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| VOL. 19 | APRIL, 1928 | NO. 1 |
| Page | |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 3 |
The Coming of the Glory, Chapter VI, “The Guardian of the Cause,” Florence E. Pinchon | 6 |
Oneness of Religion, a Poem, Shahnaz Waite | 8 |
The Fulcrum of Society, Willard McKay | 9 |
Our Living Faith, Sophronia Aoki | 13 |
The Bahá’í Temple, Mary Hanford Ford | 18 |
Reflections of a Bahá'í Traveler, Siegfried Schopflocher | 23 |
World Thought and Progress | 31 |
of 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-- ©1920 L. Bourgeois
ARCHT. & SCULPT.
Model of Bahá’í Temple exhibited at the Bahá’í Convention, in New York in 1920. This Temple, slightly reduced in size, is now in course of construction at Wilmette, near Chicago, Ill. Its doors will be opened to all the nations and religions. There will be absolutely no line of demarcation drawn. Its charities will be dispensed irrespective of color or race. Its gates will be flung wide open to mankind; prejudice toward none, love for all.” (See page 18.)
| VOL. 19 | APRIL, 1928 | No. 1 |
humanity is going through a process of transformation. A new race is being developed. The thoughts of human brotherhood are permeating
all regions.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.“THE INTERESTS of civilization are threefold,” says the Round Table, a British quarterly review. Liberty, prosperity and peace. Liberty means that the world should progress under the banner of democracy, the more backward peoples being assisted by the more advanced until they can take over the control of their own affairs. Prosperity means the economic development of the whole world so that the standard of living of all peoples may be progressively raised. Peace means the creation of arrangements which will ensure the settlements of international disputes by reason and justice and good will, and not by war, the great enemy alike of liberty and prosperity, and the great cause of poverty, of unemployment, and decay.”
One of the most happy signs of the growth of a universal consciousness is the frequent recurrence of such utterances as these in the liberal press of the world. Here and there are people, in positions of leadership of one kind or another, who venture to think in world terms, above confines of nationality or race. Until such world-thinking and world-planning prevail universally, there can be no hope of any effective and permanent solution of the problems facing humanity today, for these problems are too interrelated,
too complex, to permit of solution within the confines of one state or one continent.
WE MUST raise our vision to a height from which it can pass beyond those national horizons which have hitherto limited the thoughts and plans of progress. Let us conceive for the moment of an individual imported from some other planet of superior civilization, to act for us earth-mortals in the capacity of world-manager. How different would be his point of view, and his method of attack, from those which govern international politics today! He would think only in world terms.
First of all he would abolish war and substitute for it adjudication. Then would right prevail instead of that international injustice which now permits powerful nations to assert their will at the expense of less powerful nations.
Next would come the question of tariffs, of trade, of interchange of earth’s resources and produced goods in such a way as to most broadly benefit the whole of mankind, without undue consideration to the selfish desires and claims of individual countries. Can anyone doubt that when this problem was met by means of the superior wisdom of a world-plan, each individual country would ultimately receive its own reward
for cooperation, in the form of enhanced economic and cultural conditions?
MANY further problems would then present themselves, among them that of a universal auxiliary language. Through the power of central action, such a language could be fully established within a generation by the simple process of making it obligatory in all the schools of the world. When such a language was established, the perfect means would be at hand for all international communications—radio, commerce, science, art. Conventions could be held in it. All books of note could be translated into it, and thus be immediately available to the whole world. Travel would be immensely facilitated. Universities the world over would be equally available to all races and nationalities; and students would form the peripatetic habit (as in the days when medieval Europe was linked together by the common language of Latin) of traveling from country to country in search of further knowledge, inspiration, and cultural gains. Best of all, easy and intimate communion between different nationals and races would bring international understanding and appreciation such as is not possible when barriers of language intervene.
The reader can go on and develop ad libitum this idea of world-managership. It has fascinating possibilities As one person expressed it, “World-managing? Why, this is a thing only God Himself could do.” Exactly so. For we are not likely to receive, except in fancy and imagination, any interplanetary visitors to help run our world. And as for those of us already born and brought up on this planet–so confined is our view, so limited our
horizons, that one might well despair of finding in any human being the wisdom, the breadth of concept, and the ability to adequately manage the affairs of this quarrelsome, ego-centric, miasmic mass of humanity which possesses—not in reality the world, but only isolated, fenced-in patches of it. What this humanity needs is to be helped to possess in true unity and cooperation the wide world itself; and to then enjoy a prosperity such as the splendid resourced planet we live upon, munificently aided by its central sun, is capable of bestowing.
IN LACK of the aid of superearthly wisdom from some other planet, humanity would do well to accept the help which Destiny, as tender and merciful as it is compelling, offers for our consideration. What is this help? It is the purpose and function of the Bahá'í Movement to demonstrate to man the laws of God for this day and age, as revealed to Bahá’u’lláh over sixty years ago, and now already encircling the world. What these laws are may be ascertained in other pages of this magazine. Here is not the place for an exposition of this remarkable Movement which brings to humanity nothing less than the pattern of perfected civilization upon this planet.
The laws of God, we have said; but it must be understood in what way these laws differ from human laws which compel obedience by an enforced and arbitrary authority. God compels no such obedience to His laws. Acceptance is voluntary, obedience is voluntary. Every human being is quite free to disobey the Divine laws, without any danger of an external agent of authority acting upon him in the way of punishment. Allegiance to God’s authority
is from the heart, not from the head. It is not obligatory, but to be founded on perception, on the open vision of Truth, on the realization that all wholesomeness, all prosperity, all happiness-both individual and national—depend upon those laws which are nothing other than the way-of-development of man’s own nature.
WHEN MAN thwarts God’s laws, he is in reality thwarting himself. Conscious defiance of these laws would be ludicrous were it not tragic. George McDonald tells us, in some imaginative tale of his, of a spoilt maiden given to storms of temper, who found herself, by the magic of the writer’s art, in a closed chamber the walls of which were mirrors. Her tempestuous fits, her distorted, angry countenances, were inflicted only upon herself. No one else was there to be disturbed, to be harassed by that ungovernable rage which had always hitherto won her what she wanted. The more she gave way to anger, the more she hurt her own psyche. There was no one there to injure but herself, no law held over her but the law of her own being. With exhaustion came finally perception, and permanent cure.
Could individual man, could humanity
itself, but realize this great truth of self-development by obedience to Divine law, or of self-injury through non-obedience, we should perhaps not need that special dispensation which Divine Love sends forth from age to age through the channel of Its Manifestations. These Messengers, these Revealers of Truth—what are They but divinely commissioned World-managers, who bring to this earth-planet not so much government as the means of government; not the expression of arbitrary authority, but the consciousness of law, of truth? They themselves languish in prison-chains, as did Bahá’u’lláh. It is Their divine principles, Their triumphant truth, which eventually come to rule this planet which They came to serve.
And They are an expression not only of law, but of a love for humanity such as is beyond the comprehension of us humans, but not beyond our gratitude, our realization, our acceptance, and our own faint and humanly limited efforts to follow the pattern of Their lives. To the degree in which we each and all succeed in this divine effort will appear the perfect civilization upon earth, the Kingdom of God made manifest among men.
perceptions are broadening, realizations of human possibilities are becoming universal, susceptibilities are developing, the discovery of realities is progressing. Therefore it is necessary that we should cast aside all the prejudices of ignorance, discard superannuated beliefs in traditions of past ages and raise aloft the banner of international agreement. Let us cooperate in love, and through spiritual reciprocity enjoy eternal happiness and peace.
“Not until the dynamic love we cherish for Him is sufficiently reflected in its power and purity in all our dealings with our fellowmen, however remotely connected and humble in origin, can we hope to exalt in the eyes of a self-seeking world the genuineness of the all-conquering love of God. Not until we live ourselves the life of a true Bahá’í can we hope to demonstrate the creative and transforming potency of the Faith we profess.”-Shoghi Effendi.
[Synopsis of previous installments: Chapter I, “The Argument,” and Chapter II, “Night,” explained most convincingly the conditions preceding the dawn of a New Day and reviewed briefly various aspects of history showing the great need for the coming of the new Spiritual Springtime; how during the last eighty years a mysterious Spiritual Power has been gradually revitalizing and renewing the whole world, and how some who had kept their vision clear and who longed for the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth, had set out to find the Master of a New Day. Chapter III, “The Morning Star,” told dramatically and brilliantly the story of the life and martyrdom of the Báb Who was the Herald of the new dispensation. Chapter IV, on “The Sun of Truth,” sketched the life of the Promised One, Bahá’u’lláh, and how and why He was the Founder of the Universal Religion prophesied for this day. Chapter V, “The Moon of Wisdom and Guidance,” recorded in brief the life story of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, the Divine Interpreter and Exemplar of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Whose sufferings, imprisonments and labors He fully shared.]
AND now that five years have passed since the memorable event on Mt. Carmel, how stands the Bahá’í Cause today?
We find that its appeal has become world-wide; that in the short space of eighty-three years, since the Báb’s proclamation in 1844, the Message has been carried to practically every country and land.
In Persia, itself, the blood of the martyrs was not shed in vain, for adherents are to be found in a quite considerable number of the villages and towns, numbering, probably, at least a million souls. The radiance of the Sun of Truth illumines now the mystic East, the energetic West, for through the Bahá’í Message
pulsates a magnetic power that attracts all intelligent men and women. The Teachings it offers are “the spirit of this age, the essence of all the highest ideals of this century.”
The new phase into which the work of the Cause entered at the Passing of “the Master” required systematic organization in order to more closely unite its followers, make more efficient the promulgation of its Principles.
This had been provided for, in that ’Abdu’l-Bahá, in His Will, appointed His grandson, the eldest son of his eldest daughter, to take up the unique and responsible position of Guardian of the Cause.
A body called the “Hands of the Cause” cooperates with the Guardian in his noble task. And wherever in any town or district, those who sincerely believe in the Message and are prepared to obey its commands exceed nine in number, a body called a Spiritual Assembly is formed.
The plan adopted is as simple as it is effective. The entire assembly of believers in every country elect delegates who, in turn, elect the members of the National Assembly for that country. The members of this Assembly elect directly the members of the International House of Justice, at the head of which stands the Guardian. This system is intended to be a prototype, the form, the framework, as it were, of that new social order which is destined to
come into manifestation with the dawn of a divine civilization.
By means of news-letters sent out regularly by these committees, by visiting teachers, by the publication of magazines, the widely scattered followers of the Movement are kept in sympathetic touch with one another, and informed of all its diverse activities and progress.
Yet regarding this, listen to the admonition that comes from the eloquent pen of the youthful Guardian of the Cause, Shoghi Effendi:
“Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching—no matter how world-wide and elaborate in its character—not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and sceptical age, the supreme claim of the Abha Revelation. One thing, and only one thing, Will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth, in their manifold aspects, the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh.”
When ’Abdu’l-Bahá passed away in 1921, Shoghi Effendi was only twenty-five years of age, and a student at Balliol College, Oxford. A recent visitor to Haifa (which is still the home of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s family, the headquarters and center of the Cause), writing in the STAR OF THE WEST, November, 1926, describes the stupendous task now laid upon his shoulders:
“The unique and outstanding figure in the world today is Shoghi Effendi. Unique, because the guardianship of this great Cause is in his hands, and his humility, modesty, economy, and self-effacement are monumental. Outstanding, because he is the only person, we may safely say, who, entrusted with the affairs of millions of souls, has but one thought and one mind—the speedy promulgation of peace and good will throughout the world. His personal life is absolutely and definitely sacrificed. * * *
“The ladies of the household (’Abdu’l-Bahá’s four daughters, the wife and sister)
typify the Cause as Love and Faith. Shoghi Effendi adds to this the élan of the New Day—Action and Progress.
“So to comprehend and administer all the relationships in a huge organization that only satisfaction and illumination result; * * * to clarify with a word the most obscure situations; to release in countless souls the tides of energy that will sweep the cargoes of these Tidings round the world; to remain so poised in God as to be completely naturalized into His attributes—these are some of the characteristics of Shoghi Effendi. * * * And this without reference to his surpassing mental capacities. * * * The world, its politics, social relationships, economic situations, schemes, plans, aspirations, programs, defeats, successes, lie under his scrutiny like infusoria beneath a miscroscope.”
At this point in my brief and all-too-inadequate outline of this, the greatest of modern Movements, the most momentous series of Events in human history, maybe you are asking yourselves: “If this is true, what should be my personal attitude towards it?”
When a dazzling noonday sun is flooding earth and sky, why remain fast shut within the House of Doubt? Why close the windows of the soul to the new light of understanding; reclining upon the couch of negligence, with the blinds of prejudice or the curtains of indifference drawn against the spiritual sunshine which is waiting to enter and flood your being with glad, new life? “Arise! shine! for thy Light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee!”
If the import of these Teachings has been grasped, ever so slightly, one is impelled to recognize in them Universal Truth; and in the sublime Messengers through Whom they were revealed, yet another and fuller Manifestation of the Logos to men. Increasing numbers, all over the world, are finding in them the answer to every intellectual enquiry, satisfaction for every longing of the human heart, guidance
for every phase and aspect of life. Bestowing upon them a new spirit, a new power, it brightens the intellect, enlarges the horizon, expands the comprehension, provides a fresh and noble purpose and stimulus, and a joy and strength that will never fade away, but grow to all Eternity. “Happy is he,” says ’Abdu’l-Bahá, “who penetrates the mysteries, and who takes his share from the world of life.”
In these Teachings lie the Divine
Plan for this present age and for many ages to come. Herein is our own priceless opportunity to become all and far more than we had ever hoped or dreamed we could be. Herein is shown our supreme path of service to humanity. Herein is the ultimate goal of this life and the life beyond. Herein lies the “brilliant pearl of cosmic consciousness and the shining star of our spiritual destiny.”
- Each Prophet came direct from God,
- His Messenger to be,
- To bind men’s hearts with cords of Love,
- Make one Humanity.
- They came to manifest God's Will,
- To show the Perfect Way;
- To wipe aside divisions wide,
- To teach men how to pray.
- Each one the same great Truth revealed,
- And proved Religion One;
- All sects and creeds and dogmas stern,
- Were not by them begun.
- Yet wars are fought, and blood is shed,
- All in their Prophet's name,
- Men hold unto the letter cold,
- The Spirit they defame.
- All that divides and discord makes,
- That causes hatred’s dart,
- Is not religion, nor can hold
- In it a place or part.
- How pitiful man’s ignorance,
- His narrow bigotry!
- That knows not Thy Eternal Truth
- That all is one with Thee.
- That Thou hast sent each Messenger,
- Each bearing the same Light,
- Each limited alone by man,
- But equal in Thy sight;
- And that throughout the ages past,
- And ages yet to come,
- Religion true—stands but for LOVE—
- And evermore is One.
The author of this article is a young fruit-farmer who successfully brings to bear the enlightenment of a higher technical agricultural education to the problems of farming. We asked him to write his vision of how the occupation of agriculture can be helped to reach its highest expression. The subject of agriculture should be of interest to everyone, since the destinies of everyone depend so much upon this basic industry, a fact which Bahá’u’lláh has emphasized. The following article deals very clearly with the general problem of agriculture and its solution.—Editor.
“The secrets of the economic question are divine in nature, and are concerned with the world of the heart and spirit.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
THE spiritual capacity of a farmer is analogous to the fertility of the soil he cultivates. The seed of ideals must be sown within him. He must be plowed and harrowed by experience. Alternately he must be swept by the storms of adversity and warmed by the sun of prosperity. The tests of his life are a divine cultivation by which the moisture of sympathy is conserved in him. By them the weeds of his nature are killed so that he may grow strong and bear fruit. Like his land, the farmer requires enrichment from an outside source, and like the products of the land, his character must submit to the requirements of growth. The result of this development is the production of a crop whose root is spiritual aspiration and whose strong supporting stalk is prayer; the pure grain of the harvest is the ideal knowledge and adoration of God, which must not be hoarded but dedicated to use in the world. This is the grain with which in the New Age the people will be fed.
Bahá’u’lláh has described an age when agriculture shall be endowed with the first station of importance, a time when it shall be acknowledged as the foundation of a new
civilization. He has said that the farmer will be “The Fulcrum of Society.” Let us consider and expand this figure. A fulcrum supports a weight or mass, and to this the farmer is even now accustomed; but a fulcrum occupies, too, a position of prime responsibility in regard to the moving of this mass. The lever of Divine Guidance will rest upon the willing fulcrum, the farmer, and will rely upon his strength to endure the coming stress. When God applies the power of His Will to this lever the mass of the whole social structure will be elevated. This economic elevation can be maintained only through the stability of the basic supporting industry—agriculture. Because of the nature of its contribution, when agriculture is depressed the prosperity of the whole social body can be only seeming and temporary. Society must come to protect the interests of the farmer as its own safeguard. Then he will occupy a position of prestige and prosperity hitherto unknown.
This prospect is in sharp contrast with the conditions under which farmers now exist. It is apparent that at present men of that occupation hold a low place in the social scale compared to men of equal ability in other lines of work. We know, too, that the financial situation of the farmers of this country is more difficult than that of the manufacturers as a whole.
Farms in increasing numbers are
being deserted every year and the families are leaving the ranks of the food producers. The reason for this is that the farmer is the victim of a tradition which compels him to work very long hours, to confront great risks, and to accept an income which is precarious and often inadequate.
The reason why these conditions have not resulted in still more deserted farms is that the farmers frequently prefer their farms to the confinement of the city. The farmer really loves what the farm has to offer. He loves the outdoor work, the healthy, active life; he loves the variety in his work, ranging from varied production to salesmanship and marketing; he loves to conquer pests and plan rotations and to meet certain technical puzzles with the help of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations. He likes to know that he has freedom of choice as to the exact nature of each day’s work; and he has a real reverence for the soil and for the natural forces that control his fortunes. In short, he really loves the farm, and his problem is to eliminate the undesirable features which characterize his occupation. The solution calls for improvement in his financial and social standing.
This problem cannot be solved by each farmer by himself. His progressive spirit must express itself in the principle of unity with other farmers. In this day unity is life, separateness is death. Fullness of life for the farmer can be found only in a condition under which the mass of farmers are united instead of competing, for this is the era of cooperation. The solution will begin with a gradual diminishing of the individualism which has been a strongly marked characteristic of
most farmers. This trait was developed during the days of pioneering and isolation, when the farmer had to be captain of his own soul and able to stand alone when neighbors were far apart. This inherited individualism has persisted until the present time, handed down like an outgrown garment from father to son, now no longer necessary or desirable. The farmers are coming to recognize this fact, and a change of viewpoint is already beginning to make itself evident as the various cooperative experiments are being tried with more or less success.
The growth of this cooperative spirit is the farmer’s hope for the future. There are in existence already organizations through which it can work, and as soon as membership becomes universal the farmers will find that their opinions will demand from the public the respect accorded to authority whereas now they are ignored. It is necessary for some such body as the Federation of Farm Bureaus to collect a membership of ten million farmers and farmers’ wives in order for this group to attain to social, economic and political effectiveness.
It is obvious that in the perfecting of this great cooperative organization of farmers the leaders must have constantly in mind the most exalted ambition for so important a project. The great agricultural movement must develop under the loftiest ideals. Its members must through it achieve independence with the idea of serving the public better than is at present possible. The spiritual ills of the world cannot be considered separately from its economic distress. If the farmer’s great cooperative can solve the riddle of cheap and easy distribution
of its produce to the consumer, and if it can find the way to lessen congestion in the crowded cities, then conditions will be improved to the point where education can do its work. The desires of the New Farmer must be wise and selfless and directed toward an institution of both power and benevolence. Who are to represent such a federation? Surely, they must be men of spiritual attainments, men who will follow guidance, men whose decisions and acts are governed by the wisdom of the Supreme Being. It is to be hoped that such men will appear as captains of the united agricultural army which is to play so important a part in the civilization of the New Day.
The necessity for such men of vision is emphasized by Dr. James Mickel Williams in his recent book, “The Expansion of Rural Life,” when he comments on the importance of the religious element in the successful promotion of a great cooperative organization. Dr. Williams says, “There must be a constant emphasis on spirituality as opposed to rivalry and materialism, and this can only come from an idealistic—that is, a religious–view-point.”
That Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophetic Voice of the New Age, anticipated the development of such organization under such leadership is evident in His declaration of the status of agriculture as the “fundamental and most important industry.” It is said that ’Abdu’l-Bahá, when certain believers asked His advice about a choice of occupation, told them to buy farms, in anticipation of a time when there might come a food shortage in the world. Since everything has an arc of ascent and descent, agriculture is probably approaching with rapidity the time when it must
emerge triumphant from its present depression. Such a solution of the farmer’s difficulties has been described by ’Abdu’l-Bahá as the very foundation of the New Age. He says, “Economics must begin with the farmer and thence reach out and embrace the other classes.”
During that New Age there will be in effect a wise economic system based not on competition nor on communism but on cooperation, which, as suggested before, is the prime requisite for the desired reconstruction. The administrative body of each community will supervise a general storehouse, a local branch of the House of Finance. This will have seven sources of revenue and seven avenues of expenditure of which we will discuss here only those distinctly agricultural in their application. Agriculture will contribute generously to the treasury as it does now. Each farmer as an individual will pay his tithe, one nineteenth of his net income, together with whatever additional voluntary gifts he may desire to make. As the head of a business the farmer will also place in the local storehouse a certain percentage of his surplus produce. The surplus is that which is in excess of the amount necessary to support the family and run the business. The greater the surplus the higher the percentage, as in the graduated income tax. A farmer who has no surplus pays nothing but his personal tithe. This is more equitable than the present tax, which levies on his farm according to its assessed value regardless of mortgages or inability to pay expenses in a bad year.
Other provisions to assist the farmer in financing the administration of government are those by which one-third of all mined products belong to the storehouse; and
by which if any classes of heirs to intestate estates do not exist, those portions of the estate which would have fallen to such heirs are placed in the storehouse. Moreover, the burden of the separate school tax now levied on the farmer’s land will be lightened by the provision which makes the teachers heir to a portion of every intestate estate. It is contemplated that testators will likewise make their wills conform to this general plan. The farmer will also be aided by the high type of farm labor which will develop through the adequate vocational training incumbent on every child. In addition the passing of war will liberate eighty-five per cent of our present Federal funds for constructive purposes.
Among the items of disbursement are several that insure the farmer (as well as every other citizen) against actual want. If floods destroy his crops in a certain year, his local storehouse supplies him out of its accumulated surplus, or perhaps by requisition from the storehouses of non-flooded districts. Flood, hail, and frost insurance performs a similar service at the present time for those who carry it. Moreover, if a succession of bad years reduces the farmer to want, the storehouse will supply his needs, not as charity, but as a form of service or insurance against circumstances which man cannot control; also, provision is made for the loan of money to the farmer at a low rate of interest to enable him to carry his business over such a period of depression. If he dies or is disabled, his family will be supported and educated at public expense until they can become self-supporting citizens.
There will be full incentive for individual enterprise then as now because those who earn most will have most; but no one will be left to endure destitution as happens now often through no fault of the sufferer.
As a result of all these changes there will cease to exist that man of whom Edwin Markham sings:
- “Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
- Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
- The emptiness of ages in his face
- And on his back the burden of the world.”
No modern farmer is to be stoop-shouldered, over-cautious, apologetic, and worried through chronic financial tension. Why should he live a meager life when he has become free to respond to the stimulus of his inspiring rural surroundings?
As Bahá’u’lláh once said, “The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of bodies.” The power generated by the farmer’s contact with nature will then be liberated through financial independence. Sure of his position and livelihood he will meet additional responsibilities with confident effectiveness. Not only will he continue to create the raw material for most foods and fabrics and for many other industrial necessities, but he will also have courage to do his part as a citizen of the great world state. He will have time to give to public and individual service. The strength and simplicity, which are the gift of the soil to those who till it, will be carried into all the farmer’s dealings with society. He will have leisure to develop his latent statesmanship as a modern Cincinnatus, a dictator in a new age of peace, the appointed “Fulcrum of Society.”
The author of this scintillating article on the Bahá’í Movement is one of that bright and glorious band of youth. who are today facing the problems of the world courageously, honestly and freshly. How is youth to guide itself amidst the problems of a changing society such as exists in the world today? “We all need a balance-wheel,” the author says, “a touchstone to test the true nature of everything we come in contact with.” And she goes on to show how the Bahá’í Movement answers perfectly these needs.—Editor.
WHERE are these cynical, skeptical young “unbelievers”? Nowhere. They simply do not exist, for as soon as a person loses freshness, simplicity, and bloom, he is no longer young; he is petrified. We, the truly young, face the world as eager to believe, as ready to accept the truth as were the best of our forefathers. How can anyone condemn us as atheists?
Still, although we are ready to believe, we are not credulous, for with education as widespread as it is, who can ask us to accept a religion which appeals only to the heart? Such a religion as most young people are expected to believe would demand that the head remain in an eternal state of semi-paralysis. Why—in a day when the world if not progressing is at least moving-should we be guided by a stale theology which has lost its vitality?
A religion should be elastic, able to answer every demand a live, eager person can make upon it. It should be a touchstone to test the true nature of everything a human being comes in contact with. We all need a balance-wheel, something to draw us back to the straight path when we begin to lose the way–to guide us through the tests of life. We go astray in the pleasant spots more easily than in the hard and difficult, and our beliefs should be our scale of values. To help us choose the worth-while and discard the useless, we need a religion which appeals to every part of us, for a one-sided religion is of no use at all.
What, then, is this Bahá’í Cause which is interesting and satisfying so many people today? It is not sweeping the world in a wave of hysterical enthusiasm, but slowly and surely it is taking root in the minds of men, in their hearts, in their souls, and gradually but very definitely permeating the life of to day. This is a Teaching which rejuvenates and revivifies man kind and rises triumphant over all material barriers and political boundaries. Young things appeal to the young; therefore this Revelation which has ushered in a Spiritual Spring Season with all its beauty, purity and freshness appeals to youth, as well as to all who are searching for Truth. It calls to the love of man for mankind; to the deep religious feeling existing in all races as a whole; to the power of reasoning, and to the inmost spirit.
This is a complete and perfect religion. It withstands the severest tests and analyses. We are told that there are three ways in which to recognize a Prophet of God: Does He bring a solution of the current problems of the day? Does He reveal a book containing a Divine Philosophy or Teaching? Is He man-taught, or does His knowledge come directly from the Source of all wisdom?
Bahá’u’lláh is the Fountain-head of this Movement, a Manifestation of God. His Book is an answer for every riddle of our civilization–economic, political, or scientific–and His knowledge is not of men. He
takes the races, the sects, the nations, by the hand and says, in effect, “Come, you are children of God, you are brothers; love one another.” He takes the essences of all philosophy, science, art, and sets them as jewels in one small book. His Teachings, when studied, illumine all other works, for they comprehend the principles of life and do not confuse the student with superfluities. He advocates education for all. He teaches the absolute equality of man and woman, comparing them to the two wings of a bird which, unless coordinated, prevent flight. He outlines a new economic order and provides for an International House of Justice. Bahá’u’lláh has reconciled modern science and religion. The Holy Spirit is establishing these principles in the world.
Bahá’u’lláh suffered exile, martyrdom, and all imaginable torments with resignation and acceptance. This notwithstanding the fact that He was a Prince, an influential personage quite unused to material discomfort. Tortured, imprisoned in ’Akká, the severest of fortresses, strictly guarded, still His Teachings spread; and at the time of His death, thousands believed in Him. Bahá’u’lláh provided for the interpretation and promulgation of this religion by announcing His successor, His son, ’Abdu’l-Bahá, Who traveled in many countries after His release from imprisonment, spreading the Bahá’í Message far and wide: “The Promised
One of all the nations of the world hath become apparent and manifest!” ’Abdu’l-Bahá ascended to the heavenly realm in 1921, appointing in this last will and testament, Shoghi Effendi, this grandson, as Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause.
The Bahá’í religion has a strong spiritual impetus, and it is practical in an age which tests things by their usefulness. Bringing, as it does, a beautiful, divine and authoritative literature, a romantic and wonderful history, it seizes the imagination. And the glow does not depart, for clearly written in it all is a workable formula for a glorious way-of-life.
All truly religious people are eligible to become Bahá’ís, if they but knew it, for the fundamental truth in all religions is one; differences and divisions exist in the outer forms and ceremonies. When a Manifestation of God comes to the world He brings the Holy Spirit to mankind; He is the Sun of Truth which revivifies the human world. By the Power of God He recreates the essence of Truth in all past beliefs; frees it from the accumulated dust of the ages and gives it once more, vigorous, fresh and pure to enlighten the world and in a form suitable for the day and age in which He appears.
“The Spiritual Springtime has come,” as we know from the Bahá’í Teachings. “Infinite bounties and graces have appeared. What bestowal is greater than this?”
“Bahá’u’lláh has not abolished the teachings of Christ. He gave a fresh impulse to them and renewed them; explained and interpreted them; expanded and fulfilled them.”
“WHEN Christians act according to the teachings of Christ they are called Bahá’ís. For the foundations of Christianity and the religion of Bahá’u’lláh are one. The foundations of all the divine prophets and holy books are one. The difference among them is one of terminology only. Each spring-time is identical with the former springtime. The distinction between them is only one of the calendar—1911, 1912, and so on. The difference between a Christian and a Bahá’í therefore is this: there was a former springtime and there is a springtime now. No other difference exists because the foundations are the same. Whoever acts completely in accordance with the teachings of Christ is a Bahá’í.”
* * * *
“WHEN Christ appeared with those marvelous breaths of the Holy Spirit, the children of Israel said ‘We are quite independent of Him; we can do without Him and follow Moses; we have a book and in it are found the teachings of God; what need, therefore, have we of this man?’ Christ said to them, ‘The book sufficeth you not.’ It is possible for a man to hold to a book of medicine and say, ‘I have no need of a doctor; I will act according to the book; in it every disease is named, all symptoms are explained, the diagnosis of each ailment is completely written out and a prescription for each malady is furnished; therefore why do I need a doctor?’ This is sheer ignorance. A physician is needed to prescribe. Through his skill, the principles of the book are correctly and effectively applied until the patient is restored to health. Christ was a heavenly physician. He brought spiritual health and healing into the world. Bahá’u’lláh is likewise a divine physician. He has revealed prescriptions for removing disease from the body-politic and has remedied human conditions by spiritual power.”
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ALL ASIA is in the restless throes of a new birth into self-directed freedom. The relinquishment of European domination is only a matter of time. In its place there will arise, however, an even more advantageous relationship—that of mutual economic and cultural exchange and helpfulness. This kind of contact with the Occident, Asia deeply appreciates, as is testified to by the very interesting photograph reproduced above.
This photograph represents a Bahá’í Memorial Service held in loving commemoration of the death, in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1926, of Miss Elizabeth Stewart, an American Bahá’í nurse, who had served faithfully and lovingly her Bahá’í friends and others in Tihrán, Persia, for over thirteen years in association with Dr. Susan I. Moody.
In these days of agitation in the East, and of apprehension in the West regarding the tendencies of Asiatic races, we may find assurance in the beautiful words of ’Abdu’l-Bahá that the day will come when the East and the West will be aflame with the fire of a universal reciprocal love. From among His many statements, the following is significant:
“The heavenly Jerusalem is none other than the divine civilization, and it is now
ready. It is to be and shall be organized, and the oneness of humankind will be a visible fact. Humanity will then be brought together as one. The various religions will be united and different races be known as one kind. The Orient and Occident will be conjoined and the banner of international peace will be unfurled. The world shall at last find peace and the equalities and rights of men shall be established. * * * If material civilization shall become organized in conjunction with divine civilization, if the man of moral integrity and intellectual acumen shall unite for human betterment and uplift with the man of spiritual capacity, the happiness and progress of the human race will be assured. All the nations of the world will then be closely related and companionable, the religions will merge into one, for the divine reality within them all is one reality. * * * We pray that God will unite the East and the West; in order that these two civilizations may be exchanged and mutually enjoyed. I am sure it will come to pass, for this is the radiant century. This is an age for the outpouring of divine mercy upon the exigency of this new century—the unity of the East and the West. It will surely be accomplished.”
“The day has arrived in which the edifice of God, the divine sanctuary, the spiritual temple, shall be erected in America. * * * This is the spiritual foundation, for that reason it is the most important of all foundations; from that spiritual foundation will come forth all manner of advancement and progress in the world of humanity. Therefore, how great is its importance.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
A Bahá’í Temple has been for some years in process of construction at Wilmette, one of the populous and busy suburbs of Chicago. It will be of interest to the lover of art as it rises above the surface of the ground, for many reasons, but first and most important of all, because it offers to the world a completely new form of religious architecture. The architect, Louis Borgeois, realized this so vividly that he knew he could not present the conception of the structure through architectural drawings, as is customary, so he went to the trouble and expense of making a plaster model, such as can be exhibited in a room of ample proportions, and this model is in every respect a miniature replica of the projected temple.
The structure is to be built of an ivory-white cement, a recent discovery, said to be more lasting than stone or marble, in which its different columns and sections will be cast. The entire surface of the dome and body of the temple are covered with an exquisite decorative tracery, which pierces the cement, rendering it a transparent lacework demanding a lining of glass to protect it from the weather. This beautiful lining, however, will not be opaque to the light, and during the day the walls will be penetrated in every niche by sunshine, while at night the whole surface can be illumined and every beauty glorified by electricity. It will be a fairylike center of radiance to all its neighborhood.
The delightful decoration covering the exterior is full of religious symbolism, of which the architect was
quite unconscious when he created it. He thought only of beauty while it slipped through his fingers. So, as one stands anywhere and analyzes the interwoven tracery, one distinguishes, curiously mingled, all the religious symbols of the world. Here are crosses, circles, triangles, pyramids, and stars, and every variety of each. One untangles the Greek and Roman cross, the swastika, the five-, six-, seven-, eight-, and lastly the magnificent nine-pointed star, which today is the symbol of the essence; the serpent, the sun, the fire—everything which man has once used to suggest the Deity or infinity—is here clearly outlined. Over each door and window is a nine-pointed star carrying in its center the Arabic lettering most decoratively treated of the words, “YA BAHA EL ABHA” (The Glory of the Most Glorious).
There is an ornament in the dome which appears also in the upper part of the columns and is unlike any other part of the decoration. It is a cycled succession of elongated circles, and Mr. Bourgeois says that in drawing the dome especially he would begin to think of the orbits of the planets and their whirling spaces, and then his fingers would create these wonderful lines as his thoughts roamed among the stars. Thus a new symbol has been added to those of the past, which might be called that of the unity of the heavens. Claude Bragdon says true architectural ornament is fourth dimensional, meaning that it is not invented by the architect but filters into his sensitive mind through the Cosmos. Veritable beauty can only
arise in this fashion, since if it were constructed in the mentality of the creator to illustrate symbolism and mathematical relationships its results would be cold, calculating and without charm.
In its comprehensive beauty the Temple offers a brilliant denial of the tradition of the past, according to which an architect in designing a building must select his style, Classic, Gothic, or whatever it may be, and adhere to it throughout his plan, as any mingling of types was considered barbarous and inadmissible. Before the Bahá’í Temple model was exhibited the skyscrapers had appeared, the Gothic beauty of the Wolworth Building was in existence, and an independent business architecture was dawning in the world for the first time in history. But the great architectural centers, like McKim & White, or Cram, Goodhue & Co., like Richardson, and Burnham, of Chicago, adhered to period and type, and believed firmly that no deviations from architectural style should be tolerated.
Thus all the important religious and public buildings of the country, like Trinity Church of Boston, St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew of New York, the public libraries, the Grand Central Station of New York, repeated faithfully the schools of architecture selected, and designers were convinced that beauty would disappear if any new ideas were permitted representation.
One can imagine the amazement of such architects when they studied the Bourgeois Temple, either in the home of the architect at West Englewood, N. J., or later as it was exhibited at the Kevorkian Gallery in New York, or at the Bahá’í Convention at the Engineer’s Building in New York, in 1920, and realized that here was
created a structure in which all the conventions and traditions of the past were broken, and a new form of supreme beauty emerged.
The lower story of the Bahá’í Temple shows the most marked deviation from the past. Each facade of the nine sections is an inverted half circle. The doorway is in the center and the sides are guarded by odd and graceful columns, like nothing in previous architecture. The architect always said that these towers at the ends of the half circle were like arms extended in welcome to entice the passer-by to the interior. There is no doubt that this lower story has none of the austerity and solemnity which characterizes the religious architecture of former days. It has supreme grandeur and beauty but no severity.
One is reminded in something of its aspect and ornamentation of the Spanish Gothic or Moorish style, although analysis reveals no adherence to any type. One receives a suggestion of ancient Egypt in the columns, but no Egyptian temple has similar ones. The unique decoration around the doors has no ancestry anywhere.
The second story is entirely different and very gay. Its style is rather distinctly Renaissance in some respects, and its graceful line of windows might be severe were it not unexpectedly capped by a cornice with impertinent tip-tilted ends like the roof of a Chinese pagoda. Nothing could break more perfectly the law of tradition, nothing could be more beautiful, and one laughs on observing it with supreme satisfaction, as did most of the architects. A row of columns surrounds this story also, but they are purely ornamental and will bear electric torches. Five doors beneath the great windows open into the Temple and give access to the terrace, to which the
visitor ascends through elevators in the lovely towers of the lower range. One feels that when the Temple is complete this terrace will become a thing of joy through fragrant flowers.
The third story is Romanesque in character and simple in decoration, since it is the support of the great dome to whose beauty it must be subordinated. This third story, however, has also its terrace, above which rises the magnificent glittering completion of the structure, which when it is finished must be recognized as the most lovely and perfect dome of all architectural construction. In the original design it is larger than the dome of St. Peter’s, but in the Chicago building it is somewhat lessened in size. The effect of the Temple as a whole is one of supreme grace and airy beauty. It rises gradually into the splendor of the dome which is so fully a part of the structure that the whole lower portion seems ascending into it, to find its evolutionary completion in its aerial beauty.
The Bahá’í teaching, like that of Christ, which was so familiarly present in the early Church, declares that the arrival of the Messenger of God in the world signifies a new power of the Holy Spirit, which is felt by all mankind. This is manifested through fresh progressive life in social conditions, in science, invention and discovery, and the creation of artistic forms not previously known. So the architecture of the civilized period records for us the light that has crystallized into more novel forms at separate intervals which we name as Persian, Egyptian, Roman, Romanesque, etc. The critics are not yet aware that a spiritual force is manifested in this beautiful succession, but in the case of Christianity one can trace it directly to the source, as future historians will do in the present
day. Thus we study temples, churches and cathedrals for new types reflected from them to the secular uses of architecture. Today for the first time the skyscraper has blossomed into new lines entirely independent of any religious background.
We are all aware that two styles of architecture have risen under Christian influence, the Romanesque and Gothic. The Renaissance is, of course, an overhang from the Classic. In the other two one discovers the earliest Christian churches using a modified form of the ancient Roman basilica to which the architect added an apse and a crossing. This was before the real Gothic arose in the latter half of the 12th century, which enabled the 13th to bring us a perfect thing like the Sainte Chapelle, of Paris.
But before this achievement the low, dark arches of the Romanesque churches and cathedrals had occupied the field, impressing us like fortresses of a beleaguered faith, and not at all what one would expect to see as a result of glorious inspiration and the power of the Holy Spirit. However, the human mind gives queer twists to inspiration, and it is necessary to go back to the source sometimes to discover what beauty has become distorted, and how ideas are lost.
In this way Ravenna is a fruitful field for the searcher into early forms, because here one finds the first really great churches of the Christian era, the modified basilica, not yet Gothic, and the marvelous church of San Vitale, built about 550 after Christ, by Giuliano Argentario, whom we can truly name the first Christian architect. He was the architect also of the church of St. Sophia, in Constantinople, but San Vitale was the first and original one. This splendid edifice is so suggestive in many ways of the projected Bahá’í Temple that
it is interesting to compare them, as each represents an essentially new form of architecture rising at the dawn of a new era. There is no outward connection between the two structures, as Louis Bourgeois never visited Ravenna and knew nothing about the church of San Vitale.
As a new form, San Vitale influenced all the architecture which followed it, and the Bourgeois Temple, as distinctly a new form for today, should have a similar effect upon rising architecture. In fact, this has already been perceptible, for sinec the exhibition of the Bahá’í Temple in New York and Chicago, the traditional restrictions of architecture have disappeared. Mr. Goodhue has created the Nebraska State House, erected at Lincoln, Nebr., which breaks all precedents. The new Tribune Building, of Chicago, and the towered beauty of very recent New York are indications of the same tendency, and the attention given to light and color effect in many of these lofty structures is not an accident.
But the Bahá’í Temple is not only a spot of beauty such as has been described in the preceding pages; it is to be a universal center of religious and social service for the entire community in which it arises. The only temple of the sort previously erected is that of ’Ishqábád, Russia, and when Lenin discovered how completely it was used and loved by the whole city he refused to persecute it, though he had threatened to destroy it.
The Temple building is to be a center of worship in which only worship shall be carried on, but it must be nonsectarian and universal. The building contains a great central auditorium in which the Bahá’í forms of prayer and praise will be used. But there are nine large rooms in the
foyer, and ’Abdu’l-Bahá says these must be offered to other religious organizations for their independent activities. The doors of the edifice will never be closed, and at any hour any human being will be free to enter it for prayer and meditation.
While the Temple itself will be set aside for worship alone, ’Abdu’l-Bahá taught always that the beneficent results of worship must be evident in the outer life. Therefore every Bahá'í Temple should be surrounded by a lovely garden in which fountains play and flowers bloom, and the uses of which shall be free to all. Moreover, every temple shall have from five to nine accessory buildings maintained from its center, in which the activities of life flowing from religion are manifest. These buildings must include a hospice or place of entertainment, a hospital, a home for crippled children and a college for the study of the higher sciences, because true religion must never be divorced from the search after truth.
This plan reminds one somewhat of the huge monastic institutions of the past in which one finds the cathedral always a radiating hive of diversified activity. But such activity in the past was always distinctly sectarian, and the world has never seen an organized center for worship and universal service which has no sectarian bias. This will constitute the purely novel element in the creation of the Bahá’í Temple, and no one can term it chimerical or Utopian because such an institution has been in operation for ten years in the city of ’Ishqábád so successfully that it survived the severe investigation of Lenin himself.
’Abdu’l-Bahá has uttered many pregnant words in regard to the erection of the Temple. It is fitting to close with a few of them. He says:
“The more the world aspires to
civilization the more this important matter of cooperation and assistance becomes manifest. Therefore, in the world of humanity one sees this matter of helpfulness attain to a high degree of efficiency; so much so that the continuance of humanity entirely depends upon this inter-relation. The believers of God must especially fortify the foundation of this reality among themselves, so that all may help each other under all circumstances, whether in the degree of truth and significances or in the stations of this world of matter, and especially in founding public institutions which shall benefit all the people, and still more the founding of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár (Bahá’í Temple) which is the greatest of the divine foundations. * * *
“The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Chicago is of the greatest importance. This is a Bahá’í Temple, a supreme House of Worship, a place of spiritual gathering and of the manifestation of divine mysteries. * * * The importance of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár cannot be confined within any measure or limit, because it is the first Divine Institution in that vast continent, and from this Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, which is now in the process of construction (at Wilmette, suburb of Chicago), hundreds and thousands of Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs will be born in the future. * * * Its building is the most important of all things. This is the spiritual foundation; for that reason it is the most important of all foundations; from that spiritual foundation will come forth all
manner of advancement and progress in the world of humanity.”
He says again: “In brief, the purpose of places of worship and edifices for adoration is simply that of unity, in order that various nations, different races, varying souls may gather there and among them love, amity and accord may be realized. The original purpose is this. That is why His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has commanded that a place be built for all the religionists of the world. That all religions and races and sects may gather together. That the Oneness of the human world may be proclaimed. That all the human race is the servant of God, and that all are submerged in the ocean of God’s mercy. The world of existence may be likened to this place. It is the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. Just as the external world is a place where various peoples of different hues and colors, of various faiths and denominations meet; just as they are submerged in the same sea of favors; so all may meet under the dome of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár and adore the one God in the same spirit of truth. For the ages of darkness have passed away and the Century of Light has arrived. The imaginary prejudices are in the process of dispersion and the light of unity is shining. The difference which exists among the nations and the peoples is soon to pass away and the fundamentals of the divine religions, which are no other than the solidarity and the oneness of the human race, are to be established.”
- When we count out our gold at the end of the day,
- And have filtered the dross that has cumbered the way,
- Oh, what were the hold of our treasury then
- Save the love we have shown to the children of men?
This is the sixth and last in the series of travel stories by a business man, author and world traveler. In the following article a visit to Japan is described with its wonderful modern progress and material advancement. Of the spiritual capacity of Japan, ’Abdu’l-Bahá has said: “Japan will turn ablaze. Japan is endowed with a most remarkable capacity for the spread of the Cause of God! Japan, with (another country whose name He stated but bade as conceal it for the present) will take the lead in the spiritual re-awakening of peoples and nations that the world shall soon witness!”—Editor.
FROM Shanghai, I engaged passage to Japan. The express boat to Nagasaki was not running that week and I booked on an old Japanese boat, one of the first steamers built in Japan. I had to sign an agreement to abide by the food served on board, since the cuisine was purely Japanese and no European dishes could be provided. I gave my signature with alacrity because it afforded me a great deal of satisfaction to know that for the duration of the trip I should have to live with Japanese as a Japanese. There were very few Europeans on board, and as on all Japanese boats there was courtesy, utter cleanliness and always the same desire to set an example of courteous and righteous living to the European.
The food was certainly such as I was not accustomed to; it consisted practically entirely of fish and concoctions of seaweed not quite as palatable as one would desire. But when one is interested in the human and spiritual side of man the appetites are easily satisfied.
The passengers were very interesting. The steamer was bound for Moji and Kobe, its final port. Among the passengers was a Russian General of the old régime, very much opposed to the Soviets. He was good-natured and full of love for humanity, but he was a man without a country, without a home anywhere; he had no passport and could not get one from the only possible
source—the Soviet Government, which he opposed. This paradox was the natural sequence of a disastrous revolution arising out of warfare, and if ever the folly of war was brought home to me it was by the sight of this beautiful soul in his distress. Yet he was eager for a chance to fight against the government he opposed, and would have taken up arms the next day if the opportunity had offered. I gave him the Bahá’í Message through the medium of a “Number 9,”* printed in Russian, since his knowledge of English was extremely limited.
The steamer was delayed in arriving at Moji. We had towed a large disabled boat, belonging to the same company, into the harbor, and since our three-thousand-ton boat had had to pull a ten-thousand-ton steamer we made a speed of only three miles per hour-if that can be called speed.
Moji and Shimonosecki are sister cities, spreading over the beautiful bay which forms the entrance to the famous inland sea, alive with shipping and small fishing boats. The national food is fish, and there is an enormous wealth of it all over the coast and the archipelago. There is always a rigid inspection by the police and sanitary authorities as
* A small booklet giving a brief statement of the Bahá’í Cause and its principles. It is printed in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Scandinavian, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Esperanto.
often as a boat reaches port. The representative of the “water police” was a gentleman named Fugeta, a name well known to most Bahá’ís, and he took as kindly to the Bahá’í Message as our dear friend H. S. Fugeta, who lives at Haifa.
Since there was not sufficient time to go on shore, I spent my time profitably in giving the Message to the police and other officials. Naturally enough their first enquiry was
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H. S. Fugeta, a Japanese Bahá’í, who has served in the family of ’Abdu’l-Bahá at Haifa, Palestine, for many years, and who is much beloved by visiting pilgrims from every part of the world
whether this was something along Bolshevik or revolutionary lines, and it was typical of their Japanese perspicuity and logic that they should soon realize that it was a Message aiming at the felicity of mankind from the very fact that it was discussed and spread, not furtively and secretly, but openly and joyously. They were quite eager to learn more about what they themselves called “this wonderful Message,”
particularly since they saw that it was immeasureably above anything that could ever be achieved under the auspices of Nationalism or politics. They could, moreover, see the necessity of merging in the universal-scheme-of-thing‘s or, to use a more familiar expression, the Brotherhood of Man. It was interesting to observe that at Moji, unlike other Eastern ports, the officials were all Japanese, giving evidence of the fact that the country had grown out of European tutelage and had learned all that it was necessary to know from that source without sacrificing one jot of the natural courtesy and politeness of the race.
The trip through the narrows to the inland sea is world-famed and never-to-be-forgotten, offering as it does the greatest possible variety of scenery. It must be remembered that the Island Empire is mountainous. The great natural harbor, or inland sea, could accommodate every shipping craft of the world and forms a natural defence against foreign attack, as the Russians found out to their cost some twenty years ago; and it can easily be understood how Japan could keep itself in a state of seclusion for such a long time.
The Japanese divide time into periods, the first being the Age of the Gods. In the Middle Ages there were two unsuccesssful attempts to conquer Korea, but the first foreign inroad was made when Saint Francis Xavier landed at Nagasaki. Christianity, or rather Jesuitism, gained ground rapidly, but the inevitable intrusion of political and economic factors brought the missionary efforts to disaster and the Christian communities became quite extinct. And the missionary zeal which led to the burning of Buddhist priests in bonfires
of their own temples may not have been received by the people as it was intended to be received. (This statement is verified in the records of the Jesuit communities themselves.)
Japan, under the rule of the Shoguns, developed in its own way. The Emperor, or Mikado, has always been the Supreme Lord in whom dwells all the spiritual powers of the descendant of the god who created Japan; while the Shoguns have attended to temporal affairs. It was only in 1854, I believe, when Peary knocked at the door of Japan, that things began to move with any rapidity; and feudal conditions lingered on until before 1870. At that time Japan did not possess a single steamboat. Fifty years later she was the third greatest naval and military power in the world and had been admitted to the concert of the Great Powers.
The natural resources of the country are not commensurate with its beauty of scenery, and the progress Japan has made has been more due to the energy and industry of its wonderful people than to any natural advantages in the way of wealth. It must be mere fable or legend that the early explorers hankered after Zipango, as it was called in the Middle Ages.
Some twenty hours after leaving Moji we arrived at Kobe, which offers the same aspect as other Japanese ports—orderly conduct and excellent facilities which would do credit to the best-run port in what we so fondly call the “civilized” world. It is a large seaport which has grown enormously at the expense of Yokohama since the disastrous earthquake which visited that city a few years ago. It is necessary to go into the interior to see the real Japan; but one can do very
well without a visit to Osaka, which is the Pittsburgh and Manchester of Japan, and offers no attractions to anyone not commercially interested.
Kyoto is the ancient capital, with its palaces and great parks. There is the ancient royal palace, surrounded with water-filled moats, the walls offering a reminder of the days when Japan was held in the thrall of the feudal system. Great numbers of Shinto and Buddhist temples are on every hand, and it is quaint to see pretty little Japanese ladies making their offerings at some wayside shrine to one of the myriad gods and, as they deposit their coins, ringing a bell and clapping their hands to attract the attention of the deity whose bounty and favor they seek. But this is Shintoism; the Buddhist temples are of a somewhat higher order. Kyoto presents the usual Japanese mixture of modern progress and the primitive, and perhaps more beautiful, oriental life. The manufacturing activities of the people tend to artistic products such as silk, metalware, bronze, cloisonne, beautiful beads, chinaware, ivory and lacquer, and there is probably no place in the Empire where these activities can better be seen than at Kyoto.
It so happened that I went through an earthquake and, although the center of it was 25 miles away, the shocks felt were tremendous. At the first shock I was driving in a rubber-tired rickshaw through the oldest parts of the city and I noticed nothing unusual until I saw people running out of their houses and heard the crash of falling windows. The full realization came later on reaching my hotel, when a European
lady, all disheveled and excited, came dashing into my arms down a staircase the ceiling of which was falling in heaps. It was difficult to say who was the more astonished, she at my failure to realize properly that an earthquake was “on,” or I at the totally unexpected apparition which she presented as a result of her realization of the fact that an earthquake was in progress!
That was the first shock, and I was not so fortunate with the other two, for the natives always expect three and do not feel safe until the third shock is over. The bell-boy came into my room a little later on, extending three fingers as an intimation that the third shock was over and that we could all breathe easily again. Fortunately the earthquake did not affect any of the populous districts seriously. Japan is, of course, more or less constantly suffering from earthquakes of greater or less severity, and as a consequence of this unstable state of affairs the common people build very frail houses, made mostly of wood and paper, the only heating apparatus being a small charcoal fire which, during the raw winter months, is constantly in use to make the small rooms comfortable and habitable. It will easily be understood that during the fires which follow an earthquake whole cities are very often wiped out, the small dwellings forming kindling wood for the larger structures. It was a blessing that on the occasion I speak of, Osaka, a city of three million souls, was spared—it might easily have fallen a prey to the flames.
The railways are all government-owned and splendidly run, with comfortable sleeping and dining-cars. The trip from Kyoto to Tokyo is a night’s run, and when I arose early in the morning the first sight that
greeted my delighted eyes was the famous and often-depicted Fujiyama, the highest mountain in the country. As the train moved along, the mountain seemed to screen itself with other ranges, now showing itself and now withdrawing from sight, the whole a panorama of such exquisite loveliness that one could feel that to venerate beauty of this order is really to adore one of the attributes of God. All along the line are great hydroelectric developments, Nippon being extremely rich in water power, which is being more and more developed to supply electric power for all purposes to the larger cities.
All Japanese cities are a flood of light at night, particularly what are known as the “theater streets” with their tea-houses and other places of entertainment and amusement, some of which are, one regrets to say, being superseded by the ubiquitous moving-picture theater, where the titles and captions, instead of being thrown on the screens, are called out to the audience in shrill Japanese by an official announcer. This is an improvement on the practice prevailing in the Western world, where the captions are not only thrown on the screen but announced, more or less correctly and in varying degress of audibility, by one’s neighbors in the audience.
In Tokyo I was most agreeably surprised to be able once more to form contact with Bahá’ís—a contact I had missed since leaving Shanghai. I found quite a number of the friends there devoted to ’Abdu’l-Bahá and the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. They are firm believers and do credit to the work of Miss Agnes Alexander and Mrs. Ida Finch in
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that country. Particularly were they interested in the progress of the Temple. They did me the honor of visiting me at the great Imperial Hotel (built in Korean style), where we partook together of a little dinner which will always linger in my memory as one of the pleasantest experiences of my life.
The Japanese conception of human existence makes the father emphatically the head of the family, and it is disconcerting to a Westerner to see, for instance, a man boarding a street car first while his wife drags dutifully after him. To the Bahá’í this conveys the significance of early training and the power of education, and makes all the more clear the universal need for education according to the great principles laid down by Bahá’u’lláh. All the friends I met in Tokyo were people of good standing in the community (journalists and other professional people), and it was through them that I was privileged to address a meeting of the Club for Pacific Relations, a group of people who meet every week and speak for
a short time on subjects conducive to peace in the world. In addressing the meeting I gave a brief outline of the Bahá’í Message which found its way into the Japanese press. My relations with the friends in Tokyo was the most remarkable of all my experiences in Japan, since it not only resulted in a deep sense of confirmation, but brought to me a wonderful and unfaltering conviction that this Holy Cause is firmly established and progressive there; and that the whole structure of its spiritual temple is destined to descend upon, and spread its beneficent influence over, the whole nation.
The nucleus having been so firmly established by ’Abdu’l-Bahá and so wisely and devotedly fostered by the Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause, Shoghi Effendi, I am fully convinced that much can be accomplished now by the conduct of Bahá’ís which will attract the attention of the world by examples untranslatable into words. It is, as cannot be said too often, the act of the Bahá’í that really matters.
Tokyo is the seat of Government
and the home of the Emperor, a feudal castle in the heart of the city, but pretty well obscured from the eye of the casual visitor. The Mikado is the personification of the Deity. Shintoism is, of course, a national institution which seems to satisfy the particular requirements of the people; it holds the promise, through ancestor worship, of godhead for everyone and thus makes present suffering, no matter how acute, a matter of much less account than is credible to a Western mind. After all, have we not made national institutions out of our church organizations? Have we not erected shrines for national hero-worship? It will be remembered that the father of the present Emperor upon the occasion of his ascent to the throne sent a committee around the world for the purpose of ascertaining whether there was any better religion that could be introduced for the Japanese people likely to be more beneficial than the existing national religion. The committee made a thorough and wide investigation, only to return with the recommendation that the Japanese people were, religiously speaking, very well off indeed in spite of their religious fallacies and dogmas, which were certainly no worse than were to be encountered in all the religions of the earth. It is a great pity that these enquiring gentlemen had not an opportunity then of coming in contact with the Bahá’í Revelation; but at that time the message had hardly gone beyond the confines of Persia.
The Japanese devotion to the Emperor is most remarkable. I was on a Japanese liner from Australia to China when the late Emperor was being buried, and at the exact time of the ceremony in Japan the whole crew of the vessel, from the captain
right down to the humblest oiler, paraded on deck in their very best official attire and in a spirit of utmost devotion turned their eyes to Japan—their country and the home and resting place of their Lord. There was so much sincerity in this simple ceremony and, incidentally, much gratitude to those passengers, non-Japanese, who joined in it as a tribute to the country and the race. No matter what may be the political opinions of a Japanese subject, the person and the authority of the Emperor are sacred and unquestionable. Just think what will happen when the trend of modern thought and the march of modern progress will turn the thoughts and heart of this august personage in the direction of the One Almighty God! Can it mean anything but the propagation of the Holy Cause of God as given to the world through His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh?
Nikko is the city of temples and shrines, about four hours’ ride from Tokyo and some four thousand feet up in the mountains, where wend their way every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The summer palace of the Mikado is there and the most famous Shinto and Buddhist temples, said to be the finest in the world with the exception of the Taj Mahal in India. It is in Nikko that one gets the best and truest idea of the religious life of the Japanese. There we see the renowned red lacquer bridge which may only be traversed by the Mikado himself and that at a special ceremony held once a year, which did not, however, prevent its being destroyed by fire twenty years ago, the bridge we see today being its successor. My guide had come for me with a rickshaw, but I did not
want him to pull me about the steep mountain side. I was more eager to engage him in conversation and find out something at first hand about Shintoism. He explained to me, to start with—as a first lesson (so to speak)—that every Japanese soldier is a Shinto, although he may be a Buddhist as well. Now the Japanese is a very poor linguist, and while he may give information very freely on one particular subject or line of thought, a change of subject will leave him high and dry and inarticulate. Something of the sort happened With my guide, for I could not get intelligible answers to the questions I wanted most to ask. I remarked that, after all, we all come from God and back to God must go; but he replied (with delightful naiveté), “Not I. I am both Shinto and Buddhist and half of me will go to one heaven and half to another.” It was fortunate, I thought, that he had not subdivided himself any further, since his ultimate distribution might have been a matter of complexity and contention.
There are tens of thousands of shrines. There are family shrines and personal shrines, many of them fallen into decay, and there are shrines to all sorts of nature gods and goddesses—the God of the Mountain, the God of the Valley, the God of the River and gods of every conceivable manifestation, whether good or harmful.
To the Western eye the profound politeness of the Japanese may seem strange and bordering on the grotesque; but one becomes accustomed to the deep obeisances which the Japanese imports into phases of life, both business and personal, because it is merely the outward sign of a true courtesy. The usual accompaniment of a visit is tea, which is consumed in vast quantities; and I found
myself in the course of a day’s transaction of business here and there quaffing as many as thirty or forty cups of tea as an irreducible minimum—and without milk or sugar, at that.
I met the friends over and over again, and greetings were sent to me from the friends at Nagasaki and other cities. Some of them insisted upon seeing me off at Yokohama, the great port near Tokyo, bearing gifts of friendship, of which the beautiful fuqusa is one of my most cherished possessions. Seldom has a gift been made to me as the vehicle of such kind sentiment coming, as it did, from representatives of a race so much misunderstood—willfully, or otherwise—but a race which, quite as well as any other whatsoever, will fit into the universal-scheme-of-things and furnish a pattern of extreme beauty in the Carpet of Humankind, a pattern woven of strong
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and beautiful threads and making an impressive integral part of the great ensemble.
As we steam away from Yokohama we can still see the effects of the last great earthquake. Forts erected on small islands have been lifted up and broken apart like cardboard boxes; and the rebuilding of them is still going on. The passengers on the liner, who were to be thrown so much together for the next two weeks, consisted very largely of people who were going home with fond expectations after long absences. A number of them were missionaries who had decided to leave China when things became unsafe there; and they seemed saddened at leaving behind them what had seemed such a safe and comfortable existence with nothing much ahead, perhaps, but an occasional opportunity to describe at length their work among the “heathen” in a far-off foreign land. It seemed a pity that they themselves could not have been converted into
displaying some of the fine characteristics of the race they had “worked” among—the kindliness, the courtesy, the devotion, the respect, the humility and the tolerance—in fact, any of the lessons in personal behavior that the Orient can teach the West.
I was looking forward to meeting the friends at home, but it was difficult for me to understand how anyone could leave so much beauty behind without profound regret. A friend is a friend no matter where he may be, and why should I, as a Bahá’í, make any distinctions between American, Australian, New Zealand, South American, Chinese or Japanese friends? Would it be fair to any of them? One who does not know the pain of parting cannot know the joy of meeting; and with this thought in mind I looked forward to the friends I was going home to meet as if they had been the friends I had just left.
“THE WHOLE problem of disarmament has been left at the stagnation point as a result of the failure of the Geneva discussions. * * * Despite the conflicting emotions springing from alternate currents of skepticism and hope, we must not despair of ultimately attaining the common goal of international reconciliation * * * there are no longer victors and vanquished; all lose.”—Foreign Minister Stresemann of Germany in an address to the Society of Foreign Journalists (Evening Star, Washington, D. C.).
“THE WOMAN’S PAN-PACIFIC CONGRESS is to be held in Honolulu in August, 1928. This Congress will give the opportunity for women of twenty-seven different nationalities to come together in intelligent conference, to thresh out all problems, not only of peculiar interest to women but as to their relations and obligations to the present-day world at large. In the minds of the outstanding men of the Pacific country, this Congress is the greatest movement in the woman’s world of our generation, and will be of benefit to the coming generations according to the general interest manifested in their undertaking and the adoption of the concerted ideas resulting from their work.”—Pan-Pacific Union Bulletin.
“A MODEL ASSEMBLY of the League of Nations, in which students from New England colleges will take the role of delegates from various countries in the League, will be held on April 7th in Johnson Chapel of Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. Two main topics for discussion have been decided on: (1) Disarmament, Security and Arbitration, and (2)
Tariffs and Their Effect on International Payments.
“Students who are nationals of the following countries will represent their native lands in the Model Assembly: England, France, Germany, China, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Holland, Switzerland, Brazil, Porto Rico, Irish Free State, Denmark, Greece and Bulgaria. Russian, Armenian, Indian and Korean students also will participate. * * * Invitations have been sent to forty-six colleges in New England to send student delegations.—League of Nations News.
“I AM certainly not a politician in the ordinary sense of the word. There must be a few savants who are politicians; but I believe there are political ideas and political duties which can be ignored by no one who professes to play a part in the life that goes on around him.
“The problem uppermost in my mind in this connection is how best to carry out the duty of restoring the unity among peoples which was so completely destroyed during the war, and of bringing about a better and more complete understanding among nations so that a repetition of the terrible misfortune through which we have passed may be impossible.
“To collaborate to this end is, in my opinion, a duty from which no one, whatever the importance of his services in other directions may have been, can withdraw himself. * * * We have advanced. This is as little to be doubted as the fact that this advance—both in regard to its importance and to the time it has taken to reach its present point—has satisfied neither the leaders of the peace movement nor the great masses of the people. * * * No, we shall never get any further with mutual mistrust; that at least is a lesson we
should have learned from the past. Let us trust each other; let us believe in the strength of the peace idea; let us, each in his place, do our duty in the service of our ideal, and peace will be better protected than it would be by guns and gas shells.”—Professor Albert Einstein, discoverer of the theory of relativity. “Spokane Review.”
“DURING my two-year search through Washington for printable verse, I have naturally formed some conclusions about the town. These conclusions in general are set forth in the foreword to ‘Black and White,’ to which I refer you.
“I have had to form some specific conclusions which are of particular interest to me, respecting the colored man. Briefly, it is that the Negro has come to be a contributing factor to the best culture of Washington. It has been something of a surprise to me, a Virginian and the son of slave-holding grandparents, to learn this. Yet I have seen evidences that this is true, and have been glad to see it. There is a surprisingly large group or circle of Negroes in Washington who are partaking of and contributing to the cultivated side of life—that is, there are men and women who read and understand and criticize the best of modern thought, as set down in prose and verse; men and women who have reached a point of emancipation sufficiently detached to look at themselves, their immediate and distant pasts, and ask: ‘Well, what of it?’ There are Negro men and women in Washington who manifest the same graces, refinement, understanding and sense which we who are white are supposed to aspire to.
“I put these things down because they have come to me as things newly learned, and things which have
impressed me. It is but natural, then, that I should have included the poetry of Negro people in my Washington anthology. I have done so because it deserved a place of importance in any such collection. I have tried to give it that importance, both in the name of the volume, ‘Black and White,’ in the cover, and in my conversation to my friends about it.”—J. C. Byars, Jr., in the Washington Eagle.
“ALREADY the applications of science to human affairs have far outrun the ability of man to use them wisely. The engineer has provided agencies of incalculable value in time of peace, but they are also endowed with prodigious powers of destruction which can be loosed in time of war. Unless we solve the problem encountered in man himself, the outlook is dark indeed, and it may even be questioned whether our civilization will endure. Human behavior presents the most formidable and the most important problem of all the ages. Its solution can be achieved only by concentrating upon it all of the knowledge and wisdom and resources at the disposal of man.”—Gen. John J . Carty, vice-president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., in the Evening Sun of Baltimore.
“THE GREAT lesson of the East is patience, the realization that if you plan carefully and wait long enough you will get what you are planning for. If world peace is to be maintained, if we are to avoid suicidal wars, there must be a keener consciousness of the fact that people are just people the world around, sticking closer to the old international conception of a family of nations.”—Rear Admiral Mark Bristol in Current History.
