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Abdul-Baha
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KEITH RANSOM-KEHLER
A Dynamic Personality
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DESTINY OPENS THE DOOR
Gita Orlove
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A STOREHOUSE OF WISDOM
Berthe Hyde Kirkpetrick
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OMNIVEROUS READERS
OF JAPAN
Shio Sakenishi, Ph.D.
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| VOL. 24 | DECEMBER, 1933 | No. 9 |
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 | DECEMBER, 1933 | No. 9 |
The Advent of Christ, ’Abdu’l-Bahá | 261 |
The Fundamental Cause of World Unrest | 278 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 259 |
Omniverous Readers of Japan, Shio Sakanishi, Ph. D. | 262 |
Night on the Plain of ‘Akká, Elizabeth Hackley, Esther G. Harding | 265 |
Destiny Opens the Door, Gita Orlova | 266 |
Keith Ransom-Kehler, A Brief Sketch of a Dynamic Personality, Mariam Haney | 269 |
The Portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Mary Hanford Ford | 276 |
A Storehouse of Wisdom, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 279 |
Memorials of the Faithful, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 281 |
The Evolution of a Bahá’i, Incidents from the Life of Ellen V. Beecher, Dorothy Baker | 283 |
Voltaire’s Prayer, Translation by Mme. Emilie McBride Perigord | 288 |
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.
“May we on this day in our churches and in our homes give humble thanks for the blessings bestowed upon us during the year past by Almighty God.
“May we recall the courage of those who settled a wilderness, the vision of those who founded the nation, the steadfastness of those who in every succeeding generation, have fought to keep pure the ideal of equality of opportunity, and hold clear the goal of mutual help in time of prosperity as in time of adversity.
“May we ask guidance in more surely learning the ancient truth that greed and selfishness and striving for undue riches can never bring lasting happiness or good to the individual or to his neighbors.
“May we be grateful for the passing of dark days; for the new spirit of dependence one on another; for the closer unity of all parts of our wide land; for the greater friendship between employers and those who toil; for a clearer knowledge by all nations that we seek no conquests and ask only honorable engagements by all peoples to respect the lands and rights of their neighbors; for the brighter day to which we can win thru by seeking the help of God in at more unselfish striving for the common bettering of mankind.
“O God, Almighty Protector! O Thou Who art the confirmer of every just power and equitable empire in eternal glory, everlasting power, continuance and greatness! Strengthen with the abundance of Thy mercy every government which acts with equity towards its subjects, and every dominion under whose flag the poor and weak find protection.
“We ask Thee by Thy holiness and bounty to pour out Thy blessing upon this government which has stretched its tent over citizens from every land, that its inhabitants, its industries, its territories may be penetrated by justice.
“O God! Strengthen its executives, give authority and influence to its word and utterance, protect its territories and dominions, guard its reputation, make its ideals to echo throughout the world, reveal its traces and exalt its principles by Thy conquering power and wonderful might throughout the kingdoms of creation.
“Thou art the confirmer of whomsoever Thou willest. Verily, Thou art the powerful and the mighty!”
| VOL. 24 | DECEMBER, 1933 | No. 9 |
was the perfect meaning—the Christhood in Him—which in the Holy Books is symbolized as the Word. ‘The Word was with God.’ The Christhood means not the body of Jesus but the perfection of divine virtues manifest in Him. . . . The reality of Christ was the embodiment of divine virtues and attributes of God.
For in Divinity there is no duality.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.IN THE MODERN reaction against theological concepts of the past that have become untenable in the light of today, the tendency has been to unduly minimize the station and influence of Christ. Intellectuals are prone to classify Christ as one of a group of spiritual geniuses who have dedicated their lives to the progress of humanity, differing only in degree of spirituality and devotion from the rest of us humans. There are three aspects or factors, however, in the nature of Christ which sets that nature off not only in degree but also in kind from human beings on this planet.
FIRST, CHRIST was a destined
channel for pure truth, for the revealed
Word of God sent to enlighten
the knowledge and the conduct of
humanity. Such a Messenger is different
not only in degree but also in
kind, and His utterances are different
from the utterances of other human
beings; for only from the Revealers
of God’s Word do we get
pure Truth. All other utterance
upon this planet, no matter how
high its degree of wisdom and of
vision, is mixed with an inferior
quality of human judgment and
opinion. No message, however
deeply inspired and inspirational it
may be—of thinker, teacher, philosopher,
or humanitarian—can or
should be followed implicitly by mankind; for here we cannot find absolute Truth.
But in the utterances of the Manifestations of God we find nothing but Truth. The Message of Christ has not come down to us in all its original purity; we receive it already adulterated by its passage through the personality and temperament of those who recorded it. But in its original form here was a pure light from God sent to illumine the world and to guide its progress toward perfection. This is the first point in which Christ differs from other human beings.
SECONDLY, CHRIsT exemplified in
absolute perfection the truths
which He declared. The quality of
His life and His love for humanity
was not like that of the rest of us—contingent
upon efforts toward self-perfection.
It was from birth absolute
and final. The Manifestations
of God bring to earth a
capacity for mirroring perfectly the
attributes of God. The wisdom, the
love which They display have a
more than human, they have a divine
quality.
The Manifestations set an example which is one hundred percent perfect, unalloyed by any human fraility. And the glorious altitudes of conduct which they manifest, in
and by means of their lives, become goals for all humanity to strive toward; goals unattainable upon this planet, it is true—but for that reason all the more impelling, since there are none who can say: “I have reached the limit; there is no more perfection for me to strive toward.”
THIRDLY—a factor supremely important
as regards the influence of
the Christ upon subsequent humanity—is
His ever-living presence in
the hearts of all who devotedly believe
in Him and turn to Him for
spiritual help. “I know that my
Redeemer liveth,”—is a glorious
impelling thought resuscitating
hearts and lifting up weak souls to
altitudes of conduct otherwise ununattainable.
If Christians had no other aid and inspiration to nobility of soul than the fact that there had once appeared upon this planet a spiritual genius who uttered sublime sentiments on conduct and living, we may be sure that there would be missing from the history of human morals a vast amount of lofty ethical living which in reality has appeared as a consequence of Christ’s influence.
It is not the historical Christ so much as the indwelling Christ that has been the cause of saintliness; of divine infinite love manifested by human beings who strove to follow in His footsteps.
“I am with you always . . . Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, lo! I am with you.” It is this eternal Christ who is worshipped; this miracle of the Holy Spirit which Christ mediates to earthbound creatures—now, as then in the days of ancient Palestine.
THERE WAS a time when I, like a majority of the intellectuals of today, believed that man’s own intelligence, striving for good, with the aid and inspiration of noble utterances from the world’s great religions, was sufficient for right conduct. But from a deep study of the pages of history and of the lives of human beings with whom I have come in contact I am convinced that no human conduct can approach in nobility that of saintly people who owe their inspiration to the experience of the indwelling Christ (or to similar spiritual phenomena in some other world religion).
Nowhere can we find in human experience such divinely forgiving and self-sacrificing love, such utter devotion to the service of their fellows, such entire severance from worldliness, such complete sincerity of motivation, such purity of conduct, such freedom from the passions and from those little besetting sins which spring upon us out of our animal selves,–as in the lives of saintly people who have owed their saintliness to their devotion to Christ and to their experience of union with this spiritually charged Center from which emanate electrically vibrant and vivifying forces of the Holy Spirit.
Let us study unprejudicially and dispassionately the history of the human race since the days of Christ, and we shall be forced to conclude that His influence differs not only in magnitude but also in kind from that exerted by ordinary beings as we know them in this world. The station of Christ is not only lofty but unapproachable. It is a beacon light set to guide us from the world of the finite to the World of the Infinite.
CHRIST . . .
Christ was to draw the hearts of all men nearer to God’s effulgent
Truth.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.THE advent of Christ on this earth was a blessed day for it was the day on which the Sun of Reality dawned; the day on which all beings were revivified. In the world’s calendar, it was the beginning of a Heavenly Spring.”
THE reality of Christ, that is to say the Word of God, is the cause of spiritual life. It is a quickening spirit, meaning that all the imperfections which come from the requirements of the physical life of man, are transformed into human perfections by the teachings and education of that spirit. Therefore Christ was a quickening spirit, and the cause of life in all mankind. The position of Christ was that of absolute perfection; He made His divine perfections shine like the sun upon all believing souls, and the bounties of the light shone and radiated in the reality of men. . . . The Reality of Christ was a clear and polished mirror of the greatest purity and fineness, and the Sun of Reality, that is to say, the Essence of Oneness, with its infinite perfections and attributes, became visible in the mirror. . . . The Christ sacrificed himself so that men might be freed from the imperfections of the physical nature, and might become possessed of the virtues of the spiritual nature. This spiritual nature, which came into existence through the bounty of the Divine Reality, is the reunion of all perfections, and appears through the breath of the Holy Spirit; it is the divine perfections, it is light, spirituality, guidance, exaltation, high aspiration, justice, love, grace, kindness to all, philanthropy, the essence of life. It is the reflection of the splendor of the Sun of Reality.”
THE Cause of Bahá’u’lláh is the same as the Cause of Christ. It is the same temple and the same foundation. . . . In the coming of Christ, the divine teachings were given in accordance with the infancy of the human race. The teachings of Bahá’u’lláh have the same basic principles, but are according to the stage of the maturity of the world and the requirements of this illumined age.”
CHRIST was a heavenly physician. He brought spiritual health and healing into the world. Bahá’u’lláh is likewise a divine physician. He has revealed prescriptions for removing disease from the body politic and has remedied human conditions by spiritual power.”
The author of this article, Director of the Japanese Division of the Library of Congress, gives us a very informing article based on the outstanding research she has accomplished in her particular field of professional work. The enormous literary culture of the Japanese, the large number of books and magazines they publish, will be a revelation to those who have not given this subject definite consideration. It is valuable to Americans to help them understand the great cultural achievements of the Japanese, measured in terms of journalistic and literary progress.
WHEN Ansai Yamazaki (1618-1682), one of the greatest philosophers of Japan was a mere boy, his grandmother said to him: “Your body is worth one sen, while your eyes are worth one hundred yen. Therefore you ought not to injure them, but if you do not learn to read, you will be as one who is blind.” This impressed young Ansai so much that he learned to read the most difficult Chinese classics before he was ten years old.
Not all the Japanese children are so fortunate as to have such a wise grandmother as Ansai’s, but their parents teach them very early to love and respect books. A Japanese baby is given a book, not the kind with linen leaves which he cannot tear, but an ordinary paper book, and he is taught not to tear its leaves. Any child who handles his book roughly or disrespectfully must go to bed without his supper. He is taught to take up a book with both hands, sit up straight, and then open it to read. With such training he soon finds his books the most loyal friends and wise counsellors throughout his life.
The books in Japan, then, seem to fare better than some of their kind elsewhere. Since so little is known in the Occident about book production in Japan in either ancient or modern times, will it not be interesting
to look into its history and the present condition?
IN ONE of the earliest dynastic
annals we find the following entry:
“In the fourth month of the year
770, after the eight years of civil
war had been brought to an end, the
Empress Shotoku made a vow and
ordered the production of one million
pagodas, within which were
placed the charms printed from
wood blocks. When this work was
finished, they were distributed
among various temples.” To the
Empress Shotoku the world owes its
first certain and clearly attested
record of printing with wooden
blocks upon paper. A number of
the original impressions are still
preserved, and in the United States
the Library of Congress in Washington,
D. C., and the Art Institute
of Chicago are fortunate in posessing
some of these rare specimens.
As the motive of printing was to obtain merit, the early Japanese works were all Buddhistic. For example, Otomo no Akamaro was a governor of the province of Musashi. In the second year after his death, a calf with black markings was born on a temple estate. These marks were interpreted as an inscription designating the name “Otomo no Akamaro” and were said to reveal how the latter had
secretly appropriated temple property, but having died without punishment, was now suffering retribution by being reborn as a calf. The family mourned and feared, and had the sacred writings of Buddha carved and printed for distribution.
Thus it took nearly five hundred years to secularize the art of printing. Gradually a few scholarly works came to be printed, but they were so expensive that only noblemen and lords of feudal provinces could buy them, and poor scholars and students borrowed and copied them. In some cases a student committed the whole book to memory.
The introduction of metal movable type through Korea in 1597 marks another epoch in the history of book-making, but the Japanese language was such that they soon found the block printing was cheaper than the metal movable type. By the close of the 18th century the government press was printing over 1,000 volumes yearly, and the private presses in Kyoto, Edo and even in provinces under the patronage of the powerful and intellectual feudal lords made a tremendous headway in the matter of book production. Unfortunately there is no way of determining the exact number of books printed by them. About this time there were 1,141 licensed book dealers in Japan. But the matter of licensing was by no means strict, and it is more likely that the number quoted above is very much smaller than the actual book dealers then in existence. In 1932 the Japanese Book Dealers’ Association had 14,867 members.
SINCE THE Restoration of 1867,
the book industry in Japan has
made a phenomenal development. An increase of 800 percent in the total annual output of new books and pamphlets has taken place in the last fifty years so that in 1932 there were 22,000 new books and pamphlets published. Indeed, while the United States has been falling off in the last three years in new bound publications, Japan as well as Great Britain has been gaining. And this in spite of the fact that owing to lower wages in Japan a Japanese pays much more for a book in real money than does an American. Recently the one yen book corresponding to the American dollar book has appeared in Japan.
As to the subjects in demand in Japan—text books and those on educational subjects lead, as everywhere as a matter of course, and fiction comes next, but sociology and economics which are comparatively new subjects in Japan are in great demand. Another significant change is in the interest in religious books. Books on religion had never exceeded the 600 mark in the heyday of prosperity but have begun to increase since the advance of depression and reached the thousand mark in 1932, proving the validity of an old proverb, “Man will pray to the gods in trouble.”
Just before and after the publication of the Report of the Lytton Commission, the market was flooded with books and pamphlets on the Manchurian and Mongolian crisis.
It may also be informing that translations from foreign languages in 1928 were over 2,000, and there has been every indication that they have been increasing with astonishing rapidity but no accurate figures for the last few years are available.
Not only this but the Japanese are omniverous readers of foreign publications in their original languages. According to the report of the Custon House over a million volumes in foreign languages, English, German, French, Chinese and Russian, entered Japan in 1931. Scientific and technical books made up by far the largest number of these.
IF THE Japanese are prolific readers
of books, their capacity for magazines
is still more astonishing. Today
there are over 10,000 magazines.
They are increasing at an
average rate of 20 a month, and occupy
70 per cent of the total figure
of book production. In 1932 the
Tokyo Publishers’ Association
took a census of the sales figures
of eighty-three leading monthly
magazines and found that twenty-eight
journals had an annual sale
of more than a million and a half issues.
Therefore, it is not considered
at all strange that any popular
magazine should have 100,000
circulation every month.
Japanese journalism dates back nearly four hundred years, and it is not an importation of the West as some claim. Single news sheets were issued from time to time informing of a great battle or an earthquake or any other significant event of the nation. Some of them were illustrated with crude woodcuts, and in some sense they were the forerunner of the tabloid journals of the West.
Today there are 11,118 newspapers throughout the country, but the comparatively small area of Japan limits the growth of great newspapers outside Tokyo which is the political capital, and Osaka, the commercial capital. In their method
of news gathering, organization, and plants, these metropolitan newspapers can be compared with the leading papers of the United States. In circulation, too, the million mark has been passed by several papers, and in fact the Tokyo Asahi has a million and a half circulation. The rustle of newspapers is an integral part of Japanese daily life, and an English writer once commented: “Even the scavengers pause for that daily drug which is taken through the eyes.”
AN UNIQUE phase of the Japanese news gathering is that the use of the modern telephone and telegraph is often supplemented by carrier pigeons. Correspondents on a difficult assignment in an out of the way place go armed not only with pencil and paper but also with pigeons which fly home with the necessary report.
There are 3,081 public libraries and 1,456 private libraries open to the public. They are always crowded and in Tokyo we often see a long line of men and women outside waiting to be admitted. Indeed we need another four thousand of such institutions. For the rural communities the government has organized a special method of travelling libraries for the winter use. For example a box of books will be shipped to a village where it is put in charge of a school teacher or a policeman or even a citizen. It will remain there three weeks. At the end of its stay another box with new titles appears, and the old box goes to the next village. This method has proved to be very effective in educating and entertaining the rural residents during the dull winter season.
Censorship of the press has been one of the bitter questions in Japan. Publishers and authors consider the Census Office of the Police Bureau under the Home Department as their worst bug-bear. When a book or a magazine is ready for the market, two copies must be sent to the Census Office for inspection and registration and a book can be suppressed for either of the following reasons: (1) Being injurious to public morals; (2) Disturbing the public peace and order. Under the first head come all the erotic literature and prints. Under the second comes that with socialistic and communistic tendencies, the so-called dangerous thoughts. An average of 2,000 items out of 80,000 deposits which consist mostly of
unbound material, are suppressed annually by the government.
MORE THAN any one else, the Japanese realize that to fathom one’s wisdom and knowledge by pages or volumes he devours, is ridiculous. The modern so-called education consists too much in reading and swallowing the material he cannot comprehend or digest. Keenly aware of such danger, the Japanese educators are trying their best not to stuff young minds with information, but rather to draw out the mental power and create a capacity for each to think for himself. For, they believe, intellectually speaking, very few die of hunger, but many die of mental indigestion.
- Across the plain of ‘Akká1 blow the winds
- Of evening, soft, caressing, from the sea.
- They bear the scent of orange blossoms sweet,
- And fragrance from the bloom of lemon tree.
- Above a silent world, a crescent moon
- Transfigures with her light each common thing,
- So that a shepherd on a nearby hill,
- Becomes a symbol of the Shepherd King!
- Across the bay, the Shrine2 on Carmel throws
- Its light afar, and guides the ships at sea;
- But, O beloved, it shines beyond these shores,
- It lights the path of life for you and me!
1 In Palestine
2 Shrine of the Bab and Abdu’l-Bahá.
The author, a talented tragedienne and the widow of one of the distinguished members of a noble Russian family—most of whom lost their lives in the revolution—herein gives very briefly the story of her search for Truth. She may at some future time give further details and a more intimate story. However it is clear in the pen picture she presents that her heart was prepared through a multitude of tragic events to recognize “the way of life” when the path was opened and made accessible to her in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.
SPENGLER says that “Destiny is an organic necessity.” When we realize the necessity for the tranquility that a real faith in religion brings to the human heart and mind, then the words of Spengler take on their true significance, for it is destiny to find the attitude of thinking that brings one nearer to spiritual peace.
The materialist may ask “why spiritual peace, why not mental?” Because mental peace is a quality of reasoning, and spiritual peace is a quality of detachment, or severance from the storm of human problems and disillusionment of childish belief in the truth and heroic qualities of the persons who make up ones everyday contact with society.
My father was a scholar whose library was a treasure-house of classic literature. Here I came at a very early age in contact with the philosophers, and so sympathetic was my father that he did not make it seem strange to me that at the age of fourteen I was discussing Plato, Socrates and Aristotle with him. If my deductions amused him he was far too gallant a gentleman to embarrass me with his smile. When, however, I told him that I did not wish to go to church any more because I did not believe what the preacher was saying, my blessed and understanding father did not
insist upon my going to church again. His own faith in God was so simple and yet so profound that it greatly influenced my whole worship, not thru form or creed, but by an intimacy with God thru all creation.
In 1892 I remember very distinctly father’s reading an article in an English newspaper about the death of a great Persian prophet who had made a claim to Messiahship, and whose message was for the abolishment of racial, national and religious prejudices. I remember that father discussed this message and its effect upon human relations for some time during the dinner hour. I also remember that the beautiful and rhythmic name of the Messenger impressed me. I was moved by the plea that He made for a universal language that we might understand each other’s words, instead of becoming confused by translations.
SO DESTINY began its subtle work
of organic necessity. The seed had
been planted, and tho many years
were to pass before it became conscious
of its urge for growth, it
perhaps was not lying dormant entirely
all thru the years that followed.
In 1915 a strange whim of Destiny took me to San Francisco. The
war and German raiders caused a boat upon which I was a passenger to go into the port of New Orleans, a destination far removed from my intention. Other events led me to San Francisco.
It was Mrs. Spreckles I think, who one day in San Francisco several years later handed me a large volume, and said, “Here is a book of some religion that is causing quite a stir I hear. I know nothing about it, but you are always interested in religions and especially in all the religion and philosophy that comes from the East. You may have the book.” I accepted the large volume, and read the title, “Bahá’i Scriptures.”
One of the griefs of the yesterdays is that I did not respond to that first gift of Destiny, in the moment of her giving. Undoubtedly Spengler would say that at the moment when Destiny opened the door the organic was not yet strong enough to make me conscious of the necessity of my forgetting all else to enter the door. Perhaps the necessity was vital enough but Life was still a translucent thing to me, and the irons had not yet burned deeply enough.
WELL THE large book began its
adventure. First it traveled to New
York, thence to Italy, Switzerland,
France, England, Russia—thru the
turmoil of tragic experiences. It
then voyaged to Siberia, Mongolia,
Manchuria, Korea, Japan and
China, across the Pacific to Canada,
many times across the United
States from coast to coast, finally to
find a resting place in my home
near New York.
One evening a little over a year
ago, I had been working all day with my out of door theatre, and was very weary, so that I sought the couch, but first searched the library for something to read while I awaited the solace for my weariness. Search as I would, I could find nothing which had not already been read except one book. That was the large volume, Bahá'i Scriptures, now worth its weight in gold because of its many journeys by express. Many times my hand had hesitated in packing it with others which I loved, but in the end I always included it with the idea of some day, in the world turned upside down, I would find the leisure to read the book whose pages I had never opened. At this moment I laughed and said, “Well, old friend whom I have neglected, and yet to whom I have shown a strange faithfulness, you are about to come into your own.”
I OPENED the book to some page
at haphazard, apparently, and began
one of the most thrilling and
dramatic episodes in human history,
the story of the martyrdom of
the Báb. All my senses as a
tragedienne were in flame over the
superb grandeur of that episode. I
cannot think of any drama of Greek
tragedy, no matter how classic its
climax, not even the death of
Oedipus Rex that can touch this
scene for sheer magnificent tragic
theatre. Needless to say, I spent
the night in wrapt reading of the
long neglected book. It never
dawned upon me to doubt the reality
and divinity of Bahá’u’lláh,
nor the miracle of His great plan
for the unifying of contending
forces in the practical as well as the
ethical world. I knew then that the
organic necessity had become my Destiny.
I had steadily refused to “belong” to any sect or society, always saying that if I were anything definite it was a Buddhist because that was a religion of beauty and particularly suited to the need of an artist’s soul. More and more as the days passed the words of Jacob Boehme became poignantly real to me: “Not until I lost faith in all humanity and found refuge only in faith of the eternal Light did the Sublime send me help through humans.” My deepest longing had been crystalizing into a tangible desire to enter an ashrama or refuge for meditation in Mongolia or Manchuria, to be completely detached from the world which contained so much of heartbreak, ugliness and disillusionment of the most sacred ideals.
Now, as though made to the full measure of such a human need, the answer had come in a form at once practical, tangible, and yet divine, leaving one in the world and yet freed from its attachment. Here was an ideal or religion for this sad hour in the history of mankind, that interpreted the realities of science, of history, of races and cultures in a way both rational and spiritual; which gave a satisfying explanation for the six mysterious days of the Creation of Genesis.
I had been carrying the solace for my spiritual ills like a ruby in my possession, and had kept it hidden, but now it glowed and shone.
I was just finishing the reading of the Scriptures for the third time
when a real estate woman called me from New York, and asked if I would be at home that afternoon at three o’clock. I answered that I would, and asked who her clients were who wished to see our property. She answered, “Some people from a religious group called Bahá’is.”
Destiny had caught me by my flying feet.
That afternoon at three o’clock, an auto stopped before the door and a gentleman and his wife descended. As I looked into the face of the man, I said, “You are my spiritual brother;” and without answering he turned to his wife and said, “Dear, a new teacher has come.”
Later, I asked this Bahá’i teacher how he came to be looking at a three hundred acre estate, and with lovely guilelessness he said that the real estate agent had long entreated them to visit the property, and finally on this lovely day they had consented, the idea being the possibility of using the place as a Bahá’i center, on account of its proximity to New York.
SO THE happy days of instruction
began, days of divine illumination
for the spirit, but full of problems
in my practical life for during this
period I lost the beautiful estate,
and found many tests and trials.
But the words of the Beloved were
a song that rose above all cries of
the world, “A single breeze of His
affluence doth suffice to adorn all
mankind with the robe of wealth.”
And so I became a Bahá’i.
“On Persian soil, for Persia's sake, she encountered, challenged and fought the forces of darkness with high distinction, indomitable will, unswerving, exemplary loyalty. The mass of her helpless Persian brethren mourns the sudden loss of their valiant emancipator.”—Shoghi Effendi.
“The days of human existence are like vanishing shadows: compared to the world of Reality they are brought to a close with extraordinary rapidity. . . . From the king to the servant all walk in this fleeting path and live in this circle.”
KEITH RANSOM-KEHLER, at the sacrifice of energy, health and even life iself, remarkably fulfilled a mission which will go down to history as new and unique in the annals of the evolution of religion. It was a mission not undertaken for the sake of proselyting Orientals into a religion of the Occident, but for the sake of creating and cementing ties of friendship already inherent in the miracle which rallied peoples of the East and peoples of the West around one unifying Center, Bahá’u’lláh.
Mrs. Ransom-Kehler had a great and dynamic personality “ripened by the Holy Spirit.” If we wish a concrete example of the power of the Word of Bahá’u’lláh to effect a transformation in the life of a distinguished scholar, we have it in the spiritual rise of Keith, as she was affectionately known by Bahá'is round the world.
When in May 1921 she heard the Bahá’i Message for the first time, it was as if she had actually listened to the Divine Voice calling, “Come,
give me your life for this Cause.” She arose whole-heartedly, as thousands of martyrs already had done in Persia cementing the foundation of this great Bahá’i world religion with their life’s blood. She heard of this universal message and ascended to heights of achievement through her marvelous services to the world Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
LET US review briefly a few pages
from the life of this dynamic character.
Born in Kentucky around
1878, she received most of her pre-college
training in a private school
in Cincinnati, and there prepared
for Vassar. She graduated from
that well known college. Later she
did graduate work and eventually
received the M. A. degree.
Her years at Vassar were spent at a time when the securing of higher education was a progressive if not a radical thing for a woman. She manifested continually those qualities which foreshadowed future events in her life; always a leader of thought and expression she was an outstanding student. Her bold and original discussions in the class room won her distinction and the just praise of her classmates as well as her professors. Subsequently she held the chair of English in a western college.
Her multiple gifts and strong enthusiasms led her into many occupations. Each one she fulfilled vigorously,
--PHOTO--
Keith Ransom-Kehler (center, holding Persian writing) and her Persian Bahá’i class in character training.
giving all her energy and attention, manifesting at all times a characteristically great dynamic personality—Hull House settlement work, prison reform at Sing Sing, interior decorating, professor of English. How versatile she was!
BUT WHAT is of the most interest
to the readers of this magazine is to
ponder over the varied aspects of
her active life from the time she accepted
the Bahá’i Teachings and began
to travel “the path paved by
Bahá’u’lláh.” How swift and marvelous
were her growth and attainments
once she dedicated her life to
the study, the application and the
promulgation of the new World
Order of Bahá’u’lláh. The pride of
a powerful and well trained intellect
tempered by her deep study of the
revealed Word of God became sublimated
into a superb and dynamic
quality of spiritual life. Her penetrating
mind led her in this study to
a deep knowledge of the mystical
side of life without at any time destroying
or minimizing the practical
quality of her achievement on the
outer plane, but rather strengthening
it with an inner fire and force.
Possessed of a keen incisive intellect and great gift of analysis—a thinker, a writer, a lecturer of outstanding ability—she dedicated all these great gifts to the dissemination of those marvelous principles given to the world by Bahá’u’lláh for the healing of the nations. Freed by a small income from the necessity of earning her living, Keith was able to devote her whole time to the work of the Bahá’i Cause. She traveled extensively, making invaluable contributions to the organization and promulgation of the Cause.
1 Bahá’i Magazine, Vol. 17, pp. 256, 370; Vol. 18, pp. 124, 198, 251.
Soon her outstanding ability and services were recognized in an official way by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, and she became their official representative in her work and travels.
IN 1926 she made her first visit or
pilgrimage to Haifa and ‘Akká in
Palestine. She had longed to meet
in person the Guardian of the
Bahá’i Cause, Shoghi Effendi, and
learn from him how to tread more
devotedly the highway of service;
she wished to visit the Shrines of
the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on
Mount Carmel, and the Holy Shrine
of Bahá’u’lláh at Bahji near ‘Akká;
she wished to lay her forehead in the
dust of those Divine Thresholds and
try to empty herself of all human
conditions which she felt were still
the dust on the mirror of her heart.
This was undoubtedly the greatest
intellectual and spiritual experience
of her life, a holy benediction. Some
of her experiences in this pilgrimage
she wrote for the Bahá’i Magazine
under the title Excerpts From
My Diary.1 And in these Diary
Notes we believe are to be found one
of the most beautiful and stirring
pictures of a sacred visit to the Holy
Land ever published. Keith touched
the heights in this series. That
they were both brilliantly and spiritually
written is testified by the fact
that Shoghi Effendi himself chose
them for reproduction in The
Bahá’i World.
Keith had indeed great literary talent, and one of the most vitally significant services that she rendered the Cause was her brilliant work as a contributor to the pages of the Bahá’i Magazine—a splendid
monument to her loyalty and devotion. Her first article appeared in October 1924, entitled The Questing Soul. From it we quote the following important paragraph which so distinctly demonstrates how the seed of Bahá’i Truth had germinated in her heart and was influencing her mental processes:
“Suffocating humanity can only be revived from the noxious atmosphere of greed, selfishness and discord to which earthly standards and strivings subject it, by the gale of God’s call through His Messenger to throw wide the portals of heart and mind to the purifying air of the spirit.
“The real giving up of the self, constituting the only release from struggle that the soul can ever know—is not possible until men firmly grasp the essential paradox that to think of the self, its preferments, its inordinate ambitions and crude vanities, brings no happiness; to forget the self and be caught up in the unlimited joy of a great ideal, the ineffable adoration of a Divine Guide and Seer, brings a security and radiance that no self-seeking, no fulfillment of personal ambition could ever know.”
IN THE summer of 1931 she started
on a trip which was to carry her
around the world, never again to
settle down in her native land. Her
journey led her from Chicago to the
Pacific Coast, visiting all Bahá’i
Assemblies enroute—a teaching
tour of great importance. Colleges,
universities, clubs, associations of
various kinds, churches, etc., opened
their doors to her. And right here,
perhaps it is important to state that
her gifts and talents, both intellectually
and spiritually, as referred to
in this article, made it possible to
serve all types of people, for she
could meet inquirers on their own
level of thought.
She sailed from San Francisco in the early winter of 1931. Her first visit was in Japan.1 While she was in that country she visited the
1 Bahá’i Magazine Vol. 22, p. 310. 2 Vol. 23, pp. 38, 69, 142.
--PHOTO--
Keith just before she left Tihrán. She had been weeping, but tried to smile for the camera man.
Bahá’is; and through Miss Agnes Alexander, resident Bahá’i teacher, she made many important contacts. While there she also wrote a significant series of articles on the Bahá’i Teachings for the Tokyo Nichi Nichi which were later published in the Bahá’i Magazine under the title Religion and Social Progress.2
From Japan she went to China and visited Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai—devoting herself to the work of furthering the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. The first sentence of her Letter about this
visit, all Bahá’is who have traveled to other countries of the world will appreciate:
“What a glorious thing it is to be a Bahá’i and know that wherever you go there will always be those who extend a loving welcome; what a moving experience to see the eager smiling upturned faces of Bahá’is waiting to greet you as you sail into the ports of the world.”
Keith’s travels then led her to New Zealand where she made a significant study of the native Maoris. Her contacts were of an extremely important nature. She described some of them in her Letters Home.
Next she went to India, visiting the various Bahá’i communities throughout this great country. In her Letters Home on India there is this concluding paragraph:
“What but the power of Bahá’u’lláh can blot from men’s recollection their outworn superstitions, their paralyzing dogmas and emancipate them for the sublime adventure of making of ‘this world another world that will be filled with the holy ecstacy of the Grace of God?’”
SHE FINISHED this first part of her world tour by a second visit to Shoghi Effendi in Haifa, Palestine. Here she enjoyed a brief rest and the inspiration and communion with the Guardian of the Bahá’i Cause, to whom she was greatly devoted. But this rest did not last long, for Shoghi Effendi, fully appreciating her great gifts for service to the Cause, decided to make use of these talents in the land which gave birth to the Bahá’i Cause, Persia itself.
In the March 1933 number of the Bahá’i Magazine began the moving, heart-appealing, dynamic story of her visit to historic Bahá’i centers and her sojourn among her Bahá’i brothers and sisters in Persia—that land which is destined to occupy a central place in the religious history of the
world. Starting with her visit to the Bahá’i village of Sisán, arranged for her by the Spiritual Assembly of Tabriz, she gives a record of such human and spiritual relationships that, as we live over again the scenes so vividly described by her, we are impelled to use her own words to express our feelings: “A triumphal progress so extravagant that it will remain forever–not an episode, but an acute emotional experience. . . . The real meaning of Bahá’i solidarity suddenly penetrated me. Here were Persians, speaking Turkish, fixed in a tiny town in the mountains of Adhirbayján, and I an Occidental, cosmopolitan; but we were bound together by ties ‘more lasting than bronze and higher than the exalted Pyramids.’ For knowledge of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh and knowledge of His All-enfolding Covenant is not a question of locality, education or preferment but an unshakable spiritual reality that welds those who know it into an indissoluble human brotherhood. Here is a true solidarity that can withstand all the forces of disruption in the universe.“
Her fascinating Letters Home about Persia continued through the April, May, June and July, 1933, numbers of the Bahá’i Magazine. The continuity, thereafter, was interrupted, at her own request, so that precedence might be given to her three brilliant articles on Bahá’i Administration which she wrote at the command of Shoghi Effendi.
To do justice to her historic visits in Persia, to such places as Shiráz, the birthplace of the Báb, to the Shrine at Sheik Tabarsi “where first ‘The Dawn-Breakers’ of our Revelation gave ‘the last full measure
--PHOTO--
Keith photographed with a group of delegates attending the Bahá'i Convention in Tihrán, Persia, in May, 1933.
of devotion,’” to Khurásán, Mazindarán, Tihrán, and other places, is impossible in this brief account and also all too vastly important to the history of the Bahá’i Cause to be recorded in any other way save with the greatest degree of accuracy in regard to every detail. The Letters about Persia above referred to as printed in the Bahá’i Magazine give only those pictures which would be of interest to both Bahá’is and nonBahá’is alike. Intimate details, lacking in such accounts, will be given as the history of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh in Persia is written by official historians.
Letters from Bahá’is in Persia tell of the never-to-be-forgotten scenes as she bade farewell to them in every place she visited. She had left Tihrán with the most affectionate and touching farewells from all—hundreds of Persian men and women crowded to see her departure, with tears in their eyes expressing
their gratitude for the noble and valuable services she had rendered. They would be remembered by all, not only during this time, but by generations yet unborn for she served the Cause with a spirit of sacrifice, devotion and faithfulness.
Mrs. Ransom-Kehler had left Tihrán on her return journey expecting to visit the southern cities of Persia. She stopped first in Isfahán, and while there was taken ill with smallpox and passed away in October, 1933. Her remains were interred near the place where well known martyrs of the Cause as well as other notable Bahá’is are buried.
THE MARVEL of the magnificently
brilliant services of Keith in Persia
is the fact that a western Bahá’i
woman, born and raised in the
United States, surrounded with all
the luxuries of modern life as we
know it, should be sent to the land of
Bahá’u’lláh as an apostle of the Bahá’i religion to serve the Bahá’is and others in this capacity. She rendered such signal services as can only be adequately evaluated by Shoghi Effendi himself. Her goings-forth in that land where over twenty thousand Bahá’is had shed their blood in the path of this Cause in the early days of its history, can only be termed an overwhelming miracle; the mystery of it and the outer and inner meaning of it will be known in its true worth only as time passes.
NOT YOUNG, not strong physically,
used to the refinements and even
luxuries of life, with her type of
capacity intellectually, she could
have earned for herself a marvelous
place in the world of letters and
journalism, but she chose instead to
give her all to the Bahá’i Cause. To
even a very strong person the rigors
of travel in unfrequented places,
even in the great cities of the world,
the numberless changes to which
she was subjected, would have been
difficult, and, in many instances, a
hardship. In her magnificent services
there was the element of daily sacrifice, and without this real and true sacrifice, a service has not been touched with the heart response.
Such souls have been known in past religious history, in the early days of a Manifestation, as saints—but today that does not mean the piousness of a religious recluse, but rather one who sacrifices everything that a material life holds dear to that greater type of life which becomes a reality to a Bahá’i when the creative effect of the Word of God recreates, transforms and transmutes the intensely human life into the life dominated by the spirit.
Just as she was known around the world for her brilliant Bahá’i services, so she will be mourned around the world. Her going seemed untimely, tragic, pathetic, sad beyond human words, but at the same time a great glory. As she slipped through the gate into the city of eternity we can be assured that “death was as glad-tidings to her,” and that in the life eternal and radiant she will continue her wonderful services.
There is one God; mankind is one; the foundations of religion are one. Let us worship Him, and give praise for all His great Prophets and Messengers who have manifested His brightness and glory.
Truth is one and without division. The teachings of Jesus are in a concentrated form. Men do not agree to this day as to the meaning of many of His sayings. His teachings are as a flower in the bud. Today the had is unfolding into a flower. Bahá’u’llah has expanded and fulfilled the teachings, and has applied them in detail to the whole world.
--PHOTO--
THE magnificent portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá painted by Sigismond Ivanowski at the request of Mrs. Frances Esty of Buffalo, N. Y., was on exhibition recently at the Bahá’i Center in New York City, and attracted widespread interest and universal admiration. It is noteworthy for its exceeding beauty of color and technical treatment which render it marvelous as a work of art, but more than this, it is so perfect a portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that its presence seems to restore Him to the world.
After a number of experiments the artist decided that he must paint his subject in the open air surrounded by a landscape, which could not be recognized as local, and could not be designated as either oriental or occidental, because, he said, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá belongs to the world and His spiritual power is felt everywhere. So the environment is a broadly painted landscape with a glimpse of blue sea, flowers, shrubbery and a great tree under which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is seated.
Mr. Ivanowski had never been in
Palestine, he had never seen ‘Adbu’l-Bahá. He had learned something of the Bahá’i Movement and was attracted toward it.
Mrs. Esty said to him, “Could you paint a portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, never having seen Him?” He hesitated a moment, and then replied, “I could only do such a thing, Mrs. Esty, if I could come into the consciousness of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. I could not paint the portrait from a photograph.”
So he returned to his studio armed with such copies of the Bahá’i literature as Mrs. Esty believed would be useful to him.
EVERY GREAT artist has the power
of visualization, so that as he paints
his subject he sees him with the inner
eye, not merely the outer one.
Such a power is almost unlimited,
and is intensified by tranquility and
meditation.
For six months the artist gave himself to his noble guest, and at the end of this period, he began to have definite designs for his portrait, out of which the beautiful final one emerged.
The artist felt that the personality of the figure must be definitely given, because it must be recognized
by those who had known and loved Him, and must remain to posterity as a veritable portrait of the widely known and loved Prophet figure. Thus the portraiture is unquestionable in this wonderful painting. The features, the unforgettable eyes, the posture, the singularly vivid life of the painted form, so that one feels as if at any moment He would speak. All these characteristics create a masterpiece such as one seldom sees. Moreover through that marvelous faculty of visualization, Mr. Ivanowski has painted ‘Abdu‘l-Bahá seated on the low wall which separates his garden from the highway of Haifa, where He often sat a moment before leaving for the City or Mt. Carmel, or when He returned to His home surrounded by eager questioners who could not let Him go. The artist unintentionally caught a veritable moment from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s daily life, and preserved it for us.
Mr. Ivanowski says, “This is my masterpiece. I can never create anything like it again.”
Sigismond Ivanowski is a distinguished Polish-American artist whose portraits have been cherished and sought on both sides of the Atlantic for many years.
“Can you paint upon the page of the world the ideal pictures of the Supreme Concourse? The pictures which are in the ideal world are eternal. I desire you to become such an artist. Man can paint those ideal pictures upon the tablet of existence with the brush of deeds.
“The holy divine Manifestations are all heavenly artists. Upon the canvas of creation, with the brush of their deeds and lives and actions, they paint immortal pictures which cannot be found in any art museum of Europe or America. But you find the masterpieces of these Spiritual Artists in the hearts.”
IT would be idle, however, to contend that the war, with all the losses it involved, the passions it aroused and the grievances it left behind, has solely been responsible for the unprecedented confusion into which almost every section of the civilized world is plunged at present. Is it not a fact—and this is the central idea I desire to emphasize—that the fundamental cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be regarded as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing world, but rather to the failure of those into whose hands the immediate destinies of peoples and nations have been committed, to adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the imperative needs of a rapidly evolving age?
Are not these intermittent crises that convulse present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world’s recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once for all of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the machinery of their respective governments according to those standards that are implicit in Bahá’u’lláh’s supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind—the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed? For the principle of the Oneness of Mankind, the cornerstone of Bahá’u’lláh’s world-embracing dominion, implies nothing more or less than the enforcement of His scheme for the unification of the world—the scheme to which we have already referred. “In every Dispensation,” writes ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the light of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one central theme. . . . In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind.”
“The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
SIGNIFICANT at this time when, on the one hand, a great exposition and continual new inventions have centered attention upon the scientific progress of the last century and, on the other hand, conditions throughout the world are causing us to question the meaning of true progress, is the appearance of Dr. Hume’s book, “Treasure-House of Living Religions”.* Such a book does not command wide acclaim but it shows a change in attitude more deep-seated and more important for true progress than more widely heralded inventions and discoveries. And changes in attitude are nothing less than changes in human nature, that so-called static thing which the fearful and hopeless regard as incapable of change. The material in this book covers not a century but thirty centuries, yet a hundred years ago no one would have thought of making and publishing such a collection. A freedom of mind which enables us to see the strength, beauty and truth in all religions is a great step in advance.
The crust of our religious prejudices is beginning to crack. The comparative study of religions has been seriously undertaken only within the last fifty years and even now is largely concerned with the differences rather than the likenesses of the great religions of the world. Such a study paves the way for religious tolerance, the first step
* Treasure-House of Living Religions. (Selections from their Sacred Scriptures), Robert E. Hume, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.
towards religious unity. How important religious unity is in bringing about that condition of world unity, peace and justice which is the crying need of the world today may be seen by reflecting upon the dissension, war and bloodshed that have been brought about in the past by religious intolerance and hatred.
WHILE THERE have been other collections
of sacred scriptures this
one we believe is unique in arrangement.
The systematic classification
of the extracts under headings and
sub-headings makes it easy for anyone
to compare for himself the
teachings of eleven living religions.
The complete annotations, references,
indices and bibliography
make it valuable as a book of reference
and basis for further study.
But here we are concerned with the book as a source of inspiration and knowledge. May we linger long enough as we turn the pages to glean from this storehouse of wisdom a few bits of what the great ones of the ages have to say on the fundamental questions of life. Through countless ages “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”, while others a little less foolish have said, there are many gods. What do the scriptures say? In the Hindu we read:
- “He is the God in every way supreme.
- He the Lord of prayer, encompasseth all.”
in the Christian Bible:
- “There is but one God, the Father,
- of Whom are all things and We in Him.”
in the Qur’án:
- “Shall I seek any other Lord than God,
- when He is Lord of all things!”
in the sacred book of the Sikh’s:
- “The greatness of the great God cannot
- be expressed.
- He is the Creator, the Omnipotent, the
- Bounteous.”
For ages, too, men have asked, Is this life all? And those of knowledge have always answered in such words as these from the Zoroastrian scriptures:
- “The Wise Lord with dominion and piety
- Shall give us welfare and immortality
- In accordance with right by His holy spirit
- And by best thought, deed and word.”
or these from the Sikh:
- “It is they who know not God, who are
- always dying.
- It is they who die in divine knowledge,
- who are immortal.”
or these from Taoist holy books:
- “Life is a going forth. Death is a returning
- home.”
or these from the Qur’án:
- “Small the fruition of this world.
- But the next life is the true good for
- him who feareth God.
- And ye shall not be wronged so much as
- the skin of a date-stone.”
or these from Confucius:
- “But the spirit issues forth, and is displayed
- on high in a condition of glorious
- brightness.”
From the time when men began to live in groups it has been necessary to have standards for actions toward fellowmen. So we read in Hindu scriptures:
- “Thou shouldst perform acts looking to
- the universal good.”
and an Islamic command is:
- “Cause not disorders in the earth.”
The Taoist holy book says:
- “To share one’s virtue with others is
- called true wisdom.
- To share one’s wealth with others is
- reckoned meritorious.”
So we find gathered under the three main heads, “Faith in the Perfect God”, “The Perfecting of Man”, “Man and his Social Relations“ and arranged under sufficient sub-divisions for quick availability these treasures of wisdom by which men have lived and developed great cultures and civilizations for thirty
centuries. One is tempted to quote extensively from this rich collection as he turns the pages and choice gems come under his eyes and the great fact that eternal verities, everlasting Truth, underlie the great religions is driven home to his mind.
BUT THE author has purposely
selected those fundamental parts
of scriptures which are eternal
truths and must agree. “This
book”, he says in his preface, “attempts
to present important aspects
of the consensus among the teachings
of the various living religions.
It does not deal with the more frequently
presented subject of the
dissensus or disagreements.” These
unessentials include “references to
particular places and individuals,
and also some primitive teachings
and conflicting ritual-forms such as
sacrifice of animals and worship of
animals”. These have nothing to
do with the progress of humanity
with which Dr. Hume is concerned.
Their preservation is a hindrance to
progress. It is these unessentials
that cause religious quarrels and
dissensions. “But the progress of
the world”, he says, “Needs authoritative
doctrines which are lofty and
universal, rather than limited,
primitive and particularistic.“
In speaking to an American audience on this subject of the agreements and disagreements of religions ‘Abdu’l-Bahá made plain the source of these differences and the harm their emphasis does. He said, “The fundamentals of the religions of God are one in Reality. There is no difference in the fundamentals. The difference is caused by the imitations which arise later, and inasmuch as imitations differ, strife, discord and quarreling take
place. If the religions of this time should forsake imitations and seek the fundamentals, all of them would agree and strife and discord would pass away—for Reality is one and not multiple.“1
THOSE FAMILIAR with the lofty and
universal writings of Bahá’u’lláh
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá may inquire why
the Bahá’i religion is not included
in “living religions”. Dr. Hume
has limited this research to those
religions which have endured for
more than a hundred years.2 The
book may in a way be taken as a
summary of the religions of the age
1 Bahá’i Scriptures, p. 313.
2 In his preface Dr. Hume says: “Among cultured people there now exist only eleven distinct religious systems which have lived more than a hundred years, and which have maintained their own art, literature, social organization and ecclesiastical worship.” These he names as Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.
3 Bahá’i Scriptures, p. 236.
just passing, while the religion of Bahá’u’lláh ushers in the new age. The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh proclaims the same eternal truths which this collection so plainly shows are found in all great religions and points out how to apply them to the needs of the world today. Over sixty years ago Bahá’u’lláh raised the call: “Associate, O my friends, with all the people of religion with joy and fragrance. Beware that ye make not the Word of God the cause of oppositions or contrast, or for the purpose of causing hatred among you.”3 This book will be an aid to those who wish to follow that injunction.
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 alone specially for the Bahá’i Magazine. The translator states that she does not consider these translations final.
ANOTHER of the blessed followers of Bahá’u’lláh was an architect, Jináb-i-Ustád Ismáil, the chief architect of Aminu’Daulih in Tihrán. He lived in happiness, respected by every one. Then he came under the sway of divine love and the passion for reality burned away his old imaginings; he left his old ways out of love for God and became known in Tihrán as a staunch supporter of the Bahá’is.
At first Aminu’Daulih made every effort to protect him, but finally he
summoned him and said: “Ustád, you are very dear to me, and I have done my best to save you, but the Shah has found you out; you know how bitter and bloodthirsty he is, I am afraid that at any moment he may hang you. Your only hope is to escape and go away from Persia.”
Completely tranquil, Ustád abandoned his position, gave up his belongings, and left for Iráq, where he lived in destitution.
He had a young wife whom he loved beyond measure. His wife’s mother came to Iráq and deceived him until with his consent she took her daughter away, supposedly to Tihrán on a visit. At Kirmánsháh she went to a mujtahid, and told him that since Ustád had recanted his faith it was a sin for her daughter to live with him; the mujtahid granted a divorce and married the daughter to another man. When this news reached Baghdád, Ustád laughed. He said: “Thank God that in this path nothing is left me, not even my wife. Thank God that I have been able to give up everything that I loved.”
WHEN BAHA’U’LLAH left Baghdád
for Asia Minor, the believers stayed
behind; then the inhabitants of
Baghdád rose against them and sent
those helpless souls to Mosul as
prisoners. Ustád, though old, weak
and unprepared, set out on foot
across valleys, over deserts and
mountains, until he finally reached
the Greatest Prison. Bahá’u’lláh
had once written him of a poem of
Rumi’s, telling him to sing it while
turning toward the Primal Point,
His Holiness the Báb. And now as
he walked along in the darkness of
the night, he would sing:
- O Love, for thy sake I am joyless
- and lost,
- Known through the world for my
- fury;
- In the book of the mad my name is
- first,
- Though once I was first on the list
- of the wise.
- Thou hast sold me wine, blown me
- to blazing,
- Thou hast made me cry out.
- Breathe into me if thou wish me
- alive;
- I am a pipe, thou a piper,
- I am a corpse, thou a Christ.
- Thou art first, thou are last, thou
- art secret and plain.
- From every eye hid, in every eye
- shining.
With this song the broken old man came to ‘Akká. He entered the barracks by stealth, completely exhausted. He stayed there a few days in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, and then was sent to Haifa; here he had no house, no room, no place where he could lay his head. He lived in a cave outside the town. He got a little tray, and put a few shell rings and thimbles and pins on it, and peddled them from morning till noon; some days he would make twenty paras, some days thirty—on his best days he would make forty. Then he would go back to the cave, eat a piece of bread and praise God. He was continually giving thanks, saying, “Glory to God that I have attained this great bounty, and become a stranger to my friends and loved ones, and make my home in this cave. I am like him who paid his all to purchase Joseph—what blessing is greater than this?”
It was in this condition that he died; and many times from the lips of Bahá’u’lláh we heard his praise, for he was singled out by God and richly favored.
“Sing praises to God; sing ye praises with understanding.”-Psalm 47:6, 7.
I GUESS,” said Billy, “I’ll go I and have a chat with grandma.”
He moved sedately to the stairs with the air of one weighted down with important matters, as fittingly becomes one who has lived eight years and used the moments to strenuous advantage. Soon voices floated down to me, a blended rumble, interrupted now and then by childish laughter. There was something irresistible about it. Slipping quietly from my chair, I crept to a point of vantage outside the door and peeped into the bower which was grandma’s room. Boquets abounded everywhere; artificial ones when garden flowers were out of season, and always the loveliest could be found under the picture of the Master, whose gentle authority pervaded the room. My eyes feasted on the scene, returning always to the frail figure surrounded by papers, books and writing tablet.
“Why,” I asked, “does expression come so hard to some?”
“Inhibitions may sometimes be inherited,” she replied, “but are much more often formed by environment.”
“Were you ever inhibited? I asked curiously.
“I grew up in a welter of inhibitions,” said Grandma thoughtfully. “It was not ‘lady-like’ for a well-born young woman to earn her own living. Look at womanhood today
* The first and second chapters of this life story of Mrs. Beecher were published in the October and November numbers respectively. Each chapter is a unit in itself.
in the business and professional world! A young woman of my day must observe rigidly definite hours for social activities, and even her clothing was strictly supervised.
“Inhibitions abounded in the churches, too, particularly in regard to women. One could not go hatless to church, nor would a woman be permitted under any pretext whatever, to raise her voice in a church meeting. The reason for this can be found in history. When St. Paul established the first Christian church at Antioch, Syria, a sorely perplexing problem arose. Cultered women of that day wore veils in public. The new church aroused enthusiasm, not only among the cultured few, but among the masses. There were many women in the undercurrent of that society who went unveiled in the streets and public resorts, a circumstance which admitted to all the world a definite stain upon the character. During the organization of the church, these women freely took part in the meetings. They asked questions and gave their opinions, all of which created a furor of dissension and opposition. The unity which Paul had created was in danger, and he chose the only course open to him at that time, that of forbidding the women to appear in church with uncovered head, or to take an active part in public meetings. And that rule, far from slipping into oblivion when no longer
needed, came to be an inviolate law of the church. Inhibitions! Women have been laboring under inhibitions, with very few and very brief historical exceptions, for thousands of years, and never until the light of this day has there been one gleam of hope that they might be permanently lifted.”
“When did you begin to take part, Grandma?” said I, thinking back with more than casual interest over her useful and expressive years.
“Our friend Dr. Foster appears in that story, too,” she replied. “Sit down and I will tell you how it all came about.
“DR. FOSTER had, in connection
with his sanitarium, a large chapel
in which ministers of every denomination
were invited to speak every
Sunday. One day it was announced
that Henry Ward Beecher, his
brother, Thomas K. Beecher, and
the great Dr. Horace Bushnell of
Hartford, a noted writer and
preacher, were to be guest speakers
the following Sunday. Dr. Bushnell
had written, among other
famous works, two large volumes on
women in the church, always opposing
in no uncertain terms, their
taking part in meetings. Needless
to say, the Beechers upheld this
view. I went to the meeting with
joyous anticipation, making sure to
have a front seat where I might see
and hear everything. As usual, Dr.
Foster opened the meeting with a
hymn, followed by scripture reading.
Then closing the book, he said
quite slowly and distinctly, ‘We will
now be led in prayer by Miss Ellen
Tuller.’
“To say that I was utterly routed and completely horrified would fail
to express a tenth of my feeling. Everything stopped. I hung suspended in a great void in which all motion had ceased. Nevertheless, I sank to my knees in answer to the direct prompting of my heart, and opened my lips. Immediately all fear left me and I prayed quite clearly, though hearing my own voice as from a great distance. The die was cast. Shame and remorse overwhelmed me to such an extent that I heard nothing of the subsequent speeches. I could only weep and wonder miserably what all these great men must think of me. I thought of my dear mother, of my pastor and of my church. Do you think this cowardly? Perhaps it was, but I ask you to remember that with the exception of the kindly doctor, I stood alone in a completely antagonistic world. When everyone had left the chapel I slipped out too, quietly and in haste. At the door a lone figure stepped out of the shadows and intercepted me. It was Dr. Bushnell. Hot tears started to my eyes. Placing his hands on my shoulders he said. ‘Why do you weep? You and I have won a great victory. God bless you, my child. Neither of us will ever forget this night.’
“The next morning mother was ill and I could not bring myself to worry her with my story. I worked busily about the house all morning and had almost succeeded in putting the affair out of my mind, when I received an unexpected call. The head deacon, dressed in a formal coat and silk hat, appeared like some fearsome genie at my door, announcing that he had come, not to see my mother, but to see me. My heart sank as I led the way into the parlor. Seating himself, he addressed
me with impressive severity. The thought occurred to me that I might be having a night-mare.
“‘Is it true, he said, speaking slowly and pointing an accusing finger at me ‘that you offered a prayer in a public meeting?’
“‘Yes sir,’ I replied.
“‘Did you know,’ he continued more sternly still, ‘that it was against the rules of your church?’
“‘Yes sir,’ I replied, rather faintly.
“‘Do you intend to repeat this offense?’
“‘Yes,’ I said more steadily, ‘if the Holy Spirit leads me to do so.’
“‘If you do, your name will be crossed off the church books,’ he said, rising abruptly.
“I walked in dull silence to the door and watched, trance-like, his departing figure until it was gone from sight. Dread of family and friends, of prying eyes and scornful lips, slipped rapidly into the background and a new fear seized me. I was born in a day when pastors of those churches not in doctrinal agreement often refused to entertain the barest social intercourse; when membership in the church into which a staunch believer was born amounted to nothing less than a passport into heaven. I had never personally known or counted as a friend, a human being branded ‘excommunicated,’ that incorrigible sinner driven out of the church in the name of Christ; and I believed with compelling earnestness that the church had the power to damn me eternally. Despair and loneliness hung like a great cloud over me, and around me, oppressing me with its dreadful weight. Slowly memory returned and I saw again the arm-chair, the Bible,
the old familiar room where I had knelt and whispered, ‘I am a Christian.’ Through the suffocation of the moment I reached out to something that seemed to lie just beyond. Through the belief in hell eternal for that one who, breaking law, must be cast out; through the fears and dreads and threats that lay in heavy pall upon my heart, I reached with every fiber of my being, crying, ‘God, oh God, is it true? Can they do this thing“! And wilt Thou then cast me out? But I have signed a compact; even I, poor weakling in Thy sight, and where Thou hast guided me, there have I gone. Art Thou not more than they?’ Bursting then, into uncontrollable sobs, I knelt there by the door and once more renewed the compact, asking for guidance; promising obedience. I rose, knowing that for all time the voice in my heart must take precedence over all else.
“My first act was to send for my pastor. He came in earnest haste, and took my hand, looking sadly into my eyes.
“‘What is this, Nellie, that I have been hearing about you? I have been more than grieved by reports of it’.
“Forthwith I poured my story with its irrevocable conclusion into his attentive ear. Long before I had finished I began to realize that he himself was undergoing a deep and moving experience. I saw the blood flow into his face and slowly recede. He looked long into my eyes. Perhaps he caught the dawn of greater loyalties, essential loyalties, unattached to man-made doctrine. Perhaps he saw a young soul choosing between God and church, between Christ and law, between Truth Absolute and truth temporal.
“‘When the name of Ellen Tuller is crossed off the church books,’ he said quietly, ‘the name of your pastor will follow it.’ Exultation filled my being, the last cruel weight lifted from my heart, and from that hour I was free.”
“Glorious,” I sighed. “And you have lived to see these very inhibitions of which you speak, drop away from many of the churches. I wonder, Grandma, just what spiritual connection there is between victories like that and subsequent victories in the world about us?”
“Nothing is in vain,” she replied. “It is my belief that pioneers set free a spirit or reality by which God chooses to make known His Will.”
I PAUSED in retrospect. Nine years
before the utterance of that simple
prayer in a country chapel of New
York state, the flower of all Persian
womanhood, rising in flaming
beauty out of veiled centuries, cried
in a loud voice, “I am the trumpet
blast!” Tahirih the pure, standing
unveiled among her countrymen,
dared to turn the tide of law inviolate.
“New lamps for old,” I
cried. Laws! Mere lamps; yet
through them Purpose shines resplendent,
until that hour awaited
by them all when, old and rusted,
obscuring that very light for which
God gave them being, His hand replaces
them with lamps more new
and beautiful.
The voice beside me broke the silence that had fallen. “Sometimes there is outer evidence of that victory which is our thought in action. And again one may remain in ignorance of the spirit unloosed. Yet I declare to you, my child, that no victory of yours, however quietly achieved, will go unnoticed in the
mighty scheme of things, or fail to help, however indirectly, another human soul, be he your neighbor or a stranger ten thousand miles distant. Take heart. Think courage! Breathe courage! Live courage! Nothing is ever lost. Now it so happens that there is a sequel to my story. There was, in this instance, an outer sign of victory upon which I shortly stumbled.”
“Tell it!” I cried, gleefully settling myself for the rest of the story. Smiling gently at my unrestrained enthusiasm, she began again.
“During the last year of my stay at Clifton Springs, I visited Mrs. Mary Wells, a dear friend, who was spending the winter in New York. I arrived quite early in the morning and was greeted happily by Mary and her husband.
“‘I have a lovely surprise for you’ chattered Mary, as I unpacked my things. ‘Mrs. Marshall O. Roberts, a prominent woman in the city who heard that you were coming, has promised to call on you at once, and I know that you will find her most interesting.’
“I learned that Mrs. Roberts was the organizer of the first Young Women’s Christian Association in the world. Her husband was a multi-millionaire who had laid quite gladly all of his wealth at the feet of his beautiful and philanthropic young wife. Upon meeting her face to face, I realized that she was a most remarkable woman. In a spirit of awe and rapture I listened to the details of her work. Imagine my startled amazement to hear her conclude, ‘And now, my dear, you have come in answer to my prayer. Hundreds of young girls pour into our city from all parts of the country. They are homeless, ill-advised,
perplexed. We seek to shelter them, help to place them in their work, and provide a back-ground of fine, sweet, spiritual support. You are to become their spiritual advisor. But first, you must know in your own heart that this is your appointed work. Pray, and find the answer.’
“After a short time it was definitely arranged that I was to stay, and I took a room at the home of the Association. Here, by the grace of God, much vital work was done, deeply touching in its nature, and vastly revealing.
“ONE DAY I called at the home of
Mrs. Roberts to talk over the work.
At the close of our consultation I fell
into a thoughtful mood, feeling
peculiarly unmoved to go. As I
lingered, gazing in admiration at the
elegant draperies, soft lights and
graceful furnishings, wonder suddenly
seized me. Why had not such
luxury and ease taken its toll in this
loyal and consecrated life?
“How did it happen?” I cried. The question burst forth so spontaneously that Mrs. Roberts looked her surprise.
“‘About all this,’ I explained with a large wave of the hand, the better to emphasize the unlimited extent of its subtle lure. ‘Why is it that with untold wealth at your command, surrounded as you are by social adulation and worldly standards, you are untouched by it all, devoted wholly to Christian service, of which this marvelous work with the girls is only one small part?’
“‘Have I never told you?’ she asked, smiling radiantly. ‘Then I shall tell you at once. Before my marriage, I lived in Hartford, Connecticut. I had been brought up a Congregationalist, and of course
joined that church. No doubt you have heard of my pastor, the great Dr. Bushnell. He was a very noted writer as well as speaker on scriptural subjects, particularly bearing on the life and teaching of St. Paul. He had been the pastor of that church for over fifty years when the experience came to me which was to completely change my life. One day he went away. He must have been gone for several days when quite suddenly he returned and called a meeting of the congregation for the following Monday evening, saying that he had an important announcement to make. Needless to say, the church was full. He opened with a prayer and began immediately thereafter to recount an experience he had had at Clifton Springs during a prayer meeting at the famous sanitarium chapel. There he received a blessing which turned the entire current of his life, for he was born anew by the prayer of a young girl. He had come home, he said, to set the women of his church free, to give them equal voice with the men, to encourage them to leadership, to active Christian work, and to guidance at all times by the voice of the Spirit. He expressed in deeply stirring terms the hope that every woman in his church would re-dedicate her life to God and His service, to the end that by the power of the Holy Spirit new life might be born in the church as new life had been born in him. I was one member of his church who followed his call, and that very night I gave my heart, my soul, my all, to God!
“Turning her eyes swiftly to meet mine, Mrs. Roberts uttered a stifled cry. With sudden and intense joy she exclaimed, ‘And you, Nellie, you are that girl!’”
SOFT shadows had begun to steal upon us as Grandma drew her story to a close. Her face, bathed in the half light of waning afternoon, took on a strange and rugged beauty. Small wonder that the lines of it bespoke the strength of long forgotten tests. A valiant soldier this,
who had never run away; still a bit lonely at times; but welcoming even now the mountain passes for the strength they promised, and counting sorrows as celestial harbingers.
“Peace be upon those who follow guidance.”
The following satire of Voltaire’s put in the form of a prayer is very little known even to scholars. It has been unearthed for us by Mme. Emilie McBride Perigord and translated by her from the new complete edition of the works of Voltaire. It is always well to remember that at no time has the vision of the brotherhood of man been entirely lacking on this earth.
IT IS no longer to men that I address myself—but to Thee Oh! God of all beings, of all worlds, and of all times—if it be permitted to feeble creatures lost in this great immensity and imperceptible to the rest of the universe, to dare to ask something of Thee who has given all, of Thee whose laws are as changeless as they are eternal, do deign to look with pity upon all our faults, and let not these faults lead us into utter failure.
Thou hast not given us a heart for us to hate one another, or hands to kill one another. Make it possible for us to help one another to bear the burden of a transitory life of struggle.
That the little differences of clothing which cover our weak bodies, of all our inadequate languages, of all our ridiculous customs, of all our imperfect laws, of all our insensate opinions, of all our disproportionate social distinctions,—let all of these little shades of differences which distinguish the atoms we call men not be the signal for hatred and for persecution.
Let those who light candles at high noon, in order to worship Thee, endure those who content themselves with the light of Thy sun.
Let those who cover their robe with a white cloth in order to profess their love for Thee not detest those who say the same things under a black woolen mantle.
Let it mean the same thing to adore Thee in the jargon of an ancient language, as to adore Thee in some new jargon.
Let those whose clothing is of a red or violet colour, and who rule over a little plot of mud in this world, and who possess certain fragments of a round metal, enjoy without pride that which they call grandeur and riches, and let others see them without envy. For Thou knowest that there is nothing enviable in any of these vanities, or of which one should be proud.
Let all men remember that they are brothers. Let them hold in horror the tyranny exercised over souls as they hold in execration the brigandage which ravishes by force the fruit of labor and industrial peace.
If the scourge of war is inevitable let us not rend one another asunder in the bosom of peace and let us employ the days of our existence in blessing equally in a thousand different languages, from Siam to California, Thy bounty which has given us the blessing of life.”
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