tiny lamps each. The walls of warm-marble, magnificent pillars brought from pagan temples, the whole united by the rugs and chandeliers, gives a kind of illimitable intimacy to worship. To my mind it is by far the most beautiful building in use by man.
But the supreme work of art so far as my tastes and capacities permit me to judge is a monument whose name “the Ancient” (Sphynx) was given to it four thusand years ago. Even at that time its history
was buried in obscurity. Napoleon, whose vandalism remains in many a desecration, shot off the nose at the Battle of the Pyramids; the whole right side of the headdress, about a ton in weight, dropped off in the last century, but as long as the eyes are unimpaired, there will stand on earth a witness to that faith which means “that we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see.”*
The eyes of this mighty image look out into eternity, recording the bliss of those who have pierced the veils of limitation. No creation of man has ever so moved me. I recall faintly the heart-breaking joy of some of those things to which I most quickly respond: a Greek tripod, in the Vatican, that even when I was ill used to revive me; the Erechtheum; the Psyche at Naples, that I once traveled five hundred miles to see; the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici; Leonardo’s water-color head of Christ at Milan; an intoxicating arpaggio of Cyprian glass on a shelf in the Metropolitan Museum; Rodin’s “Countess S.” that used to stand in the Luxembourg; the opening measures of the Moonlight sonata; a shade of blue-green, not quite turquoise; great, cool, feathery-fronded ferns; all these shimmer quickly through my memory exhausted before this superb achievement with no more effect in comparison “than the sea’s self would heed a pebble cast.”
Surely the prehistoric genius who hewed this archaic rock must have looked upon the face of some mighty Prophet of God who beheld that to which man’s eyes are blind.
When the Buddha returned from His self-imposed exile, a former friend meeting Him fell upon his knees before Him: “I perceive that Thou art a Buddha,” he said, “by
* Heb. 11:1.
the serenity and joy of Thine appearance.” And in the Greek drama when the question is asked, “How did you know that Hercules was a God, Iole?” Iole responds, “Because: I was content the moment my eyes fell on him.” There is this enthralling quality about the “Ancient,” as if it reflected indeed the awful mystery of the Word made flesh.
As the message of Bahá’u’lláh reaches its perihelion will it produce some new creative giant who will fittingly memorialize His Presence among us? Something to surpass the Sphynx, the Parthenon, Santa Sophia, the Taj-Mahal? Else it were better that this simple, unpretentious spot remain, as it stood in His glorious Lifetime.
Humanity has with intense pain and travail at last brought forth a social consciousness that marks the end of old beliefs and endeavors and the beginning of a new ideal of life. The outworn striving for personal salvation that motivated medieval effort is as foreign to modern consciousness as slavery or human sacrifice.
We know that the prophecy in Isaiah* refers to Bahá’u’lláh and not, as Christians affirm, to Jesus; for amongst the many epithets here applied to this Promised One is “Prince of Peace,” and Jesus plainly says, “I came not to bring peace but a sword.” The two thousand years of Christianity have been incalculably bloody. “Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given.” Could this promised child be the new social body that is so definitely emerging in human relations and human transactions today? All the fundamental commands in the Sacred Text of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings concern the development of this new attitude toward life.
* Isaiah 9:6-7.
It has ever been the challenge of a changed consciousness, the glorious sense of freedom and hopefulness that has given to the world its great artistic periods. We can only faintly project some quite inadequate conjecture as to what could be magnificent enough to chronicle the birth of such a child, or the coming of the Prince of Peace. But when we have become “blind to all save His Beauty,” the rapture and
the mystery of His sojourn amongst us will quicken its own exalted response.
“Mysteries are many, and strangers are countless.” Who can grasp either the significance or the influence of this humble Shrine upon the plains of ’Akká? We kneel abased and bewildered, arising with we know not what miraculous tides and currents bearing us out into the unfathomable ocean of God’s Love.
The Fourth International Conference of the New Education Fellowship ended today, August 15, at Locarno, Switzerland. Eight years ago this organization started with a small group of individuals who believed that the New Education offered the most fundamental approach to constructive internationalism. So rapidly has the interest grown that this year over a thousand individuals, representing forty different countries, assembled at Locarno for a two weeks’ conference. It was an inspiring experience to witness the genuine international feeling which pervaded this gathering of people of different races and nationalities, with their diverse religions, traditions and languages—La Follette Weekly.
At the Locarno conference, the discussions were carried on in three different languages—English, German and French. After a lecture was given in one language it was translated into two others. In spite of the amazing skill with which this
was done, the method involved such an expenditure of time and energy that it was decided that at the next conference, which is to be held in Denmark, there would be only one translation and this in Esperanto. Monsieur Bovet, who presided over the conference, and who speaks four languages more fluently and easily than most of us speak one, was an ardent advocate of the adoption of Esperanto as the official medium for translation. All members of the Fellowship are urged to master Esperanto in the next two years as a preparation for the International Conference in Denmark. No one who participated in this conference could fail to be impressed with the great desirability of a common language in a world where international communication and understanding are becoming so increasingly imperative. The next conference will afford an interesting experiment as to how much initiative modern educators will have in making Esperanto meet this need.—La Follette Weekly.
There are no strangers here in Honolulu. One has scarcely landed when he feels the spell of universal
brotherhood and tastes the milk of human kindness.
Those who have cars “lift” him on his way, and one does not refuse such help, so much of pleasure does it seem to afford the donor. The joy of giving is rife. A sweet-faced woman calls, and proffers shelter on her porch when an unexpected shower takes the stranger unawares. Children smile bravely up into one’s face and answer questions frankly and fearlessly. They do not fear abductors and kidnappers.
“What can I do to be of service to you?” is an unwritten slogan, as obvious as though a shingle hung from every door.
No wonder flowers bloom and skies give forth their blue; no wonder sunshine is “liquid” and moonlight at her best! for hospitality is closely related to gratitude and God loves gratitude in man.
“To him who hath shall be given,” so God pours forth further blessings to a land already rich—and there are no strangers here!—Edith Finley, in Honolulu Advertiser.
PACIFIC RELATIONS HELD IN
HONOLULU IN JULY“This conference is a bold experiment of men and women with faith in their own kind. It is fostering the creation of international citizenship by affording members of different races the opportunity for personal contact. If none of the political, economic and social problems of the Pacific had been discussed, this fact of contact would yet have made this conference more than worth while. Conference feeds research and research feeds conference. From this, if we can once establish the facts, we have virtually arrived at a solution without knowing it.”—Sir Frederick Whyte, one of the British speakers.
“I believe with the majority of our thinking people that Japan is in the position to create a richer and more balanced civilization by harmoniously combining the best of the two civilizations—spiritual and material. This is and must remain the real mission of Japan as a Pacific power, and herein is Japan’s cultural aspirations. * * *
“We are living in the new day when the notion of unlimited individualism is undergoing a decided change and the spirit of social sharing and cooperation is gradually gaining ground. * * *
“The intrinsic superiority or inferiority of races is a fable (with the possible exception of some of the vanishing races), unsupported by anthropology, psychology, and sociology. It is a matter of sentiment rather than of reason, and we can remove the unnecessary fear and sentimentalism through education based upon scientific investigation. Here again, we look to such an impartial group as this Institute for a priceless contribution.”—Dr. Masataro Sawayanagi, Chairman of the Japanese Group.
“The people of these islands have received all peoples from the earliest days in a friendly spirit. That spirit of friendship has not been lessened since the day the British discovered these islands. Following them came the Americans and later the Chinese and the Japanese and other races. Through the extension of commerce and trade our relations have spanned the sea to Oceania and Australia and New Zealand. And the spirit of friendliness is still with us as powerful as in the beginning.
“This land, it may well be, may serve in time to come as a radiating center of friendliness. We in Hawaii have broken down all barriers of religious and racial intolerance, even,
so far as possible, political intolerance. And those barriers have been broken without causing any part of our population to feel degraded. We have retained the individuality of every citizen of whatever race or nation. We have moulded their lives into our lives as equals and friends.” —Governor Wallace R. Farrington.
“The new problem of the Pacific is still one of the spirit. Concrete questions there are, to be sure, more than enough–problems of immigration, of nationalism, of old privileges, of autonomy or independence, and many others which we shall discuss here. But behind them all is the problem of mutual respect.
“If the peoples of the West can learn to respect those of the East as we of this institute, for example, who know them, respect them, all the other problems, even the greatest, become workably small. We can even agree to disagree, where we cannot yet agree, if we do it with the full consciousness of mutual respect. For the fundamental demand of mankind is the right of self-respect, and that cannot be exercised in the presence of those who refuse us respect. The first problem of the Pacific, as I see it, is that we learn to respect one another, and treat each other accordingly. If we face our other problems in that spirit, the rest is almost easy.”—Chester Rowell, writer and publicist.
“There has, however, been a greater revolution than the mere renouncement of war. Humanity has turned a corner and has come upon problems which were unheard of before in the world’s history. Modern civilization, as it advances, makes war more and more impossible. It renders war impossible as an instrument of diplomacy.
“Can humanity live up to its promise to do away with war, or is this just another peace-loving interlude in the history of the world? It may be we are only at the end of barbarism and on the threshold of civilization but we are conscious of the powers of human intelligence.
“No statesman today can intrust the fate of his country to war and be sure that even in victory he will not be the victim of his own success.”—Dr. James T. Shotwell, professor of history at Columbia University.
“Membership in the British Commonwealth has taught international cooperation, while the hundred years of peace on our 3,000 miles of United States border has been a practical demonstration of the possibilities of sympathetic contact without loss of national identity.
“The existence of this 3,000 miles of frontier unprotected by a fortress or ungarded by a single sentry has profoundly influenced the consciousness of the Canadian people and is in itself the world’s most significant prophecy that force may be replaced by mutual good will. * * *
“The problems of the Pacific are many and difficult, but they are not insoluble, if we approach them in the spirit so eloquently portrayed by the distinguished Chinese statesman who addressed us at the luncheon yesterday. The View of the Canadian people is that in the solution of these problems we have a safe guide, an unfailing light, if we remember that faith is better than doubt, and love is better than hate.”—General Sir Arthur Currie, K. C. M. G., president and vice-chancellor, McGill University, Montreal.