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VOL. 20 | JUNE, 1929 | NO. 3 |
Page | |
Whence Comes the Light, Chapter II—Bahá’u’lláh the Prophet, Loulie. A. Mathews | 68 |
The Completeness of God’s Will, Wilhelm F. Madsen | 74 |
The Grail of Life’s Quest, Florence E. Pinchon | 76 |
Calling on Count Keyserling, Martha L. Root | 82 |
The Cultural Discovery of China, Paul M. Linebarger, Jr. | 86 |
The Force Behind Evolution, Rosa V. Winterburn | 89 |
All Adventure in Education, Coralie Franklin Cook | 91 |
Practical Mysticism (A Book Review), Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 94 |
later co-operation 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 |
MARGARET 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--
Miss Sarah Farmer, who founded the Green Acre Fellowship, and who in later years became an ardent Bahá'í.
VOL. 20 | JUNE, 1929 | NO. 3 |
eternal effects, let him make an exceeding effort that Green Acre may become an assemblage of the Word of God and a gathering place for the spiritual ones of the heavenly world . . . . Every year a number of the beloved ones and maid-servants of the Merciful must go to Green Acre and raise the
divine call there. The more who go the better.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.GREEN ACRE, known throughout the world, is property owned by the Bahá’ís, and is used by them for the Bahá’í Summer Colony. It is situated on the beautiful Piscataqua river in Eliot, Maine, about three miles distant from the thriving little city of Portsmouth, N. H.
The season of 1929 will open on July first. Many of the activities this year will center in Fellowship House where Bahá’is, nonBahá’is and their friends will be cordially welcomed. Probably the most important activity will be the Summer School with its many classes. Some of the subjects which will be discussed and taught are: “the correlation of Bahá’í ideals with modern thought; the higher criticism and study of Bible history; the history of religions of the past; comparative religions and the science of religions; the comparison of human and divine economics; and training classes for speakers and teachers.”
Material and divine civilization go hand in hand at Green Acre—the primary object of this community being to teach by word and deed the essential principles of the
Reality upon which the Bahá’í Movement is founded, revolving around the three basic truths, namely—The Oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of mankind.
’Abdu’l-Bahá said: “As to Green Acre—it is indeed an important spot. Far-reaching consequences shall result from the gatherings at that spot. * * * Its charm and wonder lie in this—that it may become the Center of the Bahá’ís.
Those who have had the privilege of long seasons of rest in this ideal center, are looking forward to vacationing there where a spiritual atmosphere and spiritual vibrations are expected. All are urged to spend their vacation in Green Acre, as far as possible, and thus help in every way they can to enlighten those who are eager to “hearken to the call of universal peace, to the declaration of the oneness of the world of humanity, to the annihilation of estrangement and the hoisting of the standard of affection. The majority of the people are ready to listen to the divine teachings.”
“The Centers of progress for each age are the Manifestations of God as seen in His Prophets. In whatever country or at whatever time They appear, They are the focus of the creational day, for as the sun in the material heaven develops the material beings, so do these Spiritual Suns develop the world of minds and souls.”—’Abdu’l-Bahá.
AS it was written came “Him whom God shall manifest.” Following the Dawn, the Risen Sun bringing to life a New Day.
It was in Tihrán in the year 1817 that the Light of the World appeared. Husayn Ali, known throughout the world as Bahá’u’lláh, Glory of God, belonged to the noble family of Noorhis. His father, though a minister of state, was impoverished by excessive taxation and unable to give Bahá’u’lláh an education befitting his rank. Nevertheless, in childhood His ethical genius startled men of all ages who gathered to listen to His heavenly utterances, held by an irresistible power of attraction.
The inner connection between the Messenger of God and His Herald cannot be fathomed, but the allegiance that brought Christ to the feet of John the Baptist again brought Bahá’u’lláh to the feet of the Báb.
Traveling from city to city, Bahá’u’lláh announced the principles of the Báb—principles that struck at the core of dogmatic Islam-and the fame of His reasoning and the eloquence of His words provoked a veritable turmoil among religious leaders.
The martyrdom of the Báb caused Persia to tremble. Fanatical minds became unbalanced like, for instance, a Bábi youth who attempted
the life of the Shah. The Shah was unhurt but this deed brought about a terrible slaughter. A Machiavellian scheme was devised whereby all classes of society were made responsible for the bloodshed of the Bábis. Each division was accountable for a certain number of deaths and it was further signified that the Shah would estimate loyalty to his person by the ferocity of torture inflicted on the victims. This plot protected all executioners Thus thousands of men and women were tortured in the public squares throughout the land.
As soon as news of the attack on the Shah reached Kiyaveran, where Bahá’u’lláh was speaking openly—(although twice imprisoned and undergoing the torture of the bastinado) He mounted horse, rode into the imperial camp, threw down the reins and gave Himself up.
An entire regiment was detailed to guard Him.
Next day the procession moved towards Tihrán. The soldiers rudely hurried the prisoner along the road—iron chains impeded every step—a ferocious sun beat upon His bared head. At length the dismal prison of Tihrán.
The gaoler led the prisoner down three flights of narrow steps into a dungeon. In this tomb with no other outlet than the door by which
they entered. were a hundred and fifty men—thieves and assassins. The chains from Bahá’u’lláh’s neck and arms were fastened to the ground. Darkness blotted out misery.
In the midst of desolation God revealed to Bahá’u’lláh His mission. “During the days when I was imprisoned in the land of Ta, although the torment of the chains and the stifling atmosphere allowed me little sleep, still occasionally it befell that upon raising my head, something flowed over my breast, even as a mighty torrent which descending from the summit of a lofty mountain distributes itself over the earth. Then all my limbs were aflame. At such moments my tongue repeated what mortal ears could not hear. . . . One night of nights, in a dream these supreme words saluted me from all sides: ‘Verily, we shall make thee victorious by thyself, and by thy pen. Sorrow not for that which has befallen thee, and have no fear. Truly thou art of those who are secure. Ere long the Lord shall send forth and reveal the treasures of the earth.’”
In a tablet to the Shah: “Oh Shah, in truth I was as an ordinary man asleep upon my couch, when the breezes of the Most Glorious passed over me, giving understanding of that which has been. This thing is not from me, but from One mighty and all-knowing. He it was who ordered me to sound the Proclamation between earth and heaven, . . . I have not studied science, nor have I entered college . . . This is a leaf which the breezes of the will of your God, the mighty, the extolled, have stirred. Can it be
still when the rushing winds blow? . . . His imperial command it was, which obliged me to speak for His celebration among the nations.”
After four months Bahá’u’lláh was brought before a tribunal. Nothing could be proved against Him, but the authorities apprehending the influence of this fearless leader banished Him from Persia. With family and retainers Bahá’u’lláh was exiled to Baghdad. He did not speak concerning the station God had revealed but set about instructing the Bábis in peace and non-retaliation. Every household mourned a martyr and Bahá’u’lláh counselled: “If ye be slain for His good pleasure, verily, it is better for ye than that ye slay.” Thus He turned the hearts of the people from revenge towards true victory.
A YEAR PASSED. From every side strife and confusion pressed upon the Illumined One. Now He withdrew to the wilderness of Kurdistan* for the space of two years.
It was a land of desolation avoided by travelers; only occasional wild shepherds led their flocks over the grey rocks. Food and water were scarce. Winter winds whipped the ground and the pitiless summer sun cast no shadows. A cave became the Prophet’s resting-place and the bare mountain top His temple.
In solitude He experienced true joy. The precious tablet of the Báb rested upon Him like a mantle—a mantle beneath which the world was to be sheltered.
Bahá’u’lláh turned from life as
* Sulaymaniyyah.
an expression of personal will and advanced with outstretched arms to meet the destiny ordained by God.
Now the days of waiting were accomplished. Coming down from the mountain the Blessed Perfection pitched His tent in a flowering garden on the slopes of the river Tigris. Here in full majesty, nineteen years after the Báb’s proclamation, Bahá’u’lláh announced Himself as ‘Him whom God shall manifest.’
Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, like Christ’s, were far in advance of the times and endangered orthodox Muhammadan theology. His princely rank alone saved Him from death. As a compromise, it was decided to transfer the faithful band from Baghdad to Constantinople.
But in spite of every precaution enthusiasm for the new doctrines spread and waxed strong.
Again the officials became uneasy. Bahá’u’lláh was next driven to Adrianople and finally sentenced to the penal city of ’Akká for life.
The Bábis had been scattered and were not now making any open proselyting, thus the government believed that this banishment of seventy would completely annihilate the movement. How little did they realize the divine plan!
When sentenced to ’Akká Bahá’u’lláh had already been fifteen years in exile. Each decree had driven the faithful ones further and further from their native land, Persia. Picturing the marches into exile imagination quails! Four months in the rigors of winter with scant food and clothing brought them to Baghdad. These horrors were repeated during the journey from Baghdad to Constantinople.
Although the distance from Constantinople to Adrianople was traversed in a week they nearly perished from exposure to a raging snowstorm—while the journey from Adrianople to Gallipoli and thence to Palestine was in the tropical heat of August.
THE CITY OF ’AKKA toward which the Oppressed One new set sail was used by Persia and Turkey for political prisoners and served the definite purpose of ridding these governments of men whose lives they feared to take. It was of evil repute. Birds flying above its fever-ridden marshes were known to drop dead, while the stagnant water was a harbinger of death. Bahá’u’lláh speaks of it as “The metropolis of the owl.”
After Bahá’u’lláh’s arrival in Palestine, however, the Gulf Stream by degrees changed its course, sweeping away the rotting banks of seaweed from the sands and re-charging the deadened climate. The beauty and comfort of Palestine were further made possible by piping water from the mountains. This was first accomplished in ’Akká at the suggestion of Bahá’u’lláh, and later in Jerusalem by the English.
’Abdu’l-Bahá, in 1914, drew a picture of the future of ’Akká and Haifa in these words:* “This semi-circular bay will be transformed into the finest harbor, wherein the ships of all nations will seek shelter. Hither will come thousands of men and women from every part of the globe. The mountain and the plain will be dotted with villas and palaces.
* “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era.”—Esslemont.
Industries will be established, as well as institutions of learning and philanthropy. Wonderful gardens, orchards, groves and parks will spring up everywhere. At night the great city will be lighted by electricity. The entire harbor from ’Akká to Haifa will be a path of illumination. Powerful search-lights will be placed on either side of Mount Carmel to guide the steamers. Mount Carmel itself will be submerged in a sea of light.”
In Persia, followers of the Light of the World were asking each other: “Where is He hidden?” Their hearts were much oppressed. At length came the dire news of imprisonment in ’Akká!
’Akká! Whence none returned!
Unable to bear the separation and fearing lest even now they would arrive too late, pilgrims set out on foot.
After months of travel and hardship the city came in sight, but its gates were closed against them. Standing on a plain beyond the third moat, Bahá’u’lláh’s prison window could be seen and folds of white raiment as he raised His arm in blessing. Cherishing this silent communion they turned and recrossed the frontiers.
Then it was, to comfort the believers, that Bahá’u’lláh made the promise: “Fear not, these doors shall be opened. My tent shall be pitched upon Mount Carmel and the utmost joy be realized.” And this came to pass.
THE POWER OF GOD alone sustains and suffices the Prophets, enabling them to spread His Message notwithstanding man’s persecution. From a hillside in Judea, Jesus overturned the Roman Empire.
Speaking to a humble few, the whole world harkened.
From narrow cells of unfriendly stone without the comfort of the sky above him, Bahá’u’lláh declared that He was a Messenger of God, sent to explain the holy books of all religions and to prove the oneness of their message, to unify mankind and bring about the Most Great Peace.
The Illumined One sent forth mighty letters that crumbled falsehood, announcing to kings and potentates the advent of a New Day, a great New Era. He warned Napoleon III, Kaiser Frederick III, and the Czar Alexander II, that their thrones would fall. He wrote Pius IX that the temporal power of the Popes was waning and the Turkish Sultan, Abd-ul-Aziz, that his regime would be overturned. With the Shah, Muzaffaru’d-Din, He plead the cause of the oppressed. Even as far as these United States a tablet was sent to President Grant containing these words: “Adorn the temple of your dominion with the embroidered garment of justice and virtue.”
The creative word of the Prophet reverberated around the world, pulses quickened, pure hearts took courage. This radiant message penetrated the sensitive mind of the saint, the scientist and the poet. Each interpreted it in his own language. Peace and goodwill again heralded a new spiritual springtime.
Only one Occidental has looked upon the face of Bahá’u’lláh-the famous Prof. E. G. Browne. He thus narrates his memorable impression*: “The face of him on
* “The Traveller’s Narrative,*—E. G. Browne.
whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one’s very soul; power and majesty sat on that ample brow; while the deep lines on the forehead and face implied an age that the jet-black hair . . . seemed to belie. No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain.”
The story of prison doors flung open during the last years of Bahá’u’lláh’s life is in itself an epic, here but briefly told.
One day, after long years of rigid confinement, Bahá’u’lláh exclaimed: “I have not gazed on any green thing for nine years. The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of the body.”
When these words reached the ears of ’Abdu’l-Bahá He knew that the time for fulfillment of prophecy was at hand and that Bahá’u’lláh’s days in the Most Great Prison were drawing to a close.
North of the city of ’Akká was a palace falling into ruin, surrounded by gardens interlaced with running brooks. It was owned by a Muhammadan named Pasha Safwat who was unfriendly to the cause of Bahá’u’lláh. Nevertheless, ’Abdu’l-Bahá sought him and asked if Mazra’ih could be leased for a small sum of money. At first the man refused, then abruptly changing his mind, consented.
’Abdu’l-Bahá determined to visit the palace, despite repeated injunctions that prisoners must not journey beyond the city walls. Accordingly, one morning He set out, passing the gates doubly guarded by
sentinels. None molested Him. Walking the distance of four miles, He reached the palace of Mazra’ih. The roof had fallen in and the garden was but a tangle, yet the beauty of the place was apparent. He immediately set about making the necessary repairs.
When all was in readiness He went to Bahá’u’lláh, pleading: “The palace of Mazra’ih is ready. Will you come?”
Slowly Bahá’u’lláh replied: “I am a prisoner.”
The Master persisted, but as often as the entreaty was made, His Father answered: “I cannot. I am a prisoner.”
’Abdu’l-Bahá, in no way discouraged, set the whole matter before a certain Muhammadan Shaykh who dearly loved Bahá’u’lláh, counselling him in this wise: “Go, tonight, into His Holy Presence, fall on. your knees, take hold of His hands and do not forbear until He promises to leave the city.”
Accordingly, at nightfall, the Shaykh went to Bahá’u’lláh and sitting close beside Him took hold of His hands, beseeching: “Why will you not come away?”
Again Bahá’u’lláh replied: “I am a prisoner.”
The friend lovingly kissed His hands and cried out: “God forbid. Who has the power to make of You a prisoner? I beg of You to come to the palace. It is beautiful and verdant there. The trees are in leaf and the oranges like balls of fire!”
For a whole hour the Shaykh besought Him and would not desist until Bahá’u’lláh bowed His head in acquiescence: “So be it.”
The consent of Bahá’u’lláh left but one obstacle to overcome. How
should the four miles be traversed? After so many years of confinement would the Prisoner be able to go on foot? Abdu’l-Bahá searched ’Akká and Haifa until at length an old carriage was unearthed, its parts assembled and in it they drove to Bahjí, unmolested. Alone the Master returned to the prison.
The Prophet of God remained in these lovely surroundings two years. Suddenly an epidemic broke out and the country-side was deserted. Thus the family was enabled to buy for a song a certain house in another part of Bahji. Here the prisoner came and dwelt. Near by was a garden—the Garden of Ridvan–the place of destiny. This space of flowers on the shores of Palestine is our heritage. Here the sun patterns bright leaves on white paths and night draws forth perfume from the jasmine and the rose. The ancient Persian saying becomes a reality: “Blessed is the one who visits ’Akká and blessed is the one who has visited the visitor of ’Akká.”
The promise of long ago was now fulfilled. Bahá’u’lláh often withdrew to Mount Carmel for prayer, and the deathless stars beheld a
radiance ascending from earth to heaven.
The bestowals of God through His Prophet emerged and took their ordered places in the universe. Bahá’u’lláh had poured light upon mankind for seventy-five years. As the appointed hour for the withdrawal of His spirit approached, He placed the lamp of guidance in the hand of ’Abdu’l-Bahá, saying: “Verily, ’Abdu’l-Bahá is Myself; the shining place of My Identity; the east of My Cause, the heaven of My Bounty; the sea of My Will, the lamp of My Guidance, the path of My Justice, and the standard of My Love.”
Sent by God with a message of truth, Bahá’u’lláh remained a prey to man’s ignorance all the days of His life. Nevertheless, His majesty could not be hidden and His nobility compelled universal recognition.
Prisoner of two despots, the Servant of God fearlessly rebuked them. Rulers of Palestine would humbly beg the honor of attaining an audience with Him Whom they had imprisoned. All men, from the highest to the lowest, bore witness to the fact that Bahá’u’lláh was in reality no captive, but in truth a King of Kings.
“The sun emanates from itself and does not draw its light from other sources. The Divine Teachers have the innate light; they have knowledge and understanding of all things in the universe, the rest of the world receives its light from them, and through them the arts and sciences are revived in each age.
“How can those who depend on mortals be divine messengers? How can a lamp which has to be lighted be eternal? The Divine Teacher does not come to acquire knowledge, for this Tree of Life is a fruit tree by birth and not through grafting. Behold the sacred tree which spreads its shade over the whole world! This is the mission of Bahá'u’lláh, for under this tree all questions are solved.”
The author is a medical student specializing in anatomy at a college in California. He is also a member of the Bahá’í Junior Assembly, and is a deep student of both science and religion.
WHEN one is doing laboratory work and looks through a microscope he beholds the wonder of the histological formation of a sliver of bone with its true bone cells arranged in a definite scheme, and reflects that at any time when it is intended to, this microscopic cell will completely change its function and revert to destroying the tissue which it and its fellow-workers have just made, one cannot help but give praise to God that so finite a thing as a tiny cell has within it the capacity to respond to the Will and the Word and the Wish of God.
If we watch this little speck of matter work we will see that in its life-cycle it is a continuous witness to the wisdom and intelligence of the All-knowing Creator. Uncomplainingly, unselfishly, without a single thought for itself, this little fellow will throw out from its own small body a substance that, in time, hardens to give us what we commonly call bone. And equally as baffling, when the proper time comes, many of these little builders, guided by that immeasurable, irresistible God-intelligence, change to destructive little bodies and burrow their way through the bony matter they have just built. And still again, as if (and they most certainly are) controlled by that Creative Will that holds year after year and decade after decade the stars in their order, these same
little busy bodies will change over again and go about building bony matter faster than ever.
Not once but several times does this miracle go on in the dark and mysterious inside of a bone. Just why nature should choose this alternate building and tearing down process to make a bone is still another lesson that holds within it a world of wisdom and understanding. By alternately boring out little tunnels and promptly filling some of them again with new bony matter, the Creator has designed a bone that is very durable and strong, since it is made like the close-grained woods that we choose in preference to softer, pulpier kinds. And the remaining tunnels or canals are used again in an intelligent manner to direct little vessels in nourishing and cleansing the busy bone cells until their work is completed and they have made a strong, light and useful bone.
Why do I offer this peculiar example to you? I do it because it seems to be a wonderful testimony to the fact that God’s will is complete and that it is above and beyond man’s queries and reasoning.
HOW LIKE THESE little bone cells are you and I and the neighbor next door. We are all created for a definite purpose in the scheme of things. We are born into the world to do something. Our existence on
this earth is for a very definite reason. We are most certainly told in the Bahá’i writings—which are all-inclusive and epitomize the best, most valuable and noblest ideals of all ages—that the two purposes for our creation are, first: our belief in, and our consecration to, God. And secondly, that of making the world happier, better and brighter because we have been privileged to live out our life here, developing those qualities which make for the betterment of the individual and humanity. Surely no one can question the soundness of these two precepts.
God’s will is so complete and satisfying and ready for any exigency that may arise in the everyday problems of you and I that when we reflect we can see plainly how troubles arise. Just like the bone cells we throw out from us all the time if God is permitted to dictate to our hearts, conditions and thoughts and actions that we want to solidify into something definite and satisfying so that we may point with pride to this strong personality, or this gratifying accomplishment, not realizing that only through the Will of God and the desire of God that we should be made happy, that these things were added unto us. But then sometimes our tissue of thought has to be torn down, tunneled out; we have to revise our ways of thinking, get rid of false prejudices, lay aside useless creeds, and let some bright sunlight flood the musty corners of
our minds and souls. We have to adjust our relationships with those around us.
At such times when we are sorely troubled we forget that, like the little bone cell, the same power that God has over us to make us start in tunneling will make us rebuild with finer, stronger, more real, more enduring convictions and nobler purposes. And then the channels that aren’t filled will let God’s Light and Nourishment supply the wants of our mind and feed the hunger of our soul.
When in after years we look back and see how here we built and there we tore down and then rebuilt and opened little avenues of supply, we realize that if we turn with a radiant and willing heart to God we are always shown the way to make a useful, strong, noble structure of our lives if we will but do this thing.
This is exactly what the Manifestations of God throughout the ages have taught humanity in one way or another—the basic spiritual inner teachings of all of Them being one and the same. And in this Day Abdul’Bahá clearly teaches u s “to concern ourselves about the Will of God that it may flow through us, thereby healing human infirmities. . . . The human will must be subdued and trained into the Will of God. . . . All souls have free will to choose or refuse the Will of God,” but when we aspire to guidance by Him, we know how satisfying, how marvelous, how complete is the Will of God.
“No man can be happy without God, though he may not know why he is miserable.”
In many directions thoughful men and women are earnestly seeking Truth today, not content with the outer wrappings of theological dogmas. To all of such the Bahá’i Teaching offers itself for consideration as the fulfillment of the spiritual needs of today. But to the earnest adherents of present day religions and movements what obstacles will there be in the path of realization? This important and interesting aspect of truth Miss Pinchon will treat in a series of articles, the present one dealing with the Bahá’i Movement as approached from the point of view of a Theosphist.
THE burnished sky of a South African sunset blazed above the glittering peaks of the kopjes, while at their feet, blue and violet mists were already gathering and filling the hollows between with vivid shadows. And into their mysterious depths, Malcolm, leaning against a stone pillar of the big, white bungalow, gazed with a frown of deep perplexity, as though between them and his problem existed some subtle relationship.
Into the burning spaciousness of this land of veldt and sun Malcolm’s adventurous nature had brought him, from the manse on a bleak hillside of Scotland. But his passion for Truth, inherited perhaps from Covenanting ancestors, had impelled him, mentally and spiritually, on a still farther journey. And now from out the narrow creed of the “cauld grey kirk” by many a winding path of doubt and difficulty, he had reached to the broad horizons, to the profound and complex philosophic beliefs of Theosophy.
A hum of voices rose from the room behind him. How kind and helpful had been this group of cultured and enlightened people to whom his persistent search had led him! What a relief and joy it had been to discover that all religions were really one in their essence and
origin! That through the stately stanzas of the Bhagavad-Gita, the persuasive philosophy of the Upanishads, the wise aphorisms of Lao-Tse, the noble ideals of Plato, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead, rang echoes of the one Divine Accent, and that to read and appreciate these was not thereby to discredit Christianity, but to bring to the study of one’s own Scriptures a fuller understanding and clearer insight.
With keen intellectual curiosity he had plunged into the occultism of Madame Blavatsky, followed the speculative flights of C. W. Leadbeater, found illumination in the forceful writings of Mrs. Besant. In odd moments too, he had even dipped into the fascinating studies of Astrology, Numerology and allied pseudosciences. Thus to his eager mind had opened new and wonderful worlds of knowledge; and to the teachings of Theosophy he felt he owed a big debt of gratitude.
But now a shadow had fallen across the pathway, through which he could not see. A point had been reached where, it seemed, a painful decision had to be made.
For some time past, rumors had been current throughout Theosophical circles, that a great Mahatma, a World Teacher was expected and
would soon make his appearance among them.
By his study of prophecy, the signs of the times, and the evident need of the world for unity and authoritative spiritual guidance, Malcolm had come to believe such an Advent possible and even to longingly anticipate it.
Special groups were being organized to prepare for and welcome the Holy One. Malcolm had been urged by his friends to assist them in forming such in their own branch of the Society. The World Teacher, it appeared, was in process of training and preparation for his exalted task. As the beloved protegée of their distinguished President, he was being guarded and cared for till the appointed hour. The photograph of a nice-looking Indian boy, who had been sent to Oxford to complete his education, had then been exhibited.
It was at this point that Malcolm had risen and gone out alone to the stoep.
“OF THAT HOUR knoweth no man, not even the angels which are in heaven, but the Father only.” “In such an Hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.” The familiar words, in his father’s voice, whispered to him across the years from the old kirk. Then must he believe that the Society, of which he was a member, had been ordained to be the privileged and exclusive recipients of this divine secret.
“Would He who was destined to be the world’s Spiritual Educator and Illuminator have need of the knowledge of men—even of Oxford? Wlould He not appear as the inspired Genius and Magnetic Leader
of men rather than as the trained and led?” demanded Malcolm of the deepening shadows.
“Did this carefully fostered youth hold the promise of a fiery Muhammad, an all-sacrificing Buddha, a Christ who was a carpenter in Nazareth; could he be a re-embodiment of the Creative Word and Mystery of the ages?”
Something of the chill borne on the wings of the oncoming darkness seemed to fall across his spirit as he uttered a passionate negation. If only he had known, it was a moment of supreme testing. But how seldom such moments can be recognised! At the time, the decision seems so natural, or inevitable, and we step forward, all unaware of the greatness of the issue.
The effect of the decision taken by Malcolm that night brought home to him with startling clearness two facts. That, so far as he was concerned, any claim to such a station as that of a World Teacher would need to be supported by sublime and irrefutable proofs. And that, in spite of all the interesting interpretations of the science and mystery of life and living provided by Theosophy, his heart still went hungry, seeking for he knew not what. For that quest of the spirit was his which has troubled the Truth-seeker in all ages. It ever implies an inward adventure, a going forth to the farthest limits of experience in a search for some fuller revelation of God to the soul.
Meditating one day on these matters, he recalled that well-known saying of the Eastern Guru:—“When the pupil is ready, the Master is there.” This, at any rate, he reflected, could be put to the proof
of experience. Meanwhile, within his own soul lay, always open, the road to communion with the imminent Divine; he would, therefore, patiently wait that hour of fuller revelation, which in moments of intuitive awareness he knew would, one day, break upon him, as upon the whole world, from the glories of the Unseen.
IT WAS six years later, at the close of the Great War, when Malcolm found himself, as it were by chance, attending a small meeting, held in an obscure hall, where, for the first time he heard something of the wonderful Bahá’í story. With his life-plans shattered, injured in body and sick in mind, yet “deep called unto deep,” “spirit addressed spirit”—the pupil had been made ready, and lo! the Master was there.
He remembered that, long ago, as in a previous incarnation, he had looked for the Coming of a World Teacher. Some of the passages read thrilled his war-stricken soul with the healing fingers of renewed hope. The history of the Movement strangely stirred him. “Behind a Cause that could produce such leadership,” he reflected, “such a radiant spirit and confidence in its followers, must lie some extraordinary power.”
Thus it was that Malcolm began that searching investigation of the proofs and message of the World Teacher he had so long ago determined upon.
On his first examination of the Principles of the Bahá’í Movement, Malcolm felt disappointed. The program was, of course, most comprehensive and applicable to the needs
of the modern world, but it contained nothing new, and after the subtleties of Theosophy seemed, indeed, very simple. The ideals promulgated were already those of numberless enlightened people.
But after a careful study of the historic evidence, and of the time, circumstances and original utterances and writings of the Prophet, he began to understand how all the amazing changes which had taken place during the last hundred years were the result of a mighty outpouring of spiritual forces through a new Fountain Head. The source of countless humanitarian agencies and organizations for Unity, Peace and Progress could be clearly traced to this New Manifestation. The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, Christian Science, the New Psychology, etc. were all rays of the Great Sunrise.
It was, of course, natural that he should apply his old test. “Was the knowledge of this Teacher innate and spontaneous, apparently free from human limitations, or was it a result of training and acquisition?”
And oh! How rich and surprising the answer.
“I have not studied those sciences which men possess, nor have I entered the colleges. Inquire of the city wherein I was, that thou mayest be assured that I am not of those who speak falsely.”
Further study revealed that, at an exceedingly early age Bahá’u’lláh, as also His Son and Forerunner, displayed quite remarkable knowledge and understanding. The brilliant expositions of the youthful Báb; the incomparable wisdom and inspiration of the Manifestation;
Ábdu’l-Bahá’s crystal clarity of interpretation, bore irrefutable witness to a superhuman origin.
Yet, impressive as were these proofs of greatness, it was the life of the Messenger that held for our student an irresistible attraction. Here walked no gently-tended Master, surrounded by ease and comfort, but a harassed Exile, acquainted with grief, with every trial, humiliation and difficulty that the persistent malignity of foes, yes, and even the treachery of kindred, could heap upon Him. Yet had life-long imprisonment and persecution failed to conceal His Majesty, or to nullify the effect of His Message and influence. An influence that had unified hearts and illumined the minds of those belonging to every race, religion and class on earth.
Malcolm could no longer doubt that here had appeared a great Mahatma or Mahatmas, with a universal call to Unity and Peace.
”But wherein lay the difference,” he questioned, “save one of degree, between these Holy Ones, and any illumined saint, mystic or prophet, whose utterances were inspired and whose precepts were followed?”
He studied then Ábdu’l-Bahá’s explanations of the three planes of the Manifestations. There was first the physical condition, in which the body of the Prophet suffers, is afflicted, perishes. The second condition is that of the individual Reality, which is a Holy Reality, in its nature and quality distinguished from all other beings. Just as the particles composing the sun cannot be compared with those composing the moon. Thus Bahá’u’lláh, speaking of His annihilation
in God, and His station as that of a Perfect Mirror reflecting the attributes of Deity, declares:
“There hath not been in my soul but the truth, and in Myself nothing could be seen but God.”
The third plane—beyond all human comprehension-is where “Divinity, Unity and absolute Deity have been and are ascribed to these Essences of Existence.” They are as the sun, luminous in itself, while the saints and illuminati are as the moon receiving their light of guidance and inspiration from Their radiance. “The glorious Word of God, Christ, and the Greatest Name, Bahá’u’lláh, are Manifestations beyond imagination; for They possess all the perfections of the former Manifestations, and more than that, They possess some perfections which make the others dependent upon Them.”
For weeks Malcolm pondered over these remarkable statements, discovering that their acceptance would involve another of his cherished beliefs.
“If these Independent Prophets or Manifestations are peerless and unique, revolving in an orbit beyond the human, then must it follow that I cannot be, as I have imagined, a potential Buddha or Christ,” he reasoned.
He turned to the subject in “Some Answered Questions,” and read:
“The Reality of the Universal Manifestations revolves around the Throne of the Infinite. They are the archetypes of celestial and spiritual virtues in their own age and cycle. They stand on the summit of the Mount of Vision and foreshadow
the perfections of evolving humanity.”
“The perfections of Humanity are endless . . . yet for everything there is a point which it cannot overpass. He who is in the condition of servitude, however far he may progress in gaining limitless perfections, will never reach the condition of Deity. The reality of the spirit of Peter, however far it may progress, will not reach to the condition of the reality of Christ; it progresses only in its own environment.”
“Yet,” reflected Malcolm, “as the path towards perfection is endless, is not this everlasting goal enough for human aspiration? Does a ruby question that it cannot become a rose? Should the creature imagine that it may, ultimately, become its Creator? Such a call for profound reverence and humility is not the less an incentive to striving and achievement. Yet to how many brilliant writers and thinkers of today this Teaching would prove a rock of offence!”
It was, of course, inevitable that, in pursuing these deep metaphysical problems, our student should come to one that has, so often, presented difficulties to those who approach the Bahá’i Revelation through the portals of Theosophy. Malcolm was an ardent believer in the doctrine of Reincarnation. Indeed, certain psychic experiences had confirmed him in the idea that, as an Egyptian priest, he had once trodden the groves and aisles of Thebes. He held it as an axiom that only through a series of reembodiments could a man learn all the lessons of the earth life; that a process of continuous refining
and unfoldment of the soul was the effect of such reincarnation, leading at last to the attainment of all perfections and of the station of Deity.
It came, therefore, as a great shock to find that Ábdu’l-Bahá clearly denied such theory.
“There is,” explained the Master, “a repetition of species. Thus leaf, blossom and fruit become decomposed and descend from the vegetable world to the mineral, and again return from the mineral world to the vegetable . . . But the blossom and fruit of last year were decomposed, disintegrated and dispersed in space. Only by the composition of new elements has the species returned. . . . The proof of singleness and uniqueness exists in all things. Not even two grains of wheat are identical.”
The material world corresponds to the world of spirit. “The repeated appearance of the same spirit, with its former essence and condition in this world, is impossible and unrealizable.“
“Change of nature is not brought about through renewal and return.” “Darkness by returning does not become light . . . nor does an earthly nature thereby become a heavenly reality.” “When the shell is once opened it will be evident whether it contains a pearl or worthless matter.” “When the plant has grown it will bring forth thorns or flowers, there is no need for it to grow up again.”
Better would it be if God prolonged this life, as for instance, in the legend of the Wandering Jew, until we had acquired perfection, then it would be unnecessary to die, and to acquire other lives here.
“Besides, said Ábdu’l-Bahá, this world has not such value or excellence that man, after having escaped from this cage, will desire a second time to fall into this snare.”
“Advancing and moving in the world in a direct line, according to the natural law is the cause of existence, and movement contrary to the system and law of nature is the cause of non-existence. The return of the soul after death is contrary to the natural movement.”
“The Circle of Existence describes an Arc of Descent and of Ascent. The material worlds terminate at the end of the Arc of Descent, and the condition of man is at this end, and at the beginning of the Arc of Ascent. On this are are numerous spiritual degrees. Man must show his worth by traversing these degrees, not by returning. The point of the compass describing a circle makes no retrograde motion.”
HERE THERE stole upon the soul, so earnestly seeking enlightenment, a wonderful sense of release and freedom. How limited had been his conception of that Circle of Infinity! How cramping and dreadful the thought that existence was, for long ages, bound to the experiences of this dark little planet, when the divine worlds stretched innumerable and limitless, beyond the utmost
imagination, as beyond the ken of men or angels! How much more patiently one could endure the pain of this present life, how much more keenly use its opportunities, knowing and assured that one would not have to pass this way again!
And as regards his various psychic experiences, Malcolm felt confident that on these matters also the great Teacher would afford true and scientific explanation and guidance. The complex elements that went to the making of what is called a ‘personality’ were saturated in and permeated by past aeons of human experience. Who could say to what influences one’s complicated nature owed any part of its peculiar coloring?
So, at last, the mists cleared, and Malcolm was privileged to glimpse something of that radiant Vision of Reality which had been the Grail of his life’s quest. He realized also how new and more glorious destinies awaited all mankind, when once they, too, had seen the Vision and been born into a consciousness of Unity and Universality. Life no longer appeared to him as bound to a wheel of time and matter, but rather as a ladder stretching from the stones of earth, through endless rungs of progress, ever upward and onward towards the shining turrets of celestial Light and Love.
“Verily, the gift of guidance during this great century and this age of lights is greater than reigning over the earth and all that is therein.”
Our correspondent has in this interview with one of the greatest of world thinkers, grasped and portrayed to us the essential features of this marvelous man who has set two continents agog, and whose fame continues to travel to new empires of conquest. A strange man, uniquely self-sufficient and exerting an influence upon the thought of the world, his philosophy of life as set forth here will be of great interest we believe to our readers not because it has any special contribution to Bahá’í thought, but because it is well to become acquainted with the viewpoint of this unusual factor in the intellectual world of today.
SINCE when does the lotus flower fly to the bee?” said Rama Krishna long ago, and Count Hermann Keyserling, Head of the School for Wisdom in Darmstadt, Germany, and world known lecturer voices the same, for certainly his manner of working says it eloquently. Coming from Heidelberg to Frankfurt-am-Main, I left the train at Darmstadt to call upon Count Keyserling. I wished to give him two books of Ábdu’l-Bahá’s Writings for his School for Wisdom, desired to speak with him about the Bahá’i Movement, and wished to hear of his school and what it contributes to spiritual culture.
Riding through the streets of this city with its leisurely graceful stride of a place not frenzied by fearful haste, and charming with its beautiful great buildings and monuments and its trees and gardens, the writer was not prepared to meet in Count Keyserling a man who thought with such lightning swiftness and spoke with such a torrent of words; one caught his ideas as quickly as one had the capacity to grasp them in the sudden downpour! He was very pleasant, a man about fifty years of age, tall, powerfully built, fine intellectual face, and he has the gift of laughter. He knows well how to
laugh at life, says he is never sad, and if he teaches this rare and genuine laughter to these pupils who go to the School of Wisdom, he truly serves humanity. Indeed, his teaching is that the true life begins on the other side of tragedy, on the basis of tragedy accepted and consented to. Whoever reaches that plane of existence, he and he alone reaches that peace which passes all understanding, of which the Bible speaks. This idea is, in a nutshell, one of the contents of his book, “The Recovery of Truth.”
Oh, he was busy! People need to ask for an interview one week ahead in order to see him at all. He only saw me because perhaps I was the busy “bee” who would never again fly out of a train at Darmstadt. It was then or never and he saw me.
In speaking with Count Keyserling one learns that the School for Wisdom has evolved six typical ways of activity for its impulse. The first is the personal interview. He says: “One talk with the right person in the right relationship at the right moment often does more for a man’s vital development than years of diligent study.” He said in fun: “I do not see people until they are just ‘dying’ to see me!”
His second activity for his pupils is a course of exercises in
spiritual training in which the ancient tested techniques of self-perfection are made use of. The third way of influencing life is by great conventions which they hold. The fourth is by instruction meetings. The fifth and sixth channels of influence are his books and magazine.
The motto of the school is: “Take from none, give something to all.”
Count Keyserling was getting ready to go to South America May first on a lecturing trip, and on the floor in the centre of the splendid library was a small trunk which was being packed. His interesting library with its extremely high walls had shelves of books right to the top!
Yet this genial man said: “I have no time to read! There is so little time, I am always concentrating on what is most important at the moment.” Just then it was Spanish, and Spanish books lay in profusion on his desk.
Speaking of languages, he said: “Yes, I know many and can learn a language in an exceedingly short time if I am obliged to use it.” He will lecture in Spanish in Buenos Aires. His fluency in languages is certainly very helpful in his international School for Wisdom.
“Graf Keyserling, how do you feed your soul? Do you pray?” were two questions the writer asked this tall teacher of new ways of spiritual culture.
He laughed cordially: “Spirit does not need to be fed! No, I do not pray. There are two types of spiritual men. The first of these types only experiences spirit, one may call him the medium type. The other incarnates spirit; that is the
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Count Hermann Keyserling, Head of the School for Wisdom in Darmstadt, Germany.
master type. The latter has less inner experience and he gains little by using the means made for mediums, such as prayer. But spirit works through him, very often without his understanding its ways. I belong to that type. Many times I do not know when I give forth spiritual power nor do I know the help it has brought until I hear about it afterwards. It is like sowing seeds, one just pours them forth; after all, that was the prophet’s way in all ages, wasn’t it? Then there is the other type of man, the believer who follows, he is the apostle type.”
“Yes,” I replied, “I can understand that because I am the apostle type.”
He smiled. “Oh, yes; you certainly are an apostle!” I had just
been speaking with him about the Bahá’i Teachings.
Count Keyserling said he was not interested in any of the religions as such and he never makes statements about them. He thinks man has come to the place where he must develop himself from within. He is convinced that the coming age will not be an age of the denial of the spirit, but first an age of “earth-ruling spirit” and then of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t favor movements that see the good in all religions. He says of the two ways, that it is better to hold to one religion than to embrace them all.
This Count said there has never been such a time for seed-sowing in two thousand years as now in this present century.
“I am a seed-sower,” he affirms energetically, “and I have not time to see about the harvest.”
The question of the war came into the conversation, and the Count stated that perhaps the East didn’t need a world war for things are always happening over there, but Europe just had to have the war to waken its soul from so many years of stereotyped easy going. He said that Sweden, Switzerland and the other countries that did not enter the war belong to a different century than this. The children of the world war, the countries who came out of it, appertain to a new age.
This much-sought Count deals not only with individuals but with countries. He seems to diagnose countries and in keen sharp criticism brings the knife home to their faults. He then skilfully sews the country up afterwards and prescribes a spiritual cure. However,
there are some miracles which he cannot perform, for he himself admits that it is impossible for him to help people who are given over to self-indulgence and inertia.
It is easy to see that Count Keyserling hates facts. He never teaches them or talks about them, they do not interest him. His school, his lectures are, he says, a spiritual centre and a focus of spiritual life. His school is not for the transmission of informations. It has no definite program. Nor is it the home of an exclusive community. Its symbol is not the closed circle, but the open angle. “I am a member of no movement,” he said. “In the School for Wisdom I do not teach anything belonging to the domain of information. I have no followers and do not wish any, though I could have many. When I die this school will die with me, for it is only its spirit which makes it worthwhile.”
When I asked him what books of his are published in English he answered: “The books which contain the core of my teachings that have just been published in English in New York are ‘Creative Understanding’ and ‘The Recovery of Truth.’”
Then we spoke again about the Bahá’i Movement and Count Keyserling said that the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh were certainly inspired. No one could deny that, but the worth of their religion was just so much as the worth of their followers, he said. “The moment you try to organize the Bahá’i Cause you will spoil it.”
The Count was delighted with the book “The Wisdom of Ábdu’l-Bahá,” and the addresses on
“The Bahá’i Movement” given at the Congress of Living Religions of the Empire in London, and said he would put both of them into the School of Wisdom library. Members of the school and members of the Society for Free Philosophy can draw books from this library and have them sent to any city in Europe; books may be kept for one month.
He asked a few questions about South America which the writer had visited in just the same season of the year that he will be there. She also suggested a famous society in Buenos Aires where he could perhaps lecture if he wrote to them.
“Never! I never seek engagements.” He lifted his arms in a vigorous protest: “I wait till the world comes to me!” He laughed and from his lips came the words, “Since when does the Lotus flower fly to the bee?”
It was true. Some people from Buenos Aires had come from Paris
to Darmstadt especially to invite him to their country.
He was very pleasant and gracious, gave me some booklets about the School for Wisdom and we said good-bye.
Continuing the railway journey to Frankfurt-am-Main, the writer read the booklets carefully and was impressed that the School for Wisdom—at least in its outer mechanism for maintaining this spiritual centre—is extremely well organized. It has organization enough to carry it successfully. The worth of Count Keyserling’s School for Wisdom, or, indeed, the worth of a divine religion is the worth of the men and women who radiate its qualities.
Yes, this is a new kind of lotus flower at Darmstadt, but the bee is just the ordinary diligent worker who carries to the palate of “The Bahá’i Magazine, Star of the West,” a taste of honey from this School of Wisdom, and it left there a sprinkling of Bahá’i pollen.
“Inspirations are the promptings or susceptibilities of the human heart. The promptings of the heart are sometimes satanic. How are we to differentiate them? How are we to tell whether a given statement is an inspiration and prompting of the heart through the Merciful assistance or through the satanic agency? * * *
“A statement presented to the mind accompanied by proofs which the senses can perceive to be correct, which the faculty of reason can accept, which is in accord with traditional authority and sanctioned by the promptings of the heart, can be adjudged and relied upon as perfectly correct, for it has been proved and tested by all the standards of judgment and found to be complete. When we apply but one test there are possibilities of mistake. This is self-evident and manifest.”
The author of this vivid plea for appreciation of things Chinese, a student at George Washington University, is the son of Paul Linebarger, the distinguished legal advisor and close friend and biographer of Sun Yat Sen, founder of the Chinese Republic. Our youthful author—as a child a favorite of the great Chinese patriot—imbibed from that privileged intimate association, as well as from his life until recently spent amidst the Chinese people, a deep-seated love and appreciation of this great race. In this article he shares with us his dream of the harmonious mingling of the Occidental and Oriental civilizations.
MEDIAEVALISM is both a fault and a virtue. By mediaevalism I wish to indicate the condition of a country or civilization that is firmly bound by Race-prejudice and Custom-worship. In such a country development intellectually, morally, or politically is impossible; even commercial advancement is difficult. Mediaevalism is good and bad because on the one hand it stabilizes conditions, and on the other, it prevents progress.
Mediaeval Europe led from Rome to Rome–from an old and rotten oligarchy to a new and ambitious culture that was and is the basis of modern life. The ancient Imperial order was literally tripped into chaos by the surge of migrating barbarians. Out of this disorder came the feudal system. It provided order, which made towns possible. Towns permitted a certain amount of industrial progress, which at last provided leisure. Leisure enabled men to think. And when they thought, the time was ripe for a renaissance.
On the other hand, mediaevalism implied the Church which was the foe of any new moral advancements; the complex aristocracy, which was the sworn foe of any political change; and the guilds that were ever set against any invention that would save human toil, fearing
unemployment even more than hopeless labor–an idea typically mediaeval.
In spite of America’s remarkable scientific and cultural progress, the mediaeval state of mind still lingers in our midst. The old spectre—race prejudice—still is the seigneur of a great number of our people.
And how many popular misconceptions exist! To this day in the public schools, Confucianism, for example, is misrepresented as an absurd and insincere ancestor-worship; while Taoism, if it is mentioned at all, is simply referred to as a collection of phantom-stories and superstitions. India is more or less looked upon as a combination of fakir tricks and snake-filled temple ruins. And Islam, with its magnificent cultural history, is quite misunderstood.
The Bahá’i Religion is truly a magnificent antidote to all this racial and religious prejudice, whether accepted or not. It shows us that those humans with skins darker than ours are capable of sublime and original ideas—that these men from the East can conceive and manifest in their lives noble, brotherly and eternal sentiments.
LET US CONFINE our attention in this article, however, to the cultural
discovery of China. Let us take Chinese literature. Of all phases of the growth of China, there is perhaps none that is so typically Chinese and yet so marvelously valuable to foreigners in understanding this counterpoise to Europe at the other end of Asia. There are histories “modern” in style from the immortal brush of Ssu Ma Chien of centuries ago and his followers. And I think it would be a matter of infinite surprise to those who are ignorant of the Oriental culture to look into the splendid Chinese literature contemporary with the Grecian. Besides, of all the countries of the world, China has in all probability the most chronologically complete literature. There are no gaps in the steady progress of Chinese literature, as between a Numatianus and a Petrarch, or a “Beowulf” and “Piers Plowman,” in the development of European literature. There was a greater stability, and there is an evenness of production that is somewhat foreign to histories of our literature.
The earlier travelers were awed by the vast panorama of culture that opened out before them. Polo, Rubruquis, Montecorvino, and Ibn Batuta all came back with amazement on their lips. It was not till the corruptions of the Manchus had weakened artistic and scientific life in China that the honest pirates who conducted the Canton trade began to bully the petty officials, and soon extended their contempt to every one from the Son of Heaven down.
When it was demonstrated that ill-equipped Chinese mercenaries could not hold their own against
hardy European sailors armed to the teeth, the overbearance and arrogance of the “Ocean Men” were unlimited. Soon after all the respect had vanished, and China was just another mass of material for exploitation. “Spheres of Influence” were being marked out; China was to go the way of Poland.
It is precisely the vanishing of awe that is the greatest aid, or rather negative good, to the modern Chinese. Only the shame of the Twenty-One Demands could really arouse patriotism. Hitherto China had been in its own eyes all the world! It is rather diverting to attempt to be patriotic about being a human being. That is what each Chinese considered himself a century ago and nothing more! There was no such thing as nation; the Son of Heaven ruled the whole world but for a fringe in the hyperboreal lands. The Chinese today are beginning to follow the lead of Japan, which has for its culture the salient excellencies of both the Orient and Occident.
BUT WE HAVE only the West—and we need much that the East has.
I do not know the way in which we will discover China. An excellent translation of some one of the classics of Chinese fiction might do the trick. It may be that we will just have to wait for the tightening bonds of commerce and diplomacy and perhaps other agencies, to bring us together.
But when the change does come, when we are aware of the superiorities of some parts of the Oriental culture to our own, there will be a re-evaluation of our civilization. There will be a doubting, a reestimation
of the values of the old, and a careful judgment of the merits of the new.
Above all will morals, and our standards in them, be affected. The family will take on a new aspect, and ancestors will probably be considered more.
I once asked a young Chinese friend in Shanghai what town he came from. “I am Nankingese,” said he. “My people have been in this province but three generations.” Equality is aided more than weakened by this form of regard, since all Americans’ ancestors cannot have come over on the “Mayflower.” I may have strayed from the point, but it is this which I wish to show: the Chinese have the praiseworthy custom of placing the members of a family virtually as one individual.
There is a noteworthy example of this mentioned in the San Tzu Ching: “There are the Three Kings of Ancient times: Yu of the Hsia dynasty, Tang of the Shang dynasty, and the Chu dynasty had the Lord Wen and his son Wu.”
“But there are four!” you exclaim. You are right. But the Chinese count Wen and Wu as one, since they were father and son. This is typical of their conception of the family.
Secondly, there will be some surprising phenomenon in the religious life. The beautiful mysticism of Tao, the sublime spirituality of Buddhism, and the forceful common-sense of Confucianism cannot fail to win sympathetic appreciation. It is entirely probable that this religious-philosophical influence will be of the most sudden and astoundingly fast progress.
The third influence—(I am classifying them in the order of the magnitude of the ultimate change that is to be expected in each class)–will be literary. It is my firm belief that the educated man of 1968 will know as much about Chuang-tze as he knows about Shakespeare today. He will be as familiar with the Mings as with the Hapsburgs or the Bourbons; and children will learn how Mencius’ mother changed her residence to keep him away from bad influences.
The fourth major influence is already well on its way—I mean the artistic. Courses in Oriental art are now being given in some of our universities by appreciative. and well-informed experts. Right now the Oriental motive is common in art. (The illustrations of Soulen for magazines have a large amount of the colorfulness and symmetry of the East.) Music is more and more introducing the “weird East” leit-motif, even in the scores accompanying motion pictures a Chinese flavor is injected wherever there is awe or fantasy.
The fifth, and last, and least, and latest-to-come of these influences will be the political. I am afraid that the only two features of Oriental government (when I say Oriental, I usually mean the Far East, since India and Persia are mainly Aryan) that will come into common practice will be in the judicial line: centering of responsibility, in which the judge is made more or less responsible for his decisions; and secondly, the establishment of courts of arbitration for the settlement of suits at law. This first will cause greater care and
scruple in the consideration of criminal cases, and the second will take purely financial, or domestic, decisions out of the hands of the courts proper and place them in the hands of committees which specialize in their respective lines and will be likely to render a decision in weeks instead of years.
ALL THESE together will raise the moral tone of our society, and will contribute greatly to the unity and
equality of all human culture-which is a goal to be sought for for itself. No peace, no maximum of prosperity, no security will be possible until men the world over think more alike than they do now. Such hoped-for developments in international good will will cause an outburst in progress in all the levels of human activity, which will be far greater than either the Renaissance or the sudden progress of modern times.
“The greatest power in the realm and range of human existence is spirit—the Divine Breath which animates and pervades all things.”
THE reality of this statement by one endowed with divine insight is not easily grasped by even ardent Bahá’is. It is unimagined by the greater part of mankind. It is actually lived by probably none of us. Yet, until we do grasp that there is a distinct, creative reality in these words; until we communicate its truth to others, so that “the splendor of the Sun of Reality may be revealed fully in human hearts as in a mirror;” until mankind becomes more and more fully imbued with this “greatest power,” the cumulative evils of the present age will grow in intensity overwhelming greater and greater numbers of men.
Lesser remedies may palliate diseases but they do not cure; only “the Divine Breath which animates and prevades all things” is powerful enough to eradicate the causes of evil, encourage and stimulate human hearts, perfect the mirror of the human spirit so that it catches and reflects more and more clearly the Divine Spirit.
The awakened believers of this age can help fill the world with the light and joy and illuminating wisdom of this transforming Divine Spirit only by steadily reflecting the divine rays.
We need have no fear or hesitancy whatever; for, “This quickening spirit has spontaneous emanation from the Sun of Truth, from the Reality of Divinity, and is not
a revelation or a manifestation.” And again, “This ray and this heat are permanent. There is no cessation in the effulgence. . . . There is no cessation in its outpouring.”
Consequently the believers in this Divine Spirit and Its emanations can ceaselessly turn their faces toward It, confident in Its illumination of themselves and in its reflection from them into the minds and hearts of all those with whom they come in contact.
It is not necessary that we all be speakers, eloquent enough to sway a crowd. It is, perhaps, not desirable that we should talk long and loud to all who will listen and at all who turn a deaf ear.
Indeed, we are warned against excessive talking, lest we have little of reality to say; and against talking to the unwilling, lest we waste time valuable for real service elsewhere.
But we are frequently taught that if we steadily reflect the Light of the Spirit of God, if whatever we do say is inspired and guided by the wisdom of that Spirit, then the tragically needed transformation of humanity will surely come.
Through the warming rays of the material sun and the quickening vigor of the material rain the bosom of the earth springs into throbbing life. Thus through the brilliancy of its light and the penetrative vigor of its wisdom does the Divine Spirit regenerate mankind.
OF OUR HUMAN selves we can do nothing. For the human spirit “must be born of its (the Divine Spirit’s) quickening and baptized with its living fire. Souls deprived of that Spirit are accounted as
dead, though they are possessed of the human spirit.” We do not need to struggle to partake “of the divine life of the higher kingdom.”
We are told to turn our faces towards the Light and we shall surely be illumined. We are told to study the words and wisdom shall be ours. “They have not even comprehended that in every age the purpose of reading the Books and reciting the Epistles hath been to penetrate the significances and to reach the summits of their mysteries; otherwise reading without understanding is of no great benefit.”
The immediate need of man is regeneration by the Spirit of God, lest he die. Let us reflect the Light and act the wisdom as fully, as happily, as ceaselessly as we can.
Let us not be over anxious as to results, but courageous in the faith that the outcome is in the hands of God. ’Abdu’l-Bahá does not tell us that we must remake mankind, He but says to us,—“Therefore I hope that whether you be in the east or the west you will strive with heart and soul in order that day by day the world of humanity may become glorified, more spiritual, more sanctified; and that the splendor of the Sun of Reality may be revealed fully in human hearts as in a mirror. This is worthy of the world of mankind.
“This is the true evolution and progress of humanity. This is the supreme bestowal. Otherwise, by simple development along material lines man is not perfected. At most, the physical aspect of man, his natural or material conditions may become stabilized and improved, but he will remain deprived of the spiritual or divine bestowal. He is
then like a body without a spirit, a lamp without the light, an eye without the power of vision, an ear that hears no sound, a mind incapable of perceiving, an intellect minus the power of reason.”
The Spirit of God is the life-giving elixir. Let us every one strive to become a more highly polished mirror to reflect the quickening life vigor of that Spirit into the moaning earth-bound spirit of man.
“Yea, verily, wealth and riches are worthy of praise if they be justly partitioned amongst the nation, but if some few be possessed of great riches, and many be reduced to poverty, then is the rich man’s gold deprived of all its worth. But if great wealth be employed in the propagation of science, in the establishment of schools and colleges, in the nurture of arts, and in the education of orphans and the care of the needy—in brief, for the public benefit, then shall its possessor be accounted great both in the sight of God and man.”-’Abdu’l-Bahá.
THE city of Wilmington, Delaware, recently dedicated a million-dollar high school building,-the gift of a single philanthropic citizen, Pierre S. DuPont.
This fully equipped edifice is only one of many school buildings distributed through the State by the generous DuPont hand.
Several things, however, render this building and this dedication significant events in the life of the city of Wilmington, of the State of Delaware, and it may be of the Nation itself.
It may have been only a happy coincidence, but, the Chamber of Commerce selected the day of the dedicatory exercises to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the establishing of free education in the State of Delaware by legislative enactment. At the magnificent DuPont hotel a fine luncheon was served to which were invited a number of distinguished citizens—distinguished at least for service to their fellowmen. Among others there were seated at the repast as invited guests, the Superintendent
of Schools, the entire membership of the Board of Education, and all of the school principals of the city. In issuing these invitations no lines had been drawn in sex, in religion, or in race.
Fitting it seemed to move on from the “flow of soul” at the luncheon, to the “feast of reason” at the Howard High School. The name took to itself deeper meaning when it became known that seated upon the platform were a daughter, two sons and a granddaughter of General O. O. Howard, hero of the civil war. To still further emphasize the name of Howard the descendants of the soldier-philanthropist were introduced to the audience by a Dean of Howard University at Washington, D. C.*
The building, conceded to be without a superior among structures of its class anywhere, was presented to the city by the donor himself. How brief, how simple, how modest he
* Refers to Prof. George W. Cook, oldest member in point of service on the faculty and who had known Gen. Howard personally.
was, this man who builds great highways, and all sorts and sizes of school houses just to give them away! It is useless to attempt a description of him. He must be seen and heard to be realized. So great is the gift and so great the appreciation of it that it called for any number of speeches of acceptance. First of all was the Governor of the State, then the Mayor of the city, then the Superintendent of Schools, the President of the City Council, the President of the Board of Education, and so on and on were the felicitations anent this unusually beautiful and splendidly equipped school house.
The dedicatory prayer was offered by the prelate of the Episcopal church, and prominent speakers not only local but from afar including the distinguished Editor of the National Education magazine, addressed the assemblage.
The silver-haired man of such fine distinction in voice and bearing who engineered all this thrilling program was Dr. S. G. Elbert of the Wilmington School Board, a prominent physician. We are not too greatly surprised to learn that he is an American of color, because we have known all the while that this beautiful Howard High School building is the gift of Pierre DuPont to be used for colored children.
Now if this account were to stop here it would be very much like writing the play of Hamlet and leaving out Hamlet. Back of all this unusual building and this day of gift-making and joy, looms a single figure whose unselfish and untiring service laid the foundation for all that the day has witnessed.
It had been the plan of the Chairman
to present her at the Dedication, but because of frailty of body her friends at the last moment decided that the exertion might prove more than she could bear.
Born in Porto Rico, the daughter of a Porto Rican mother and German father, Edwina Kruse was brought to the United States when a little girl. After losing both parents she was adopted into a German family in the State of Connecticut where she received her education. On coming of age she determined to cast her lot among the people who represented her maternal ancestry. To Delaware this purpose led her, where in time she became Principal of the Howard school in Wilmington, at that time a meagre four-room, ungraded school.
From then on, this young woman put herself mind and spirit into her work. And it must be remembered that she began her work at a time when schools for colored children were looked upon askance being regarded not at all a necessity and probably a waste of time and money.
Before settling in Wilmington, Miss Kruse had filled the onerous position of State Superintendent of Colored Schools. Her knowledge of conditions among colored people was obtained first-hand, and all her warm generous nature flowed out to meet their need in sane and serious service. Here she opened up a school where none had been, here she enlarged an over-crowded school house, there she replaced a “shack” with a one-room building that kept out the rain and snow, and let in the fresh air and sunlight, everywhere she sought for better teachers and taught the people the meaning of “more abundant life.”
With such a background of labor and experience it is not surprising that the Howard School in Wilmington took on phenomenal growth,—kindergarten, eight grades, high school and Normal—all materialized. Opposition? Of course! Discouragement? Never! This one thing I do. I minister to the peoples’ needs. A lover of children and with an almost uncanny sense of human values, Miss Kruse managed, somehow, out of her own earnings, to educate or help educate an unbelievable number of boys and girls. A goodly number in places of importance and influence rise up today and “call her blessed” because she not only pointed but opened the way for the start that led to attainment.
Always she reached out for teachers in her own school who were more than wage earners. Thus she managed to gather about her men and women, and particularly women, possessed of vision and courage to follow where she led. So far-seeing she became in the matter of selection, that year in and year out shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart there have been with her women of such fitness, such zeal and consecration that they, too, would have towered as educational experts had they not in every case and always practiced self-effacement that the pioneer might keep her well-earned place in the public mind and heart. It was women like these who took up the cudgel in the principal’s defense when because of the school’s size it was proposed that a man be put at the head of the school. A man! Think of it! Not an educator! Not a Christian! Not a trail-blazer! But a man! A man should be at the head of this
accredited High School that owed its very existence to a woman! To the credit of the city be it recorded this opposition failed and the school went on.
Believing that the “eye is the nearest avenue to the brain” Miss Kruse sought for her committee speakers—outstanding men and women of color—Douglass, Dunbar, DuBois, Mary Church Terrell, and many others whose names are fit to conjure with have been set as examples before the children of Wilmington.
To no one race were Miss Kruse’s friendships confined, broadly human as she was racial, her contacts set no bounds. The founder of Hampton was wont to speak of her as his “friend.” His successor, Dr. Frissell, has always been warmly interested in her work. From Lincoln University, that institution devoted exclusively to the education of men, she has been given the honorary degree of M. A. in recognition of her service to the cause of education.
From 1876 to 1920 Edwina Kruse wrought in this public school as few have power to do and was then retired as principal emeritus. Small wonder that the school observes Kruse Day! Small wonder that she has been given the name of “The Grand Old Lady.”
How much it means for the womanhood of America that Edwina Kruse elected to cast her lot with her mother’s people, that she has touched the lives of so many youths, and in that touch has inspired them to higher living. No wonder that Mr. DuPont was in turn inspired to present the magnificent new Howard High School building!
“New Studies in Mystical Religion,” by Rufus Jones. New York—The Macmillan Company. A review of a thoughtful and very readable book which answers scientifically and clearly the question, “What is Mysticism?” Students of religion will find it informing and deeply spiritual.
THOSE who are weary of the endless discussions in books and magazines concerning the failure of Christianity, the poverty of the churches in true spirituality, the blind gropings of the church leaders after some thread of truth to which to hold, the assurance of the materialist and behaviorist that all is simply mechanized matter, will turn with relief to this thoughtful book of Dr. Jones and find real refreshment in its sound scholarship and intuitive understanding. It is sane, inspiring and hopeful. It helps to straighten us out in our thinking, especially if we have had an overdose of some books on modern psychology.
But particularly to those who have become confused on the subject of mysticism, on its value and place in religion and in religious experience will this book prove a real clarifier and furnish genuine help. For it is evident that Prof. Jones has not only thought the subject carefully and logically through on philosophical lines but that he speaks from the depths of his own inner experience.
In his introduction, Dr. Jones points out the limitations of psychology in dealing with mystical experience. Those of us who have read or even dipped into Leuba’s ponderous and, to many, unsatisfying treatise on The Psychology of Religious Mysticism feel grateful to Dr. Jones for setting out so scientifically
and yet so simply and clearly just how far the psychologist has a right to go in analyzing and evaluating mystical experience. The mystical experience in his mind is not a purely subjective thing, but is linked up with life, has objectivity, and this objectivity puts its true evaluation and interpretation beyond the realm of the psychologist into the field of the philosopher and metaphysicist.
What is mysticism? Is the mystical experience confined to an abnormal type of person? Are ascetism and mysticism necessarily linked together? These are some of the questions that the author considers. Prof. Jones does not hold the extreme view that “no experience short of ecstacy should be called mystical,” rather he defines mystical religion “as an overbrimming experience of contact, fellowship or even union with a larger life which impinges on our own.” Although some of the great mystics of history have verged on the abnormal at times in both their mental and physical health, yet none of them was satisfied with the mystical experience as an end in itself. It was on the other hand a basis for a life of service and not only that but a safeguard, a balance wheel, an integrator. And with this dynamic, integrating, balancing force that issues from the mystical experience and is “born of God” comes also a love which rises above all self interest,
“loving not to get something but only to love.” These two great forces may and will change a distraught purposeless life into a “hundred-horsepower person,” as in the case of George Fox, who, the author says, “is an excellent illustration of the cohesive power of a great experience of God. It turned his darkness into light, his sadness into joy, his despair into hope and under its influence his poor distraught mind seized upon and held to a constructive central purpose.”
The author aids us, too, to clarify our thinking about asceticism, “to see how natural sacrifice and self-inflicted pain may be” for “there is a way of life for which it is not too much to pluck out an eye which hinders” and yet to indorse his clear-cut conclusion that “the stern way of life entails no hatred of life” and that asceticism is no necessary part of the mystic experience or the life of the Spirit. Rather “the mystics . . . are those highly sensitized persons whose lives seem to lie open inwardly to the presence of an immanent Life.”
Helpful, too, is the distinction the author makes between genuine mystical experience and occult phenomena. He leaves the value of the latter to be determined in the future by scientific research, but the former is unmistakable for it “brings creative energies for the spiritual tasks of the race.” “It promotes health and sanity. It brightens moral power. It vastly increases one’s ability to stand the universe.“
In his chapter on “Mysticism and Religious Education” Dr. Jones emphasizes even more strongly that mysticism, as he is interpreting it,
is not only quite independent of asceticism and abnormality, but is or at least may be and should be the basis for a normal, complete life. Mystical experience is rare only because we fail to cultivate the spiritual nature in children and young people and because “all excellence is difficult.” “Mystical experience,” he says, “by which I mean capacity to see the invisible, personal discovery of God, and joyous consciousness of divine presence, is no more difficult than any other supreme achievement.”
He expresses, what many of us sense, the need of a fundamentally spiritual environment for our children from their earliest training through their college course. He pleads not for less emphasis on the externals, the preparation for successful doing, but for a search for “a type of education which will enable us to find ourselves and to recover interior peace and joy and power.” Two other quotations from this chapter will show us how deeply Dr. Jones believes the roots of the spiritual forces in a child’s life should go, and how important it is to have spiritually minded teachers.
“No child ever knows how he comes to have confidence in the external world, but his faith in it is largely due to the unquestioning faith that everybody else has in it. So, too, if God is real to those who form the child’s social group, He quickly becomes an essential part of the child’s life.”
“Children are far more mystical-minded than their elders suspect, and mystics would not be so rare if we made better use of the culture of silence in the lives of our children.”
Perhaps the greatest contribution in Dr. Jones’ book is in the two chapters on Mysticism and Organization. The question Prof. Jones raises in these chapters is whether the mystical experience cannot be a group experience as well as an individual experience. He points out in tracing the history of the Christian Church, that mysticism has usually been considered as belonging to individuals. But he maintains “that the solitary character of mysticism is not due to the essential nature of it.” “I am convinced,” he says, “that mysticism flourishes best in a group, and that it can, if left to itself, produce out of its experience a type of organization that favors its growth and increase in depth and power.”
He would have us synthesize “primitive Christianity” and “modern efficiency.” “Can we not,” he asks, “be flooded with the consciousness of God and at the same time perfect some form of organization that will be the effective body and instrument of that experience?” What happened in the history of Christianity we must now avoid. The church, the organization “quickly became a substitute for the experience of God, for the way of life.” The primitive church was a “spiritual fellowship.” “Its driving power was a consciousness of the Spirit.” He is looking for and believing possible the same dynamic in a modern organization. The “Society of Friends” or Quakers, have most nearly approached the ideal of the primitive church. Among them “it soon came to be discovered that, where many together in hush and silence, were seeking for direct communion and
companionship with God, each one helped all the rest.” In this manner they achieved unity of thought and purpose, and solved their problems both practical and spiritual. “They did together what no one perhaps could have done alone.” This, he claims, “is mysticism not of solitude and self-seeking; it is practical mysticism of life and action.”
“The Kingdom of God” has not been built here because no one has expected it to be but has only looked for it in a life beyond. When whole groups believe and act on the belief, in “the power of the Spirit to raise life to complete health and holiness” when this belief is assumed as normal for everyone rather than relegated to a few supernatural saints, then we shall be in a way to build the Kingdom of God right here on earth.
Each one who believes as ’Adbu’l-Bahá tells us, that “man is, in reality, a Spiritual being, and only when he lives in the Spirit is he truly happy,” will feel grateful to the author that he has added the testimony of his clear intellect and his rich personal experience to establish the fact that this life of the Spirit is a fundamental need of the well-balanced life of the individual as well as the dynamic through group consultation which is to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.
As we come to the close of the book we hope with the author that “in some favored time, there may be such a Church of the Spirit.” But we would go farther and ask-has not the foundation for this reign of the Spirit already been laid by Bahá’u’lláh?