WORLD'S FAIR
Dr. Zia Bagdadi
* *
A MESSAGE: THE NEW WORLD
ORDER
Lucy J. Heist
* *
PORTALS TO FREEDOM
An Autobiographical Story
* *
The DYNAMICS of A CHANGING
WORLD
Marion Holley
* *
SUMMERWEEK AT ESSLINGEN
Helen Pilkington Bishop
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| VOL. 25 | OCTOBER, 1934 | No. 7 |
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 | |
The Social Fabric, Bahá’u’lláh | 199 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 195 |
A Message: The New World Order, Lucy J. Heist | 200 |
Temple Echoes from the World’s Fair, Dr. Zia Bagdadi | 202 |
Portals to Freedom—An Autobiographical Story | 207 |
The Dynamics of a Changing World, Marion Holley | 211 |
Summerweek at Esslingen, Helen Pilkington Bishop | 214 |
The Practice of Selflessness, Muriel Ives Barrow | 216 |
The Spirit and Influence of the Western States Bahá’i Summer School, Charlotte Linfoot | 219 |
Current Thought and Progress | 223 |
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
|
MIGHT THERE NOT EMERGE OUT OF THE AGONY OF A SHAKEN WORLD A RELIGIOUS REVIVAL OF SUCH SCOPE AND POWER AS TO EVEN TRANSCEND THE POTENCY OF THOSE WORLD-DIRECTING FORCES WITH WHICH THE RELIGIONS OF THE PAST HAVE, AT FIXED INTERVALS AND ACCORDING TO AN INSCRUTABLE WISDOM, REVIVED THE FORTUNES OF DECLINING AGES AND PEOPLES?
“Is it true . . . that vast numbers of people in today’s life are morally ill and spiritually famished, and that the only satisfaction of their need is through vital, personal religion? Is it true that most of what passes for religion in our day is a travesty and that the prevailing religion of the churches is sterile and unreal—unsoud in its working belief in God, insincere in the hiatus between what it professes and what it really attempts to live, and pitifully inadequate to the spiritual demands of the age? . . . Is it true that our civilization is tottering in imminent peril of mortal collapse and that its illness is, fundamentally, not political and economic, but spiritual? . . . Is it true that we have been brought into our present unhappy distress by the whole character of modern life—its false goals, its pitiable pretense of human self sufficiency, its willful egotism, selfishness, and self destructive follies? Is it true that there is no promise of escape from our threatened fate except through radical social conversion—that is a complete about-face from the character and habits of modern life—and unless the way be prepared by world-wide spiritual revival?—Henry P. Van Dusen, The Atlantic Monthly.
“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.”—Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
| VOL. 25 | OCTOBER, 1934 | No. 7 |
civilization, for they lead to a small number accumulating incomparable fortunes, beyond their needs; whilst the greater number remains destitute, stripped, and in the greatest misery. This is contrary to justice, to humanity, to equity; it is the height of iniquity, the opposite to what causes divine satisfaction.”
THERE IS A tremendous change taking place in popular psychology—a shift from goals of individual prosperity to goals of individual security. In the past the opportunity to make individual wealth was inevitably accompanied by possibilities of failure and of want. The past industrialistic system has contained many different types of insecurity, all due to some factor of the capitalistic state. There has been insecurity due to illness or accident; insecurity due to old age (this form of insecurity has tremendously expanded as the working career of the modern industrial laborer has been shortened); insecurity due to unemployment.
Even before the present world depression various governments had attacked with varying forms of insurance this problem of insecurity in the life of the workman. No country however had arrived at the dramatic point of guaranteeing support to every individual. Today in the midst of the depression no government could long stand which did not in some way or other guarantee life to every citizen, no matter how humble.
At present in this country the important subject of unemployment insurance is being attacked by committees of research, and the government is pledged to find some way of preventing such a cataclysm of unemployment
and want as we have known for the past few years. It is a greatly involved matter and calls for human engineering on a huge and complicated scale, but if the government concerns itself, as it should and must in the present age, with the greatest good for the greatest number a solution to this pressing problem will be found.
IT IS NOT only the industrial laborer
however who is experiencing
insecurity today. The immense
scope of the present depression has
disillusioned the masses of the people
as to the efficacy of thrift. Bank
savings have proved no barrier to
poverty. Fortunes in stocks and
bonds which erstwhile yielded
splendid incomes have become
worthless as to current needs because
no dividends have been forthcoming.
Thus today both the laborer, and the capitalist (in the form of the investor from small to great), have found themselves in the same predicament. What can be done about it? There is widespread insecurity in the midst of a ridiculous plenty. We have within our country a surplus of raw materials, a surplus of labor, and a surplus of needs and desires. If these three factors could be brought together, all want would be abolished. Yet the whole situation waits upon the catalytic of
money to perform this union. If these three factors are brought together without the medium of money, which is certainly possible, we have state socialism. To many this appears the ideal solution. It is not however the solution which the Bahá’i World State offers. The Bahá’i economic system is a controlled or balanced capitalism which permits self-interest to operate within restricted spheres.
Self-interest is still the strongest motivation of effort and efficiency. Human nature as it is today and as it will be for thousands of years to come cannot act collectively without some scope for the profit motive. It is as idle to seek to abolish that motive as it is to seek to limit sex expression to the purpose of procreation. Human organized society must be based on reasonable grounds of human psychology.
But how can the self-seeking motives in the industrial and commercial life of the world be controlled so as to prevent the evils of present day individual capitalism? The control cannot be purely political for this reason—political organization is an expression of the people and a people who universally desire uncontrolled opportunity for the satisfaction of greed will find ways of violating or vitiating government regulation.
A certain measure of control must be contributed partly by popular opinion. The right kind of combination of government function and of a new economic consciousness will make possible the new economic order of the Bahá’i World State which may be described as a modified form of capitalism.
The Bahá’i State requires no one
to serve without motives of personal reward. Self-seeking incentives are allowed still to operate, but within the practical range of mutuality was between individuals and between classes. It is to be a fifty-fifty proposition. All economic enterprise must be fair. It must be mutually advantageous and the rewards and profits must be equitably distributed as between the classes.
This great law of mutuality and equity is the only possible basis of security whether economic or political. Any government which desires stability must offer clearly perceived advantages to the vast majority of its citizens and any government which would endure today must guarantee economic security. How is this to be done?
IN THE BAHA’I State there are
four main provisions which will inaugurate
complete equity and mutuality
as between labor and capital;
and which will so spread the profits
of industry throughout the entire
population as to maintain a steady
equilibrium between investment,
production and consumption.
First: Labor throughout all industry will share in the ownership, management and profits of factories; and this not by illusionary methods of stock purchase but by mere fact of workmanship. Thus labor will receive not only wages but also a share in the dividends. In this way the profits of industry will be so distributed throughout the masses that consumption will always be able to equal production, and the recurrent chronic depressions of the past will be thus avoided.
Secondly: Sharply graduated income
taxes will prevent the accumulation of large fortunes. When such a system of taxation is effectively put into action, it will discourage men from even an attempt at amassing large fortunes; it will no longer be any advantage to gain enormous incomes since the State will take a large proportion of this income. Such a system of taxation limiting huge aggregations of capital within individual ownership will make a vast change in the industrial system, throwing open once more all industry to the ambition of small operators, thus giving greatly expanded opportunity to the average person of commercial or industrial ability.
Thirdly: Whatever of fortunes are allowed to be accumulated within this modified capitalistic system will tend to be widely distributed at death both by inheritance taxes and by the provisions of the law of Bahá’u’lláh which arranges for many definite bequests. Thus usage in the New World Order would distribute a fortune at the death of its owner among relatives even to the third degree, including also teachers of children.
Fourth: The habit of voluntary giving, which already has reached—if we view it historically—a unique proportion in this country, will be vastly enhanced in the Bahá’i State, the charitable tendencies being increased.
Hand in hand with this new industrial order will go a direct economic responsibility of the State toward every citizen. Everybody in the Bahá’i State is guaranteed a livelihood. The State assumes responsibility either of giving employment to the individual or of supplying
him with the necessities of life. Thus no citizen of the Bahá’i State will suffer privation and want. Such a guarantee on the part of the State is an enormous responsibility and calls for a highly intricate form of human engineering. Already however we have seen the dawn of such ideas. The governments of the future will not shrink from this obligation, no matter how arduous or complicated is its application.
AS WE HAVE said above, even the
most perfect type of political-economic
organization would fail to
flourish unless it had, the support of
the majority of its leadership. There
must take place simultaneously a
new organization of economic life
within the nation, and a new individual
enlightened conscience and
consciousness. In the New World
Order of Bahá’u’lláh these two
things go hand in hand, and of the
two the latter is in reality the more
important. There must be achieved
a new vision, a new aim, at new purpose;
this is the major endeavor of
the Bahá’i Teachings and it is most
significantly accomplished.
But this is Utopian, you may say. Yes, it is Utopian in the sense that it is a plan for a better world. But this is the day of Utopias, is it not? It is a period alive with change. Bahá’is pledge themselves to the achievement of the great Transformation—a New World Order which will definitely work to abolish poverty and want and to eliminate exploitation and organized injustice the world over. Its aim is the establishment of brotherhood and justice, both political and economic. Bahá’u’lláh has said: “O Oppressors on Earth! Withhold your
hands from tyranny, for I have pledged myself not to forgive any man’s injustice. . . .”
Many an ancient prophecy is being fulfilled today. Malachi’s—“I will be a swift witness . . . against those that oppress. . . .” is as strikingly true in this remarkable epoch as it was to the Christians, who in the period of the decline of the great Roman Empire realized more keenly than any other group the dramatic purposes of destiny in destroying old forms and breaking
to pieces ancient injustices and oppressions.
So today Bahá’is realize, as no other groups can realize, the vastly constructive purposes of destiny underlying all the cataclysmic changes of this age. Out of it all—the terror, the suffering, the travail—will emerge a New World Order based on mutuality and justice. It is worth working for. In fact, is there anything else today that is worth working for, in comparison to this?
“What a wonderful century this is! It is an age of universal reformation. Laws and statutes of governments civil and federal are in process of change and transformation. Sciences and arts are being moulded anew. Thoughts are metamorphosed. The foundations of human society are changing and strengthening. Today sciences of the past are useless. The ptolemaic system of astronomy, numberless other systems and theories of scientific and philosophical explanation are discarded, known to be false and worthless. Ethical precedents and principles cannot be applied to the needs of the modern world. Thoughts and theories of past ages are fruitless now. Thrones and governments are crumbling and falling. All conditions and requisites of the past unfitted and inadequate for the present time, are undergoing radical reform. It is evident therefore that counterfeit and spurious religious teachings, antiquated forms of belief and ancestral imitations which are at variance with the foundations of divine reality must also pass away and be reformed. They must be abandoned and new conditions be recognized. The morals of humanity must undergo change. New remedy and solution for human problems must be adopted. Human intellects themselves must change and be subject to the universal reformation. If we remain fettered and restricted by human inventions and dogmas, day by day the world of mankind will be degraded, day by day warfare and strife will increase and satanic forces converge toward the destruction of the human race.”
THE SOCIAL FABRIC . . .
Be intent on the betterment of the world and the training of nations."
TAKE ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof. . . . Regard the world as the human body which, though created whole and perfect, has been afflicted, through divers causes, with grave ills and maladies. Not for one day did it rest, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of unskilled physicians who have spurred on the steed of their worldly desires and have erred grievously. And if at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before. . . . That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one Universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This verily is the truth, and all else naught but error. . . . Be united, O concourse of the sovereigns of the world, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you and your peoples find rest.”
CONSIDER the civilization of the people of the Occident—how it has occasioned commotion and agitation to the people of the world. Infernal instruments have been devised and such atrocity is displayed in the destruction of life as has not been seen by the eye of the world, nor heard by the ear of nations. It is impossible to reform these violent, overwhelming evils, except the peoples of the world become united upon a certain issue or under the shadow of One Religion.”
RELIGION is the greatest instrument for the order of the world and the tranquility of all existent beings. The weakening of the pillars of religion has encouraged the ignorant and rendered them audacious and arrogant. Truly I say, whatever lowers the lofty station of religion Will increase heedlessness in the wicked, and finally result anarchy.”
O ye sons of intelligence! The thin eyelid prevents the eye from seeing the world and what is contained therein. Then think of the result when the curtain of greed covers the sight of the heart!”
“It should be noted . . . that this Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá’u’lláh has Himself revealed its principles, established its institutions, appointed the person to interpret His Word and conferred the necessary authority on the body designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its strength, its fundamental distinction, and the guarantee against disintegration and schism.”*
ABOUT once in a thousand or two thousand years new laws of living are released in the world of humanity. At present new principles have been working in the minds of men for nearly a hundred years making great changes and a slow revolution in thought. These invisible divine influences, like magnets, are drawing thinking men all over the world, and they are weaving these new principles into the life of mankind.
The masses are slowly responding, with much running to and fro, not knowing what it is all about. The leaders are now realizing that a New World Order is at hand. They see the world as one huge neighborhood. Realizing the importance of world consultation for the past few years they have been struggling with conference after conference for world disarmament and peace. But this can only come through the working out of the great law of unity which is the law emphasized for this New Age.
But meanwhile the nations are struggling in a world chaos of fear and suspicion, preparing for self-defense, while the dangers of war grow, equally with the growth of armaments. The ideal of gradual and simultaneous disarmament is
* The Dispensation of Bahá'u’lláh, p. 53.
held out to the world in these conferences, but the nations seem afraid to let go.
MRS. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
says in her book, It’s Up to the
Women:—“We are building more
ships, not because we want to fight,
but because we are afraid not to
live up to our neighbor’s strength.
Europe is alive with rumors of war.
The world is sitting constantly on
high explosives. We are told that
all life is based in nature on principles
of survival of fittest; but the
world is evolving new ideas, and we
find that policy no longer satisfactory.”
She also says—“The time has come when quarrels shall be referred to courts of law, for an international police force. . . . The challenge to organize a new social order all over the world would have possibilities that would take the place of excitement of war; it would establish a will to peace, a new conception of life, a real International Court, and a real League of Nations.”
Mrs. Roosevelt thinks that “women and youth have a special obligation to the new social order which is growing up about us.” Many are speaking of this new social
order, which is being felt and recognized all over the world, as the only way out.
One man says,—“In the confusion of a broken world order, we are groping blindly for the way to economic understanding and social justice; ignorance and untutored thinking still hold men back from the vision of God.”
WHAT IS THIS vision of God? What
is the Divine Plan? It was given to
the world nearly a century ago, by a
great World Teacher, such as comes
to the world from age to age, to establish
new ways of living, according
to the needs of that particular
time in which He comes. This great
Teacher gives a new blue-print to
humanity. He plants the seed in
the old order of the day. Then the
old order disintergrates, and the
new order grows out of its chaotic
condition. This new World Order
has been growing and evolving until
soon the leaders of humanity are
bound to recognize it as a pattern
destined to embrace the whole of
mankind. Statesmen all over the
world are struggling to adjust
changing conditions to the old
methods and it cannot be done.
The principles belonging to the new World Order are, among others:—“The Independent Investigation of Truth,” “The Oneness of Mankind”, “The Accord of Science and Religion”, “The Equality of Men and Women”, “A Universal Auxiliary Language”, “The Abolition of Prejudice”, “Education for Every Child”. All of these lead to Universal Peace and this requires a new Administrative Order for the World.
This plan includes a real League
of Nations, a World Court, a Universal House of Justice, an International Police Force to keep the peace, a solution for economic problems, and social justice. There must not be the very rich not the very poor.
THE LEADERS of mankind might
well approach and examine this new
World Order; it is the remedy for a
sick world; it blends and harmonizes.
Contrast its slow steady
growth with the devastating forces
of disintegration that are assailing
the outworn institutions of present
day society!
This new administrative order shows a new vitality, a courage vision, hope, discipline, unity, peace and power. You say, can all this grow out of a bitter chaotic world? Does not a water-lily grow out of a stagnant pond? The flower of a future civilization is budding now.
Are we not told that God doeth whatsoever He willeth? Think of the civilizations that grew out of the effort of Moses, of Jesus, of Muhammed!
Thinking men are giving warning of a civilization tottering right now. But they am also getting glimpses of this new administrative World Order which is evolving and taking shape all over the world and which is founded on the purpose of God for this day, the Unity of Mankind, Universal Peace,—the Kingdom of God on earth.
There is a Movement in the world embracing all these teachings. It was announced some seventy years ago by the great Law-giver, Bahá’u’lláh, Whose coming was promised by all the religions of the world.
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Bahá’i House of Worship in course of construction in Wilmette (near Chicago) Illinois.
The Bahá’i Temple: “A befitting and concrete embodiment of the spirit animating the Cause standing in the heart of the American continent both as a witness and as a rallying centre to the manifold activities of a fast growing Faith.”
WHEN the Century of Progress Exposition was opened in Chicago a year ago, the Bahá’is used this opportunity to acquaint the people with the significance of the Bahá’i Faith, first, by giving occasional lectures at the Hall of Religions, and later by placing an exhibit in a prominent place in the heart of the Hall of Religions. As the writer was one of the many volunteers who had the privilege of assisting in this service he wishes to set forth a few of the features which distinguished the Bahá’i exhibit
from the others; to repeat some of the questions often asked by thousands of visitors and to give brief answers to them; and to report some incidents observed and remarks repeatedly heard, all of which indicate public reaction toward the Bahá’i Movement and its Temple. In this way the readers of the Bahá’i Magazine may get a comprehensive idea of the fulfillment of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s promises, especially in regard to the influence of the Temple on mankind during the days of the greatest exposition ever known to man.
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By night the Fair is a glowing wonderland of light, color, and beauty.
TO THE BAHA’IS the World’s Fair means a century of spiritual progress as well as material progress; to others it means material progress only. Bahá’is demonstrated the instruments of universal peace—remedies for all human ailments and problems, the means for the establishment of Divine Civilization. Others demonstrated the newest machines and most modern devices of industry, agriculture and transportation. Bahá’is attributed this century’s miraculous progress and achievements to no other reason than the coming of the Promised One of all nations—the Glory of God, Bahá’u’lláh. Others attributed success, discoveries, inventions and the advancement of science to human endeavors only, unaware of the Source of all inspiration. In their exhibit, accordingly, the Bahá’is had only one aim,—to convey a heavenly message which brings true happiness, real prosperity, and permanent security to all mankind. This heavenly message was embodied in a small model
of the beautiful Bahá’i Temple, made by Mr. Louis Voelz of Kenosha, Wisconsin. The chaste beauty of this miniature temple held the attention of many and a Bahá’i was always at hand to explain how the principles of world unity and brotherhood for which the Temple stands, are, through the power of Bahá’u’lláh, the remedy for the sick world.
“WHAT IS THE purpose of the
Bahá’i Temple?” was one of the
first questions asked by those who
paused to examine the Temple
model. To this we answer in
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own words:
“Temples are the symbols of the reality and divinity of God—the Collective Center of mankind. Consider how within a temple every race and people is seen and represented; all in the presence of the Lord, covenanting together in a covenant of love and fellowship; all offering the same melody, prayer and supplication to God. Therefore it is evident that the church is
a collective center of mankind. For this reason there have been churches and temples in all the divine religions.”
At one time ‘Abdu’l-Bahá impressed upon me the importance of building the Temple. It was in the year 1920, in the city of ‘Akká in the Holy Land, as we were passing in front of a very old church. He stopped suddenly and pointing to it called my attention to the fact that were it not for that little church not one of the followers of the Christian Faith could be found or seen in the city. No other power on earth than this humble church could protect and unite such a small community of Christians for more than thirteen hundred years in a Muhammadan land under fanatic and despotic rulers.
ANOTHER QUESTION commonly
asked was: “Why build such a
costly building when the huge sum
of money now being spent on its
ornamentation could be used for
material benefits to mankind?”
To this we reply that it is for the
benefit of all mankind and for nothing
else that the Temple has been
built in the utmost beauty. Bahá’u’lláh
has said: “O Concourse of
Creation! O People! Construct
homes (or Houses of Worship) in
the most beautiful manner possible
in every city, in every land, in the
name of the Lord of Religions. Then
commemorate thy Lord, the Merciful. . . .
Verily by this commemoration,
the breasts shall be dilated, the
eyes illuminated, the hearts gladdened.”
Few people yet realize that the remedy for this sick world must have a spiritual foundation. In
speaking of the erection of this Temple ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said: “Its building is the most important of all things. This is the spiritual foundation; for that reason it is the most important of all foundations; from that spiritual foundation will come forth all manner of advancement and progress in the world of humanity.”
THIS LEADS us to another question
often asked: “In what way does
the Bahá’i Temple differ from other
temples and churches, and how can
one expect more benefit from this
one temple than from others?”
Those who give only a passing
glance at the Temple may carelessly
speak of the design as oriental, but
those who inspect it even briefly see
that the design is new and unique.
Indeed, according to the master
minds of world famed architects and
engineers the Bahá’i Temple is
“the first new idea in architecture
since the thirteenth
century.” The idea behind it
and for which it stands is equally
new—the idea of the unity of mankind
and of the essential oneness of
all religions. In the words of the
architect of the Temple, the late
Mr. Louis Bourgeois, “the Bahá’i
Movement is the fusing of the essential
spiritual elements of all religions
and all philosophies.” Explaining
further he says: “Into this
new design, then, of the Temple, is
woven, in symbolic form, the great
Baha’i teaching of unity—the unity
of all religions and of all mankind.”
The Bahá’i Temple, so exquisite and perfect in all the details of its conception and execution, so perfectly symbolic of unity, is a most powerful influence in bringing the
--PHOTO--
Showing the design of the clerestory section now nearing completion
people into a consciousness of the need of world unity and of the vitalizing power of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. Shoghi Effendi helps us to understand this when he says, “it is assuredly upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, reinforced on the one hand by spiritual communion with His spirit, and on the other by the intelligent application and the faithful execution of the laws He revealed, that the salvation of a world in travail must ultimately depend.”
“HOW IS THE building of the
Temple financed?” Many of the
Fair visitors who went to Wilmette
to see the Bahá’i Temple and attended
the meetings, found to
their amazement that there was no
such thing as a money collection, returned
to us with this question,
“Who pays for the building of the
Temple and from where does the
money come to run the affairs of the Movement?”
Our answer is simply this: That the Bahá’is throughout the world have the reputation of being a self-sacrificing people. They do not ask material rewards for their services rendered for the sake of God and humanity. They have no priesthood and clergy to support. Therefore joyously and generously they are ready at all times to contribute according to their best ability to carry on their transactions and support the administration of the Cause.
“Truly I say,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá once wrote, “the friends of God (i. e. the Bahá’is) display wonderful generosity in regard to the contributions for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár (the Temple). This spirit of sacrifice has been especially noteworthy among the friends in the Orient. In regard to this ‘Ahdu’l-Bahá said, “Until this day an event of this
character has never transpired, that from the East and Asia contributions were forwarded to the West for the building of a temple. Verily this is a cause of astonishment for the people of perception.”
“DO THE BAHA’IS believe in
Christ?” was another question asked
many times. To those who are
familiar with the Bahá’i Teachings
this query seems strange indeed.
We assure all that the Bahá’is believe
in Christ and in all the divine
Messengers of God. “Bahá’u’lláh
established Christ in the East,” said
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “He has praised
Christ, honored Christ, exalted Him,
called Him ‘the Word of God’, ‘the
Spirit of God’, raised the name of
Christ to supreme summits of glorification.
Throughout the Orient
Bahá’is have illumined the lamp of
Christ and spread His mention.”
BESIDES THESE and other questions
which were asked many interesting
incidents occurred. One of the most
striking was as follows: One day a
handsome young man stopped and
after gazing at the model his face
flushed, his eyes sparkled and with
a voice intense with emotion he said,
“Do you know that this Temple has
saved my life! You see I am a flier,
and once while returning to Chicago
during a severely stormy night I
was lost because nothing below was
visible. I became desperate and
prayed. Soon after I saw the light
through the dome of the Bahá’i
Temple. Then I knew where I
was.”
One Sunday afternoon a family of three came from some distance to
attend the Service in the Foundation Hall of the Temple. They had heard about the Temple and wished to know for what it stood. After the service they expressed their extreme happiness over what they had heard and wished to come again as they had missed part of the talk. One of the group added that he had been a seeker all his life and his soul was hungry for just such a message as he had heard. The next Sunday they were present again and this same man publicly announced, with sincere devotion and great happiness, his faith in the Bahá’i Cause. Since then the members of this family of three have been rendering important services to the Cause.
During the past summer a gentleman from a distant city heard that “sun worshippers are building a temple at Wilmette, near Chicago!” When he finally went to Chicago, just for curiosity’s sake, he went to see the Temple. He was so impressed by the Temple and the Bahá’i teachings that after further investigation he declared himself a believer in the Bahá’i Revelation.
In short many are those who through their visit to the Temple are now studying the Bahá’i teachings, wherein they have found their hopes and all their heart’s desires. With the World’s Fair in full sway the rush of visitors and tourists may be compared to the waves of the sea. What a commotion, what a spiritual attraction, what a heavenly inspiration, what eternal bestowals are emanating from this sacred sanctuary, this House of Worship, this Bahá’i Temple! Blessed are those who know.
The reader will find in the following article a most gripping description of the spiritual evolution of a soul in this day and generation. It is full of human and spiritual interest. The author wishes his name withheld for the present.
MY life divides itself, in retrospect, sharply in two. The years before I met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá look to me now much as the ten year old child might be imagined to regard his matrix life, assuming him capable of that keen vision. The comparison is apt, also, from another angle; for, just as a child of ten has still before him experiences of vast and unimagined heights and depths, splendor and shadow, so I, the twenty-two year old youth of the spirit, look back indeed upon the forty-five years of gestation, recognizing the fact of that necessity if birth were to occur, but beyond that fact knowing little or nothing of the trivial causes which could lead to such effects. How much less, then, is it possible to estimate the future of the twice-born soul throughout unimaginable ages of life in all the worlds of God. If the wood in which the earthly sap flows briskly still is capable of such a flame, how great the conflagration when, freed from the laws of the world of nature, the fire kindled from the Sinaitic Tree becomes ablaze! Truly birth is the great event but, compared with the second birth the first is only a feeble significance.
THE FALL and Winter of 1911–12
is a period marked in my memory as
months of great unhappiness. Life,
in all that composed its deepest
values, seemed to have left me high
and dry on the banks of its swiftly-flowing stream. Outwardly all was well but that inward voice that adds, “All is well indeed,” was silent. I know of no greater disappointment, no more terrible depression than that which comes to the sincere soul which, seeking God, finds Him not.
For many years I had found myself unable to accept the conventional connotations of such words as God, Faith, Heaven, Hell, Prayer, Christ, Eternal Life, etc. In very early manhood I had come to grips with the goblins of superstition masquerading as churchly creeds and had cast them out, but no satisfying, spirit-bearing convictions had come to take their places. Perhaps for ten years my thought life was frankly and positively agnostic. But these were great years nevertheless, for they were portals to freedom. But, alas, that freedom had failed to bring peace. I began to suspect that freedom without a guide and teacher fell little short of anarchy. True I still had the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth, and never had I failed in love for them. But I failed woefully in the practice of them. And even a casual glance at the lives around me and the civilization men called “Christian”, convinced me that so far as any practical parallel between words and deeds were concerned there were few, if any, Christians in the world, and certainly no expressions of social, economic
and national life worthy of such a name. Besides this objective fact impossible to evade or deny, I was confronted by the even greater difficulty of the confused thought life created by years of scientific, philosophical and theological study and reading. In all these cross currents of human speculation my frail skiff had all it could do to keep afloat and the struggling oarsman little hope of finding his desired haven by following any one of them.
One day I found in the library of a village rector where we were spending a summer’s vacation, a volume of the works of William Ellery Channing. His sermon on the occasion of the ordination of Jared Sparks in Baltimore in 1844 opened a new horizon. Perhaps one could be free and yet have a guide freely chosen! Thus began a period of about fifteen years of so-called liberal study, thought and preaching which, on the whole, can not be said to be fruitless years for work was sincerely done and doubtless necessary lessons learned. But measured by those inner standards which from boyhood had subconsciously been cultivated, these were barren years.
Was this to be the fruit of mystic dreams, of God-ward yearnings, of passionate longings to aid just a little in the uplift of sorrowing humanity around me? To preach once a week; duly to make my parish round of calls on elderly spinsters and the sick to whom my visits were simply what I was paid to give; to build churches to hold a handful of people; never to forget the collection, for which lapse of memory my treasurer was always
scolding me, and to fill in odd hours with reading of the latest modern philosophy in order to pass it on to my unsuspecting congregation with appropriate annotations,—did this round of living contain the germs of that “Truth for which man ought to die?” Was it my own fault that I had missed the point and was I a fool in that I could not adjust myself to that definition of success which found its goal in a wealthy congregation, the whispered, “That was a mighty fine sermon”, the annually increasing salary?
Well, anyway, suffice it to say I was desperately unhappy. I had tried the orthodox scheme; I had tried to sail the uncharted sea of—“I don’t know;” I had tried the “Liberal Faith” and I found myself approaching spiritual bankruptcy. A balancing of life’s books showed me in debt to God and Man. It had not yet begun to dawn upon me that to be recreant to either was to be in arrears with both, and that spiritual insolvency is assured when freedom of the mind is assumed to mean liberty to follow every will-o-the-wisp of human philosophy.
IT WAS in October of 1911 when
those first stirrings of influences
which were to change the course of
life throughout all the Worlds of
God came to me. I picked up a
copy of Everybody’s Magazine from
a casual bookstall and found there
in a rather complete article on
‘Abdu’l-Bahá and His projected
visit to America. I shall never forget
the thrill this somewhat commonplace
story gave me—commonplace,
I mean, in comparison with
the reality of that story as future
months were to unfold it to me.
Again I heard the inner voice which since very early youth has come to me again and again: “Come along up.” I read and re-read the story. Here was a Man who had indeed found a Truth for which He was not only willing to die but had died, a living death covering sixty years of torture, banishment and imprisonment, and who had seen many thousands of His followers willingly and joyfully face a martyr’s death. And above all—O happy marvel!—here was a man who placed money where it belonged, beneath His feet. He never took up a collection!
I read and re-read that glorious and tragic story and filed it away in my voluminous twenty-five volume scrap-book. There may have been a vague purpose in my mind of making that story the background of a sermon some day. To such human uses do we often put the skyey glimpses God vouchsafes us. Which is well; or would be if those heavenly visions found utterance in our lives as well as through our lips.
IT MAY have been an indication of
my spiritual unrest and sense of
frustration that had prompted me
some months before to organize in
Jersey City what we called The
Brotherhood Church. It had no
affiliation with my regular denominational
work. No salary was attached
to its service. It tried to be
in fact what its name indicated: a
group of brothers of the spirit aiming
to express their highest ideals in
service to struggling humanity. Our
meetings were held in a large
Masonic Hall every Sunday evening,
since my suburban church held
services only in the morning. How
little one can estimate the great results
that may flow from even slight
efforts undertaken in a sincere spirit of service. It is hardly too much to say that had not this Church of Brotherhood, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá later called it, been inaugurated and carried on for a few brief months, the Sun of Reality might not have risen for me for many years, if ever upon this little planet.
For one of the members of the Board of Trustees was a man whom I had grown to respect and love deeply. This was Clarence Moore. His health was none too good and he suffered, at intervals all too short, from blinding headaches, indicating a pathological condition which, a few months later, carried him from this world. His nature was one of the humblest and sweetest I have ever known. None was too lowly or poor to be denied his understanding love; none too casual an acquaintance to make him hesitate to seek to find and touch with healing art the hidden springs of sorrow and distress which all conceal. His tact seemed never failing and his faith in human greatness boundless. He had no money, or little, to give. He had more, the key of universal love which unlocks every heart.
Clarence came to me one Sunday evening just before the service was to begin and handed me some notes, saying: “I am not feeling well enough to stay this evening for I am very tired with some work I have been doing and in connection with which I want to ask your assistance.” “How can I help?” I said. You know I am only too glad if I can assist in any way.”
“Well,” he said, “you see it’s like this. I have for some years known of a world-wide movement which seems to have great spiritual and social significance. Friends of
mine have found in it much of value and inspiration which so far have seemed too high and deep for me to fathom and explore. It occurred to me that your knowledge and experience in such matters might assist me to a just appreciation. So, this afternoon I attended one of the meetings of this group in New York and made some rather full notes with the idea of submitting them to you for your criticism and opinion.”*
I was dubious. There was no connection in my mind between this movement and the magazine article I had lately read, and I hesitated more than a little. Oriental cults, eastern philosophies, and the queer supposedly idealistic movements of which there are so many, had never appealed to me. But, of course, I thanked him and on my way home in the train that night I studied his notes carefully. Interesting, I thought, heart-stirring a little but that was about all except that I looked forward to further discussion of them with my friend.
WITHIN A FEW days the mail
brought to me an invitation to attend
a “Bahá’i Meeting” in New
York at which a Bahá’i friend from
London, England was to speak. At
once I connected this with Mr.
* I came to know much later that this was just his characteristically humble and tactful way of enlisting my attention. He had long loved the teachings and his daily life was their application.
Moore and his notes. He had evidently given my name to someone and with this result. I was disturbed. I had no desire to be drawn into any movement or interest which might distract my attention from my legitimate work. I was on the point of throwing the card into the waste paper basket. Only the thought of Clarence, his selfless service, his friendship and love, deterred me. I could not refuse his request that I investigate.
So I went, although it entailed an evening wasted, as I thought, and a midnight return to my home which, in my then state of health was a not inconsiderable hardship. How slight the occasion upon which often hang great and vital issues! Suppose that I had refused to go! Nay, suppose that Clarence Moore had allowed his physical weakness, his need of rest that Sunday afternoon to weigh too heavily against his desire to serve; if the material had overbalanced the spiritual in his mind that day I probably would not be writing these words twenty-two years later. Indeed, Sir Launfal to the contrary notwithstanding, Heaven is not given away, God cannot be had for the asking unless with that asking goes all that one has.
- I know the heart has seasons
- Like fields that drink sweet rain.
- Only the heart drinks tears
- Instead, and grows with pain.
All conditions and requisites of the past unfitted and inadequate for the present time, are undergoing radical reform. . . . New remedy and solution for human problems must be adopted. Human intellects themselves must change and be subject to the universal reformation. Just as the thoughts and hypotheses of past ages are fruitless today, likewise dogmas and codes of human invention are obsolete and barren of product in religion.
EVERY religion has seen great days and nurtured its heroic men. Every religion has released upon its home environment a power of such purgative vigor and insistent purity that the entire complex of culture, from basic institutions to characteristic individual traits, was in each instance stirred and reshaped according to a nobler pattern.
It was to this mighty social influence that the Báb alluded when He asked, “Has He (God) not subjected the barbarous and militant tribes of Arabia to the holy and transforming discipline of Muhammad, His Prophet?”1 The men to whom He spoke, Persians of the Shi’ite tradition, reared in a sentiment of admiration for Muhammad and to a just, evaluation of His attainments, recognized the verity of the Báb’s words and were inflamed by them to ardent emulation. But we of the Occident lack standards whereby to judge the Prophet’s power. With alien and stubborn hearts we neglect His teachings, while our historical susceptibilities are so dulled by mediocre schooling that even the sudden drama of Islam’s birth and rise fails to seize our attention. Yet the impact of Muhammad upon the East and upon the world was terrific.
Arabia, in those days, was untutored
1 Nabils Narrative, ”The Dawn-Breakers," p. 94. 2 Van Keler, “Essence of the Koran," p. 5.
and uncouth. The average Bedouin, although courageous and fiercely devoted to his own small family and tribal groups, scarcely surpassed the crudest American Indian tribe in cultural attainments. He was a polygamous fellow, both as to wives and gods. Of the former he had enough that he valued a full-blooded horse more highly. Of the latter he counted three hundred and sixty-five, and this fact, far from creating in his heart a commensurate respect, left him free to indulge his passions and pursue a proclivity for drunkenness and gambling. For would not his misdemeanors be overlooked in the crowded disorder of heaven? At any rate, these people accepted life so naturally and were so persistently and flatly human, so little filled with the thirst for nobility either of mind or spirit, that they produced a culture which has been described as “savagery.”2
In the meantime, across the Mediterranean sea European men were doing little better. Rome’s imperialist vigor had dwindled into a pathetic senescence which was powerless to withstand the invasions of restless barbarians; while the early Church, remote from its source of inspiration, Jesus, was losing the spirit of simple devotion and fellowship and beginning its accumulation
of temporal power. Europe had slipped into that dreary period which we call the “Dark Ages,” when “society had grown stagnant, and there was probably not much more to record in a whole year then than happens in the course of a modern day.”1
INTO THIS world a Prophet of God was projected like a fiery meteor across the sodden and uninspired scene. For eleven brief years he exhorted the Bedouin tribesmen, shattered their gods, abolished their dearest customs, and cleansed them of a depraved morality. Muhammad, the camel-driver, so intoxicated his obscure followers that Arabia, which heretofore had exerted an incidental influence upon the course of events, suddenly became “a garden of fine men” who, by their ardent faith and an inexhaustible enthusiasm for culture, “created a society more free from widespread cruelty and social oppression than any society had ever been in the world before.”2 There can be no question about it. Arabia was transformed by a dynamic religious ideal, and it was the vitality of Islam which, penetrating Europe’s sluggish veins, stirred the Christian world to a defense and emulation that carried it into the modern phase. These are not fantastic assertions; they are sober truth, as inescapable as a thousand more obvious and prosaic facts of history.
BUT THE study of history is not
without its dangers, for our minds
have a curious inclination to set
1 Thorndike, “The History of Medieval Europe,” p. 163. 2 Wells, ‘Outline of History," Chap. 31. 3 A term used by Spengler in “The Decline of the West. 4 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, ”Bahá’i Scriptures,” p. 273.
down as ordinary and matter-of-fact those things which have been merely observed. Genuine comprehension, far from contenting itself with a superficial description, must always reach into the causes and motivation of phenomena. It is not enough to trace in the historical process a succession of great epochs, nor to discover an inseparable coincidence between those periods and the life-spans of great “religious myths,”3 nor yet to deduce by logic that the causal factor of each new period must indeed be sought in the energy created by religious faith. It is not enough to count over the names of great Founders and Prophets, and by the simple gesture of recognizing them, think to relegate their unique achievements to a fool’s paradise of inevitability.
The world is not automatically saved when a Prophet enters it. Anyone who saw or has read “Green Pastures,” Mare Connelly’s outstanding play, will remember that it required more than God’s good will to inveigle man into the “paths of righteousness.” It was an indispensable phase of Islam’s triumph that Arabia became a “garden of fine men,” that the message of Muhammad not only dazzled and intrigued His followers, but persuaded them to an irrevocable inward change.
TO STUDY the writings of Bahá’u’lláh
is to become convinced that the
proud days—the vibrant and heroic
days when religion, born into a new
integrity, speeds to its fulfillment,—are
not, as some would persuade
us, forever dead. That this is “a
new cycle of human power”4 becomes a belief of intimate and tenacious strength, until to deny an obvious physical fact would be simpler than to erase or neglect the overmastering impression of authority created by Bahá’u’lláh. When He testifies to the “inconceivable greatness of this Revelation,”1 one believes Him; one knows that, for all Islam’s enviable accomplishments, “had Muhammad, the Apostle of God, attained this Day, He would have exclaimed: ‘I have truly recognized Thee, O Thou the Desire of the Divine Messengers!’”2
But let us be honest, all of us who, by some grace of destiny, have fallen under the magic of His words. Neither Bahá’u’lláh’s words nor ours will suffice. Not all our ardour and enthusiasm as new-fledged devotees, not our weightiest testimonies
1 Abdu’l-Bahá, “The Dispensation of Bahá'u’lláh", p. 11. 2 Ibid, p. 13. 3 Tablet of Abdu’l-Bahá, translated for Mrs. Charles Bishop by Ruhi Afnan.
nor wisest arguments, not the sincerest idealism of our hearts will impress this decadent society or lift it from its stagnant course. The business of changing a world is above all a realistic one. The ambition may originate in a great faith inspired by a prophetic Leader. But the business itself is a hard one—concrete, exacting, detailed, discouraging, even ordinary. It involves a struggle, the struggle that every man invites who dedicates his life to God.
Today the impetus is new, the vigor of spirit flows with a new momentum, the goal beckons with mysterious new fascination. But the virtues are old, and in the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh as in Muhammad’s Islam, “one particle of chastity is greater than ten thousand years of adoration.“3
A PROPHECY . . . . . .
learned does not mean that he is
free from prejudice.”THE academic life also has its fashions and fads, even though they are of different nature from the fads of the man on the street. These fashions are not permanent; they are bound to change. Today the fad is a materialistic view of life and of the world.
A day will soon come when it will become deeply religious and spiritual. In fact, we can discern the beginning of such a change in the writings of some of the most eminent souls and liberal minds. When the pendulum will start its full swing, then we shall see all such eminent men turn again to God.
“The dissemination of high thoughts is the motive power in the arteries of this transitory world; yea, it is the soul of all peoples.”2
OUR classroom was the terrace adjoining the miniature home collectively owned by the Bahá’is of Germany. The cottage lies on the hillside in old orchards carpeted by tail grasses. Abreast of the hilltop is "Katharinenlinden", a monumental tree, the namesake of the Queen who reigned here a century ago. That tree looks down upon the configuration of the valley: to the left the old walls of Esslingen; on the dim horizon the Hohenzollern estates; to the right the jade-green dome of Katharina’s mausoleum. Beyond it lies “Stuttgart, a new town only seven hundred years old”—and once the stud farm (garden) of the Duke of Wurttemberg. Afterwards, the latter expanded his dukedom into a sweeping area by yielding mercenaries to Napoleon. The Duke’s castle is gone, but the old forest creeps up to the cornfields. The peasants greeted us with the traditional “Gruss Gott”. Late afternoons, the forest rythmns captured us: easy it was to slip back into the fantasies of the Gothic mind and overburden beauty by describing sirens and goblins,—“a bogey behind every toadstool”. The mushrooms were a practical wonder and the delight of the evening’s soup!
IN THIS quiescent background we
broke with the past and shared in
the new era of creativeness initiated
by the Báb. A new center of learning
1 The Mysterious Forces of Civilization.
has been dedicated at Esslingen. Its origin like that of the great medieval universities is humble,—but it has the forward look to the future. Greater than a university is this summer community realized through Bahá’u’lláh: therein rich and poor, learned and simple, old and young work and play and worship together.
The lectures carried us at flood tide into the stream of universal history: ethnology, psychology, philosophy and art woven into a pattern culminating in the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. His divine Manifestation in its secret relations to the universe was penetrated, and the intellect confronted with ideas regimented into a formidable system. The method of these distinguished teachers is that same art of synthesis perfected by the German mind: an effort to encompass the whole of things and find a unity of experience, then to give its truth as a formula.
IN HIS exposition of this Revelation 'Abdu’l-Bahá has made it indubitably clear that the Point common to human experience is the appearance of the Prophet of God. This theophany occurs at fixed intervals from age to age; and it is man’s source of life and light and love.
Hegelian minds enthrall, but it was not the lure of words which held me through two-hour lectures. My
--PHOTO--
Friends gathered for the Esslingen Sommerwoche
(Summerweek)
--PHOTO--
Visitors Representing America, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Jugoslavia, Persia, Austria, Holland. From left to right, standing: Mr. Charles Bishop, M. Morched Zade, Mrs. Thomas Collins, Mrs. Max Greeven, Frau Epple, Herr Franz Pollinger; sitting: Mrs. Charles Bishop, Miss Marion Jack, Mrs. Louise Gregory, Mr. Max Greeven, Mrs. Ludmila Bechtold.
Left to right: Dr. Adelbert Muhlschlegal, Dr. Hermann Grossmmm Dr. Eugen Schmidt, lecturers at the Summer School.
German guides me only through the marketplace; hence, I was dependent upon post-mortem translations. I suffered no withdrawal of consciousness for I sensed a deep rich sentiment almost transparent, a geniality and warmth and tenderness which embraces aliens into fraternity. Antagonisms give way to an exceptional unity in Esslingen. Men are dominant; leadership is intelligent; authority is unchallengeable. What are to be the differentiating characteristics in the Faith since the world community will be a unity in diversity? What equalities are legitimate? Is intellect sovereign or do we assert the primacy
of the moral will? Is “the race to the swift, the proud and the strong?” Or shall “the meek inherit the earth”?
In an amazing passage of the Germania, Tacitus declares that the Germans sprang from the Persians. The accumulations of evidence lie in the roots of race, language and mythology, besides a maze of culture traits. Loyalty is exalted among both peoples. That loyalty which is born of twenty thousand Persians who gave “the last full measure of devotion” will assist the mental power of the Bahá’is of Germany to fulfill the expectations of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
“How long fliest thou tn the atmosphere of self?”—Bahá’u’lláh.
THESE words are familiar to Bahá’is. Other words, couched in other phrases, spoken by other Prophets, but always carrying the same plea and advice and command, are equally familiar. Why do we not heed? How long—oh, how long—will we continue to fly in the atmosphere of self?
Surely it is not through desire that we stain our wings with this dark mire of selfishness; that we throw between our hearts and the Great Light this black shadow of our own ego. From the first moment during which our souls stir and begin to struggle upward, then on and on through a long series of trials and tests and battles, we are
continually fighting against the surge of self; against the attempt to raise the flickering torch of our own puny wish in opposition to the flooding Light of the Will of God.
We pray for release from this conquering ego—for there is not one of us who, having entered the lists in this tourney between the soul and self, willingly permits the self to rise triumphant. But we find that prayer is not enough. This is the day of deeds and not of words. So to pray with folded hands, even though one pray with streaming eyes and imploring heart, is not enough. Then what may we do? How may we overcome this enemy which is so firmly encamped within our gates?
What attack shall we make that we have failed to make? What crack in his armor may we discover?
THIS IS THE day of deeds and not
of words. Therein, it seems to me,
is the answer to the problem. Deeds
and not words. We must learn to
school ourselves actively in the technique
of selflessness. We must train
ourselves as consistently as a runner
trains himself for a race. How
foolish and short-sighted a runner
would be if, for weeks before a race,
he did nothing; if, when asked concerning
the race, he would say, ‘Oh,
yes, to be sure I shall run; but when
the time comes breath and muscle
and endurance will be given me.’
Yet is not that the attitude we are
prone to take regarding this matter
of the self? Oh, yes, we will be selfless—when
the great crises come;
when the tests of endurance and
courage and even martyrdom arrive,
we shall be completely selfless.
But shall we? How can we guarantee
to Bahá’u’lláh the complete devotion
of our hearts and utter self]essness
of our beings if, up to the
moment of crisis, we have proved
nothing? How can the runner
guarantee his wind and endurance
if, up to the moment of the race, he
has not tested and trained his capacity?
So we must develop, and maintain a constant, never ceasing, technique of selflessness. We must practice, in the small matters of our daily lives, such a perfection of detailed selflessness in order that, when any moment may arise to test the degree of our selfless devotion to the service of Bahá’u’lláh that moment, may it come never so unexpectedly, will find us ready with sure endurance and strength.
I say in the small matters of our daily lives. I mean exactly that. The small trifling matters that clutter up the waking hours of us all. As an example: One prefers cream in one’s coffee. For some reason or other having cream in one’s coffee offers complications. Shall we insist upon the cream or shall we go without?
Let us consider the consequences of asking for cream. We receive the cream and our palate is grateful. Our palate becomes a little more sensitized to the smoothness of cream. The groove in our mind, which demands such niceties, becomes a little deeper. The part of us, which panders to the appetites and wishes of the body, becomes a little more firmly established. Not much, of course. So little that one considers it not at all. But yet—a little. One more very humble soldier has been added to the lists of self, drawn up, in battle array, to defeat the soul in its struggle toward flight.
Now let us look at the consequences of refusing to pander to the appetites and wishes of the body which, in this instance, involves the sacrifice of the sweetness and smoothness and general delectability of cream in our coffee. The first effect of our refusal is an instant sense of inward peace which is the result of our having, by our action, stifled our inner conflict. Then there comes a deep sense of spiritual joy which is the triumphant singing of the soul because of the victory, even such a slight victory, over the self. But of greater importance than this is the fact that we have deepened the groove in our minds which is slowly forming the habit of sacrifice.
the point. Why cannot we live, day by day, so that we form, slowly and carefully, the habit of sacrifice? Why cannot we train ourselves in the technique of selflessness just as the runner trains himself in the technique of running? Is it not as necessary that we prepare ourselves for the great service before us as that the runner prepare himself to win his race?
Let us be clear concerning this goal of selflessness to which we would attain. Let us not confuse selflessness with asceticism, since we are taught clearly that the good, the beautiful, the delectable things of life in this phenomenal world are for our enjoyment and benefit. So asceticism can be no virtue. No, not asceticism; rather a degree of clear selflessness wherein we may rest serene alike in the midst of famine
* 'Abdu'l-Bahá, ”Divine Art of Living,” p. 90.
or in the profusion of abundance. Where wealth and poverty are alike to us, and where, in perfect truth, we may have no thought of what we may eat or what we shall wear or where we may rest our bodies at the time of sleep. For these are great days which are upon us.
“Take no thought for yourselves or your lives—whether ye eat or whether ye sleep, whether ye are comfortable, whether ye are well or ill, whether ye have friends or foes. For all of these things ye must not care at all. Look at me and be as I am. Ye must die to yourselves and to the world; so shall ye be born again and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Behold a candle how it gives its light. It weeps its life away drop by drop in order to give forth its flame of light”*
“Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, hot by an organized campaign of teaching—no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character—not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and sceptical age the supreme claim of the Abha Revelation. One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh.”
--PHOTO--
One of the groups photographed at the Bahá’i Summer School for the Western States, Geyserville, Calif.
“How pressing and sacred the responsibility that now weighs upon those who are already acquainted with these Bahá’i Teachings! How glorious the task of those who are called upon to vindicate their truth and demonstrate their practicability to an unbelieving world.
TO have lived for two weeks in the atmosphere of a Bahá’i Summer School is to have tasted of the quintessence of fellowship and love. Words do not describe its effect upon the individual. One must experience it to understand it, and having experienced it one is able to comprehend to some degree at least the underlying purpose and penetrating
spirit of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
This was particularly true this year at the Western States Bahá’i Summer School at Geyserville, California, which was convened at the very hour when a protracted altercation between Pacific Coast waterfront workers and their employers took on the proportions of
a general strike which threatened to cut off all cities and towns within a radius of fifty miles from San Francisco Bay from all sources of food and gasoline supplies.
Unperturbed by the confusion that held the vast population in its grip, and drawn by the magnetic power of Bahá’i love, a large number of Bahá’is, some from the very heart of the strike area, assembled at the Unity Feast under the Big Tree on the Bosch Place to partake of the heavenly joy of reunion and to delight in the peace that “passeth all understanding” on the part of the uninitiated. New friends who might have come with some curiosity or even uncertainty quickly found themselves responding to the irresistible spirit of the occasion and living magnificently that fundamental principle of the Bahá’i Faith—the brotherhood of all mankind. Even the material food savored somewhat of heavenly manna because of the strike difficulties encountered by the committee which provided it.
The real spiritual joy of the gathering, however, was consummated in the sharing of messages of greeting from old friends and new. While a number of the pioneers of the Summer School were absent for the first time in eight years, their hearts reached out across oceans and continents to mingle in the spirit and to derive new inspiration for their tasks in distant lands. As always, the day slipped away all too quickly for those whose duties did not permit them to remain for the classes, but as they returned to the problems of the strike days ahead they carried with them new strength and greater faith in the ultimate triumph of love and light.
BEGINNING at nine o’clock Monday morning; with devotional services under the Big Tree, the Summer School classes continued for two weeks with the largest enrollment in the history of this particular school. In its membership were representatives from fourteen Bahá’i communities, several residents of the village and surrounding towns, and a number of teenage boys and girls who were not only most attentive students but who contributed to the musical programs which preceded each session.
In accordance with the wish of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’i Faith, the curriculum consisted of three subjects: the History of the Bahá’i Faith; the Principles of Bahá’i Administration, and Fundamental Bahá’i Principles. One hour was devoted to each subject daily, the leaders having been chosen because of their particular study of or ability to present the various subjects in each course. Although many of the former able teachers were missing, their places were filled by new and young leaders who give great promise of outstanding service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
Only those who have studied deeply that remarkable narrative, “The Dawn-Breakers,” the text of the first subject, can appreciate the spirit which moved the speakers and transported the group in imagination to the scenes of the early days of the Bahá’i Faith. As the stirring story unfolded day by day, one grasped a deeper conception of the mighty epoch which prepared the way for the glorious dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, and became impressed anew with the great bounty bestowed upon the world by Shoghi
Effendi through his translation of this magnificent history which for all time will remain the authentic record of His Holiness, the Báb, and His disciples.
AS IF TO preserve an appropriate
balance between the spiritual and
the practical, which is one of the
principles of the Bahá’i movement,
the second hour each day was devoted
to the discussion of some aspect
of Bahá’i administration. Althongh
fully realizing that the present
generation stands too close to
the birth of this great movement to
grasp its full implications, one was
able to glimpse now and again the
grandeur and beauty of the plan so
perfectly revealed by Bahá’u’lláh
for the regeneration of human affairs.
As the history of past religions
was reviewed one saw fully
that they failed in the fulfilment of
their purpose, not because of any
weakness in their spiritual impulse
but because of the inability of man
to establish the kind of institutions
which would permit the full expression
of the powers released into the
world by their Divine Founders.
Apart from acquiring a greater
knowledge of the motivating principles
of the new World Order contemplated
by Bahá’u’lláh, one became
deeply conscious of his individual
responsibility for learning
and obeying the new spiritual laws
which will eventually permeate all
human relationships.
The third session was more or less in the nature of panel discussions on various social principles of the Bahá’i Faith. Much very interesting material from outside authentic sources was presented to illustrate the trend of affairs and thought in the world today. The
closing hours of this division, however, were devoted exclusively to the study of the most recent communication from the Guardian of the Bahá’i Cause to the American believers, entitled, “The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.” The great power of this document penetrated the consciousness of every student and it was the means of establishing a unity of understanding and faith which far surpassed the results of any previous course.
So intently did the members of the Summer School live in its spiritual atmosphere that one forgot entirely that there was quarreling and strife in the world. Here was a new world but a very practical one, seriously investigating all the spiritual truths involved in the economic, political and social problems concomitant with evolving society.
It was not all study, however. While the morning discussions were frequently resumed after luncheon under the Big Tree, the afternoons were generally left free for rest, recreation and individual study. Social gatherings arranged by the Geyserville friends, the annual dinner at the local farmers’ grange, and the “jinx” around the camp fire at the beautiful Griffith Park at Santa Rosa, provided social outlet for young and old, while hikes to the redwood grove, swimming and canoeing parties gave the children and young people opportunity to engage in activities suited to their physical energies.
In order that those in the village of Geyserville and the surrounding area might have opportunity to hear some of the outstanding teachers, two public meetings were arranged—one in the village itself and the other on Sunday afternoon at Griffith
Park which attracted an audience far beyond the capacity of the amphitheater to accommodate.
Perhaps no greater testimony to the influence of the spirit of the Bahá’i Summer School can be cited than this: that there appeared one afternoon a young professor, not a Bahá’i, who had once given a series of lectures on the Summer School
program. Agitated by the strike disturbances he had witnessed in the strike in San Francisco, he said he had come to seek an hour’s peace and quiet among the friends of God. In departing he asked that he be permitted to carry back with him to the scene of his labors the strains of the Bahá’i song of benediction.
- Your Voice is like a most
- beloved flute
- That translates every tongue,
- sings into the Soul
- Of all mankind.
- Some notes are gold, the gold
- of ripened corn,
- Bringing fulfillment
- and security.
- Some of your notes are brown
- as Mother Earth,
- And sound her song of gladness
- after rain.
- Some notes are black,
- For you have seen the depths
- of all despair,
- Yet from your lips, they are
- black velvet light.
- I love your red notes best,
- For they are sorrowing virgins
- Grieving for war-torn youth,
- And flashing, flashing from
- your Soul
- Come notes of white, white
- Light
- That blend your Voice into an
- ecstasy of Loveliness.
- O Voice of the most beloved
- Flute,
- Sing on, for Earth’s Springtime
- is near.
insecure foundation. A New League is needed to cope with the complexities of a modern world—a League fashioned in terms of today and tomorrow.”—Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University.
Washington Star.COOPERATION must be the leading thought, not country. The World must be organized into one commonwealth. National armaments must disappear and only a sufficient police force remain to keep order; without order anarchy would reign, and we would be plunged back to savagery. Continued increase of armaments will bring complete dissolution of civilization. . . . Those countries in which women are most interested and active in public affairs are democratic and peace loving.”—Arthur Henderson, President of the Disarmament Conferference at a dinner given by the Women’s Organizations of the Consultative Group.
“THE LIBERAL scientific research—man’s eternal search for truth in its vast ever-changing forms—cannot be too highly encouraged and praised. Limit this unfettered search and man’s thought channels become confined within a narrow frame. If expression of thought is not permitted free sway in its efforts to expand into greater and greater spheres, our entire culture withers and begins to suffer from spiritual anemia.”—Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden. From his address at the Spring Festival, Uppsala University.
THE MILITARY organization achieved
by the West during the Nineteenth century is monstrous, inhuman and absurd. To raise armies of millions of men by arming all citizens from the age of 18 to 45 is one of the most extravagant and dangerous ideas the human brain has conceived.—Guglelmo Ferrero, Eminent Historian of Europe.
AN EMOTIONAL disturbance may be the cause of such physical diseases as stomach ulcers, goiter, and diabetes. Not merely the symptoms of such ailments, but actual changes in the tissues of various organs and glands may be produced by emotional factors alone.
These facts, showing the close relation between mind and body and personality, were brought out at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association and were particularly emphasized by the association’s presiding officer, Dr. George R. Kirby of New York.
Figures from various big diagnostic clinics show that for about half the patients who come in with complaints of physical disease no sign of such disease can be found by the most careful examination with X rays and all the other aids of modern medical science. Even in animals emotional shock or disturbances can produce physical diseases.
Psychiatrists hope that physicians in the future will not only
examine a patient by taking his pulse and blood pressure and by X-ray pictures but will analyze or examine his personality and his emotional make-up as well in order to find the real cause of his ailment and how to treat it.—Science Service.
STOCKHOLM—The sponsors of the twenty-sixth Esperanto Congress, now in session here, declared today it was the greatest in the history of the language movement.
Its 2,000 delegates, representing thirty nations, were greeted on their convocation Saturday with an address of welcome by the Governor of Stockholm. Since then representatives of the various countries have delivered reports on the progress of Esperanto in their countries.
They said particular advances had been made in Holland and in North Africa, where Arab tribes were said to be using the “universal tongue.” Mrs. Manja Gernsbacher of Cologne is president of the congress—New York Times.
WHY IS MAN, why are all of us, why is the world at large in such a terrible state of misery at this present moment? . . .
The present time is not an economic revolution but a spiritual revolution. Our state of perturbation is psychologic rather than physical and it will continue until the millions of people who are now working at a new conception of the good and desirable life, shall have given us a new ideal in keeping with the demands and the necessities of our new world.
We, the people of today, are
passing through the most momentous and far-reaching changes that have taken place since the beginning of recorded history. Science has made us the undisputed masters of all the forces of Nature. There is enough grain to feed everybody. There is enough wool to clothe everybody. There is enough stone and mortar to keep everybody decently housed. And a vast surplus of time should allow everybody at reasonable amount of leisure. And yet the picture all around us is one of vast hopelessness and despair.
Something therefore must be wrong with the picture! That is what we say. Would it not perhaps be a little fairer to confess: “Something is wrong with ourselves”?
A civilization that has made the accumulation of inanimate objects the chief aim and purpose of life is never going to enjoy the hearty cooperation and the undivided loyalty of the more intelligent members of the community.
To have or to be! I shall submit that terrific sentence to all those who have eyes to see and ears to hear and that true spiritual courage that is the base of all permanent progress. Hendrik W. Van Loon—To Have or To Be.
“THE WORLD’S eyes are opening to the fact that the majority of young men would refuse to fight if another war broke out. The only men in the future who will be deemed great are men who have lived for their fellows and not on them.”—Dr. Stanley Russell of Toronto, at the International Convention of Optimists Clubs.
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."
