MEETING WITH JANE ADDAMS
Ruth J. Moffett
* *
A CHALLENGE TO THE
CHRISTIAN WORLD
Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick
* *
INSTRUMENTS EFFECTIVE
Dale S. Cole
* *
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY
ART IN BELGRADE
Martha L. Root
* *
SECURITY IN A FAILING WORLD
Sylvia Paine
--IMAGE--
| the | |
| 25c | COPY |
| VOL. 25 | MARCH, 1935 | No. 12 |
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.
| CONTENTS | |
How to Attain Happiness, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 359 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 355 |
The New Youth Speaks, a Poem, Silvia Margolis | 358 |
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Historic Meeting With Jane Addams, Ruth J. Moffett | 361 |
A Challenge to the Christian World, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick | 366 |
Esperanto, Lidja Zamemof | 371 |
The Passing of Dr. Susan I. Moody, Mariam Haney | 374 |
Security in a Failing World, Sylvia Paine | 380 |
Instruments Effective, Dale S. Cole | 383 |
Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Martha L. Root | 386 |
Portals to Freedom (An Autobiographical Story) | 388 |
The official Bahá’í Magazine, published monthly in Washington, D.C. By the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada STANWOOD COBB, MARIAM HANEY, BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK. . . . Editors
|
THE Revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh, His followers believe, is divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence it exerts on the hearts and minds of men. The mission of the Founder of their Faith, they conceive it to be to proclaim that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is continuous and progressive, that the Founders of all past religions, though different in the non-essential aspects of their teachings, “abide in the same Tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech and proclaim the same Faith.” His Cause, they have already demonstrated, stands identified with, and revolves around, the principle of the organic unity of mankind as representing the consummation of the whole process of human evolution. This final stage in this stupendous evolution, they assert, is not only necessary but inevitable, that it is gradually approaching, and that nothing short of the celestial potency with which a divinely ordained Message can claim to be endowed can succeed in establishing it.
The Bahá’i Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society. It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory education, abolishes extremes of poverty and wealth, exalts work performed in the spirit of service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.
| VOL. 25 | MARCH, 1935 | No. 12 |
own image and likeness. He has endowed him with a mighty power. The virtue of man is this: that he can investigate the ideals of the kingdom and attain knowledge which is denied the animal in its limitation. The station of man is this: that he has the power to attain those ideals and thereby differentiate and consciously distinguish himself an infinite degree above the kingdoms of
existence below him.—’Abdu’l’Bahá.THERE IS a rapidly growing consciousness, especially among educators, that education is to be one of the major factors in the evolution of the new social order and that educators have a grave responsibility in this direction. Children and youth must be given a complete realization of the faults and dangers in the present structure of society, and of the needs to be fulfilled before the more ideal civilization can be achieved.
“Educational leaders,” says George S. Counts,1 “mold the minds of the coming generations and thus share in shaping the future of the nation and even of world society. . . . Education is one of the highest forms of statesmanship. The educator is under obligation to foster the most complete development of capacities of the citizens on whose power the state depends for its existence, its security and the fulfillment of its ideals. . . . Both American and world society are passing through a critical period in history. Consequently the educational leader entrusted with the function of shaping a policy for the public school must be prepared himself for enlightened action and must take his place in the front rank of statesmanship.”
1 "Social Foundations of Education.” Charles Scribners’ Sons. 2 “Ultimate Values in Education,” Progressive Education Magazine, February, 1935.
Should the schools themselves attempt in practice to build a new social order? “No,” says Professor Henry W. Holmes of Harvard,2 “actually building a new social order is not the job of teachers.” But he thinks education should develop insight as to the direction of social change. . . . “Education should stand for social change in the direction of security, social justice and higher economic productivity. . . . The social gospel of education is more positive than utilitarianism. It is a gospel of creative effort, a shared spiritual purpose, to develop the positive resources of humanity and press forward in the mastery of nature. . . . Therefore education requires peace, the abolition of involuntary poverty, social justice but not equality, and a social conservatism for excellence in all its forms.”
IF THE youths of the country are
thus to prepare themselves for
careers of enlightened creative effort
for the achievement of a better
civilization, how important it is
that they realize the essential nobility
and power of man when viewed
in the light of his spiritual
reality.
“In the world of existence there is nothing so important as spirit.
Nothing is as essential as the spirit of man. The spirit of man is the most noble of phenomena. The spirit of man is the cause of human life. The spirit of man is the collective center of all virtues. The spirit of man is the cause of the illumination of this world. The world may be likened to the body and man may be likened to the spirit of the body because the light of the world is this spirit. Man in the world is the life of the world, and the life of man is the spirit. The happiness of the world depends upon man, and the happiness of man is dependent upon the spirit.”*
The chief weakness of education today is its failure to awaken youth to an adequate realization of their own powers, or to inspire them to develop their intellectual and spiritual capacities with any sense of responsibility toward society and world progress.
“The average college graduate,” said recently to me a man who has had a wide experience in the industrial and commercial world, “has received in the course of his education very little, if any, intellectual awakening; his interests are narrow and restricted to his special vocational field. As regards the immense and pregnant changes taking place, the fatal drift of events toward a new construction of society, he simply does not know what it is all about. He has not acquired a knowledge of, nor the capacity to understand, the true significance of national and world affairs. He drifts with the drift of events, blindly giving his support to exising conditions rather than formulating accurate critiques of our
* Bahá’i Scriptures, p. 362, section 690.
social, economic and political institutions.”
THE FIRST step toward stimulating
youth to more earnest intellectual
endeavor is not an intellectual
but a spiritual one. If we
could help the youth of today to
understand the essential nobility of
the nature of man, his immense
capacity for knowledge and for
progress, and his grave responsibilities
toward humanity as a whole
in return for all the blessings of
civilization which he is passively
enjoying, we could then inspire him
to make actual effort toward intellectual
advancement and spiritual
progress.
There is no great incentive to youth to acquire knowledge merely for the sake of knowledge. Why should he work to amass any more knowledge than is necessary for him to gain his own chosen goals of academic advancement and degrees? What incentive has he to do more? He cannot be blamed if he contents himself with the minimum of academic achievement, which in reality is an almost worthless achievement as regards the needs for national and world citizenship. It is the primary obligation of education to make it clear to students from the very first the marvelous quality of their own potentiality; the value of learning accurately the nature of the physical and social universe in which they live; and their immense obligation to society to develop themselves intellectually, morally and spiritually so as to be potential factors in the forging out of a new and better civilization.
It is not for educators to dictate to youth the details of this new and coming civilization, as Professor Holmes very justly points out; it is not only unnecessary but harmful to attempt that. The educator has no right to commit youth under his care to definite patterns of social, economic and political change; but he has the right and in fact the obligation to awaken youth to the vision of a more ideal humanity and to send them forth from his care able and trenchant critics of the world as it is today.
AMERICANS HAVE always responded
marvelously to the needs
and responsibilities of a pioneer
age. This is perhaps their greatest
gift and power. Today is again a
period for pioneering, a period
which calls for the most strenuous
activity, the most authentic intellection,
the most clear-minded decisions.
For we face dangers as
grave as the dangers of nature and
of savagery which threatened the
lives and security of our early
pioneers.
If one studies the lives of the early settlers one realizes the extraordinary maturity which the necessities and exigencies of pioneer life wrought in the development of youth. While still in the teens, they learned to assume grave responsibilities, to live earnestly, and to give all they had to the task at hand.
Compare the powers of youth as shown then with the powers of youth as manifested today! One cannot but lament the tragic malingering, sabotage and waste that prevails among the twenty million youths of our country. This situation
* ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “Promulgation of Universal Peace", p. 57.
will disappear only when youth comes to a complete realization of its true powers and of its obligations toward society in the midst of a changing world.
AGAIN WE repeat, the type of education
which would achieve this
conversion of youth to a deeper
earnestness is essentially spiritual
in nature. Materialistic motives
can never accomplish this immense
task. What we need in the educational
world are men and women
with the earnestness of crusaders,
who are willing to give their lives
if necessary to this awakening of
youth. Such a spirit is contagious.
It can set a world on fire. And
youth stands awaiting as marvelous
fuel to be used for such a conflagration.
The time has surely
come for a new moral and spiritual
purpose to seize upon the heart of
youth and to direct the intellectual
processes of youth into channels of
world service.
“Man has two powers, and his development two aspects. One power is connected with the material world and by it he is capable of material advancement. The other power is spiritual and through its development his inner, potential nature is awakened. These powers are like two wings. Both must be developed, for flight is impossible with one wing. Praise be to God! material advancement has been evident in the world but there is need of spiritual advancement in like proportion. We must strive unceasingly and without rest to accomplish the development of the spiritual nature in man, and endeavor with tireless energy to advance humanity toward the nobility of its true and intended station.”*
- The Clarion peals, the Trumpet sounds
- Thru every bowed and blasted land;
- The heavens are a flaming Scroll:
- The Day of Oneness is at hand.
- The Balances are laid in Justice,
- All hidden issues are disclosed:
- And we will hold the reigns of government,
- And make the Peace that you opposed.
- The Night is passing, and the morrow
- Will find us with attentive mind
- A forging and reforging still
- The broken fortunes of mankind.
- The Earth you carved into the nations
- To feed a primal flame of greed
- Will know a clement generation—
- Her mighty ribs will cease to bleed.
- The Rivers strained from out their courses
- To wash some conqueror’s domain
- Will now forget their long abasement
- And find the Ocean once again.
- For ours will be the Light of Justice
- And ours the fortitude sublime
- To bring back rivers to their sources
- And men to men in every clime.
- Our task will be a task of grandeur
- Supernal and Elysian—
- For here is a planet to refashion
- Into a peaceful home for man.
- And here are barriers to sunder,
- And hearts to render free and rife,
- And souls to teach that they are Kindred,
- Upon the Ancient Tree of Life—
- The Offspring of one Holy Father,
- The Children of one Mother Earth;
- For in the long and drear dispersion
- Mankind forgot their common birth.
- Ah! Ours will be the work stupendous,
- And superhuman the Ideal,
- But We will have the lasting ardor,
- And We will know the Martyr’s zeal
- To end the falsehood and delusion
- Of many Gods and many Nations,
- Of many Creeds, and many Races,
- And high and low degrees and stations.
- And nevermore will Tyranny
- Command the Peoples, or console,
- Nor greed, nor exile, nor banishment
- Obstruct the Light from any Soul.
- For in our hands will be the Power,
- And in our hearts the Emanation,
- The love of Kind that hears and haloes
- And blesses with divine creation.
- And we will heal men of their Blindness
- And they will be like Seers and Sages—
- A race reborn and transfigured
- Returning to the God of Ages.
HOW TO ATTAIN HAPPINESS . . . .
of humanity is happiness, that kind of happiness which is unalterable and ideal”
THE Divine Messengers come to bring joy to this earth, for this is the planet of tribulation and torment, and the mission of the Great Masters is to turn men away from these anxieties and to infuse life with infinite joy.
“When the Divine Message is understood ail troubles will vanish. Shadows disappear when the universal lamp is lighted, for whosoever becomes illumined thereby no longer knows grief. He realizes that his stay on this planet is temporary and that life is eternal. When once he has found the reality he will no longer retreat into darkness.”
HAPPINESS is an eternal condition. When it is once established, man will ascend to the supreme heights of bliss. A truly happy man will not be subject to the shifting eventualities of time. Like unto an eternal king he will sit upon the throne of fixed realities. He will be impervious to outward, changing circumstances, and through his deeds and actions impart happiness to others. A Bahá’i must be happy for the blessings of God are bestowed upon him. . . . This is the day of happiness. In no time of any Manifestation was there the cause for happiness as now. A happy state brings special blessings.”
WHAT is necessary is divine joy. Divine happiness is the speaker of the heart. . . . The soul of man must be happy no matter where he is. One must attain to that condition of inward beatitude and peace, then outward circumstances will not alter his spiritual calmness and joyfulness. True happiness is found in purity of thought.” . . .
“If by happiness physical enjoyment of material things is meant then the ferocious wolf is made happy because he kills the innocent lamb and satisfies his hunger for a few hours. This is not happiness. Happiness is a psychological condition created in brain, mind and heart, the effect of which works out from the center to the circumference.”
ONE who is imprisoned by desires is always unhappy. The children of the Kingdom have unchained themselves from their desires. Break all fetters and seek for spiritual joy and enlightenment; then, though you walk on this earth, you will perceive yourselves to be within the divine horizon. To man alone is this possible.”
—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
--PHOTO--
Miss Jane Addams, “mother of Hull House”, Chicago, and referred to as “the most useful citizen” of that city. (See opposite page.)
“Oneness of the world of humanity insures the glorification of man. International peace is the assurance of the welfare of all mankind. There are no greater motives and purposes in the human soul.” * * * “Your efforts must be lofty. Exert yourselves with heart and soul so that perchance through your efforts the light of Universal Peace may shine and this darkness of estrangement and enmity may be dispelled among men; that all men may become as one family and consort together in love and kindness; that the East may assist the West and the West give help to the East, for all are the inhabitants of one planet, the people of one original nativity and the flocks of one shepherd.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
IT was on a warm, springlike day, April thirtieth, 1912, that Hull House in Chicago was all astir. For ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a great and holy Personage from Palestine was expected. This important visit was planned by Jane Addams, “Mother of Hull House,” or “Chicago’s Most Useful Citizen,” as the people of Chicago lovingly call her.
Seldom has biographer presented two more significant and inspiring world figures, both working earnestly for the Unity of Mankind and the establishment of Universal Peace than ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant of the Bahá’i World, and Jane Addams, the President of the Woman’s International League for Peace and Freedom: one Who had been chosen as a Divine Exemplar to humanity, and the other reflecting the spirit of service. How fitting that Hull House—an outstanding example of the application of the great principle of the Oneness of mankind, should be the place of meeting.
DURING a recent interview with
Miss Addams, the writer learned
that it was in 1844 that the Quaker
father of Jane Addams moved to
Illinois. A pinecrowned hill is the living memorial of the bagful of seeds planted by him in that memorable year of world history. In 1860 a little girl was born at Cedarville, Illinois, in the shadow of those pines. As a child, she was a shy, conscientious, sensitive, idealistic girl. These qualities developed into high moral courage, the unswerving devotion to duty, and the passion of self-sacrifice for others. These characteristics served to make this frail woman elect to pass her life in an unsavory quarter of this great industrial city, Chicago, and to spend there, in behalf of the poor, her inheritance, which would have maintained her in comfortable idleness amid the beautiful things that she loved. Here she has ministered to and educated those in dire need and thus worked indefatigably for the establishment of the unity and amity of mankind.
As the years unfolded, Jane Addams received her A. B. degree at Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois, in 1881. Then she spent two years in Europe, 1883–1885, because of imperfect health. In 1888 she studied in Philadelphia, and the next year opened Hull House with the assistance of Miss Ellen Grates
Starr, and has ever since been its Head Resident. For three years she served as inspector of streets and alleys on the southwest side of Chicago. She received her LL.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1904 and in 1910 was honored in the same way by Smith College. Later she became president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. Yale University granted her its A. M. degree in 1910. In 1912 she became vice-president of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association and chairman of the Woman’s Peace Party. In 1915 she was elected delegate to the first Peace Convention at the Hague, and the same year became the founder-president of the Woman’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and still remains its active president. She was the delegate to the Peace Conventions at Zurich in 1917, at Vienna, in 1921, and at the Hague in 1922. On January 12, 1923 she started on a six months tour of the world in the interests of world peace. During all these years many books have come from her pen, and she has served on numerous state and national committees having to do with social, philanthropic, industrial and international problems.
HULL HOUSE, one of the first
American settlements, stands as a
dream fulfilled. It was established
in 1889, to become a spacious and
hospitable home, tolerant in spirit,
equipped to care for the pressing
physical, mental, social and spiritual
needs of a poor, alien, complicated
community.
About fifty men and women of various races and creeds and backgrounds form the residential staff, mostly college graduates who pledge themselves to remain two years. In addition, one hundred and fifty others come to Hull House each week as teachers, visitors or directors of clubs. About nine thousand persons come to the settlement each week during the winter months, as members of the audiences or classes. Miss Addams explained that the attractions offered include classroom instruction in English, current topics, typing, arts and crafts, music, drawing, folk dancing and nearly all phases of domestic arts. Public lectures and clubs of many kinds supply the needs of men, women and children of all classes, beliefs and shades of color. A circulating library of two thousand volumes stimulates mental interest. A well trained, working boys’ band of sixty-two pieces is a source of great joy, as are the many tournaments and contests, enjoyed especially by the little children of foreign lands. The monthly gymnasium attendance is three thousand, and the fifteen showers are kept in constant use. During the year six thousand paid showers and twelve thousand free showers help to keep up the physical, mental and moral standards. The Italian, Jewish and Greek nationalities seem to predominate in the clubs and classes.
In Miss Addams’ high-ceiled living room, the writer asked her, “What has been one of the central ideas of the activities of Hull House?” Her kindly eyes brightened
as she said, “The things which make men alike are finer and better than the things that keep them apart, and these basic likenesses, if they are properly accentuated, easily transcend the less essential difference of race, language, creed and tradition.” After a time she continued with an alert enthusiasm.
“Life at the Settlement discovers above all what has been called the extraordinary pliability of human nature; and it seems impossible to set any bounds to the moral capabilities which might unfold under ideal civic and educational conditions. In order to obtain these conditions, the Settlement recognizes the need of cooperation, both with the radical and conservative elements. Hull House casts aside none of those things which cultivated man has come to consider reasonable and goodly, but it insists that those belong as well to that great body of people who because of toilsome and underpaid labor, are unable to procure them for themselves. Added to this is the profound conviction that the common stock of intellectual enjoyment should not be difficult of access because of the economic position of him who would approach it, that ‘those best interests of civilization’ upon which depend the finer, freer and nobler aspects of living must be incorporated into our common life and have free mobility through all the elements of society, if we would have a true, enduring democracy. The educational activities of a Settlement, as well as its philanthropic, civic and social undertakings, are but differing manifestations of the attempt to socialize
true democracy, which is the very existence of Hull House itself. It is thus that peace and unity are established.”
“Do you think that the people of the world generally are more peace-minded than before the World War?” she was asked. “O, yes. The war startled and shocked them into a realization of the need of peace as never before. It has been more discussed and written about and has become the most vital problem before man.”
“What do you consider the greatest forces of the world today working for peace?” “There are three,” she replied: First, psychological; second, political; and third, mechanical. First, the psychological includes all the books, newspapers, magazine articles and all the addresses and discussions on the subject, but something more than all of these, the interest and overwhelming desire in the heart for peace. Second, the political, even, has become a force for peace. International instruments to take care of the affairs of all the nations of the world must be created before peace can be maintained. These are only just beginning, in the League of Nations, the World Court, an International Code of Law and an International Police Force to enforce the law. Many other international instruments of this nature will be required. Third, nothing can stay the progress of the machine age, the invention, the improved methods of intercommunication and intertransportation. This is also a great force, bringing about better understanding in the world which is the basis of peace.”
“You ask what I consider to be
the greatest need of the world today?” she continued. “I would put it in one word, understanding—understanding between individuals, classes, races, nations. Literature, history and mechanics are bringing it about much more rapidly today. Are not nations simply families living together, learning to adjust themselves to each other for the best good for the greatest number?”
“Yes, you are right,” she said in reply to my question. “The problems of the world which are caused by wrong mental attitudes are returning to the heart and mind of man and the solution must come through changed mental attitudes.”
ALTHOUGH having spoken on the
same platform with Miss Addams
many times and dined as her guest,
yet during this interview at Hull
House, alone in the spacious living
room with her, the writer was
more than ever impressed with a
fine quality of innate courtesy, a
sympathetic sensitiveness, a queenly
diginity and greatest of all the keenness
of a brilliant intellect expressing
a well-balanced and well-ordered
mind.
When the author asked her if she had met that distinguished Personage of Palestine Whom Great Britain had knighted as one of the greatest advocates and establishers of World Peace and the Unity of Mankind that the world had known, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, she replied with an emphatic “Yes.” In a low pitched, well modulated voice, she spoke of inviting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to visit Hull House on April thirtieth, 1912, to speak in Bowen Hall, and although
the hall seats 750 people, it was far too small to hold the crowds that poured in. In streams the rich and poor, the educated and ignorant, the managers of business and the industrial slaves came. Hull House was all astir. So was Halstead Street, that bit of cross-section, seemingly, of all the markets, bazaars, cafes and wayside churches of all the races, nationalities and creeds of the world.
Miss Addams herself, acting as chairman, welcomed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and graciously presented Him to the audience. Dr. Bagdadi, a physician of Chicago, served as His interpreter, having known and loved ‘Abdu’l-Bahá years before in the Holy Land.
To attempt to describe ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is like trying to paint the lily. As he stood before the sea of hungry upturned faces, His magnetic personality, His radiance, His penetrating potency, the power of His inspiration, the very purity of His life, and the great understanding compassionate love, made an impression upon His listeners that they can never forget.
Because in 1912 racial prejudice and hatred were very intense and because of the outstanding historical work that Miss Addams had achieved, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of the races being like many varieties of flowers in one garden, all adding to the fragrance and beauty of the garden. He spoke of the benefit to be derived by all humanity when universal peace and racial amity have spread over the earth. This depends upon the spirit and intelligence of man. The basis for the establishment of world peace and
the amity of man cannot be based upon color, but only upon noble qualities. With an almost overwhelming power, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá declared, “The standard can be no other than the divine virtues which are revealed in him. Therefore, every man imbued with divine qualities, who reflects heavenly moralities and perfections, who is the expression of ideal and praiseworthy attributes, is verily in the image and likeness of God . . . a divine station which is not sacrificed by the mere accident of color.”
‘ABDU’L-BAHA at the close of the
meeting in Hull House went out
into the dingy crowded street, mingled
with the little children and the
under-privileged poor, and gave to
them freely from a bagful of coins,
with many kindly words of encouragement,
sympathy, love and hope,
which brightened the eyes, strengthened
the courage and uplifted the
faith and hope of all who met Him.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá expressed his pleasure at meeting Miss Jane Addams because she was serving mankind. According to His own words, He was chosen by His Father, Bahá’u’lláh. (the Glory of God) to be the Servant of humanity, and because Miss Addams has devoted her life unreservedly to others she certainly reflects the beautiful light of servitude. One of the bounties of the Bahá’i Revelation is that women of heavenly capacities can never more be hindered by the ancient stupid form of male supremacy, but may rise to help in the establishment
of the New World Order, and of peace and good will to all mankind.
AS THE writer said farewell to Miss Addams, who was leaving on an extended trip for her health, she presented her with an autographed copy of her photograph and her book, “Twenty Years at Hull House,” and spoke again of being deeply impressed with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and with the beauty and spirit emanating from the Bahá’i Temple. She expressed the hope that more people would feel the great need and rise today to help bring amity permanently to the world.
Gazing at the very building in which took place the historic meeting of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Jane Addams, and in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had so perfectly voiced the note of the Oneness of all Mankind, and left His spirit like a benediction hovering over all, one saw people of all races streaming in and out of Hull House, honoring the founder before her departure. With a deeper consciousness of realization, one recognized the fulfillment of those priceless words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “Today the most important purpose of the Kingdom of God is the promulgation of the cause of Universal Peace and the principle of the Oneness of the World of Humanity. Whosoever rises in the accomplishment of this preeminent service, the confirmation of the Holy Spirit will descend upon him.”
“After many tribulations He [Bahá’u’lláh] has shown man the kingdom, freed him from chains of prejudice and attached him to the World of Truth. The Light of Divine Favor is shining and will shine from century to century.”
AGAIN the Bahá’i World owes gratitude to a Britisher for an immense service, a service which it is at present impossible to estimate. For The Promise of All Ages*, the latest book to set out the history and fundamental principles of the Bahá’i Faith cannot fail to be widely read and exert a profound influence. As one reads the quotations and excerpts in the introduction he is reminded how great a debt the Bahá’i Cause in the West already owes to British scholars. Professor Edward G. Browne of Cambridge University was the first and only Westerner to see Bahá’u’lláh and his description of Him is familiar to all Bahá’is and to many others. The translation of A Traveller’s Narrative, by Professor Browne, was for many years the only source in English for the early history of the Cause. Dr. Cheyne, the internationally famed theologian and Biblical critic of Oxford University, in his book, Reconciliation of Races and Religions, paid highest tribute to Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, acknowledging his devotion to them. Lord Curzon, in his Persia, and the Persian Question, contributed valuable historical facts concerning the early events of the Bábi Cause. Many other travelers and scholars from the British
* “The Promise of All Ages,” by Christophil, published in London by Simpkin Marshall, ltd. May be obtained from the Baha’i Publishing Committee, P. O. Box 348, Grand Central Station, New York City.
Isles have in their writings given added evidence of the power and purity of this great universal religion. And finally to Dr. J. E. Esslemont, a Scotsman, Bahá’is are indebted for the most complete one volume survey which we have of the history and teachings of the Faith. This book, Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, has already been translated and published in over twenty-five different languages.
The introduction reminds us, too, of the many eminent continental authorities who have either espoused the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh or left written testimony of its beauty and power. Among these are the names of Count Tolstoi, Professor August Forel, Count Gobineau, the Dowager Queen Marie of Rumania.
As the title implies, the approach. in this book to the universal teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is that of a religionist and Bible student. In places an almost passionate appeal is made to the Christian world not to let pass an opportunity to bring to fulfillment the mission of Christ. “Is this the time to ignore,” the author asks, “a movement rich in the very blessings Christians know they need—rich in the reality of religious faith, in courage, in confidence, in the possession of an opportune and definite policy?”
In spite of the fact that the “Cause of Bahá’u’lláh is the Cause of Christ” and the coming of Bahá’u’lláh is “that which Christ foretold” and that the path of Bahá’u’lláh is the path of peace, and that Bahá’u’lláh definitely promises that we are about to enter the Kingdom of God upon earth—that for which Christians have prayed for well-nigh 2000 years—in spite of these things “no Christian body seems to have paid any heed to the Bahá’i Fellowship or the teachings of its Founder.”
WHILE the author’s appeal in this
book is to the Christian world yet
the emphasis throughout, as must
needs be, is upon the universality
of Bahá’u’lláh’s teaching. From the
beginning of the first chapter, significantly
entitled “The Epic of
Humanity,” throughout the nine
chapters the reader is made to feel
and begins to comprehend that all
previous history culminated in the
great event of the Coming of Bahá’u’lláh,
“the Promise of All Ages,”
and that, although most are still
unaware, the world has definitely
entered a new era, the era of peace
and justice. What can be more
challenging to a world in chaos,
drowned in unbelief, denying God
and disavowing the hand of divine
guidance than to face such words as
these:—
“Bahá’u’lláh revealed a sublime vision of human history as an epic written by the finger of God. . . . He taught that human history throughout its entire length, was an intelligible and connected whole, centering around a single theme and developing a common purpose.
From the beginning of the cycle to the present day and beyond the present to the cycle’s distant end, one master scheme is by set degrees disclosed. The stage upon which the action moves forward is the entire globe, with all its continents and all its seas; and there is no race nor nation, nor tribe, nor even individual who has not a designated place in the unfolding of the Grand Design of God.”
Other prophets have taught this great truth and the Bible upholds it, but Bahá’u’lláh is the first one to unfold it in all its full significance and glory. In the light of this fundamental teaching the Bible and other scriptures take on new meaning—that which was hidden is made known. Even the present day confusion finds its place in the ordered whole of the great epic of humanity.
Classical literature and secular historians have not as a rule taken this view, but Bahá’u’lláh “would have men read history anew, seeing past events in a new perspective, grouping them in new relations and judging them by new values.” He would have man realize that just as in his own inner relations harmony between himself and his Maker are necessary for a purposeful and satisfying life so “the vital concern for the race and for the nation . . . is cooperation with the creative will and readiness to follow God’s all-inclusive design for progress and attainment.” All events of human society revolve “however remotely around this unchanging centre oi the decree of God.”
To understand this we must understand that all progress of humankind
is dependent upon God’s Manifestation of Himself. At stated intervals from the time of the beginning that hath no beginning to the present time God’s Manifestation has appeared on earth. This is a very difficult truth for modern man, proud in what he has accomplished by the power of his intellect, to comprehend. With loving insight, the author develops this great principle of creation, that man is utterly dependent for his progress on God’s bounty in sending to earth these divine Educators of mankind at stated intervals,—that of himself man would be totally unable to rise above his animal nature. “Were it not for the special intervention of God in human affairs, so teaches Bahá’u’lláh, the earth would be a cockpit of base desires and raging appetites and man himself would appear as the most disagreeable of the animals.” This special intervention of God is made through the coming of divine Prophets such as Christ, Muhammad, Bahá’u’lláh. When viewed in the light of Bahá’u’lláh’s teaching the evidence of this truth found in the Bible, the Qur’an and other Holy Books is incontrovertible.
DOES ONE then deny Christ when
he accepts Bahá’u’lláh as the Revelator
for this age? Thus asks
many an eager soul. No one who
truly loves Christ and truly longs
for His Kingdom can be in doubt
after reading this book. Interwoven
throughout the thought and
underlying all the argument of the
book one senses that the author, as
his pen-name, Christophil, implies,
is truly a sincere lover of Christ and
not simply a bearer of His name.
Indeed one feels sure that it was intimate knowledge of Christ and deep love for Him that led Christophil to recognize the same love and power in Bahá’u’lláh that is in Christ. To him it was revealed that to deny Bahá’u’lláh was to deny Christ.
What was Christ’s mission? Was it to bring the Kingdom of God to earth? Here again the light brought by Bahá’u’lláh gives for the first time a complete understanding of Christ’s mission. “The central message of Jesus was His promise and His warning that before long (at the end of one more Era, the Era then begun) God would in deed and in fact establish the Kingdom upon earth; its foundation would be laid in the hearts of men, and those who were found to be unworthy would be destroyed.”
Christ’s mission was two-fold, or, as Christophil puts it, “Jesus' revelation was not exclusively spiritual. It was in part historical.” The references to the coming of the Kingdom have not been well understood, but Jesus gave many signs, some in parables and some more definite. Mankind would be taken by surprise, for His coming would be as a thief in the night when all are asleep. No man knoweth the exact time save the Father, not even the Son. The most definite sign of the time when His Era would end and the Era of the Kingdom begin was the time when the exile of the Jews should be ended and they should return to their own land.
Thus and in many other ways, Christophil points out, did Christ teach His disciples that He would
come again and at that time many portentous events would take place. The Bible is not the only Holy Book that foretells the coming again of a Messenger from God. But not until the coming of Bahá’u’lláh with His words of illumination and wisdom has anyone been able to rightly interpret these warnings and prophecies. They were sealed by the command of God until the “time of the end”.
AS WE FOLLOW the author’s argument
through the chapters dealing
with the story of the beginnings of
this great Cause we understand
more and more clearly that we are
verily seeing the “time of the end”,
the end of a dispensation and the
beginning of such a glorious one as
the world has never seen. In the
light of the events of that early
period of unparalleled sacrifice and
spiritual outpouring on the one
hand and atrocious and diabolical
cruelty on the other we obtain insight
into the meaning of what has
been called Christ’s Second Coming,
of the Day of Judgment, the
Day of Resurrection, the “clouds of
glory”. While what lover of Christ
can fail to be touched when he reads
for the first time of the sublime and
majestic, yet gentle and altogether
loving lives of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh,
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá? Here were
three supermen who lived lives of
complete self-abnegation under the
most difficult conditions, the source
of Whose power was absolute devotion
to the Will of God and Who so
inspired those who chose to be Their
disciples that they gladly offered
life, property, home,—everything
for the love of God.” A perfect
love for God and for men is the explanation of Their lives, the key to the mystery of Their combined achievements.”
This law of love is fundamental and gives birth under the inspiration of Bahá’u’lláh to the consciousness that all men are brothers, and “this belief is to direct conduct and to become the basis of the new world order.” “The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh does not deal alone with pure religion. . . . It is a social as well as a spiritual gospel.” This is the age of deeds. Building on this law of love and this underlying brotherhood Bahá’u’lláh has given certain specific commands to be followed. These furnish the pattern for the new world order, the Kingdom of God on earth. In his chapter entitled “The Light of the King’s Law” the author gives in broad outline a picture of what this new world is to be like with its universal education, an international language, work for all, a stabilized and just economic system, an international government and other necessary changes. The germs of this New Order are already working in Bahá’i groups and assemblies throughout the world.
IN HIS last chapter the author
turns once more to “The Fire of
God’s Love” and therein opens the
door for the reader to gain insight
into that divine love which shone in
the perfect life of Christ and which
has shone again in perfection in the
lives of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and
‘Ahdu’l-Bahá. Such is the love
that God has breathed again upon
the dead heart of the world. “Such
is the love which is to reawaken the
souls of men to the consciousness of heavenly things and to quicken their spirits to a higher life.” “This love now pouring down from God in fullest measure upon the awakening consciousness of mankind is the power that will regenerate human nature, and will create in deed and in fact a new heaven and a new earth.”
Thus has a “Lover of Christ” given once more to the world, and
especially to the Christian world, the Message of Bahá’u’lláh. “Will not”, he says in his closing paragraph, ”the story set forth in these few inadequate pages touch the heart of Europe and of Christendom?”
Surely so stirring, so earnest, so loving a presentation of the Greatest Message God has yet sent to man will awaken hearers and enlist doers.
SPRINGTIME
PRAISE be to God! The springtime of God is at hand. This century is verily the spring season. The world of mind and kingdom of soul have become fresh and verdant by its bestowals. It has resuscitated the whole realm of existence. On one hand the lights of reality are shining; on the other the clouds of divine mercy are pouring down the fullness of heavenly bounty. Wonderful material progress is evident and great spiritual discoveries are being made. Truly this can be called the miracle of centuries, for it is replete with manifestations of the miraculous. The time has come when all mankind shall be united, when all races shall be loyal to one fatherland, all religions become one religion and racial and religious bias pass away. It is a day in which the oneness of mankind shall uplift its standard, and international peace like the true morning flood the world with its light.
The Divine Prophets are as the coming of spring, each renewing and quickening the teachings of the Prophet who came before him. Just as all seasons of spring are essentially one as to newness of life, vernal showers and beauty so the essence of the mission and accomplishment of all the Prophets is one and the same. Now the people of religion have lost sight of the essential reality of the spiritual springtime. . . . His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh came to renew the life of the world with this new and divine springtime. . . . The spiritual springtime has come. Infinite bounties and graces have appeared. What bestowal is greater than this?
“A universal language shall be adopted and be taught by all the schools and institutions of the world. A committee appointed by national bodies of learning shall select a suitable language to be used as a medium of international communication. All must acquire it. This is one of the great factors in the unification of man.”
WHEN two ants meet they understand one another by the touch. When two spirits meet, they understand one another by means of the language of spirits, the language of heaven, which is as different from every earthly language as the bleating of a goat differs from a Beethoven sonata. When two men meet, they understand one another by words.
It is often said that the gift of speech is one of the qualities by which man is distinguished from the animal. True, but on account of this very quality man is often also lower than the animal. For a mute fish in the ocean depths understands another fish; the birds of all lands sing in harmony when they meet in winter under the warm southern sun. But where is the harmony among men if their languages are different, if from mouth to ear there travel only the vain sounds of incomprehensible words?
The Bible relates that at one time all men had a common language. That sameness of language bound and united them and gave them strength. But that strength filled their hearts with pride, and they began to want to reach heaven itself and stand as equals, face to face with God. And the Lord was angry at this arrogance and confounded their tongues. Broken was the bond, gone was the strength of the proud. The grandsons of Adam
were scattered throughout the whole earth. Heaven remained closed against them, but there opened instead the way of misunderstanding and strife for long, long ages.
But God, who confounded the proud, did not wish the punishment to last forever. So in the book of Zephaniah shines the promise that when the measure of the blows of fate shall be accomplished, when the whole earth shall be consumed with the flame of the indignation of the Lord, then God will give back one pure language to mankind, so that all may with one voice glorify His Name; so that they may glorify the Name of God, not rise up in pride against Him.
The promise was not vain, for already from time to time on the wings of piety harmonious voices have been raised in one language to heaven.
First, the language of the Ten Commandments, the Hebrew tongue, bound together the seed of Israel. When the great and solemn “Yom Kippur” comes round, the Day of Judgment, in every synagogue of the world prayers resound in one and the same language. The language of the Prophets, the Hebrew tongue, unites all the children of Israel, and fulfils to a certain degree the promise given by the mouth of Zephaniah.
In the same way, the language of
the Christian martyrs, slaughtered in crowds in the arenas of Home with the cry of “Pro Christo” (“For Christ”) on their lips, became, and was for a long time a bond between Christians speaking different languages.
So, too, when the sun sinks to rest from the tops of minarets throughout the whole Muhammadan world the voices ring in one language glorifying the one God and His Prophet.
EVERY RELIGION has its chosen
language, its sacred language,
which builds a bridge between the
believers and helps them to know
one another as brothers.
But each of the great Messengers, by whose mouth God spoke to man in times past, had only a limited audience. Modern methods of conquering space did not then exist. A thousand times greater than now were the distances between lands and continents. Each Prophet spoke in fact to one race alone or to limited groups of peoples.
Not so today, in the era of Bahá’u’lláh. The Baha’i Revelation is not for one race alone, nor for one people or nation. It is for the whole, great, wide world; it speaks to all men, whether black or white, whether dwellers of the desert sands or of the icy north. One common language is necessary so that understanding may reign amongst the many-tongued children of men. The acceptance of one international language was proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh.
And soon after this divine command was proclaimed by the month of Bahá’u’lláh, in response to the creative power of the Prophet’s
word appeared Esperanto. It was born, not through pride of the human mind wanting to outdo God,-the cause of the confusion of the tower of Babel,—but from an ardent, sincere desire to serve men, and by giving them the means of understanding one another to bind them once more into one harmonious family.
HOW STRANGE, how foolish must
have sounded to sceptical ears
some seventy years ago the proclamation
about the choice of one
of the existing languages or the
Creation of a New Language. A
language is not made in a retort; it
is the product of long evolution, the
expression of the culture of the
respective society.
But with the Divine Will nothing is impossible. Esperanto was born, it is growing and spreading throughout the world.
In many of His addresses ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged the spread of Esperanto, and expressed the hope that it would bind together men who otherwise could not understand one another.
Bahá’is watch the growth of the Esperanto Movement with sympathy and good wishes. Many of them are already Esperantists, but many are only lookers-on. This is not enough. For as Christ says, “Not every one who says ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only he who does the will of my Father which is in heaven”. It is not enough to watch with sympathy. We must accept and follow.
Once I met a Bahá’i who told me he did not intend to learn Esperanto as he knew four languages and that was enough for him. Unfortunately
Polish was not one of the four, and the language in which he was speaking I could hardly understand. So that as far as I was concerned, his knowing four languages did not suffice. One day I asked him if he never meant to visit Poland. He answered that Poland was beyond him, as one cannot easily get about in a country whose language one does not understand. So for him, too, four languages were not enough. And between us there remained a barrier. The friendship which might have sprung up was prevented from the beginning, for between persons who do not understand one another, hatred is possible, or a blind love, but friendship is not possible.
The international language is part of the Divine Plan which is given effect in the era of Bahá’u’lláh. And the creation and spread of Esperanto are proofs of the creative power of Bahá’u’lláh’s words.
Esperantists are aware that it is not only a new vocabulary and grammar that they are presenting to the world. They realize their mission of international brotherhood. And when they, the sons of many peoples, gather at the great international congresses, when over their heads waves the green banner, there rises from their breasts the Esperantist’s hymn, the work of the author of Esperanto, Dr. L. L. Zamenhof.
- En la mondon venis nova senta,
- Tra la mondo iras forta voko;
- Per flugiloj de facila vento
- Nun de loko flugu gi al loko.
- Ne al glavo cangon soifanta
- Gi la homan tiras familion:
- Al la mond’ eterne militanta
- Gi promesas sanktan harmonion.
- Sub la sankta signo de l’espero
- Kolektigas pacaj batalantoj,
- Kaj rapide kreskas la fero
- Per laboro de la esperantoj.
- Forte staras muroj de miljaroj
- Inter la popoloj dividitaj;
- Sed dissaltos la obstinaj baroj,
- Per la sankta amo disbatitaj.
- Sur neutrala lingva fundamento,
- Komprenante unu la alian,
- La popoloj faros en konsento
- Unu grandan rondon familian.
- Nia diligenta kolegaro
- En laboro paca ne lacigos,
- Gis la bela songo de l’homaro
- Por eterna ben’ efektivigos.
- Into the world has come a new feeling,
- Through the world goes a mighty call;
- On light wind-wings
- Now may it fly from place to place.
- Not to the sword thirsting for blood
- Does it draw the human family:
- To the world eternally at war
- It promises holy harmony.
- Beneath the holy banner of hope
- Throng the soldiers of peace,
- And swiftly spreads the Cause
- Through the labour of the hopeful.
- Strong stand the walls of a thousand years
- Between the sundered peoples;
- But the stubborn bars shall leap apart,
- Battered to pieces by holy love.
- On the fair foundation of common speech,
- Understanding one another,
- The peoples in concord shall make up
- One great family circle.
- Our busy band of comrades
- Shall never weary in the work of peace,
- Till humanity’s grand dream
- Shall become the truth of eternal blessing.
“And now I give you a commandment which shall be for a covenant,—that ye have faith; that your faith be steadfast as a rock which no storms can move, which nothing can disturb, and that it endure through all things even to the end.”
WHEN a cable was recently received by the Bahá’is in America announcing the passing of Dr. Moody in Tihrán, Persia, the words quoted above came vividly to mind. One can well understand the reason, for these words are explanatory of the sacrificial services of this American medical doctor who spent over twenty-five years in the land which gave Bahá’u’lláh His birth. Particularly do the women and girls of Persia who knew her well mourn the loss of their true friend and sister, one who sacrificed the best years of her life that they might have proper medical care and education.
Full of years and good deeds, unstricken by disease, gradually her strength failed and Dr. Moody passed into the eternal life at the ripe age of eighty-three years. The hundreds of men, women and children who attended her funeral services gave silent testimony to the love she had engendered in their hearts. Most significant was the long line of women and children who, carrying flowers, walked reverently in the procession to the Bahá’i cemetery where her earthly body found resting place. Dr. Moody’s spirit remains. Her light will ever be shining. “But if the body undergoes a change,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the spirit need not be touched. When you break a glass on which
the sun shines, the glass is broken, but the sun still shines.”
Who was Dr. Susan I. Moody and why does she occupy such a unique place in the hearts of Bahá’is? The full story of her rich and colorful life will doubtless be written by some future historian, but we can not let the immediate opportunity pass without paying tribute to this noble, loving, self-sacrificing pioneer soul. Let us review briefly the story of her life. She was born in 1851 in Amsterdam, New York of Scotch-Covenanter parents who had migrated from the north of Ireland to the United States. Here she received the usual schooling and orthodox religious training of the “best” families of the day. After graduating from Amsterdam Academy, she taught school for a while, and then went to New York City and entered the Women’s Medical College, but soon discovered that work in the dissecting room was far too great a strain for her nerves at that time. A little later her parents passed away, and her brother called her to Chicago to live with his family. While there she studied music, as she was endowed with a fine voice. She was not, however, to make music her life’s work, and decided to study painting and sculpture at the Art Institute in Chicago. From there she went to study in the Academy
of Fine Arts in Philadelphia where she remained three years. She was privileged also to study under the great painter, Chase, in New York and later to continue her studies in the art schools and studios of Paris.
On her return to this country she lived with an artist friend in Chicago. Often she repeated the old adage, “Man proposes, but God disposes,” and she suited the action to the word, for instead of following the professional art career, for which she was qualified, she finally yielded to the constantly increasing urge which she felt to continue her study of medicine, matriculated in a Chicago medical college and finished her course there successfully.
DURING those early days of her
life in Chicago, she met friends who
were attending the first classes
formed for the study of the Bahá’i
teachings. These classes she joined
but did not become a confirmed and
confessed Bahá’i until after her
intensive study of the teachings in
1903 with Mrs. Isabella D. Brittingham,
an illumined Bahá’i teacher,
who brought many of the most
staunch friends into the Cause in
those early days. Dr. Moody always
acknowledged with a thankful
heart the privilege that was hers in
being taught by so able a Bahá’i
teacher.
In the following years Dr. Moody gave much of her time to teaching and speaking for the Bahá’i Cause, though she had never before been a public speaker. The first Bahá’i Sunday School in Chicago was conducted by her and to this day those who attended that sunday school tell of how she taught them to save their pennies to help in the purchase
--PHOTO--
Dr. Susan I. Moody
of the land for the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in the western world. Later she herself was one of the group of Bahá’i sisters who traveled up and down the outskirts of Chicago’s north side in search of the best location for the now famous Bahá’i Temple which is in the course of construction in Wilmette, Ill.
ABOUT THIS time (1908) a party of
American Bahá’is traveled to Persia
to visit the Bahá’is in that land,
and while there some Persian
doctors had asked whether it would
be possible to induce an American
woman doctor to come to Tihrán to
live for the purpose of caring for
the Persian women who at that time
were so deprived of skilled medical
care. While stopping in ‘Akká,
Palestine, on their return from
Persia the Americans communicated this wish to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Who asked them if they knew of such a doctor. The name of Dr. Moody was presented, and she received word without delay from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá telling her she had been chosen for this great medical work in Persia. “I knew then,” Dr. Moody often remarked, “why I had felt the urge so strongly to study medicine, I was obliged to study medicine in order to come to Persia.” She was indeed destined for this great post of noble service. Nor did she hesitate when the call. came but proceeded immediately on her journey. Had she not longed to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá? Several years before, she had made this vow, “I hereby devote, consecrate and sacrifice all that I am and all that I have and all that I hope to be and to have to Thee, O Divine Father, to be used in accordance with Thy Purpose.” She now realized that the time had come to fulfill this vow. There were obstacles in her path, many did not wish to see her cast aside the practice she had established. “But my vow had been recorded,” she said, “and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had summoned me. I was ready.”
Enroute to Persia Dr. Moody stopped in the Holy Land to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. She received from Him the necessary instruction and encouragement which gave her strength for, and joy in, the work ahead of her. At the time of parting He said, “You will need patience, patience, patience!” She tried never to forget that important injunction. Thursday, November 26, 1909,—the American Thanksgiving Day—was her first day in Tihrán
and her heart was full of gratitude. It was a Thanksgiving Day never to be forgotten.
The story of the first year of Dr.
Moody’s service in Persia was one
of struggles. Dr. Lotfullah was her
first interpreter since her knowledge
of Persian was very scanty. Often
she left her sick ones in the office
and retired to another room to pray
for the supreme patience which
‘Abdu’l-Bahá had prescribed. Later
she became fluent in the Persian
language and preferred to use it.
Bahá’is all over America will remember the many interesting stories related by Dr. Moody herself during her visit to this country in 1925. In each city she visited meetings were arranged where she fully but humbly described her pioneering services to the women of Persia. All realized that had it not been for her absolute devotion to the Bahá’i Cause, her faith in the Bahá’i teachings, her oft repeated vow to consecrate her all to Bahá’i service, she could never have endured the many hardships which were her portion in the early days. Her faith was sublime
Later a group of Persian doctors decided to open a hospital and at their request she joined them as a physician for the women patients. The hospital was successful from the beginning and continues its work as one of the foremost institutions of the kind in Tihrán today.
ASIDE FROM her medical work,
there was ever present in her mind
the most important question of the
education of girls which had been
almost totally neglected in Persia.
Some few women had studied behind
a curtain when a tutor was teaching the boys, but they were very few. Dr. Moody often said, “My heart ached for the neglected ones.” Then began her magnificent efforts toward interesting others in this question of education. She found that many of the Bahá’i men were in full sympathy with her ideas, and through Bahá’i consultation and cooperation, a girl’s school was started with an attendance of thirty pupils. This, too, was successful from the very beginning, and has steadily grown in importance. It now has an enrollment of several hundred and is known as the Tarbiat School for Girls. Some one has declared it to be “the greatest among all the schools in Tihrán.” In fact the school long ago had outgrown its quarters. One of the activities most dear to the heart of Dr. Moody was the raising of funds for an additional building. She wished this fund to be known as The Kappes Memorial Fund in memory of Miss Lilian Kappes, the first American Bahá’i teacher who died in Persia after giving nine years of indefatigable service to the school.
But it was not only the Tarbiat School for the secular education of girls that Dr. Moody was instrumental in starting. She also founded the Bahá’i study classes for girls, and herself visited these classes every Friday. The same curriculum was used as in the boy’s classes for the study of the Bahá’i teachings. There are now sixteen different centers of these Bahá’i study classes for girls, all managed by trained teachers, and in these groups many who started years ago in the first
course are now teaching and training others.
WHAT WAS the secret of Dr.
Moody’s noble and self-sacrificing
life? It was built on the only firm
foundation that there is—the eternal
rock of ages, the revealed Word
of God. Her outstanding qualities
were a keen spiritual perception, a
clear vision, a pure and undefiled
conception of the Bahá’i Teachings,
and most important of all was her
willingness to render instant obedience.
She never knew the word compromise.
She was humble, severed
and selfless; her sense of justice was
outstanding. The writer was an intimate
associate of Dr. Moody for a
time, and it is assuredly true that
few there be who have the capacity
she possessed to make just measurements,
such a capacity is rare. Her
intense love for the Persian Bahá’is
was most manifest and her loving
tributes to them at all times and in
all places most noble and generous.
Deeds appealed to her far more than words. “All are partners in words,” said Bahá’u’lláh. Often we have heard her recount the story of the famous Persian Bahá’i heroine, Qurratu’l-‘Ayn, who, attending a meeting where a learned man was discoursing on philosophy, giving proofs and evidences regarding the Cause, arose and cried out, “This is the day of deeds. If thou art a man show forth deeds!” And in Dr. Moody’s living of the life of a true and faithful Bahá’i there were daily deeds which revealed her station. These deeds had made her widely known in Tihrán, and her unique life and outstanding services were much eulogized in the press of that city.
--PHOTO--
Group of Bahá’is in Vienna, Austria. Seated, second from left, Miss Martha Root, American journalist and Bahá’i teacher and lecturer.
THE Message of Bahá’u’lláh was first heard in Vienna several years ago and Bahá’i teachers have visited there at various intervals since that time. In 1926 Miss Martha Root began a series of visits to that city for the purpose of building up a permanent Bahá’i group and this has been accomplished. Her most unique service and experience was her interview with Mme. Hainisch, mother of the former President of Austria, who gave Miss Root the story of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn’s influence in the life of Miss Marie vonNajmajer, the famous Austrian poetess whose greatest poem was on the teachings of the Báb and the life of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn.1 Another article under the title “The Servant Apostle”,2 described the beautiful life and service of a Bahá’i brother
1 Bahá’i Magazine, Vol. 18, p. 44. 2 Ibid, Vol. 16, p. 749.
who had been, and continues to be most zealous and self-sacrificing in spreading the Bahá’i religion in that city.
All Americans who have had the privilege of visiting Vienna, find that its people are accomplished, charming, high intellectually and cultured, in fact their culture is unique. History has given ample demonstration of their patronage of the fine arts, especially of music. The great composers, Haydn, Schubert, Mozart and others were Austrians.
In the tribulations and tragedies which the Austrian people, and especially those of Vienna, have experienced in the last two decades, may there not a great spiritual Renaissance blossom forth from this Bahá’i group.—M. H.
WHAT IS MUSIC? . . . .
is the heart’s own language. Its vibrations uplift the spirit; it is very beautiful and a great art.”
MUSIC is one of the important arts. It has a great effect upon the human spirit. Musical melodies are a certain something which prove to be accidental upon etheric vibrations, for voice is nothing but the expression of vibrations which, reaching the tympanum, affect the nerves of hearing. Musical melodies are therefore those peculiar effects produced by, or from, vibration. However, they have the keenest effect upon the spirit. In sooth, although music is a material affair, yet its tremendous effect is spiritual and its greatest attachment is to the realm of spirit. Voice is the vibration of air and is like the waves of the sea. The voice is produced through the instrumentality of the lips with the tongue, etc. These cause a wave in the air, and this wave reaches the nerve of the ear, which is thereby affected.
WHAT is music? It is a combination of harmonious sounds. What is poetry? It is a symmetrical collection of words, therefore they are pleasing through harmony and rhythm. Poetry is far more effective and complete than prose. It stirs more deeply. A fine voice, when joined to beautiful music, causes great effect. All these have in themselves an organization and are constructed on natural laws, therefore they correspond to the order of existence like something which fits into the mould of nature. When it is so, this effects the nerves, and they affect the heart and spirit. In the world of existence all material things have a connection with spiritual realities. Thus the voice connects itself with the spirit and it can be uplifted by this means. In short, musical melody forms an important role in the associations, or outward and inward characteristics or qualities of man, for it is the inspirer or motive power of both the material and spiritual susceptibilities. . . . When man is attached to the love of God, music has a great effect upon him. . . . The art of music is divine and effective. It is the food of the soul and spirit.”
IN Security for a Failing World*, a recent book by Mr. Stanwood Cobb, noted educator and writer, we have a uniquely comprehensive and convincing treatment of both the political and religious sides of our life today. He shows clearly and conclusively the crying need of reform in both these spheres and of their interdependence.
The first half of the book is devoted to the political, economic, and religious approaches of the Bahá’i Faith, whereas the last ten chapters deal in a broad fashion with its basic truths and principles. The book is not overburdened with details and facts, and in it are skillfully woven quotations from current writings and speeches which point to the present world conditions, and excerpts from the words of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, showing most clearly in what ways the Bahá’i Faith embodies the answers to the needs of the world at present.
The opening chapters point to the advantages of a planned society. Material and scientific development, it is shown, have far outstripped the development of society morally and spiritually.
“What humanity desperately needs,” says Mr. Cobb, “more than new sources of power, more than leisure or prosperity is a new conscience. When that arrives man’s intelligence . . . can forge a way to
* Bahá’i Publishing Committee, P. O. Box 348, Grand Central Station, New York City.
a general level of prosperity not only far greater than human hope has envisaged, but also eternally durable. Philosophers, economists, statesmen, with a zeal enforced by necessity, are seeking today security for a failing world. The solution to their quest must be found chiefly in a new universal moral and spiritual consciousness of brotherhood applied in practical terms to the organization of human society.”
But, the writer goes on to question, is the intelligence of man capable of creating the needed stable civilization? Do we not, after all, need a super-human mind and spirit to guide successfully the complicated affairs of modern civilization? A force more powerful than that of human intellect is needed, for men are, even though intelligent beings, swayed by their emotions. Is not a development of, an education, so to speak, of the emotions needed? And what power has been found, through the ages, to be greater than that of true religion? A spiritual renaissance, we then conclude, is the only possible cure, in this age of doubt, whose many and decadent religious institutions are rendered even more impotent by the very fact of their numerousness and rivalry.
“The greatest of all master emotions,” says Mr. Cobb, “is religion. This is the force which normally governs and directs the emotions of
human beings, harnessing them into spiritual and cultural unities.”
THE NEXT four chapters are devoted
to a brief but extremely comprehensive
treatment of the place
which the great religions of the
past, Zoroastrianism, Judaism,
Buddhism, Christianity, Islam have
had in their influence on civilization.
The truth which Bahá’u’lláh
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have so clearly
pointed out is saliently emphasised,
in this account, that religion, like
everything else in the world, is subject
to transmutation and change
and that each great religion has, in
its turn, suffered the same spiritual
decline and final impotence. This
does not mean that religion should
be regarded as for all time in the
discard heap of decayed institutions,
but points to the all-important
fact that a renewal of religion,
of spirituality, is from time to time
most vitally necessary.
In presenting the essence of the Bahá’i Faith, its principles and message for today, Mr. Cobb speaks first of the universality of its appeal. As amply demonstrated already among the adherents of this Faith, members of all races, nations, classes, religions, find in its teachings the ideals, both individual and universal, which meet most closely their needs. In addition all religions have abundant prophetic utterances about the One Who is to come in the latter day. The great political principle, that of a universal federation of the world, on which the Bahá’i Faith is based is likewise universal in appeal in that it leaves no room for domination of one nation over another. But for the founding of a truly effective federation
it is absolutely essential that all peoples should be likewise bound together through a common religious belief, and hence a common standard of morals and ethics. To further ensure a common world culture Bahá’u’lláh gave the important principle that there must be one universally accepted auxiliary language.
Prejudice, Mr. Cobb emphasises, is one of the greatest barriers to the establishment of a firmly knit world state or civilization, a world unified in a lasting way. Selfish emotions must be overcome by altruistic. One of the oldest and most deep seated of prejudices is that existing between Orient and Occident. Religions of the past have not succeeded in overcoming this prejudice and since the days of the Golden Age of Greek civilization, Western and Oriental cultures have been becoming more divergent, the former advancing along more purely material lines, the latter contributing much in religious thought but little in the practical sciences. As the world is, through the many technical advances, becoming more closely unified, it seems inevitable that Orient and Occident can no longer live independently of each other. Is it not imperative for them to find a common basis of ideals and of culture, a loyalty to a cause which both can share equally? The Bahá’i religion like all others arose in the Orient and has the spiritual qualities which appeal naturally to the Oriental. But in its teachings the importance of scientific knowledge and investigation is stressed. Already it has spread widely in the West as well as the East, and has proved to be peculiarly well fitted to serve as a
bond linking Oriental and Occidental together in a true spirit of brotherhood.
ONE OF the most illuminating and
most sorely needed teachings of the
Bahá’i Faith is the plan for the
political and economic state. Gradually
throughout the past century
and especially in the last quarter-century
there has been a growing
consciousness of the obligation of
governments towards all those
within their territories. Especially
in view of the growing complexity
of the economic pattern and the
greater scope and intensity of economic
crises and ensuing depressions
has the need for the government
to enter into new fields of
enterprise in order to keep large
masses of its citizens from starvation
become evident. The Bahá’i
plan, Mr. Cobb points out, maintains
a very remarkable balance between
capitalism and socialism:
keeping on the one hand the profit
motive for the individual, but providing
for just distribution of rewards
among all and a guarantee
of a living to each. Through a system
of profit sharing between capital
and labor in industry, steeply
graded income and inheritance taxes,
and an acknowledged recognition
by the state of its duty to provide
employment or living for each
individual, an order will be brought
about in which extremes both of
wealth and of poverty will be
avoided, and political and economic
justice be attained.
In the concluding chapters Mr. Cobb deals briefly with the problem of modern youth, the relationship of the Bahá’i Faith to other religious
institutions, the joy and inspiration which comes to those working towards the Bahá’i goal of “making a better world.” The Bahá’i Faith, he says, is the answer to the problems of modern youth, torn between the alternatives of complete materialism and overthrow of ethical and moral standards on the one hand, and the acceptance of unsatisfying religious dogmas and creeds on the other. This Faith asks of no loyal adherent of any of the religions that he forsake the fundamental truth on which they are based. It does not demand that one renounce in any sense his loyalty to or love for Christ. Rather the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh serves to enhance and put in a more glorious light the teachings of the Prophets of old. And in the goal of helping to establish the New World Order of Bahá’u’lláh one finds inspiration and strength sufficient to remold and make more rich one’s individual character.
ON READING this very able treatment
of the outstanding points in
the message of Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’is
will surely find renewed inspiration
for themselves as well as a fuller
knowledge of the signs in the world
pointing inevitably to the need and
truth of this stupendous revelation.
For all thinking people this book
offers an irresistible challenge and
a promise: A challenge to the teachings,
the creeds and principles on
which our present institutions are
working in the “failing world,”
and a certain promise of a more
just and secure world order in the
not distant future.
“To strive to obtain a more adequate understanding of the significance of Bahá’u’lláh’s stupendous Revelation must, it is my unalterable conviction, remain the first obligation and the object of the constant endeavor of each one of its loyal adherents.”
TRANSITION periods of whatever nature are always rather difficult and confusing experiences. There usually is the disturbing proclivity of contrasting the familiar factors of the past with the strange elements of the new.
The pattern of behavior in such periods has been well defined. Two divergent attitudes vie with each other,—the inertial bent to cling to the old and, if the exigency is sufficiently threatening, a clamor for some relief, protection or improvement.
Man has become quite expert in applying the scientific method involving experiment, to the conquest of knowledge and benefits of the physical world. In these activities he is, in a sense, outside the arena of action. But it is more difficult to experiment with forces and influences which alone are adequate to bringing about the re-acceleration of civilization. Man is a participant in such events and not outside the sphere of action. There is always the fear that even the experiment itself may hurt and persistent doubt as to the outcome. Man is fearless in experimenting with everything except his social relationships and responsibilities.
THE LARGER any new undertaking,
the greater the need for a comprehensive
plan, the correct method
and the proper technique. The establishment
of the New World Order
is at once the greatest task and
the most glorious privilege which has ever confronted humanity.
That a New World Order is not only imminent but imperative is the resultant opinion of many points of view and it is being freely and persistently voiced in various modes of expression in a profusion of contemporaneous discussions in magazines and books, here and abroad.
The plan has been formulated and revealed by Bahá’u’lláh.
The method has been explained by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The technique has been demonstrated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The early stages of construction are being directed by Shoghi Effendi.
Is it not true that: The more significant the task the greater must be the preparation? The more fundamental the revisions involved the more securely must the foundations be laid? The more comprehensive the scope of influences the more important the initial steps of building? The more complex the effects the more exacting the craftsmanship required? The more exacting the craftsmanship the more requisite an apprenticeship?
The Bahá’i Movement aims at the establishment of a New World Order—nothing less. This can only be accomplished by “instant, exact and complete obedience.” It presupposes the sustaining power of continuous meditation and prayer. It must be pursued with “ceaseless,
tireless energy.” It is the most exacting, yet thrilling and glorious adventure in human experience.
Consequently, it is not difficult to realize and appreciate that the early steps in the practical application of such a tremendous and vital project must be very wisely and correctly executed. This conception helps to explain Shoghi Effendi’s many and continued specific instructions as to the importance of Bahá’i Administration in so far as it has evolved or been given. This should allay any concern regarding the remote possibility of undue stress being directed to it. It is the task of the moment, essential to the present status of the project. Understanding and applying Bahá’i Administration is the preface to subsequent chapters of advancement. May it not suggest the training and obedience required of apprentices, who learn while they work; who apply the knowledge they have previously acquired, but gain more by actual experience and the constant unfoldment of working operations?
IN MANY engineering undertakings
it is necessary to use the step
by step method in calculations, experiment
and construction. The establishment
of the New World Order
of Bahá’u’lláh is not, however,
an experiment the culmination of
which is in doubt. There is the unquestionable
assurance that it will
be. But abilities and capacities are
such that man best employs the step
by step method—gaining skill and
strength as he proceeds. It is a
protecting bounty that the sun does
not rise abruptly in the morning. The susceptibility of the world also is such that the gradual unfoldment of the New World Order is ordained by divine wisdom. Life must go on while these great changes come.
Administrative principles and methods, as being enunciated by Shoghi Effendi, constitute, in a manner, the basic parts of the lower frame work, around and upon which the structure will be built. Even though the magnitude, the form, the beauty, or the influences of the structure when complete cannot now be seen, each step of the work can and must be performed in accordance with the specifications and instructions of the Master Builder.
Scientific accomplishment requires long years of training, the mastering of fundamentals, correct methods and adequate technique, patience and persistence before even initial results are obtained. For the scientist, fame and recognition lie in the distance, many degrees beyond his first successes. What years of painstaking apprenticeship and “grounding” must the artist, the musician, the poet, the craftsman spend before they can “weave cloth with threads drawn from their own hearts.” Is there any more exacting profession to master than that of learning to express thoughts proficiently and beautifully in words? And yet how strict the rules and how laborious the learning ere the satisfaction of self-expression blossoms. “The greatest gifts of man are reason and eloquence of expression.” How inflexible and sovereign are the laws of the most exact of the sciences—mathematics. What a powerful
tool it is, but by what detailed steps of progress is it understood and mastered sufficiently to be of real service. Each stage is “ground-work” for the next higher. Each pace a toe-hold for the next. Such examples of the necessity for preparation and careful beginnings in human experience are many and need not be multiplied.
“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link” and that weak link may be the first or second one forged.
AN ENGINEER or group of engineers
designs an intricate and
complex unit of automatic machinery.
Do the men in the shops, working
on individual parts from a detailed
blue print, question the shape,
material, dimensions or tolerances
prescribed thereon? They may have
no conception whatever of the final
assembly but a good workman cooperates
and follows the specifications,
and how proud he is of his
contribution when the machine performs
perfectly some service, automatically
going through the motions
dictated for it by the designer!
This is requisite cooperation—essential
unity of action.
In emergencies, some people have the valuable faculty of almost instinctively doing the right thing—and emergencies do occur. These are good people to have around in times of danger. And is this characteristic, a matter of straight and clear thinking, not largely attributable to thorough grounding in self-control and response, to training and experience? Animals are taught to traverse an intricate labyrinth of paths to reach food, so that the animal eventually responds
to its need by taking the correct path unerringly and surely. Steering an automobile soon becomes “second nature.” Again, illustrations of “grounding” or the mastery of essential fundamentals are profuse in life and need not be further elaborated.
Do not these experiences indicate the value of mastering first principles in order that we may perform the simple requirements correctly and more or less involuntarily, leaving our additional abilities free to cope with the more advanced problems when and where they arise? Do they not establish surely the wisdom of careful and correct beginnings and accurate execution?
So should anyone, for any reason whatsoever, feel even the slightest trace of indecision regarding the importance of mastering and applying Bahá’i Administrative Principles as they evolve or are given, it is to be remembered that:
1. The good craftsman questions neither the plan, the designer’s specifications, nor the master builder’s instructions.
2. All human experience attests the value of “grounding” in knowledge and response.
3. The greatest unity is essential for the greatest degree of cooperation.
4. There is an obligation of “instant, exact and complete obedience”, through which and only through which one can draw upon spiritual power sufficient to supply one with the requisite “ceaseless, tireless energy.”
THE COMPOSITION of physical substances appears to begin with a “nucleus” of the atom. The emmission
of physical energy is dependent on minute bundles of “quanta.” Behind every project there is an idea or nucleus of thought. The idea of present day Bahá’i Administration is to teach the beginnings, the rudiments of the coming New World Order. Doubtless there is also an element of discipline therein.
Bahá’i effectiveness is predicated on the ideal of the greatest unity and harmony of action ever conceived. Bahá’i Administration is a safeguard for the undivided, practical
application of such unity as a great, regenerative force.
Shoghi Effendi has spoken of “wider loyalties”, so whatever loyalties to the basic principles of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh may exist, from which nothing should ever detract, are we not being asked to clothe ourselves with a wider-loyalty within the Plan—and embrace the opportunity to make ourselves more effective instruments for the carrying out of The New World Order?
The author of this article, Miss Root, who four times has had the privilege to be received in the Royal Palace in Belgrade by their Royal Highnesses Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga, has written a special article for “The Bahá’i World” Volume 5—(which is soon to appear)-about these charming and serious members of the Royal House of Yugoslavia. They have deep interest in religion and education, and are very conversant with Bahá’i ideals of training children, with Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings for the oneness of humanity and with the architectural beauties of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Chicago. H. R. H. Prince Paul of Yugoslavia is now the chief Regent of His Majesty young Peter of Yugoslavia since the tragic passing of His Majesty King Alexander.
WHY should art lovers in the United States be interested in the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Yougoslavia? There are several excellent reasons: first, all travellers will find this National Art Gallery contains some of the great works of the Yougoslav sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, whose exhibitions in New York, Washington, Chicago, Detroit and other cities gave a forward impulse to artistic education; a few of his sculptural masterpieces are in our country.
A visit to this Balkan Gallery shows from the forty-four works of
Mestrovic that he is an epic artist with a strength like Michael Angelo. This Yougoslav is a creator of temples—national, Christian, human temples. He loves the themes of maternity, childhood, revolts, suffering, death. His men are prophets, saints, heroes, titans. Coming from the Balkans, Mestrovic has in his soul several civilizations, Mediterranean, Eastern, Western, all these are blended together, synthesized in his great works.
Secondly, this new gallery founded five years ago from nothing really, by His Royal Highness
Prince Paul of Yougoslavia, now has representative pictures from the French, English, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Rumanian Schools of painting as well as the works of the best Yougoslav artists. There are only three American painters’ works in the whole gallery. Holland, at the Hague has a “Comite pour la propagation de la connaissance des arts plastiques nederlaudais en Yougoslavie” composed of Yougoslav officials in that land and some of the Dutch painters and patrons of art. The writer feels that it is possible to have a similar committee of some of the United States artists and patrons of art collaborating with the Yougoslav Minister in Washington and Yougoslav Consuls in the different cities.
THIS Belgrade National Gallery
is the first permanent exhibit of
foreign paintings in that capital
and it is a gallery unique of its kind
in South-Eastern Europe. Imagine
Washington, D. C., a vassal capital
for more than five hundred years:
imagine all the soldiers of the
United States being driven out of
their country to some island like
Corfu; then in the building up from
the ruins of world war, of a recaptured,
restored, free fatherland they
again construct Washington and in
the midst there is created a charming,
small National Art Gallery,
then O reader, you will feel what
this gallery means to the people of
Belgrade! It is visited by enormous
throngs and the writer observed
how often Yougoslav artists come to
Belgrade to remain for a few days
to study these pictures.
It would be wonderful if His Royal Highness Prince Paul could come to the United States and
--PHOTO--
H. R. H. Princess Olga of Yougoslavia, from a painting by the French artist, J. E. Blanche.
know our galleries as he knows those of Europe. He is a deep scholar and a connoisseur of art; this Prince studied in Oxford University, but as his work was interrupted during the world war, he returned and received his M. A. degree later. Prince Paul is the inspiration, the promoter of Yougoslavia’s artistic life—His Majesty King Alexander was a very great lover of art, but was too busy to give it full attention—he followed each artistic movement in his country with profound interest and helped it in every way possible.
H. R. H. Prince Paul took the entire initiative in founding this fine gallery. He has housed it in a most
pleasing palace of ancient Serbian architecture and the distribution of rooms is especially picturesque. It is said to be the most beautiful house of old Belgrade; built in 1828, it is in itself an architectural monument interesting and precious. Passing on through the semi-circular rooms one sees in the School of Painting of Contemporary Yougoslavs how flourishing it is, how worthy of being represented in the Gallery of Prince Paul. Among the artists most famous one should mention the works of Milunovic, Bijelic, Urelac, Tartaglia.
Among Mestrovic’s works one should not miss seeing the superb bronze bust of H. R. H. Prince Paul, and one should also study the parts of a National Temple, also of Mestrovic, which will be raised on the Field of Kossovo, in memory of the battle with the Turks in the fourteenth century. Another modern Yougoslav sculptor whose works attract many to this gallery is Toma Rosandic; his domain is humanity.
The French School of Painting
includes a lovely portrait of Her Royal Highness Princess Olga, Wife of Prince Paul, painted by J. E. Blanche. His Royal Highness Prince Nicholas of Greece, (father of Princess Olga) and a well known painter, has one rare picture in this gallery, a landscape of Bohinje, the summer home of Prince Paul and Princess Olga in the Julian Alps of Slovenia, near Bled.
It is very easy to stop over for a day or two in Belgrade coming through on the Orient Express from Paris to the Near East, and see this gallery and other beautiful and interesting sites and scenes, and meet some of the fine people of Belgrade.
Through the courtesy of H. R. H. Prince Paul, several exhibitions of Yougoslav paintings have been made in other countries. Press comments revealed that the beauty and value of Yougoslav modern art are much appreciated in other lands. United States lovers of art who visit this gallery will begin to ask about having exhibitions of Yougoslav paintings and sculpture in our country.
“And finally there emerges, though on a plane of its own and in a category entirely apart from the one occupied by the twin Figures [the Báb omd Bahá’u’lláh] that preceded Him, the vibrant, the magnetic personality of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, reflecting to a degree that no man, however exalted his station, can hope to rival, the glory and power with which They who are the Manifestations of God are alone endowed.”
DURING one of the talks given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to a comparatively small group of the more intimate
friends, I sat beside Him on a small sofa. For most of the hour, while He talked and answered
questions, He held my hand in His or rested it lightly upon my knee. There flowed from Him to me during that marvelous contact a constant stream of power. The remembrance of this experience has brought to me through the years, at higher moments of insight, thoughts difficult to express. “Words cannot step into that Court.” When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that “there is a Power in this Cause far transcending that of men and angels,” what does He mean in terms applicable to our everyday human experience, if not that the World of Reality is a World of such Power as this world has never known? When mankind learns how to become a channel for that Power as He always was and is, instead of attempting to mop it up for one’s own use, then indeed “this world will become a garden and a paradise.” Certainly I felt that transcendent power flowing from Him to me; and Mr. Mountfort Mills once told me that he had the same experienee when sitting close to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during an automobile ride. He said it was like being charged by a divine battery.
I speak of this only because it is another illustration of the effect Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence always had on me. I could not be near Him without surges of almost irresistible emotion sweeping through me. Sometimes the effects of this emotion were apparent, but not always. I once spoke of this to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, apologetically referring to my childish weakness. “This is an evidence of strength, not weakness,” He said. “Such tears are the pearls of the heart.”
It is not unusual for deep emotions to be stirred when the eye is satisfied by a noble picture—a glorious sunset or a peach orchard in full bloom. Or when the ear is entranced by the genius of a Beethoven, a Bach, a Mendelssohn. To the eye or ear trained to detect subtle harmonies of color, composition and tone, a chord is struck by transcendent beauty which stirs the depths. How much more must this be true when the eye, the ear, the heart are filled with the vision of human perfection!
Here in ‘Abdul-Bahá I saw that for which all my life I had longed,—perfection in word and deed,—a beauty which no line or tone could ever depict; a harmony which resounded to my inner ear like a mighty symphony; a reposeful power such as is hinted at in the Moses of Michael Angelo, or the Thinker of Rodin. In ‘Abdu’l-Bahá it was not a hint I got, it was the perfection of all that the hungry heart desired. I have heard of instances in the Orient of believers who entered His presence for the first time being swept by such irresistible tides of emotion that they would seem to dissolve in tears. I cannot wonder. Here I saw and felt and heard a simplicity merging into power; a humility which sat His brow like a kingly crown; a purity which never tarnished, and, above all, Truth personified—the very Spirit of Truth enshrined in a human temple. It was utter satisfaction to my soul simply to be near Him.
Perhaps there was also a reason for my emotion in the despair lying ever deep within; for to me it
could never be enough merely to contemplate such perfection. A voice continually cried within me: “You must never rest until you have clothed yourself in the attributes of God.” I seemed to hear in every word He spoke the words of Jesus: “You must be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” These had always been more or less only words to me. I began now dimly to hope that they might really mean exactly what they said. And this became certainty when I read for the first of many times these wonderful words from Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet to the Pope:
“If ye believe in Me ye shall experience that which has been promised you, and I will make you the friends of my soul in the realm of My Greatness, and the companions of My Perfection in the Kingdom of My Might forever.”
Under the influence of such tremendous thoughts as these I one day asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá how it could ever be possible for me, deep in the mass of weak and selfish humanity, ever to hope to attain, when the goal was so high and great. “Kam kam,” He said, “Kam kam.”
Little by little; little by little. And I have all eternity for this journey from self to God, I thought. The thing to do is to get started.
TOWARDS THE latter part of April,
late one Sunday afternoon, I was
again at the home where so many
wonderful hours had been spent. It
had become almost a habit, when
the service at my church was over
and dinner dispatched, to hasten in
to New York and spend the rest of
the day and evening at this home. Sometimes I would have an opportunity to speak to ‘Abdn’l-Bahá, but usually I must be content with a glimpse of Him, or with listening to Him while He spoke to a small group. This particular afternoon, however, was destined to be a red-letter day. I was standing alone at one of the windows looking out upon the street, when I was startled by seeing a large group of boys come rushing up the steps. There seemed twenty or thirty of them. And they were not what one would call representatives of the cultured class. In fact, they were a noisy and not too well-dressed lot of urchins. They came up the steps with a stamping of feet and loud talk, and I heard them being ushered in and up the stairs.
I turned to my hostess, who was standing near. “What is the meaning of all this?” I asked.
“Oh, this is really the most surprising thing,” she exclaimed, “I asked them to come today, but I hardly expected that they would.”
It seemed that a few days before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had gone to the Bowery Mission to speak to several hundred of New York’s wretched poor. As usual, with Him went a large group of the Persian and American friends, and it made a unique spectacle as this party of Orientals in flowing robes and strange head-gear made its way through the East Side. Not unnaturally, a number of boys gathered in their train and soon they became a little too vocal in their expression. As I remember, even some venturesome ones called names and threw sticks. As my
hostess told the story, she said: “I could not bear to hear ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, so treated and dropped behind the others for a moment to speak to them. In a few words, I told them who He was, that He was a very Holy Man who had spent many years in exile and prison because of His love for Truth and for men, and that now He was on His way to speak to the poor men at the Bowery Mission.”
“Can’t we go too?” one who seemed to be the leader asked. I don‘t think that would be possible, she told them, but if you come to my home next Sunday, and she gave them the address, I will arrange for you to see Him. So here they were. We followed them up the stairs and into ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own room. I was just in time to see the last half dozen of the group entering the room.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá was standing at the door and He greeted each boy as he came in; sometimes with a hand-clasp, sometimes with an arm around a shoulder, but always with such smiles and laughter it almost seemed that He was a boy with them. Certainly there was no suggestion of stiffness on their part, or awkwardness in their unaccustomed surroundings. Among the last to enter the room was a colored lad of about thirteen years. He was quite dark and, being the only boy of his race among them, he evidently feared that he might not be welcome. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá saw him His face lighted up with a heavenly smile. He raised His hand with a gesture of princely welcome and explained in a loud voice so
that none could fail to hear: “Ah, a black rose.”
The room fell into instant silence. The black face became illumined with a happiness and love hardly of this world. The other boys looked at him with new eyes. I venture to say that he had been called a black—many things, but never a black rose.
THIS SIGNIFICANT incident had
given to the whole occasion a new
complexion. The atmosphere of the
room seemed now charged with
subtle vibrations felt by every soul.
The boys, while losing nothing of
their ease and simplicity, were
graver and more intent upon
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and I caught them
glancing again and again at the
colored boy with very thoughtful
eyes. To the few of the friends in
the room the scene brought visions
of a new world in which every soul
would be recognized and treated as
a child of God. I thought: What
would happen to New York if these
boys could carry away such a keen
remembrance of this experience
that throughout their lives, whenever
they encountered any representatives
of the many races and
colors to be found in that great
city, they would think of them and
treat them as “different colored
flowers in the Garden of God.” The
freedom from just this one prejudice
in the minds and hearts of this
score or more of souls would unquestionably
bring happiness and
freedom from rancor to thousands
of hearts. How simple and easy to
be kind, I thought, and how hardly
we learn.
When His Visitors had first arrived,
‘Abdu’l-Bahá had sent out for some candy and now it appeared, a great five-pound box of Park & Tilford’s mixed chocolates. It was unwrapped and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá walked with it around the circle of boys, dipping His hand into the box and placing a large handful in the hands of each, with a word and smile for everyone. He then returned to the table at which He had been sitting, and laying down the box, which now had only a few pieces in it, He picked from it a long chocolate nougat; it was very black. He looked at it a moment and then around at the group of boys who were watching Him intently and expectantly. Without a word, He walked across the room to where the colored boy was sitting, and, still without speaking, but with a humorously piercing glance that swept the group, laid the chocolate against the black cheek. His face was radiant as He laid His arm around the shoulder of the boy and that radiance seemed to fill the room. No words were necessary to convey His meaning, and there could be no doubt that all the boys caught it.
“You see,” He seemed to say, “He is not only a black flower, but also a black sweet. You eat black chocolates and find them good: perhaps you would find this black brother of yours good also if you once taste his sweetness.”
Again that awed hush fell upon the room. Again the boys all looked with real wonder at the colored boy as if they had never seen him before, which indeed was true. And as for the boy himself, upon whom all eyes were now fixed, he seemed
perfectly unconscious of all but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Upon Him his eyes were fastened with such an adoring, blissful look as I had never seen upon any face. For the moment he was transformed. The reality of his being had been brought to the surface and the angel he really was revealed.
I LEFT THE house with many deep
thoughts crowding my heart. Who
was this Man? Why did He have
such power over souls? He made
no pretentions of goodness. He did
not preach; oh, never! Not even
by the faintest implication did He
ever intimate that one should be
otherwise than what he was: yet
somehow He showed us worlds of
beauty and grandeur which tore our
hearts with longing to attain, and
made us loathe the round of so
called life to which we were bound.
I did not know what to think of it
all, but I did know, even then, that
I loved Him as I had never dreamed
of love. I did not believe as those
around me did. Indeed, I hardly
ever thought of what their many
words concerning His station
sought to convey. I was not interested
in that at all, it seems. But I
certainly did believe that He
held a secret of life which I would
give my life to discover for myself.
I spent myself in prayer that night. I felt that I had never really prayed before. I am not given to what is called occult, or mystic experiences, but as I prayed that night there were surely Presences in the room. I heard rustlings and little whisperings. A new and wonderful world opened before me from that night.
THE PROMULGATION OF UNIVERSAL PEACE, being The Addresses of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in America, in two volumes. Price, each, $2.50.
BAHÁ'U'LLÁH AND THE NEW ERA, by Dr. J. E. Esslemont, a gifted scientific scholar of England. This is the most comprehensive summary and explanation of the Bahá'í Teachings as yet given in a single volume. Price, $1.00; paper cover, 50 cents.
THE WISDOM TALKS OF 'ABDU'L-BAHÁ in Paris. This series of talks covers a wide range of subjects, and is perhaps the best single volume at a low price in which 'Abdu'l-Bahá explains in His own words the Bahá'í Teaching. Price, paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.00.
BAHÁ'Í SCRIPTURES. This book, compiled by Horace Holley, is a remarkable compendium of the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It contains a vast amount of material and is indexed. This Paper Edition (only ¾-inch thick) Price, $2.50.
THE BAHÁ'Í WORLD, a Biennial International Record (formerly Bahá'í Year Book). Prepared under the auspices of the Bahá'í National Assembly of America with the approval of Shoghi Effendi. Price, cloth, $2.50.
All books may be secured from The Bahá'í Publishing Committee, Post office Box 348, Grand Central Station, New York City.
FIVE MONTHS' subscription to a new subscriber, $1.00; yearly subscription, $3.00. Two subscriptions to one address, $5.00. Three subscriptions to one address, $7.50. Ten new subscriptions to one address, $25.00 (in United States and Canada). If requested, the subscriber may receive one or more copies and have the remaining copies sent to other addresses.
Two subscriptions, one to come each month, and one to be sent in a volume bound in half-leather, at the end of the year, $5.75 of the two subscriptions; postage for bound volume additional.
Single copies, 25 cents each; ten copies to one address, $2.00. Address The Bahá'í Magazine, 1000 Chandler Bldg., Washington, D. C.
The Herald of the South, G. P. O. Box 447 D, Adelaide, Australia.
Kawkab-i-Hind (Published in Urdu), Karol Bagh, Delhi, India.
La Nova Tago (Published in Esperanto), Friedrich Voglerstrasse 4, Weinheim, Baden, Germany.
Sonne der Wahrheit (Published in German), Stuttgart, Germany.
[Page iv]
LEADERS OF RELIGION, exponents of political
theories, governors of human institutions, who
at present are witnessing with perplexity and
dismay the bankruptcy of their ideas, and the disintegration
of their handiwork, would do well to turn
their gaze to the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh and to
meditate upon the World Order which, lying enshrined
in His teachings, is slowly and imperceptibly
rising amid the welter and chaos of present-day civilization.
They need have no doubt or anxiety regarding
the nature, the origin or validity of the institutions
which the adherents of the Faith are building
up throughout the world. For these lie embedded
in the teachings themselves, unadulterated and unobscured
by unwarrantable inferences, or unauthorized
interpretations of His Word."
