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CIVILIZATION
Kenneth Christian
* *
THE EVOLUTION OF A BAHA'I
Dorothy Baker
* *
THE TRUE SOVEREIGN
Alfred E. Lunt
* *
AN APPRECIATION
Walter Weller, Ph.D.
* *
ELEGY . . . Florence E. Pinchon
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| VOL. 24 | NOVEMBER, 1933 | No. 8 |
1. Unfettered search after truth, and the abandonment of all superstition and prejudice.
2. The Oneness of Mankind; all are "leaves of one tree, flowers in one garden.”
3. Religion must be a cause of love and harmony, else it is no religion.
4. All religions are one in their fundamental principles.
5. Religion must go hand-in-hand with science. Faith and reason must be in full accord.
6. Universal peace: The establishment of International Arbitration and an International Parliament.
7. The adoption of an International Secondary Language which shall be taught in all the schools of the world.
8. Compulsory education—especially for girls, who will be mothers and the first educators of the next generation.
9. Equal opportunities of development and equal rights and privileges for both sexes.
10. Work for all: No idle rich and no idle poor, "work in the spirit of service is worship."
11. Abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth: Care for the needy.
12. Recognition of the Unity of God and obedience to His Commands, as revealed through His Divine Manifestations.
| VOL. 24 | NOVEMBER, 1933 | No. 8 |
Memorials of the Faithful, Ch. 2—Shaykh Salman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 242 |
Weep Ye No More, a Poem, Elsie Paterson Cranmer | 226 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 227 |
The Laboratory of Civilization, Kenneth Christian | 231 |
The Evolution of a Bahá’i, Incidents from the life of Ellen V. Beecher, Chapter 2—A Working Christian, Dorothy Baker | 234 |
Unseen Assassins, Book Review, Marguerite McKay | 239 |
Elegy, Florence E. Pinchon | 244 |
The Temple of Light, as reported in newspapers | 246 |
The True Sovereign, Alfred E. Lunt | 249 |
An Appreciation, Walter Weller, Ph. D. | 253 |
New Visions of Human Unity, from reports by Louis G. Gregory and Harlan F. Ober | 255 |
The Cry of the New Race, a Poem, Silvia Margolis | 256 |
STANWOOD COBB, MARIAM HANEY, BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK | Editors |
MARGARET B. MCDANIEL | Business Manager |
| CONTRIBUTING EDITORS | |
| For the United States and Canada | International |
| ALFRED E. LUNT LEROY IOAS SYLVIA PAINE MARION HOLLEY DOROTHY BAKER LOULIE MATHEWS MAY MAXWELL DORIS McKAY |
MARTHA L. ROOT Central Europe Great Britain Persia Japan and China |
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 The Bahá'i Magazine, 1000 Chandler Bldg., 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.
- Men sought Him in the market and the street,
- Some sought with eager eyes, on eager feet,
- And some with desolate hearts and patient tears
- Saying, “He is not here. Oh, nevermore shall we
- Hear as of old the beautiful tales and sweet
- Nor dream those dreams were true. These are the empty years.
- Nor shall we hear again the Voice that brake
- Upon the peasant ears of Galilee.
- Faith has grown old and tired, or has grown afraid.
- And we shall never hope that wisdom came
- To kneel at the folded quiet feet of a child.
- Gone is the faith that once was true. Vain are the creeds.”
- There came a Voice from the great East, and Spake
- Crossing the gulf two thousand years had made:—
- “Oh, piteous, mutilated, blind and dumb
- Bearers of pain—lift your rejoicing eyes,
- Weep ye no more! The Comforter hath come!”
In commemoration of the anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh held during the month of November.
| VOL. 24 | NOVEMBER, 1933 | No. 8 |
of the country are all intimately linked together. If one of these
suffers an abuse, the detriment affects the mass.”–‘Abdu’l-Bahá.ONE ECONOMIC evil which the depression has exposed is the tendency of industrialists and commercialists to seek unlimited expansion in obedience to that urge of insatiable desire which characterizes all humans. Ambition for greater achievement and for continued progress in one’s career is normal and wholesome; but the extent to which this ambition has been exploited by the madness of modern desire for wealth and for luxury expenditures has kept the individual in an unwholesome chronic condition of overstrain, of abnormal concentration upon the tasks of the business day, with corresponding loss to the domestic and cultural life of the business man.
“The men in this country,” said a business man who has been exceedingly successful in acquiring material wealth, “are waking up to the fact that they have been giving their lives to providing for their families (who would be much better off without them) four or five bathrooms, endless automobiles, and all the accessories which these things mean; and that there is a vast rich side of life which most men never touch. They are beginning to feel that this struggle is not worth while, and that there is something better, something which makes for
far greater happiness than these material things can ever bring.”
THE EVILS of this unwholesome
push of ambition are not confined,
however, to the individual and social
life of the community. This
system of ruthless competition, with
the aim of unlimited expansion of
the individual’s business or industry,
has in it the seeds of our
present economic debacle. For it is
mathematically certain that the
various business organizations and
industries cannot all go on expanding
infinitely. The craze for expansion
carries in its trail inevitable
failures of those who are
crowded to the wall by successfully
expanding aggregations. And
worse even than that, it induces an
enormous over-production of goods
which in turn brings about an economic
crash. There are other
causes, it is true, for the present depression;
but the habit of unlimited
expansion characteristic of America
is quite sufficient cause for recurrent
cycles of panics. When we
view the incredible disasters which
a panic causes—the want, the deprivation,
the physical and psychological
miseries, the pauperization
of well-to-do families, the
death and suicides from undue
strain—we may well conclude that
“the game is not worth the candle.” We must find some way to prevent these recurrent tragedies which we have up to now supinely accepted as acts of destiny, much in the same way as the Chinese have accepted periodic floods and famines.
TO ONE who has had the privilege
of living intimately both in the Occident
and the Orient, the contrast
in the psychology expressed in these
two great civilizations is most interesting
and valuable. In the
young and pushing West, we find
the development of insatiable wants
and the thirst for illimitable expansion.
In the East, we find a
quietude, a philosophy of living, a
contentment with few things, a satisfaction
in continuing one’s business
or one’s work up to the level,
but not beyond it, of past achievement.
I have often stopped in front
of Turkish bazaars to admire the
business atmosphere, so different
from that which prevails in the
Occident. The Turk is carrying
on a bazaar which is the business
his father had before him. He
is carrying the business on successfully.
But he has not the slightest
thought of buying up the bazaars of
his neighbors on the right and left,
of enlarging his business and ultimately
building up a vast emporium.
No, there is no such
thought in his being. He sits there
on the platform surrounded by his
rugs and antiques like a king upon
his throne. If you wish to inspect
his wares he is happy to show them
to you. Whether you buy or not, he
is most kindly courteous and attentive.
One feels that he has not
bartered his soul for gold. Though
a commercialist he still remains the master of his destiny, superbly philosophical, self-contained and self-respectful.
But, you may say, this attitude of quiescence has kept the East from progressing; whereas the Occidental attitude of advancement and expansion has developed a vast new world.
It is true that expansion has inevitably been the keynote of America up to the present. But we have already expanded until we have reached the further ocean. We have settled and developed our uninhabited lands until we are now raising more agricultural products than we are able to consume. We have built all the railroads and factories that we seem capable of profiting from. And now it would seem that progress has at last reached the point of a less rapid flow, and that the currents of industry and commerce are bound to become more peaceful. Destiny calls for a new economic psychology, one in which the desire for progress—praiseworthy, normal and wholesome though it be—is tempered with the philosophy of contentment. This philosophy of contentment we need sadly for the happiness, welfare and sanity of the individual lives; and need it sadly for our economic organization if we are to establish any stable system of economic and social living.
MOST TRAGIC of all, is the fact that
the mad desire for expansion, when
it has exhausted the confines of its
own country, reaches out for fields
of conquest in other parts of the
world. Here again there is the
mathematical certainty that with
many nations each seeking to expand either territorially or economically there are bound to come clashes that will lead to war. The desire for imperialistic expansion is the very root of war. And while there have been ample historic precedents to encourage this natural thirst for expansion since it has proved the means of prosperity and of great achievement to the successful nations, we must also realize that it has entailed untold misery and degradation to the other nations that have become the objects of conquest.
It were idle to declaim against this imperialistic ambition on the ground that it is selfish to seek to bring success to one nation at the cost of other nations, to seek to exploit the rest of the world for one’s own people. No! Nations would never stop making war against each other because of such moral arguments. But the trouble with the imperialistic urge today is that there are so many strong and powerful nations capable and perhaps even desirous of expressing imperialism, that with the modern destructive processes of war available what will happen will be not the success of one nation over against another but the complete obliteration of all the nations that take part in war.
Aggressive imperialism which seeks unlimited national expansion is today simply a form of national suicide. We are told by Dr. Gertrud Woker, a specialist in chemistry and head of the Institute of Physico-chemical Biology of the University of Bern, Switzerland, “that one hundred gas-generating airplanes could in one hour cover a
city the size of Paris with a gas cloud twenty meters thick, that would annihilate the city’s population. She tells of the deadly results of white phosphorous bombs, of the use of bacteria, widely being prepared for, of electric incendiary bombs, or recently invented bombs with time fuses, of the effects on civilians and soldiers alike of the Green Cross, the Blue Cross and the Yellow Cross gases, effects so horrible that even to read of them is sickening, and she quotes a chemical authority as declaring that the chemical industry is now in a position to destroy unlimited areas completely in a very short time.”
WHAT REMEDY for ruthless competition
can be found, then? What
substitute for expansion—desire?
What cure for war?
Is it not true that expansion is a biological as well as an economic and political urge? Is it not true that the evolution of commerce and industry as well as of political entities has been in the direction of larger aggregations and combinations? Could we or should we reverse this process? No, deeply desirous as we may be on moral grounds of avoiding the disasters and evils that come to humanity because of the expansion-desire, we must not seek remedies that are totally contrary to human nature and to natural trends and movements of destiny.
There is, however, one mode of expansion which is both ethical and stable, which leaves no trail of evils and misfortunes in its path, which satisfies all concerned, which brings only happiness and prosperity,–namely, voluntary cooperative combinations
for mutual advantage. The most familiar of such combinations known to history is the amalgamation of thirteen separate colonies into the United States of America. This union has produced nothing but good for all concerned; has been the source of universal prosperity and advancement; has brought no evils, no misfortunes in its trail.
In the economic field of today we find a striking example in the Fruit Grower’s Association of California. This voluntary combination has improved the quality of fruit grown and marketed; has aided the individual farmer in the marketing of his products; has by means of wide publicity increased markets all over the world for these products; and has been a source of guidance and manifold benefits to the individual participants.
DOES IT NOT seem clear to unprejudiced
examination of all the
facts above stated that the desire for growth and expansion can find legitimate and happy expression in voluntary combinations? Does it not seem that all that is valuable and harmonious in human ambition can find room for outlet and achievement in such cooperative enterprise? The very genius of the human race will not begin to adequately express itself until the whole world is bound together in some such form of voluntary combination—a World State in which politics and economies are managed with all the capacity of human genius, but for the welfare of the whole rather than for the welfare of the part. Is it not true that in so far as we seek the welfare of the part only, we endanger the welfare not only of that part but also of every part? Whereas on the contrary if the part would but seek the welfare of the Whole, the Whole would establish and stabilize the welfare of each individual part.
“All the infinite beings exist by this law of mutual action and helpfulness. Should this law of joint interchange of forces be removed from the arena of life, existence would be entirely destroyed. . . . The greatest foundation of the world of existence is this cooperation and mutuality. . . . The base of life is mutual aid and helpfulness and the cause of destruction and nonexistence would be the interruption of this mutual assistance. The more the world aspires to civilization the more this most 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 interrelation.”
The author of this article is a student of journalism at the College of the State of New York. He gives us here an excellent bird’s-eye view of the causes of our present economic disaster and of the new economic order established by Bahá’u’lláh now spreading through the world.
WE may say that the world of humanity is a vast laboratory in civilization where new ways of organized living, suited to changing conditions, are worked out carefully before being generally accepted.
The Bahá’i interpretation of civilization is that of a reciprocal duality comprising the material and spiritual aspects of life. The material phase is the sum of all man’s inventions and discoveries in the physical realm. Spiritual civilization deals with those high qualities of mind and soul which differentiate man from the animal. For lasting happiness and contentment these two aspects must be equally and harmoniously developed.
THE INDUSTRIAL revolution plus
our multifold scientific discoveries
have raised the level of humanity
so suddenly, have changed the outlook
of people so completely, that
chaotic conditions follow as a natural
course. Wild speculation,
ruthless exploitation of natural resources
in backward countries, and
heartless competition are characteristics
of a period dominated by selfishness
and greed.
The mechanistic phase of civilization is centuries ahead of the ethical. And humanity, like a bird with one wing developed more than the other, flounders helplessly. Great spiritual strides must be taken to compensate for, and equal, the material advancement.
In this manner Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá interpret world conditions. But they do more than offer a plausible interpretation. They have definitely outlined the spiritual and material advances and adjustments that will straighten out our problems and lay the sure foundations for unparalleled future progress.
The disastrous economic dilemma which is our heritage from the World War was clearly foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh over seventy years ago. At that time He wrote:
“How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? . . . the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective.”
THE ECONOMIC program given to
the world by Bahá’u’lláh and expounded
by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is a modified
capitalistic system. It goes
neither to the extremes of communism
nor of socialism. Classes in
society are recognized since inequality
is a law of nature. Private
ownership of property and the
means of production will continue,
but cooperation and control will replace
competition. Trusts will be
eliminated by a series of regulatory
measures.
A reciprocal relationship will be established between employer and employee. A minimum wage must be agreed upon. Also, a definite
number of shares in each business must be given to the workers over and above their weekly wages. Fewer hours of work will open to the masses of the people unprecedented opportunities for education and culture.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, speaking in Paris on the question of the distribution of Wealth, said:
“Certainly, some being enormously rich and others lamentably poor, an organization is necessary to control and improve this state of affairs. It is important to limit riches as it is also of importance to limit poverty. Either extreme is not good.”
Wealth is to be limited by a graduated tax on large incomes with the result that at a certain limit all additional income will go to the government. This is not done to bring about economic equality but to keep money in a constant state of flux. It will be impossible under this system for huge sums of money to be amassed and withheld by selfish individuals.
Agriculture is the basic industry; and the solution of its problems presupposes economic recovery. This will be aided by a decentralized taxation system. All taxes will be paid into a local storehouse from which local, national, and international appropriations will be met. The graduated tax will bring extreme surpluses of wealth into this community center. Those whose income will only meet expenses are free from taxation. Those who cannot meet their daily needs may have them supplied from the storehouse. Instead of a false national or international standard of living, the community will thus set its own standard according to its economic ability.
The local controlling board will
prevent lazy and indolent individuals from taking advantage of the resources of this general storehouse. The failure of similar schemes in the past has been due to the application of the principle of supposed equality. The storehouse is a community protection not an indiscriminate source of charity.
Concerning the foundation of true economics, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has written:
“The disease which afflicts the body politic is lack of love and absence of altruism. . . . The secrets of the whole economic question are divine in nature and are concerned with the world of the heart and spirit.”
The Roman civilization collapsed when indolence and selfishness replaced the vigorous characteristics of its people. History reveals that civilization has reached its greatest heights under races of strong character and high ideals. A spiritual revival capable of recreating men and women the world over is a prime necessity of our times.
THE FEATURE which is rapidly
bringing the Bahá’i teachings to
the attention of the world and which
is uniting the Bahá’is of the five
continents is the World Order of
Bahá’u’lláh. This system of administration
based on Bahá’u’lláh’s
instructions has been inaugurated
by Shoghi Effendi since he became
the Guardian of the Bahá’i Faith.
The individual Bahá’is in each
locality elect annually a local assembly
of nine and also send delegates
to a national convention. The
national convention in turn elects a
group of nine who constitute the
National Assembly. This Assembly
sends delegates to an international
convention which selects the International
Assembly or Universal
House of Justice of which the Guardian is the permanent head. This body will both enact and enforce legislation in accordance with the exigencies of the times. The form of administration being erected by the Bahá’is for the management of their affairs will be the example to be followed by the governments of the world.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s advice to an official high in the service of the United States government was: “You can best serve your country if you strive, in your capacity as a citizen of the world, to assist in the eventual application of the principle of federalism underlying the government of your country to the relationships now existing between the peoples and nations of the world.”
Shoghi Effendi writes:
“Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-wide Law of Bahá’u’lláh. Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remould its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an everchanging world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. . . . It calls for a wider loyalty, for a wider aspiration than any that has animated the human race. . . . It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at unformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity.”
NOW, HAVING reviewed the fundamental
concepts of this Bahá’i experiment,
let us consider the conditions
under which the Movement is
working. We discover that it is not
confined to one continent, one race,
one class, or one country. It is
truly universal, finding adherents
from all classes, creeds, and nationalities.
It is not exclusively economic,
or exclusively religious, or exclusively
social; for all these aspects
are intermingled in its sweeping vision.
In 1910 Tolstoy foresaw the potency of the Bahá’i Faith when he wrote: “We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but there was a Turkish Prisoner, Bahá’u’lláh, in ‘Akká, Palestine, who had the key.” From its unobtrusive beginning in Persia, the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh have permeated, in less than a century, all parts of the earth. Nine National Assemblies have been created, and the Universal House of Justice will be formed in the near future.
The translations and printing of the Bahá’i writings have gone forward with great speed. Books are now available in more than sixty languages. The statesmanlike letters of Shoghi Effendi are attracting attention of leaders the world over. The Bahá’i Temple at Chicago, acclaimed by architects as superior in beauty and design to the famed Taj Mahal, is attracting thousands as its construction proceeds.
Stanwood Cobb, one of the founders of the Progressive Education Association, recently summed up the present progress of this experiment thus:
“The time is rapidly approaching when this new structure based upon divine foundations will give evidence to the world of its power to house the culture of the future. More and more, as men and women despairingly realize the lassitude and effeteness of present culture modes, will they turn for illumination and inspiration to the new modes being created by the potent message of Bahá’u’lláh to humanity.”
So, in the laboratory of humanity, a new era of civilization is taking form.
“May you help those sunk in materiality to realize their divine sonship, and encourage them to arise and be worthy of their birthright . . . Work! Work with all your strength, spread the Cause of the Kingdom among men; teach the self-sufficient to turn humbly towards God, the sinful to sin no more. . . .”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
[The incidents narrated in this episode constitute one of the most astounding spiritual adventures ever recorded in the history of Christian mysticism.
In the first installment of this life story of her who became affectionately known to numerous friends as “Mother Beecher”, was narrated the great spiritual experience she had in her childhood when she decided not only that she would try to be a Christian but that she was definitely a Christian in the sense that she gave herself unreservedly to God.]
MOTHER BEECHER fastened the little white shawl around her shoulders and seated herself in the old cane chair that had followed her through the years. No one in the house called her “Mother Beecher”. She was “Grandma” to all, as befitting one into whose sympathetic ear had been poured by three generations the arduous details of youthful living.
“Grandma”, said I, “did your contract with God make you happy?” Perhaps I had a notion, bolstered by a sentimental desire to supply to all young people a short out to earthly joy, that having made such a decision, one lived happily ever after.
Grandma smiled. “Let not that young man or young woman make decisions however great, who is faint of heart”, she said, “for decision draws to itself natural tests.”
“Tell me what came out of your decision, Grandma”, said I briskly.
“One cannot churn it out like
butter,” said Grandma with a wry little smile. “There are no words to express the reality of those things. I can only tell–a story.”
“Good,” said I, settling down on a stool at her feet. “Begin”.
“Shortly after my momentous decision that I must give my life to God, we changed our residence and a new chapter in my life opened. My brother, who had been poisoned by the use of calomel during an attack of typhoid fever, had to be placed in the sanitarium of the famous Dr. Foster of Clifton Springs, N. Y. Dr. Foster was widely known, not alone for his medical knowledge, but for his extraordinary benevolence. It is to this lovable and forceful character that much credit may be given for the shaping of my life, so newly started on the high seas of Christian endeavor. Here, in this famous little village, we lived for six years.
“Soon after our arrival I was sent one day to report to the doctor on the condition of the patient. After a brief exchange of words I rose to go.
“‘I understand,’ said the doctor, following me to the door, ‘that you are a young Christian.’ To this I gave assent.
“‘What kind of a Christian do you propose to be?’ he asked suddenly.
“This took me by surprise, but I managed to stammer that I hoped to be a faithful one.
“‘I have no doubt of it,’ said the doctor, ‘but I should like to know whether you propose to be just a good church member or a working Christian.’
“This was a new idea. I toyed with it for a moment before replying. Then I realized with a rush that he had touched upon my heart’s desire.
“‘Yes,’ I cried. ‘I want to be a working Christian.’
“‘Very well,’ he replied with a smile. ‘I will help you to become one. First you must learn to depend entirely upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit working within you.’
“I walked slowly home, turning his words over in my mind. His remark impressed me deeply. Conscience, the great umpire of the game of living, said, ‘This is right,’ or ‘That is wrong.’ Was that not enough? Life might become involved. The Holy Spirit might demand of one things inconveniently removed from the common groove. Moreover, it troubled me deeply to know how to find such guidance and recognize it. At last I sought him out again.
“‘Doctor’, said I, ‘how can I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit?’
“‘By turning your heart always away from self and toward God’, he said gently, ‘and by never closing a door that He has opened’.
“Life guided by a vision! What high destiny was this. ‘What would you do’, he asked abruptly, ‘if a very wicked dying man asked you to pray with him, and your heart told you to do so?’
“After a terrific struggle within my young New England trained soul, I made reply.
“‘I would go’.
“MONTHs passed. One Sunday morning as I sat surrounded by my Sunday School class, the superintendent approached me, looking troubled, even pained. Bending low, he whispered, ‘A dirty, ragged child outside insists upon seeing you. I’ll take your class while you send her away’.
“At the door stood a child so forlorn and unkempt that I caught my breath.
“‘My pop’s a-dyin’ and he wants to see you’, she sobbed.
“Without a word I took the dirty little hand and sped through the deserted village streets. Well I remembered the father, the town drunkard who ‘hadn’t drawn a sober breath for over twenty years’. Well I knew the impropriety of the thing that I was doing. By every standard I had ever been taught, the thing was unthinkable. For a fleeting moment my mother’s lovely face flashed before me.
“We found him at last, lying on a pile of dirty rags in a hovel outside the confines of the village, looking with pathetic eagerness at the door. The stench and filth unsteadied me. This was living, too, then! I knelt beside him, taking his hard hand in mine. Though I had never witnessed the passing of a human soul, I knew that death was upon him.
“‘Has your priest been here?’ I asked. He shook his head.
“‘Why did you not send for him?’ I asked, feeling greatly troubled.
“‘I sent for you because you are the only one who has smiled at me in twenty years’, he whispered. ‘I’ve been pretty bad, but if you ask God to forgive me, I know He will’.
“Still holding his cold hand, I asked God to call him home to the mansions Christ had promised to those who believe. When I looked again he was gone, and I was conscious not so much of death as of peace”.
”How WONDERFUL, Grandma,” said I when she had finished. “It was really a birth rather than a death, wasn’t it? Do you suppose that Dr. Foster sensed the whole affair intuitively and prepared you for it?”
“Not necessarily”, she thoughtfully replied, “though I feel very sure that he sought and found constantly the guidance which he taught me to follow.
“Sometimes he was a bit sudden,” she continued with a laugh. “One particular Sunday morning comes back to my mind as if it were yesterday. We were seated around the breakfast table; my mother, my younger brother and sister, two visiting New England cousins of my mother’s, and I. Suddenly Dr. Foster appeared without warning in the doorway. Walking straight toward my chair, he said, ‘Take your Bible and go to the Caldwell house. Tell them what the Lord has done for you, and pray with them’. So saying he turned, and without further ado, walked out as he had come, gently closing the door behind him.
“Now the Caldwell house, almost
directly across the street from our home, was a fine old residence which had some time before been bought by the man Caldwell and turned into a veritable den of iniquity. For numerous reasons, the people of Clifton Springs had failed in their efforts to abolish it, and it remained their one menace to young manhood.
“To say that consternation took possession of our dining room following the departure of the kindly doctor would be putting it all too mildly. My mother promptly had hysterics. Bursting into tears, she walked the floor in a most agitated manner.
“‘He has grossly insulted me,’ she cried, ‘by commanding my little girl to go into a place like that! How could he? Oh, how could he?’
“In vain the cousins sought to calm her. Said one, ‘I cannot see why you allow yourself to become so disturbed. You know the child isn’t going.’ Said the other, ‘She hasn’t taken leave of her senses, you know!’
“I left them after that, and slipped away upstairs. No one in all the hub-bub had directed so much as a word or look at me. I felt like an idea in a book, about which a great many people were suddenly arguing. One would hardly consult with an idea, you know. Closing the door of my room, I hastened to the side of my bed and knelt down.
“‘You promised to guide me’, I said softly, ‘and I don’t know what to do. The Bible says that we must honor our parents. Surely it would not be right to deliberately disobey my beloved mother. What shall I do?’
“The answer did not come immediately,
but when it did, I became aware of a definite assurance, as positive as if a voice had spoken, saying, ‘Take your Bible in your hand and go down. Pass through the room in which your mother is sitting. If even a word is spoken to detain you, do not go. If no word is spoken, go quietly out of the house, speaking to no one on the way’.
“This I did. As I approached the front parlor, the murmur of voices ceased. I walked slowly through the room, saying no word and hearing none. The silence, in fact, was as thick as a fog hanging over us all. I went out, feeling strangely unreal, and crossed the street. As the Caldwell gate clicked behind me, however, I became real enough; so real, in fact, that my knees shook violently and I swallowed hard.
“The old fashioned knocker resounded and echoed. It did not help the quaking of my limbs. And when I heard heavy footsteps coming through an uncarpeted hall, I thought I could not stand. The top half of the old oak door swung open a few inches, held by a chain. A bewhiskered face peered out.
“What do you want?’ asked the face. To my horror, the eyes traveled from my head to my feet and back again, with a kind of rolling leer.
“‘I have come to tell you a beautiful story’, said I. An amazed silence greeted this, after which the lower half of the door opened and the chain was removed from the upper. The man seemed only half as dreadful when seen full length, and I allowed myself to look past him into the cavernous depths of
the dark old house. He led me to the parlor, a musty, closed-off room which presumably had not been used since the last funeral. Motioning me to a stiff, uncomfortable chair, he stood in evident embarrassment before me.
“‘May I see your family, too?’ I asked with growing assurance. He appeared to be somewhat surprised at this, but departed without a word into the cavernous hall again. I heard him shuffling about. Then in a muffled roar, ‘Mom, come in here. Somebody t’ see you’.
“Mom appeared, followed by a youth and two unkempt girls of uncertain ages. They arranged themselves about the room in stiff silence. When they were all assembled, I began my story quite fearlessly, saying that God had made me very happy. After telling the story of my conversion, I read to them from the Bible, explaining the verses with an ease quite beyond my ken, and dwelling always on the wonderful love of God in sending a Saviour to the world. Then I asked if I might pray with them. To this Mr. Caldwell laconically responded that he supposed I could if I wanted to. Kneeling down in their midst, I uttered a simple prayer, asking God to make them as happy as He had made me. When I had finished, I saw that they were deeply moved, though no one spoke a word. After shaking hands with each one, I quietly slipped away.
“Not long after this, I met Mr. Caldwell on the main street of the village. He was shy but determined. Stepping forward and touching my arm, he looked earnestly into my eyes.
“‘Miss Tuller’, he said, ‘would
you be ashamed to talk with me a moment?’
“‘No indeed’, said I, trying to speak reassuringly.
“‘I was just wondering’, he continued, ‘whether you would teach my wife and me to pray. We’d like to do it the way you do’.
“A rush of joy swept through me. ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘I should love to pray with you’.
“‘May we come to your house some Sunday?’ he asked eagerly.
“‘Certainly’, said I, ‘but come after Sunday School hours’.
“I must say that at the time I had many misgivings about my mother’s reception of my strange guests, but as the week was a busy one, all mention of it was forgotten. Sunday afternoon came, and as usual we seated ouselves by the big bay window in the parlor.
“‘Why, Nellie’, said Mother, looking out with some curiosity, ‘do look at that strange procession of people coming up the street! Perhaps it is a funeral. There must be forty people walking in this direction’.
“Now funerals of those days were conducted for the most part without carriages, and as I gazed in horror at the straggling band of oncomers, I was struck at one and the same time with a sense of the ridiculous, for it did have the semblance of a funeral. I held my breath.
“‘There seems to be no coffin, Nellie’, continued Mother, ‘nor any pall-bearers. Why—why Nellie, they are turning in here!’
“‘Oh Mother’, I gasped, ‘I forgot to tell you that Mr. Caldwell and his wife are coming to learn how to pray’. Then, a bit faintly,
‘They seem to be bringing a few friends’.
“Mother rose, her eyes flashing. She left the room and started up the winding old stairs. At the landing she turned. ‘The rag-tag of the town’, she said. ‘I wash my hands completely of such goings-on. You will be the death of me yet, my child!’ With this last despairing remark, she swept out of sight. Nor did she reappear that afternoon, nor on any Sunday afternoon for six weeks thereafter.
“I went to the door and opened it to the wide-eyed, silent company. Mr. Caldwell was wreathed in smiles, and acted as a sort of major general, ushering his friends to chairs, cushions and available places on the floor. When all were seated, I opened the Scriptures and read, telling them quite simply what I felt it meant to be a Christian.
“‘Now’, I concluded, ‘we shall all kneel down and just ask God for what we most want. All Christians must first learn to talk with God and listen for His answer. And this we call prayer.
“The experience will never be forgotten, for their prayers were quite shocking. In their childlike simplicity they appealed to God as if He were a neighbor, and their requests were pitifully mundane. However, the meeting over, each one arose feeling highly pleased with himself and the Almighty. As they prepared to leave, Mr. Caldwell turned similingly to me.
“‘And may we come again next Sunday?’ he asked.
“‘Certainly’, said I without hesitation. And so it happened that they came every Sunday for six weeks and I was led to turn it into a
Bible study class. Mr. Caldwell, at about this time, closed his house of ill fame and opened a grocery store.
“And now the Methodist pastor opened a series of prayer meetings to all denominations, and it was observed by the amazed population of Clifton Springs that Mr. Caldwell and his friends not only attended the meetings, but joined the church.
“Toward the close of these meetings the pastor asked for personal confessions of faith. Mr. Caldwell arose and walked deliberately to the front of the church. Then clearly and distinctly, though without emotional display, he told the story of how a young girl had dared to come to him and to his family, to bring to them the secret of her great joy, the joy that had in turn changed their lives.”
“The spirit became so intense that a revival sprang up in that place, and spread through the surrounding
country, becoming at last almost national in character. It is impossible for the Holy Spirit to work in a human heart without having a far-reaching effect, for it is like a great fever, magnificently contagious”.
I THOUGHT, as she finished speaking, of our littleness in the scheme of things. Left to themselves, our lives reflect only futility. Yet God denies to no one that eternal spark, the river of life more abundant, that is a living, breathing force, and makes it, even to the unworthy, “magnificently contagious”.
“Dear Grandma”, said I, taking her wrinkled old hand in mine, “you have spent your long life in spreading that contagion. Are you tired?”
“I am ninety-two,” she said simply, “and I am a little tired. But I am happy.”
IN The Unseen Assassins*, Norman Angell discusses certain conclusions he has reached concerning the relation of education to public opinion and of public opinion to international relations from both the political angle and the economic. The first part of the book sets forth a few theories which part two, “A Book of Cases,” applies to specific instances, chiefly within the British Empire and the continent of Europe. From first to last the author dwells on his fundamental thesis, that the evils of our civilization are
* Harper and Brothers, 1932.
due not to the deliberate intention of man or to lack of knowledge, but to their failure to apply the well-known facts of everyday life to social relationships, especially in the field of international relations. “We disregard knowledge which we possess, though we are unaware of that disregard.”
The average man advocates policies that bring results he does not really wish, simply because he does not bring his own experience to apply in larger fields; and these unperceived implications Angell calls
the “Unseen Assassins of our peace and welfare.” He believes in the first place that the opinion of the ordinary man, however created and played upon by powerful interests, when once created generally determines public policy; in the second place, that education can do no good by giving more knowledge but only by teaching the social truths that underlie experience; in the third place that it is possible to change what may seem to be instinctive reactions, as instanced by changing attitudes in such matters as savage taboos, witchcraft and religious fanaticism. The purpose of the book is to help the ordinary man to see just where one of the “intellectual assassins” has crept into some generally accepted principle or policy.
A striking example of failure to apply known experience to new problems lies in the field of international relations. In his simple community life, John Smith expects to have a police force responsible to the community at large to keep order and maintain justice between individuals; he expects that in addition to the need of courts for criminal cases, courts are also needed for civil cases where differences of opinion will be settled by a third party and the judgment accepted; he knows that government is necessary to regulate daily life, because man’s primitive instinct of pugnacity and the tendency to differences of opinion make it impossible for a group of human beings to get along together without regulations, especially in large communities. All this applies to local and national groups without question.
But when it comes to international
relations, the average citizen
suddenly throws overboard all his personal experience in government and says that community regulation stops at that point. In the international field he adopts the principle of anarchy, though his commonsense should tell him that since anarchy will not work on a small scale nor on a national scale, it cannot be expected to work as between nations. He has not learned from his education that all societies must have an organization through which to function, and this Angell calls the “sovereign assassin.” Some say that it is useless to expect peace because it is inherent in human nature to fight, but still no one suggests giving up police and the safeguards of community life because people are quarrelsome. The fact of man’s antisocial instincts is a reason in favor of organizing social institutions to preserve peace, not a reason against it. If people were naturally peaceful and considerate of others’ rights and points of view, anarchy might serve in place of government, but since they are not, institutions are necessary.
THE CONCEPT of nationalism, with
its strong attendant sentiment, and
the principle of the sovereignty of
nations, that makes for international
anarchy, are due, so says Angell,
not to any inborn tendency of
the mass of ordinary people to
evolve such ideas, but to the education
given by the philosophers,
teachers, historians and poets. If
this were a biological trait, change
would be very slow and perhaps
doubtful, but since it is rather an
intellectual concept, there is great
hope that it may change. For while,
for example, it is true that men have a biological tendency to fight, it is also true that what they fight about changes considerably from one period to another.
Another self-evident truth that men overlook in international affairs is the nature of justice. It is realized in private life that there are honest differences of opinion between individuals and that a third party judgment is the fairest to all concerned. Why not in international relations? We must come to look on justice as a means of insuring equality of right for both parties, not merely as a means of protecting the rights of one side only. When it comes to international conflict, the idea that we should fight for our “rights” and impose our own interpretation of our rights on another country means that justice is disregarded.
The greatest obstacle to international cooperation Angell sees to be the desire for power and the preference for a position where one country can impose its will upon another instead of forming a partnership. This he thinks is due to the fact that the older and more primitive instincts are assets in a struggle to dominate but have to be restrained when men cooperate. In cooperation we must consider the point of view of the other party and this requires thinking, which is biologically our most recently acquired trait. We are not yet used to thinking and dislike the doubts that thought brings, but through thought and perhaps particularly through consideration of the economic futility of war, we may finally turn to other motives besides the desire to dominate, and develop a new political tradition.
IN THE second part of the book Angell discusses the dangers of the spread of the principle of self-determination for nationalities, the sense of conflict of interest created by tariffs, the disintegrating effect of rampant nationalism, the blindness of the policy that prefers separatism and poverty to unity and an adequate supply of the necessities of life. In taking up the relation of India to Great Britain, the present tendencies in Germany, the increasing of armaments and tariff barriers, the attitude towards peace conferences, the League of Nations and the Briand-Kellogg Pact, he shows again and again the application of his underlying theme, that we do have access to the knowledge of common experience that, if applied, would obviate our international difficulties.
THE FOREGOING discussion leaves
untouched many points worth noting;
the book is full of penetrating
comments on the fallacies that provoke
national animosity and competition
and these subjects must be
emphasized again and again if a
healthy international attitude is to
prevail. However, though the book
deals with basic principles, it leaves
one feeling that it does not go as
deep as possible and does not point
the way to a power strong enough to
accomplish the desired end. As is
so often the case, the difficulties are
presented much more clearly than
the remedy. It is rather in such a
work as Shoghi Effendi’s, “The
Goal of a New World Order,” that
one finds a really satisfying and
complete exposition of the solution
of nationalism and imperialism by
world federation. The principle of
the Oneness of Mankind, the fundamental
teaching of Bahá’u’lláh, provides, both in its Divine origin and in its applicability to every phase of personal, national and international life, the real answer to all the problems set forth in The Unseen Assassins. It gives both
the touchstone with which to test all policies and the spiritual basis that leads to action and in short is the deeper synthesis that with all his thoughtfulness, Angell does not perceive.
This series of brief biographies of the leading followers of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh was composed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1915 and published in Haifa in 1924 in Persian. These translations into English have been made by the request of Shoghi Effendi. The aim has been to render them into colloquial English rather than to follow a literary translation This work was done specially for The Bahá’i Magazine. The translator states that she does not consider these translations final.
SHAYKH SALMAN, the devoted messenger, heard the call of God in India in 1266, A. H.,* and was made unutterably happy. He was so bewitched that he hurried out of India on foot and went to Tihrán . . . where he secretly associated with the believers and became one of them. Then one day when he was walking through the bazaars with Aqá Muhammad-Taqiy-i-Kásháni, some policemen followed him and found out where he lived. The next day watchmen and policemen came to look for him and finally succeeded in arresting him; they took him to the town constable, who asked him who he was. Salman answered:
“I am an Indian and have come to Tihrán on my way to Khurásán, as a pilgrim to the shrine of His Holiness Imam Ridá, upon whom be peace.”
The constable asked: “What were you doing yesterday with that man
* Muhammadan calendar dating from the Hegira.
in the white coat?”
He answered, “I had sold him an ‘abá the day before and I was asking for payment.”
The constable said: “What a strange fellow you are! How could you trust him?”
He answered, “The money-changer vouched for him”.
By this he meant Jináb-i-Áqá Muhammad, known as the money-changer. The constable ordered a policeman to go to the money-changer’s with Salmán and investigate. When they got there the policeman went in ahead, and asked what was the story of the ‘abá and the guarantee; the money-changer said he knew nothing about it. The policeman said to Salmán:
“Come along we’ve found out that you’re a Bábi.”
SHAYKH SALMAN was wearing a
turban like those worn in Shushtar.
As they passed by a cross-roads, a
man from Shushtar ran out of his shop, threw his arms around Salman and cried, “Why? Khájih Muhammad-‘Ali! Where have you been? When did you get here? Welcome!”
Salmán answered, ”I came here a few days ago and I have just been arrested.”
The man said to the policeman, “What do you want with him? Leave him alone.”
The policeman answered: “He is a Bábi.”
The man from Shushtar said, “Heaven forbid! I know this Khájih Muhammad-‘Ali–he is a God-fearing Muhammadan, a good Shi’ih of ‘Ali.”
Then he gave the policeman some money and Salmán was freed. They went into the shop and the man asked him how he was. He replied, “I am not Khájih Muhammad-‘Ali.”
The shopkeeper was amazed and said, “Good heavens! You look exactly like him, without any difference whatever. Now that you aren’t he, give me back the sum I gave the policeman.” Salmán immediately gave him the money, went out to the city gate and left for India.
Later when Bahá’u’lláh went to Baghdád, the first messenger to reach His presence was this same man, who then returned to India with a tablet for the friends there.
EVERY YEAR this worthy individual
would come on foot to Bahá‘u‘lláh,
and would return with tablets
which he delivered to many
cities throughout Persia, such as
Isfáhán, Shiráz, Káshán, and Tihrán.
1 The Prison in ‘Akká, Palestine, where Bahá’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were incarcerated for many years.
From the year 69 A. H., till the days of Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension in 1309 A. H., Salmán would come; he would bring letters, take tablets back, and deliver each one safely to its owner.
Eager and happy, he made the journeys on foot during that long period, from Persia to Iráq or Adrianople or the Greatest Prison1 and back again.
He had an extraordinary power of endurance; he would walk the whole way, and usually his only food was onions and bread. During the entire period he moved so fast that he was never held up; he never lost a letter or a tablet; every letter was delivered; every tablet reached its destination. Although time and again in Isfáhán he was troubled and weary, he was always thankful. Nonbelievers gave him the title of “The Bábi’s Angel Gabriel.”
Salmán rendered an important service to the Cause of God his whole life long, because he spread the teachings, gladdened the friends, and brought messages from Bahá’u’lláh to cities and villages of Persia every year. He was favored in Bahá’u’lláh’s presence and received especial bounty; tablets were revealed in his name. After the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh he stayed firm in the Covenant, and exerted every effort to serve the Cause; as before he would come to the Greatest Prison every year with letters from the friends, and then would take the answers back to Persia. At last in Shiráz he rose into the All-glorious Kingdom.
From the dawn of history until this day, there never was such a trustworthy messenger.
“What is poetry? It is a symmetrical collection of words. . . . Poetry is much more effective and complete than prose. It stirs more deeply, for it is of a finer composition.
FAR from the madding crowd”—the clamor, heat and rush of a great modern metropolis—one has been transported within an hour to this peaceful corner of old-world England, and into the tranquil atmosphere of the long-past centuries which enfolds this little grey church, enshrined in its garden of roses and remembrance.
One enters through the quaint lich-gate. and approaches the sanctuary along a trim pathway, bordered by velvet turf and adorned with a wealth of roses, just now in all their glory of color and fragrance. A perfumed rosary indeed for those who lie sleeping so well beneath the grassy mounds! And—with due respects to the author of the Rubaiyat—although, perhaps, no “lovely heads” rest here, or “buried Caesar bled”, these rich red roses bloom, and their petals fall none the less tenderly over the humble peasant women and the rude tillers of the neighboring fields.
IT IS to this quiet and intimate
spot that visitors come from all
over the world, and especially from
the United States. For here also
sleep the two sons of America’s
revered Quaker Father—William
Penn—the Founder of the province
of Pennsylvania; also, an English
poet, known wherever our tongue
is spoken or literature read, and
who, linked by his “Elegy” to this
little churchyard, has thereby made
* Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words (Persian) v. 54.
its name, and his own, immortal.
Thomas Gray, like Him who made friends of fishermen, knew and understood the lowly. With the insight of poetic genius, he could feel what poverty imposed upon men—its frustrations, wasted sweetnesses, undeveloped latent abilities, its “mute inglorious Miltons.”
One imagines how gladly he would have listened to that great Lover of the poor Who said: “The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and busy not yourselves wholly with your ease.”* For in his verse the poet has portrayed these human flowers “born to blush unseen” with so tender and familiar a touch, that time has only enhanced its beauty and literary judgment has pronounced it one of its purest gems. In fact, its charm made such an appeal to a certain professor of the University of Tokyo that he has recently translated all Gray’s writings into Japanese. For poetry, like beautiful music, can make the whole world kin binding with spiritual chains of delicate harmonies and chords of deep, common emotions all the varied families of mankind.
ONE WONDERS if this ancient tree,
facing the fourteenth century timber
porch, remembers the slight
figure that once sat in lonely contemplation
beneath its shade; or
recalls the devoted mother who
sometimes came with her son to
worship in the cool, red-tiled
--PHOTO--
The Fourteenth Century porch of church Stoke Pogis.
church, and between whom there existed a mutual affection probably unsurpassed in the records of famous men. For it is, of course, to the unrecognized heroism of women like Gray’s mother, that men so often owe their greatness of character or their chances of achievement.
The evening, itself, is a poem for all who can read. A tender darkling sky with rose-lit clouds; a sense of indescribable peace descending upon the spirit. The moon, a golden disk, peeps between the elm-trees, gilds the sombre yews, and falls with shining feet upon the grass, its dear, friendly face piercing one with a moment of poignant remembrance for all those whom one has “loved long since, and lost awhile.”
AND THERE, across the park, one
catches a glimpse of the memorial
raised to the poet of this old world
by the pioneering sons of the new.
While yonder in the noisy city, at
this very hour, the fellow-countrymen
of both anxiously wrestle with the tangled problems of two continents, and seek to discover a common pathway to the sanctuary of peace and safety for all.
Alas! though it may be the lot of the delegates to the World Economic Conference to “read their history in a nation’s eyes”—in spite of all their efforts, they have not yet found the secret of how to “scatter plenty o’er a smiling land,” or even the solvent for that cruel paradox of the age—an earth of lavish abundance, the greater part of whose inhabitants suffer in hopeless restriction or actual want.
Maybe, if these baffled representatives of the nations could bring their pilgrim burdens of finance and currencies, tariffs and conflicting national policies to some such “cool sequestered vale” as this—they might be able to stand so still that they could hear the voice of God’s Messenger speaking to them, at evening, in the garden, saying, “This is the way—walk ye in it!” Then might they realize, beyond a shadow of doubt, that no sea of separation could forever flow between two great nations who shared so ancient and spiritual a heritage; and with clearer vision perceive that the whole world is hastening onward to an inevitable hour of reunion and ordered cooperation.
As reported in current magazine and newspaper articles.
IT IS noteworthy that at a time when the building industry is virtually at a standstill, two construction projects of first rate importance are going forward in Wilmette. One is the waterworks, the cost of which is to be defrayed from water revenues. The other is the Bahá’i temple, financed through freewill offerings of adherents of that faith in every country on the globe. The former of major local interest, the latter of a broader influence that embraces the entire western world. One designed to surpass in appearance and mechanical appointments any similar plant in the Chicago metropolitan area, the other to achieve in the grandeur of its setting, the originality of its design, its sublime beauty, its symbolisms and spiritual interpretations one of the structure marvels of all time.
If one imagines that in driving by the Bahá’i temple and viewing it from the windows of a moving automobile he has really seen that imposing creation in steel and stone
--PHOTO--
The Dome of the Bahá'i Temple As It Nears Completion
and concrete, one glimpse of the inside will demonstrate his error. For the exterior gives but a faint conception of the marvelous beauty and thrilling immensity that the interior reveals—an interior in which the mystic arts of the orient have been superbly joined with the structural skill of the occident.
Although interpretative of a religious principle as old as religion itself, it is ultra-modern in all its architectural details, bringing into effective and pleasing harmony an exemplification of the golden rule with today’s practical necessities in heating, lighting and ventilating. Every feature of construction and equipment represents the most advanced scientific thought of our time. A point in illustration is the lighting effects. The architect’s conception called for a particular kind of light—light that would approach, as nearly as possible, natural sunlight, and yet possess a peculiar quality conducive to spiritual uplift. It was found that no such lamp existed. Therefore
--PHOTO--
Showing the Exquisite Detail of the Dome Ornamentation
the largest electric company in America was commissioned to produce it. It is interesting to note that the exact light desired has been discovered, and efforts are now being directed toward developing the lamp to a point where it will be economically usable.
Everything about this structure, which is to be the shrine of all followers of the Bahá’i faith on the western hemisphere, is so enthralling in its appeal to the finer sensibilities and to that love for the artistic that is inherent in every nature that no words of ours can adequately portray it. We suggest that a pilgrimage to this house of universal worship while it is in process of erection will aid to a more complete enjoyment of its beauties when completed.—Wilmette Life.
ON THE Michigan Lake Shore near Chicago is being erected, not as a part of the great Century of Progress Exposition but for all time, a building dedicated to worship,
unique in design and purpose—the Bahá’i Temple designed by a French architect now deceased, Louis Bourgeois. It is called a “Temple of Light” and is so constructed that the light from within will always be seen from without. It is nine-sided, two stories in height, surmounted by a great dome with clere-story windows. As this building ascends gradually from the base the dome becomes a part of the structure, as though the whole were but an elongation of a single theme. In style it has no relation to the past, no prototype. It is not Roman or Moorish; it does not savor of the Far East or of the West; it is modern and yet closely linked to the past.
In the building itself and in the ornamental concrete for the dome there is a vast amount of symbolism, but to the average onlooker it will be the beauty of the work rather than the symbolism that appeals. The whole surface of this great dome will be covered, when completed, by open-work designs in concrete having the appearance
of stone in a lace-like pattern, through the openings of which will shine forth the interior light.
The engineer of this building—and such buildings are to a great extent engineering feats—is Mr. McDaniel.—Leila, Mechlin, Washington (D. C.) Sunday Star.
TWELVE years ago, last August,
two gentlemen came to my studio in
Washington. They came unexpectedly
and they brought with them
only the photograph of a plaster
model. They had been sent by a
mutual friend, an engineer, deeply
interested in the work being done
with concrete by this studio, who
suggested that we might offer a solution
for their problem. One of
these gentlemen was Mr. Louis
Bourgeois, an architect, and the
most unusual personality I have met
in that profession. The other was
Mr. Ashton, his friend, and the
photograph which they brought was
of a Temple, the most exotically
beautiful building I have ever seen.
It came up out of the earth like the
sprout of some great plant bursting
out to life and growth.
Mr. Bourgeois explained that he was the architect of the building and a member of the Bahá’i Faith who believe themselves to be the children of a new era, who believe that they have received a new Manifestation. It soon became clear that this Temple was the dream of Mr. Bourgeois’ life, that all his hopes and ambitions were centered in it, and that he believed himself to have been inspired to design a temple unlike any other in the world, so that it might be the symbol
of a new religion in a new age. At that moment he was anxiously seeking a material with which to build it and someone with the ability to understand his work and the skill to execute it. He left with me the photograph, after autographing it. I have it still. It marks the beginning of the project for me.
In the time which intervenced between this meeting and the death of Mr. Bourgeois about two years ago, there developed between us an interesting and instructive friendship. We studied this temple with all its ramifications of form, of treatment and of meaning as a preparation for the time when work on it would be begun. . . . A temple of light with a great pierced dome through which by day the sunlight would stream to enlighten all within and through which by night the Temple light would shine out into a darkened world. Great curves intertwining in wierd perspective. Ovals, circles, and vesicas in endless variety twisted and woven into some great cosmic fabric. This is the theme of the dome, the courses of the stars woven into a fabric. But this is not all, interwoven with the courses of the stars in the pattern of the dome are the tendrils of living things, leaves, and flowers, because no symbol of creation would be complete without a symbol of life. Lifted above the dome are nine great ribs, nine aspirations that mount higher than the courses of the stars. I wonder after all if it was strange that we of the studio should have given so much thought to this project?—John J. Earley, Journal of the American Concrete Institute.
Herein is the concluding part of this remarkable series in which the author has so appealingly treated the subject of accepting and obeying the True Sovereign. The series began in the May number.
WE return, in conclusion, to our underlying proposition. We, you the reader, and I, have analyzed together the controlling factor that has operated to turn man’s gaze to the counterfeit sovereignty rather than to the reality. It is impossible that one turn his face steadfastly to one orb and at the same time have any real knowledge of another. If we persist in gazing at the candle, we can never know or appreciate the sun. In fact, we come to doubt there is any sun.
Similarly, the worship of an idol precludes a comprehension of the true object of worship. There is no escape from the conclusion that surrender to the inferior sovereignty has plunged mankind into grave doubt of the actual existence of God. This unbelief is instanced by the attitude of countless millions who have drifted from the churches, and by those likewise countless millions who have never affiliated themselves with any form of religious worship whatever. We are referring here to all the nations and races of men. Among these are many upright-living men and women, in whose hearts are the germs of faith in the existence of God, but who are deprived of that conscious certainty of the fact that is so sorely needed when calamities appear in the daily life.
Without this certainty, the buffetings and disappointments of life take a terrible toll,—for this conscious knowledge of the imminent
1 Bahá’u’lláh, The Book of Certitude, p. 99.
Presence and Love of God is the only solvent of human suffering, when the great tests rear themselves in the individual life. For these, the spurious remedies of nature are as “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal”. Only a knowledge of the Divine Physician and His unfailing medicine can allay the pain of the heart and restore the vision, at such times.
This knowledge, which is conscious and definite, is the outgrowth of an awakening of the capacity within, the highest capacity we possess, to know God. And this awakening is, in turn, dependent upon the revivification of the heart and soul by acquiring understanding of the shining reality of the Lord of the Age, the Messenger and Manifestation of that secluded Essence, Who has ever caused “luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men—that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence. These sanctified Mirrors, these Daysprings of ancient glory are one and all the Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate Purpose?”1
IT IS the knowledge and acceptance of this greatest of life’s mysteries that constitutes true belief;
that arms mankind with the power of the Divine Realm; that reveals the ineptitude and illusion of nature’s forces; that brings forth the hidden, human reality from its strong prison and clothes it with power to control and spiritually enrich the individual life, and to serve humanity; that confers happiness, order and equilibrium upon human society; and unfurls the victorious standard of Universal Peace.
For this reestablishment of the essential relation between the Primal Reality and the reality of the human spirit unlocks the floodgates of Divine Love into the human world. This flood cannot flow except to its counterpart, which is the conscious, active human reality. It has nothing to do with the vagaries and illusions of that outward personality that is enmeshed in the natural spider-web. For Love, the Royal Falcon, as was quoted, “preys not upon the dead mouse.”
Can it be doubted that this all-healing flood is, today more than in any other day, the greatest need of our race? Every economic and social upheaval we are now witnessing depends upon this Love for its adjustment. Man’s relation to man is the supreme problem of the hour. How will it be solved? We have exhausted the resources of the natural law to curb this threatened destruction. And we have almost come to realize that even the human brain, unguided and unillumined by the Divine Torch, must confess defeat, in the face of the gathering darkness of this mysterious and unaccountable array of baffling elements that stubbornly resist our best meant efforts. May it not be that this hour is an hour of destiny
for mankind that will not relent, unless and until the lesson it carries in its brooding wings strikes home to our hearts, and is humbly and fully accepted through the creation of a new consciousness of our relation to one another?
This consciousness will be the offspring, the fruit of the Love of God, which is the universal solvent. How sorely, how desperately, the world, whether consciously or unconsciously, is reaching out to that bright visitant from on high. For He comes—“with healing in His wings”, and is in truth the real Physician for our ills. We have, too long, submitted to the unskilled ministrations of pretended physicians, “blind leaders of the blind,” whose vision of the cause and the remedy is veiled beneath the thick covering of superstitions and fancies; whose self-centered, ambitious leadership has colored the pure water of reality into an unrecognizable substance.
IF, THEN, the state of “forgetfulness of God” is evidenced and proved by the existence of a widespread doubt concerning the fact of His Being, it becomes increasingly plain that the greatest task of mankind is the investigation of reality. For the reality exists and with it the capacity to uncover it. The revealment of the reality has been consummated in an age fitted to its reception. The theme of this article, throughout, is that this reality, and its understanding, is contingent, so far as the human race is concerned, upon seeking, finding and recognizing, with genuine fealty, the True Sovereign of the nations. To recognize Him is to open the doors of the Realm of
Might and Power to the outpourings of inconceivable blessings to our race.
The impotent sovereign we have hitherto obeyed, in whose service we have consumed both body and soul, possesses no eternal gifts for us, can confer no honor or nobility, grants neither peace nor happiness. Rather does it bestow war and death; its fires are the fires of remoteness from God. That sovereign is the veritable core of unreality, deprived of the capacity to know God, and shrouded in intense darkness and blindness. It is the antithesis of guidance and vision.
But the resplendent Reality of the True Sovereign has direct relationship with the world of vision and enlightenment. His supreme gift to man is the connection He has established with the hearts. The human reality, once attuned to the central Orb of Truth, comes in touch with an Existence which causes it to enter the pathway of true unfoldment and divine service. From the mirage, it comes into the pleasant pasture. It becomes conscious that the real fruitage of human existence is the acquirement of the Love and Knowledge of God. This condition, when realized, is equivalent to the establishment of the pillars of the Kingdom of God in this world. And this condition, despite the gloom of our old friend, the pessimist, is now possible for the first time in human history and is much nearer in point of actual realization than is generally supposed.
HAVE WE sufficiently understood the application of the saying of His Holiness Christ, concerning this consummation of the Divine Will
for mankind? Let us ponder upon the meaning of His Word, realizing also in that which is about to be quoted, the striking agreement as to the meaning of the mysteries of life contained in all the Holy Utterances.
In a Tablet to an American Bahá’i, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said:
“This is why His Holiness Christ said that unless one is baptised with the spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom. That is, unless through the power of the Holy Spirit he is detached from the world of nature, he cannot comprehend the invisible realities. Not only does he remain ignorant of the World of God, but also he cannot imagine it.”
“Like unto the embryonic child, until he is freed from the obscurities of the prebirth stage he can neither see the brilliant sun, nor observe the roses of the garden, envision the clear sky nor perceive the stately trees, nor understand the resplendent bounties. When, however, he is delivered from the darkness of the embryonic condition, he beholds these lights, discovers these traces, and comprehends the mysteries of existence.
“Likewise, until the human souls are detached from the world of nature; in other words, be born again, they remain ignorant of the World of God and obtain no share and portion of the Bounties of the Merciful.”
This is a light shining amidst the darkness. Its beams penetrate the innermost recesses of human life. Its unerring finger probes into the very depths of humanity’s chronic affliction. For it discloses to our understanding the bewildering truth that attachment to the world of nature is identical with that of the foetal state; that in that state of attachment man is incapable even of imagining the existence of the world of God, much less of comprehending the reality of life. Can we escape the conclusion, when we look upon the present disorganized state of humanity, that the masses of our race slumber in a consciousness that is unreal? And that because of this, this doubt of the existence of God
dwells side by side with the enslavement of natural law? This truth is certified to, beyond refutation, by the Divine Manifestations.
MERE repression of the natural impulses of selfishness, cruelty and lust, as is instanced in the lives of many ascetics, without comprehending the underlying significance of the world of reality, is of little avail. Knowledge of the real meaning of the words “be born again” is essential. This pregnant phrase has become veiled in a mysticism that has confounded the souls. So much so, that most of us have looked upon it as impossible of attainment. But, preeminently, we have not realized just what it is that we must be born out of, and into what state the new birth ushers us. This has resulted in a more or less fixity of thought that this blessed state was not of this world, and must be postponed, somehow, to the life to come. Nevertheless, Christ commanded His followers to establish the Kingdom of God in this world. Today, the picture, like a developing camera print, reveals all the lights and shadows, and stands out with clear demarcation in all its wholeness (or holiness).
Instead of fleeing from an imaginary Prince of Darkness, we now see that essence of evil as the alliance we, ourselves, enter into with the sinister, cruel elements of the natural forces. That the “balance of power” created by that unholy alliance is, in effect, a veritable Armageddon of the armies of unreality, warring through the ages, against the hosts of radiant truth. While, saddest of all words of tongue or pen, we are only depriving ourselves of the infinite blessings of
a loving, all-knowing Father, Whose bestowals cannot reach us so long as we persist in remaining in the foetal state. The unborn babe itself assists in the process of physical birth. But when confronted by the eternal mystery of entrance into the second birth, the will of man has been stubbornly set against this, so necessary, effort. We can only say that this stubbornness is largely born of ignorance of the true facts now made known in this hour of fulfilment by the Ancient Pen, in this Day of God. The enemy and the Friend have, for the first time, been truly depicted. The light and the shadow are intensely revealed.
LACKING even the power of imagining
the invisible realities of the
Kingdom of God, while in the state
of attachment, how, then, can we
gather the force and strength to
conquer that attachment, which the
revealed Words state is the first essential
to being born again?
‘Abdul-Bahá tells us this strength
is engendered “through the power
of the Holy Spirit”. Reference has
already been made, in these articles
to the mysterious power that converts
the mineral into the vegetable
forms, changing both the nature and
status of the former existence.
Also, to the transforming power of
the emanations from the Spirit of
Faith, the plane nearest and superior
to the natural man. Faith, then,
which is ever associated with an
intense yearning for emancipation,
is the first step. But Faith implies
a definite turning to, and recognition
of the True Sovereign.
This recognition is, above all, essential, because it is through the Holy Manifestations of God, (our
only means of attaining to the knowledge of that secluded and indefinable Essence of Reality), that the power and strength of the Holy Spirit is focused. Through the outpourings of that heavenly power, the Divine Love reaches humanity. In this sense, the Holy Spirit and the Love of God are one and the same. Consequently, the recognition of God, through realizing the proofs and evidences of His Manifestation, confers upon the possessor of Faith the supreme bounty of His Love, and the soul-refreshing stream of His Knowledge.
In these divine gifts, innately and inherently the repositories of spiritual power and strength, he who has
turned his gaze to the True Sovereign finds that reinforcement of the Holy Spirit that has been declared to be essential to deliverance from the claws of nature and the breaking of the ancient attachment. This deliverance is synonymous with “redemption“ and “salvation“.
We can thus, perhaps, more clearly understand why the Chosen Messenger of every spiritual cycle has taken to Himself, among other names, that of Savior; since through Him, and within Him, flows that Fountain of Living Water that we call the Holy Spirit, which, alone, conquers the exigencies of Nature, and redeems man from his supreme affliction. How great, then, is the importance of this Recognition.
THE hot afternoon sun lies heavily and inertly over everything, as though nothing were unusual. Yet today is the most marvelous and dreamily improbable day of my life. For the duration of a few hours I allow the experience of the new part of the world and the greatest city of the world to exercise its influence over me, for I am from Central Europe and have just arrived in New York to travel on from there to the city where I shall begin my professional career.
As I look about me I see tall buildings which extend far into the sky, elevated railways thunder past, automobiles rage, and crowds of people rush before me. Behind me is the blue-green Hudson river with its freight boats, passenger boats
Editor’s note—The author of this article, a young scholar from Europe who recently came to cast his destinies with America met with an untimely death in September last. The article was written in July.
and ferry boats swarming in confusion and all active and industrious under the watching eyes of the Statue of Liberty.
So this is the new world, so entirely different; the land of freedom, work and industry.
But one cannot live on enthusiasm alone, and my companion, who is an American and used to the uproar here, is more interested in a good meal. After that we plan a visit to the barber’s shop to further celebrate the day, and in order to experience still more the feeling of the newness of the new beginning. To this end I wish to enter a spotlessly clean barber shop whose revolving red, white and blue colors have already beckoned to me in a friendly manner from the distance.
But my companion suddenly holds me back. It seems he has a prejudice against being shaved by black hands.
A sudden almost painful sense of disappointment comes over me. Is this indeed the America which I have looked forward to seeing with joyful expectancy, where every one who works is a free man and respected regardless of what his work may be?
And this sense of alienation produces a further effect—it opens my eyes so that I see much that perhaps I would not have noticed otherwise in my enthusiastic prejudice.
Yes, it is true: work does not dishonor one here in this country. Here they do not know the prejudice of Europe that is erected as an insurmountable barrier between those who work with their hands and those who work with their minds; but in place of that they know another one, a much more inhuman one—race prejudice—crueler because race is a simple matter of fate and not a matter of one’s own merit or guilt.
BY CHANCE I come in contact with
cultivated colored groups. I learn
to know and esteem them, and also
to understand what it means to
stand under the onus of a prejuidice
which does not allow one to be simply
a human being and an individual
personality.
Does the average white American really know that there is a highly cultivated class of colored Americans? Hardly. And if he has heard anything about their universities and their thousands of conscientious, hard-working students, he usually closes his eyes and will not admit the cultural results. His contact with the colored race has been almost entirely confined to the class whose circumstances have deprived
them of educational opportunities, the same as corresponding groups among other people.
Are not all vocations honorable? But are other Americans or any Europeans judged only by representatives of such classes?
Herein is a worth while and vital problem for the followers of the Bahá’i religion to deal with, and I have observed that their fearless struggles against religious and racial prejudices have already brought about great blessings. One of the fundamental principles of the Bahá’i Movement is the Oneness of Mankind, and with a deep conscious realization of what the establishment of this principle would mean to mankind in so many ways, the Bahá'is are whole-heartedly promoting friendly social relations between all the races.
However, it is by no means true that all the colored race need to be educated to fit in to the society of the white race. No, on the contrary, if any one should be educated, it is members of the white race, who should learn to free themselves from outworn prejudices. If earlier beliefs about the colored race were correct, they certainly are no longer so. The white people should see and hear for themselves; and after discovering that the colored people are human beings quite like ourselves, it will not be difficult for them to realize the great intellectual and emotional capacities and unfolding possibilities of these people when some poet among them reads aloud his deep sad poetry, or when the beautiful harmonious tones of a spiritual resounds.
And is that not the best thing we can learn—to perceive and overcome our human faults and thus in the future see only human beings and so advance further toward true humanity?
AN institution” as has been said, “is the length and shadow of a man,” or it might have been said, of a woman. Such an institution is Green Acre*, one of the most remarkable centers of the interchange of thought and the stimulus of spiritual vision that exists in the world today. Sarah J. Farmer, who founded it and devoted to it her wealth and even life itself, intended it to serve as a platform for the tolerant and kindly interchange of religious and social ideals. From the first she gave it an atmosphere of fellowship, of kindness, so that all who came there were drawn into a comradeship such as is seldom known in gatherings of unrelated and unacquainted people.
Miss Farmer, with her sunny smile, as she presided on the platform, illumined both speaker and audience; and her spirit of generosity and friendliness permeated the Whole summer colony with an atmosphere of harmonious sociability which made it a unique caravansary of thought and of higher life.
After the death of Miss Farmer, Green Acre became the Center of the Bahá’i Summer School of Religions, and still maintains its atmosphere of universal kindliness and comradeship.
Here we find the different races meeting and mingling in a real unity of sincere sympathy and understanding, not a mere fictitious unity based upon an attempt
* Bahá’i Summer Colony, Eliot, Maine.
at tolerance. It is perhaps this absolute reality in the quality of friendship which makes members of races ordinarily discriminated against absolutely happy in the atmosphere of unity which they find there.
WHAT AN ideal spot, then, for the
holding of conferences for racial
amity. Such conferences have been
held annually at Green Acre for
many years arranged by the Bahá’i
National Committee for Interracial
Amity and furthered by the efficient
services of its Secretary,
Louis G. Gregory.
During this last summer one of the most successful of all these conferences was held. A brief description of this conference is interesting:
“The difficulties in the way of this Amity Conference in view of the depression and other obstacles loomed larger than those which confronted any previous and similar gathering. That they were met and overcome is certainly due to nothing less than Providence whose ways are ever marvelous in our eyes. Many of our visitors and workers traveled under such handicaps as to make their presence seem well nigh a miracle. Thus the mystery of sacrifice was attained and the devotion of hearts was freely given in service to the one true God. It was an effort which commanded the united support of the Bahá’i friends, those from afar and those
near at hand. The power of these meetings was most impressive.”
One of the speakers told how he first came to Green Acre in 1900 at the invitation of Miss Farmer. He related several stories of those early days and of his association with the founder of this spiritual enterprise whose great heart made possible the program she loved. People of all races and religions found welcome in her home and Green Acre became a center of hospitality. Her dignified presence and genial spirit charmed everyone and she was able to fuse conflicting viewpoints and clashing personalities through her serene and spiritual calm. Her statue grows with the years. Her fame belongs to the ages. This brilliant daughter of a great inventor dedicated all her powers and resources to the ideal that all men are brothers.
On Sunday afternoon a reception and tea was held for all delegates and visiting friends at the beautiful country estate of two well known Bahá’is. The beauty of the surroundings and the spirit of hospitality shown made a very deep impression.
The speakers and members of the Conference had gathered from practically every state east of the Alleghany mountains, with visitors from many points further west and south. The attendance was the largest of any conference at Green Acre in many years and the Inn and surrounding properties bustled with activities.
The speakers and the chairman of each meeting reviewed the whole subject of prejudice and averred the need of the Divine Power to lift humanity to a new plane of understanding. The reality of man is noble, fearless, open-minded, loving and intelligent. Today countless souls are showing forth this reality, scrapping ancient superstitions and prejudices and revealing in this way the foundations of human brotherhood. Every Divine Teacher of the past has unified races and nations. He has displaced hatred and prejudice with love and justice. Now in this day antagonistic peoples are finding ideal unity through the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. This is a Light which shines for the whole world.
- God, give us younger singers
- Gifted with golden throats;
- God, give us stronger singers
- To sing the Higher Notes.
- God, give us newer singers,
- The old are waxing shrill!
- God, give us truer singers—
- To sing once more Thy Will!
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