ESPERANTO CONGRESS
Martha L. Root
* *
SEARCHING FOR THE ANSWER
Ruth H. Brandt
* *
YOUTH AND THE JOB
Dale S. Cole, M.M.E,, E.E.
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PORTALS TO FREEDOM
An Autobiographical Story
* *
INDUSTRIAL AND SPIRITUAL
PEACE
Howard R. Hurlbut
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| VOL. 25 | NOVEMBER, 1934 | No. 8 |
1. Unfettered search after truth, and the abandonment of all superstition and prejudice.
2. The Oneness of Mankind; all are "leaves of one tree, flowers in one garden.”
3. Religion must be a cause of love and harmony, else it is no religion.
4. All religions are one in their fundamental principles.
5. Religion must go hand-in-hand with science. Faith and reason must be in full accord.
6. Universal peace: The establishment of International Arbitration and an International Parliament.
7. The adoption of an International Secondary Language which shall be taught in all the schools of the world.
8. Compulsory education—especially for girls, who will be mothers and the first educators of the next generation.
9. Equal opportunities of development and equal rights and privileges for both sexes.
10. Work for all: No idle rich and no idle poor, "work in the spirit of service is worship."
11. Abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth: Care for the needy.
12. Recognition of the Unity of God and obedience to His Commands, as revealed through His Divine Manifestations.
| CONTENTS | |
Progress—Spiritual and Material, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá | 253 |
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Quotations from “The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, Shoghi Effendi | 239 |
Editorial, Stanwood Cobb | 227 |
Our Universal God—A Prayer, Raymond Frank Piper | 226 |
Searching For the Answer, Ruth H. Brandt | 230 |
Youth and the Job, Dale S. Cole, M. M. E., E. E. | 234 |
In the Presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Rosa V. Winterburn | 236 |
Cedar of Lebanon, a Poem, Henry Polk Lowenstein | 238 |
Impressions of a Universal Esperanto Congress, Martha L. Root | 240 |
Portals of Freedom (An Autobiographical Story) Chapter 2 | 246 |
Industrial and Spiritual Peace, Howard R. Hurlbut | 251 |
Songs of the Spirit, Alice Simmons Cox | 254 |
Current Thought and Progress | 255 |
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
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- Thou art Lord of all!
- Thou workest in near places and Thou workest in far places.
- In the farthest strangest landscapes of all spaces,
- Thou art Lord of Power and Genesis.
- In countless constellations of fiery suns is manifest
- Thy everlasting love of creation.
- Thy mind has leaped beyond the cosmic fringes of far lonely stars,
- to vision new universes of vivifying light.
- In Thy Spirit, awaiting Thy animating Word,
- lie the ethereal forms of infinite possible worlds.
- And if ever Thou hadst dreams, what inscrutable imagery!
- what pageantries of transcendent glories.
- And as Thou dwellest in the farthest,
- so Thou dwellest in the nearest and the smallest.
- Thy quickening Spirit ever stirs in those marvelous realms
- that are forbidden to man’s finest magnifying glasses.
- There atoms are palaces, and pearls as big as suns.
- There move the primal energies of things.
- There somehow are born the chidren of the stars.
- Oh that we knew the magic bridge that runs
- between Thy thoughts and the seeds of all things!
- Yet we acknowledge in humility that the secret of creation
- would not be safe in our sinful hands.
- Thou darest not trust more power to hearts than consist not of love.
- Thou alone art perfect love!
- Thou art Lord of all!
- What matters then where on this chip of earth
- I lay down my head to sleep?
- Thy Spirit envelops me, Thy Spirit permeates me,
- as sunlight a crystal sphere.
- Thy heavenly peace falls upon my mind as silently, as ceaselessly
- as moonbeams on still waters.
- The magnificence of the star-strewn firmament quiets my too active mind.
- The heavens’ ineffable serenity infects me with irresistible calm.
- Thou art my invisible, ever-present Friend.
- In peaceful sleep my soul departs somewhere to live in Thy mysterious care.
- Amen.
Written in Central China, while sailing down the yellow Yangtze in bright moonlight, September 19, 1932.
| VOL. 25 | NOVEMBER, 1934 | No. 8 |
prosperity of men and towards the highest object of civilization, the liberty of the citizen, are love and friendship and the most intimate union between all individuals of the human race. Nothing in the world can be imagined or rendered easy without union and agreement; and the true divine religion is the most perfect
cause of friendship and union in the world."—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
“THE CRY today is for order,”
says Dorothy Thompson, “for
order and security, as a refuge for
a disorganized, atomized, self-destructive
society. It is the desire
for order and security which is behind
every movement in the world
today.’
A great cry is going up all over the world for economic security and for stability in organized human living. Never in the memory of living man has the world been in such a universal chaos and apparent disintegration. Today the adventurous and creative spirit of man therefore needs to be turned not to the discovery of new lands and new riches underneath the surface of the earth, but to the discovery of new modes of human organization, new patterns for civilization which shall bring to harrassed humanity the stability and security for which it longs and which it must find or perish.
MANY LEADERS of great caliber are
working with devotion and inspiration
in their respective countries to
bring to pass such improvements in
political and economic organization
as may solve the pressing evils of
the day and restore the unemployed
to a life of usefulness and steady
labor. And all of us, with whatever
degree of mental capacity we possess,
are pondering on the causes
and possible cures of this world-wide depression, since self-interest brings home to every one of us the necessity for a solution to these colossal disturbances which, more disastrous even than earthquakes or tidal waves, have brought suffering and woe to millions, and have forced upon everyone that fearful consciousness of insecurity which at present besets all living.
Many causes have been assigned for this chaos in which the world finds itself today, and many cures have been suggested to set humanity again upon its feet. May we consider here one cause which, however large a portion it may bear to the total causes of the world depression, is a factor of such importance that no security or stability will ever come to humanity again until this cause is eliminated. The cause I speak of is the disruptive influence of centrifugal emotional forces working for disunity not only externally as between the various nations and peoples of the world but also internally within practically every nation on the planet. Never, it seems, have hatred, fear, suspicion, var hysteria, been so universally potent; the period just prior to the World War was harmony itself as compared with the war-imminent situation which exists today. And within each country the struggle of classes is, steadily and persistently
eating into national unity and prosperity.
THERE CAN be no security where
stability is lacking; and there
can be no stability where there is
disunity. It is absurd to seek to
build upon a theoretical foundation
of economic and political reforms a
stable and secure civilization, while
the realities of life are surcharged
with these passionate forces of disunion.
“Today the greatest need of
the world,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá “is
the animating, unifying presence of
the Holy Spirit. Until it becomes
effective, penetrating and interpenetrating
hearts and spirits, and until
perfect, reasoning faith shall be implanted
in the minds of men, it will
be impossible for the social body to
be inspired with security and confidence.
Nay, on the contrary, enmity
and strife will increase day by
day and the differences and divergences
of nations will be woefully
augmented.”
Men of Vision must build not only more perfect and more equitable institutions, but they must also work strenuously to overcome the psychology of disruption and disunity which prevails universally today. This latter task is a spiritual process that cannot be accomplished by merely intellectual or scientific remedies. A strong spiritual medicine is required to alleviate such a fatal disease.
Many leaders of thought and action are proclaiming this pregnant truth, that the world will not recover from its prostration until spiritual remedies are applied. But the consciousness of this truth is not nearly enough permeating the universal
* Shoghi Effendi, “The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 7.
thought of mankind. More of suffering, more of catastrophe will be required before the world turns to its only means of salvation—the spiritual rebirth of humanity.
IT IS THIS great truth that the
Bahá’i Movement first and last is
proclaiming in its world-wide message
of unity, peace and brotherhood.
This noble ideal Bahá’u’lláh
has been projecting into the world
consciousness for over half a century,
but not until today has the
world been ripe for a realistic appreciation
of the need of these great
principles. The doctrine that the
Bahá’i Movement enunciates is the
superb truth of the essential oneness
of mankind, and the necessity
of realizing that oneness in every
expression of human thought and
energy—whether political, economic,
religious or social.
The Bahá’i Movement does not only proclaim this great truth but has demonstrated it actually in the lives of various religionists, people of different races and nationalities. The power of unity to overcome every factor of difference and to eliminate the poisonous emotions or prejudice, hate, misunderstanding and suspicion, has been conspicuously shown in Bahá’i communities throughout the world. The literature of the Bahá’i Movement, including the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have been translated and published “in no fewer than twenty-five of the most widely-spoken languages,” and the unprecedented progress of the Bahá’i Faith is amply proven in “the rise and steady consolidation of Bahá’i institutions in no less than forty of
the most advanced countries of the world.”*
Every race, religion and clime has contributed zealous adherents to this great world movement which offers the only solution adequate to the need of the time.
AND WHILE this great living force
expressive of divine evolutionary
power is spreading over this grief-burdened
planet, there is also dawning
upon the consciousness of thinkers
and leaders everywhere the
necessity for just these principles
which Bahá’u’lláh has enunciated—principles
of universal peace; of
world trade free from selfish barriers
of nationalism; of justice and
equity to labor; of the abolition of
those insensate prejudices which so
divide blocks of human beings and set them off from each other.
At this very moment of intense darkness and despair—a period of critical danger to world civilization such as has not been since the days when the Goths overran the Roman Empire—in this period so full of terror to millions of individuals, one star of hope is leading the way—the hope of a new universal conscience of unity which shall bring healing to the nations. May the Divine assistance bring success to every institution and to every group of people who are working, no matter under what banner, to bring about this great Event which we are assured is actually destined to take place.
“Is it not a fact . . . that the fundamental cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be regarded as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing world, but rather to the failure of those into whose hands the immediate destinies of peoples and nations have been committed, to adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the imperative needs of a rapidly evolving age? Are not these intermittent crises that convulse present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world’s recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once for all of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the machinery of their respective governments according to those standards that are implicit in Bahá’u’lláh’s supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind—the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed? For the principle of the Oneness of Mankind, the cornerstone of Bahá’u’lláh’s world-embracing dominion, implies nothing more or less than the enforcement of His scheme for the unification of the world—the scheme to which we have already referred. ‘In every Dispensation,’ writes ‘Abdul-Bahá, ‘the light of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one central theme. . . . In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing feature of His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind.”
“There are two influences tending toward prosperity and progress which emanate from the forefront of advancement of the world of humanity . . . . One is the influence of civilization—that development of the world of nature that concerns the material life of man. . . . The other is the divine influence, the holy and spiritual revelations which insure eternal glory, everlasting happiness, the illumination of the world, the appearance of merciful phenomena in the world of humanity and perpetual life.” —‘Abdu'l-Bahá.
MAN has always been a seeker; he has always sought for knowledge, striven for advancement, and yearned to know the unknowable. Centuries ago Job cried out from the depths of his anguish of heart, “O that I knew where I might find Him!” In the confusion and chaos of today we hear the same cry going up from old and young alike, the bewildered souls calling for help, the confused souls asking for peace and the doubtful for assurance.
What is man’s destiny? Is mankind progressing? In what manner and by what means does man progress? These are some of the questions for which perplexed and hopeless souls are today demanding satisfactory answers. Let us search first for an answer to the last two of these questions examining as we proceed the thoughts of some of our modern writers who are calling the truths of science to their aid. But let us not neglect, in seeking light upon this problem, the shining words of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
HUMANITY seeking the light presents
a picture—or rather a pageant—always
in motion from the very
beginning of human consciousness.
Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather
of Charles Darwin, saw this
picture and movement and expressed it in these words: “The world has been evolved, not specially created. It has risen little by little from a small beginning to an Almighty Word.”
Julian Huxley, two generations later, adds a tremendous thought When he writes: “The reason mankind’s movement corresponds with what we call progress and value, is that man himself is in the main stream of progress, and not in an eddy or backwater.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, speaking with the power of spiritual knowledge wrote: “Movement is essential to existence, nothing that has life is without motion. Things progress and then decline; but with the human soul there is no decline; progress alone constitutes the motion of the soul.”
We find then science and religion agreeing that mankind is in the line of progress.
IS THIS progress of the human
soul, of humanity, at a steady, gradual
rate, or are there times of comparative
rest and times of rapid
advancement? Some years ago the
Dutch botanist DeVries after experimentng
with primroses a number
of years gave to the world the “mutation”
theory. He discovered that
a certain primrose would suddenly,
with no apparent cause give rise to
an entirely distinct species. He experimented with them over a period of years and bred fourteen new permanent varieties. His mutation theory is that it is not the small variations among individuals that determine the course of evolution, but these sudden and larger “mutations.”
Since that time various scientists have taken hold of the same idea with regard to the advance of civilization, and have strongly emphasized their belief that human progress would have been impossible without the “mutations” or sudden noticeable great strides in human enlightenment.
The chief cause of such epochal advancements in human enlightenment can be traced to the appearance and influence of one of the great Divine Manifestations, those inspired teachers and prophets, such as Christ, Moses, Muhammad, who have founded new religions from which new civilizations have grown. Each one has brought a greater knowledge than had previously existed and an added power to comprehend it. They thereby injected into the main stream of evolution a permanent gain. Such a stream, augmented approximately every thousand years by a new influx of power which increases both its potency and its velocity cannot stop. Nothing can stop it. It flows on into eternity. “My Eternity is My Creation; I have created it for thee,” we read in the Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh.
We find Floyd Darrow in his book, “Through Science to God,” expressing this same thought when he writes: “Everywhere is ceaseless
change. Nowhere is there perfect adjustment and harmony, always a constant becoming, a never ceasing growth. The world is never finished, never a flawless work of art, but always striving toward perfection, taking its course it may be, toward that one far off divine event toward which the whole creation moves.”
BUT WE find a note of fear creeping into some minds as they contemplate this evolutionary process. Man, no longer at the mercy of blind forces, has become a trustee of the evolutionary process, Julian Huxley affirms. But this very trusteeship is the foundation of fears expressed today by many thinkers that all civilization will crash into chaos, because trustees do not necessarily fulfill the trust vested in them. This danger is minimized for those who believe that there is a main stream of spiritual progress and that mankind—though not all men—is in this main stream which will go on. For those who have indeed found assurance that the spiritual power of Bahá’u’lláh is the new impetus that has renewed this current or main stream the fear is non-existent. Such ones know from experience the truth of these assuring words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
“The Bahá’i Movement bestows upon man a new spirit, a new light, a new motion. It enlarges the sphere of thought. It illumines the horizon of the intellect. It expands the arena of comprehension. This is the ultimate goal of human life. This is the fruit of existence. This is the brilliant pearl of cosmic consciousness. This is the shining star of spiritual destiny.”
With the impetus of this new spirit, new light, new motion, mankind will build a new world wherein economic justice prevails and
where, all have equal opportunities for self-development. Thus man himself will develop into a new creature. Up to this time mankind has been passing through his childhood years. Now inspired by this new light, he is becoming spiritually mature and will not fail to be faithful to his trust.
BUT THERE is further confusion
of thought in the face of present
events in regard to the trusteeship
of man over the evolutionary process.
We see suffering and disintegration
going on all about us. Are
not these things signs of retrogression?
In order to understand this
we must realize that in the midst of
rapid evolution a proportionate
amount of dissolution is inevitable.
Change is a law of life. We easily
recognize this in the physical world
where we see constantly going on
about us decomposition and decay
on the one hand, new life and
growth on the other. In the world
of human institutions there is also
a necessity that the old should
crumble and die making place for
the new. New developments in
science and inventions call for new
methods and new institutions. It
is because we cling so blindly and
tenaciously to the old that calamities
come. We are then swimming
against the main stream of progress.
C. Lloyd Morgan recognizes this when he writes in his book, “Mind in the Making”: “Mind in evolution means the coming into existence or being of higher and richer modes of fellowships. There is also a dissolution of fellowships, and perhaps without this dissolution, the evolution into newer and higher fellowships
would never be possible.” And he adds that in the long process of the building up and breaking down of modes of fellowship, evolution has prevailed over dissolution. Were this not so the higher modes of fellowship would have passed away and would no longer exist.
Here we have the constructive side of disintegration. We might apply it to the various religions and sects. There has been great concern over the dissolution of fellowship in religion, since it is not understood that higher fellowships must be set up. Religion renewed will be upon a higher plane of fellowship. The scattering of congregations, the running to and fro among religions and cults, has undoubtedly been to a certain extent a seeking for higher fellowship, and to that extent it has been constructive and has been a seeking for the light.
In fact it is difficult in such a time as this to distinguish between the dissolution and evolution taking place before our very eyes. It is in truth like the springtime, when the torrents come and the floods rage and the driftwood is swept away, in order that new life may take its place.
IF MAN would save himself he
must first be guided into the current
and then swim with it with a sure
and careful stroke. The Divine
Manifestations of God are the
guides who will keep us in this main
stream of spiritual progress. Happy
are those who recognize these
guides at the time of their appearance.
Rejecting the Manifestation at the time of His appearance has occurred in every dispensation and
the deliberate persecutions that have taken place amount to cutting straight across the midstream of evolution—trying to dam its ceaseless flow. Thus those who crucified Christ set up their own momentum which could not fail to carry them into the backwaters. Yet only a few who were in power were deliberately evil. The great multitude who desired Christ’s crucifixion were those whose minds were crystallized in the old doctrines and ceremonies and who therefore had no power to swim in the current of man’s destiny. They were the heedless, the unaware. They became driftwood and the current could do naught but toss them aside.
Misconceptions and misinterpretations
of religious thought tend to
lead men out of the main stream of
spiritual evolution. This is illustrated
again and again in the
insensate opposition of religion to
modern science. This is because
much of so-called religion has been
based on dogmas and doctrines
evolved in man’s mind. For scientific
truth can never be contrary to
true religion as revealed by the Divine
Manifestations of God.
Mr. Darrow in the book already referred to recounts these facts and continuing tells the story of how in defiance of organized religion Kepler’s laws governing planetary movements were crowned and completed by Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of gravitation which unlocked the very anteroom to the eternal verities of the universe. Commenting upon these unfoldments Mr. Darrow writes: “And thus through the conquests of these pioneers of
scientific discovery, the religious ideals of men and their conceptions of God had been given truer and nobler meanings. Indeed these paths of science had led to a more reverent knowledge of Him whose life is the soul of the universe.”
SCIENCE has ever been the handmaid
of religions freeing the mind
for nobler and nobler conceptions
of God, and bringing to light the
means and inventions whereby man
may provide a better way of living
for all mankind. But religionists
have ever been loath to acknowledge
science as a helper. This
makes us understand why today so
many people are rejecting religion
saying that it has always been an
obstacle to progress. It is evident,
however, to the careful thinker that
science alone will never save the
world from destruction, for we have
only to look around us to see to
what diabolical uses scientific inventions
and discoveries are being
put. The world needs both, but religion
must be pure,—uncontaminated
by man-made doctrines.
“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."
So spoke ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in explaining the need the world has for both material and spiritual advancement. Is not this knowledge man’s true destiny?
“When the divine and fundamental reality enters human hearts and lives, it conserves and protects all states and conditions of mankind.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
IN a recent article in The Scientific Monthly on Psychology and Re-employment, Prof Morris S. Viteles state his discussion with the very challenging and pertinent question, “What am I going to do about a job?”
This query stabs alike, now and again, into the consciousness of the youth in schools and the older ones out of employment. It lingers there, too, with the persistence of chronic pain.
But before any attempt is made to comment on the answer, the “job of life” should be defined for behind it is a purpose of profound significance.
WHAT IS the purpose of life in
general and yours and mine in particular?
In a recent Saturday Evening
Post article, Prof. Whitehead,
British philosopher and mathematician,
was quoted as follows: “The
problem is not how to produce great
men, but how to produce great societies.
The great society will put up
men for the occasions.”
A great society—what is it but an integration of individuals and their influences? And back of a great society there must he a great purpose. Since the great purpose is but the resultant of individual purposes and purpose depends upon intention—the importance of right intention is clear.
The author who quoted Prof. Whitehead continues: “In creating
such a society we all of us, down to the humblest, have our part. For when there is good will and the will to do, leadership emerges and strong individuals begin to see their way through the urgent problems of the time.”
How can we “see our way through” without having clearly in mind the real purpose of our lives? ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke of this repeatedly. The purpose of life is progress toward God. It is carrying out His Divine Plan for the age as revealed by Bahá’u’lláh. It is being obedient to the Will of God. It is at once a great task and a most joyous privilege—to the end that we have a great society, with just and adequate leadership, and that we all become strong enough to “see our way through.”
When we have a great society there will not be so many dark clouds to dim our vision, there will not be so many quagmires to flounder through or circumnavigate, there will not be so many discordant sounds to muffle the melodies of God’s symphonies.
So the question of the job resolves into two elements, one most assuredly dependent on the other. One element consists of our relationship to the building of a great society. What can we do for others and the world? And the other element has to do with subsistence here on earth while we are helping build a great society.
Truly as a poet has said, in helping others we help ourselves for a great society would benefit all. Again if enough people helped enough other people now, many of our problems would vanish and those which did not would be much easier of solution.
So we all have work to do—the biggest and most glorious ever—that of building a great society in accordance with the Divine Plan. This work cannot be taken away by economic upheavals which only accent its importance. Once this is realized and taken into our consciousness as an active force we then acquire the right intention, which has very important practical effects on life and the requirements thereof.
BUT YOU SAY, this is all very beautiful
and idealistic but what can we
do about it now?
There are several things. First the “great society” referred to is formulating. It is composed of those who are trying to carry out the Divine Plan. We can help by doing our bit, first being sure that we have the right intention and then helping others to acquire it. Second, there is a very definite promise that “God will assist those who arise to serve Him.” The path to assistance is service and the gateway to the path is prayer, real sincere prayer. “Ask and ye shall receive.” Many an unexpected door has opened through service to others and to God. It may not be the door expected. Often it is a better one.
Another thing we can do is to follow ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s admonition. “Never be discouraged.” After all—“we are living in eternity” and
actually what does it matter if the early years seem difficult? Proficiency in anything presupposes apprenticeship.
We owe it to ourselves and society to keep the “morale” Prof. Viteles speaks of as high as possible and this is much easier—difficult though it be at best—if we are reinforced and strengthened by the assurances of Bahá’u’lláh, if we are moving with the current of Divine Will and not across or against it. By keeping up our own morale we lift that of others, and a high tone is conducive to better feeling in the harsh world of business. Cold as the financial sphere is, it is a sensitive organism as history evidences and a generally high morale is commercially valuable. This significance is of course a secondary one, but points out another thing we can do now.
TO SUM UP, the formula for the individual today contains these qualities: Right intention, prayer, confidence and action. We cannot be impotent if we are God’s instruments. Our problem is to become one of His instruments, effective ones, working with the assurance of His help.
So when Youth asks “What are we going to do about a job?” can we not answer, “make one in some service to humanity.” There are plenty of opportunities for real service in all departments of commerce and industry, and history shows that real service is inevitably rewarded materially. Spiritually service is and has its own rewards. Outside the realms of commerce and industry the opportunities increase in proportion to the unselfishness of
the endeavor. In education, in medicine, arts and science tremendous progress is possible.
Having made a job for itself in
the service to humanity Youth will simultaneously be serving God—thus fulfilling the purpose of life here and hereafter.
“Grieve not because of my imprisonment and calamity; for this prison is my beautiful garden, my mansioned paradise and my throne of dominion among mankind. My calamity in my prison is a crown to me in which I glory among the rightaeous.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
YOU are going to your greatest test,” said a friend as we drove to the station to commence the trip to ‘Akká, Palestine, the “White City by the Sea.” The words were unintelligible to me then, and it was not until some weeks later that their real meaning became clear. Scarcely heeding them, in fact, in the happiness of making the start, they were forgotten until their truth came back to me when the visit in ‘Akká was moving slowly into the past.
Six days in ‘Akká! Six days in the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá! Six days in an atmosphere of the most perfect love and peace that it has ever been mine to know. Others may have spent six weeks there, six months. That is nothing, for time is nothing in the presence of the Servant of God. If a thousand years are but as a day in the sight of the Lord, is it not equally true that a day may be as a thousand years? We lived a lifetime in those six days. The outside world disappeared. The past had never been. There was no future. It was as if
the moment in that Presence were all of life and that it was eternal. Peace, happiness, calm joy enveloped us from the moment ‘Abdu’l-Bahá took our hands in His in a welcoming grasp until He said “Go back and serve,” and we left His Presence, perhaps forever in this world.
BEFORE starting on our journey I
had feared being overwhelmed with
sadness at the sight of the imprisonment
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’; so I had
prayed earnestly that I might be enabled
to look into His dear face only
with smiles. Once in ‘Akká the
prayer was as completely forgotten
as if it had never been breathed, and
I found myself wondering at the
readiness with which I smiled into
those eyes that always smiled back
at me in tender love. It was not,
until ‘Akká was fading into the distance
beyond the blue waters of the
Mediterranean, that I remembered
my prayer and marvelled at its complete
realization.
The entrance into the Presence of the One called by so many “Master”—came
as simply and naturally as into that of some dear friend. We wondered somewhat, my husband and I, for we had thought it impossible to see Him whom our hearts so reverenced without being overcome with emotion. Hours passed, we met Him face to face, felt the touch of His hands, bashed in the light of His smiles, and still we had not been overcome by any mighty wave of irresistible feeling, and still we wondered. Days passed, the life in ‘Akká had received us, had taken us into its loving arms, and still we were wondering when and how was to come that mighty sweep of power. It did not come. The dominance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to us only through His love. His influence expressed itself to our mortal senses in the peace around us that was always unbroken. His wisdom was manifest in the grey-haired men who bowed before its decisions in unquestioning acceptance. The efficiency of His teaching was illustrated in the eagerness of those who had been Zoroastrians, Muhammadans, or Christians to live all together there in perfect peace and unity, under His sheltering care; and in their determination to carry with them to the ends of the world the same peace and harmony that wrapped them in its folds in that dreary, but gorgeous, little prison city of ‘Akká.
THE DAY of departure came. The
doors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s home
closed upon us. The grim walls
and the defiant gates of the crumbling
old city of the Crusaders were
behind us. The world and the service
upon which we had been sent
out were before us. Slowly driving
away, two questions perplexed us: What was the “greatest test” to which we had been subjected? We had been unconscious of it. Why had we not felt some overpowering conviction of the sanctity of that Presence in which we had spent six such bliss-filled days? Then we almost laughed at our simplicity in asking ourselves the latter question. What experience could we have had more overwhelming in its conviction than the steadily cumulating proof of those six days? For now we realized, as had been impossible while still in the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that every hour, every interview with Him, every observation of the life around us had brought conviction to the reason, to the judgment, to the emotions, to the whole mental, moral, and spiritual nature, that this was indeed the Servant of God for Whom we searched, that this was the Divine Exemplar Who could show the world the way into life eternal.
We realized now that when we first entered His Presence so quietly, it was as if we had been taken up by the first swell of a great tidal wave, raised so tenderly that we had scarcely been conscious of its uplift; we had been carried on and on, higher and higher, until, as the tidal wave may sweep over coast, rocks, and even cities, we had been carried high over all worldly consciousness and it had been as if the world were not. As this realization came, we prayed that we might never again be upon the spiritual level where we had been standing when that wave lifted us and bore us so high into the realms of absolute, common-sense, unquestioning conviction.
“By their works ye shall know them,” and it was through the works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and of those who served Him that we had attained to the heights of our conviction of the truth of the Bahá’i Teachings.
THERE STILL remained the thought, What had been our “greatest test”? It had sunk into insignificance. That incorporation of the living Spirit of God in a human body could never be a stumbling block new to our steps. We had met a man, it is true, a man with all the needs and elements of humanity. But it had been to realize how perfect an instrument of the Lord the human body may become. How else could God have spoken to us so
forcibly as through those human lips, that let fall Divine Wisdom; as through these human eyes, whose tender glances bore into one’s soul a conception of the love and tenderness of God; as by that human tongue that never uttered a harsh or an unkind word; as through that stately form, unbowed by all the grievances of the world or by the sufferings of long years of prison life and deprivation? Surely, if man is the greatest work of God, man must also be the most perfect Messenger of God to man.
There had been but six days in ‘Akká; but the human world was behind us, before us was the world of God. They had been separated by a faint conception of Eternity, lived in the Presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
- Nourished by the earth, With God ever nigh,
- Moulded in His heart and fashioned by His hand,
- Its feet on the ground and its head in the sky,
- The Cedar came forth at His beck and command.
- With its arms outstretched and a prayer on its lips,
- Free from contention, sorrow and strife,
- With a look far away to love-laden ships,
- The great Cedar stands, a symbol of life.
`ABDUL-BAHA . . . . . .
THOUGH moving in a sphere of His own and holding a rank radically different from that of the Author1 and the Forerunner2 of the Bahá’i Revelation, He, by virtue of the station ordained for Him through the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, forms together with them what may be termed the Three Central Figures of a Faith that stands unapproached in the world’s spiritual history.
WHETHER in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas [Book of Laws]—the most weighty and sacred of all the works of Bahá’u’lláh, or in the Kitáb-i-‘Ahd, the Book of His Covenant, or in the Suriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the Branch), such references as have been recorded by the pen of Bahá’u’lláh—references which the Tablets of His Father addressed to Him mightily reinforce—invest ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a power, and surround Him with a halo, which the present generation can never adequately appreciate.
He is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost as the Center and Pivot of Bahá’u’lláh’s peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Bahá’i ideal, the incarnation of every Bahá’i virtue, the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the Law of God, the Being ‘round Whom all names revolve’ the Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the Moon of the Central Orb of this most holy Dispensation—styles and titles that are implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest expression in the magic name ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, [Servant of God].
He is, above and beyond these appellations, ‘The Mystery of God’—an expression which Bahá’u’lláh Himself has chosen to designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means justify us to assign to Him the station of Prophethood, indicates how in the person of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized.
1 Bahá’u’lláh. 2 The Báb.
”The activities which are trying to establish solidarity between the nations, and infuse the spirit of universalism in the hearts of the children of men, are like unto divine rays from the Sun of Reality, and the brightest ray is the coming of the universal language.”* It is of special interest to Bahá’is to learn that ‘Abdu'l-Bahá informed a “friend” that the first principle of Bahá'u’lláh to be accepted by the world would be that of the Auxiliary Universal Language.
HERE we sit, O readers, you and I, at this mental banquet of thought and you perhaps ask me to arise and give you my impressions of a Universal Congress of Esperanto. Some of you are Bahá’is and so I shall speak also from the Bahá’i viewpoint. A Universal Congress of Esperanto is like a
* ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “Divine Philosophy" (first edition) p. 112
week on the mountain top to the disciples of this evangel-instrument to peace, it is like a University of Esperanto to the scholars of this international tongue; and to the youth of all lands who come for the first time it is like a little lifetime in the “Land of Esperantujo.”
What impressed me most at this
--PHOTO--
Twenty-sixth Universal Congress of Esperanto held in Stockholm, Sweden, August 4–12, 1934.
Twenty-sixth Universal Congress of Esperanto held here in Stockholm, from August fourth to twelfth, this year, 1934, are the possibilities of Esperanto as the very greatest language for universal use and its spirit of “Esperantismo” which is the essence of brotherhood. Prefacing this impression, permit me to offer tribute to the creator of this universal auxiliary language, Dr. Ludovic Zamenhof of Poland, one of the greatest humanitarians of this twentieth century. The few youth of his day who were present in the Stockholm sessions have borne him in their hearts across the generation and their hearts rose up at the mention of his name as the Gardes du Rois spring up cheering when their
kings appear. Why is this? It is because he has given to our world something pure and precious, an instrument for world understanding.
WHO SAYS that Esperanto is not
a living language? Ex-Mayor Carl
Lindhagen of Stockholm who is
one of the pioneers for our
Esperanto language and other progressive
movements says it is much
more “living” than some of the
other languages commonly used
which are entirely inadequate in international
life. He even goes so
far as to proclaim that we should
not too modestly speak of it as a
“help language,” an “auxiliary
language,” for it is in truth a world
language, a universal language. I give you an excellent proof of this: in Stockholm more than two thousand delegates from fifty countries, and representatives from more than thirty languages sat in the great Swedish Parliament House and held numberless sessions including university courses, professional discussions, international parleys, plenary sessions of the Universal Esperanto Association and everybody understood every word. People remarked how every year the delegates express themselves so fluently, correctly and courageously in Esperanto. The Esperantists sat in the theater and heard Sweden’s great actors and actresses give Moliere’s and Strindberg’s plays in perfect and caressing Esperanto. The non-Esperantists and the journalists wrote: “It is most wonderful to realize how beautiful Esperanto sounds from the stage. Perhaps it is not only a congress language but also a language in which one can converse and love and hate.”
They crowded the splendid Concert Hall, regal in its appointments and listened agape with rapture to Swedish musicians, some of them famous throughout Europe, who sang in Esperanto the glorious songs of Sweden. Of the important newspapers of Sweden, one had a daily page and others had columns in this world language, not only of the Congress news but the world news!
The same week, in another part of Stockholm a very important International Congress of Women Physicians was in session where every speech had to be interpreted tediously into English or French or German or Italian or all—just as in
hundreds of other international conferences which are fair examples that the world language system is still in its dark “middle ages.” The Stockholm daily papers in articles and editorials voiced the opinion that what the world needs is not a European language but a world language.
SHOGHI EFFENDI, Guardian of the
Baha’i Cause, sent his warm greetings
to this Universal Congress of
Esperanto and, his significant message
was read at the first plenary
session of the Congress of Work
called “La Laborkunsido,” before
many hundreds of delegates.
As a Bahá’i I was profoundly interested in the Esperanto University Summer Session Lectures presented by celebrated European linguists: For instance, Professor W. E. Collinson of the University of Liverpool spoke on “The Northern European Languages and Esperanto.” He showed excellent features in both and suggested how a few Northern European suffixes could with profit be added to the Esperanto suffixes.
This clear exposition brought to my mind the exhortations of Bahá’u’llah that the governments of the world should appoint an international committee of their best linguists which should study the problem of a universal language. There are many language possibilities for Esperanto which are not yet utilized, but which may be found by comparison with the many national languages. Every language has found some very good expedients for expressing thought simply, and if Esperanto explores these special expedients of every language, it can
become the best and most practical of all.
Esperanto has all the potential qualities of a universal language—it is neutral, logically constructed and can be easily learned by the masses of world peoples—it has been created by a world genius, it is perfect as a construction and modelled with every possibility for future evolution. Dr. Zamenhof himself planned this. There is an International Committee, forming the Academy of Esperanto whose members are appointed by the Esperantists of the world and the evolution of the language is under their supervision. However, the scope should be wider, the governments of the globe should interest themselves in this universal language principle. If they do, God help them to keep to the super-nationalism ideal and may the big nations not try to obtrude their nationalism into this auxiliary tongue, trying to crowd out the smaller states. One can see how in the world today, politics could hold back Esperanto, but Dr. Zamenhof gave this language a soul and the majority of Esperantists are adherents of its lofty spirit.
Looking over the Esperanto books in the Congress book-shops one can see that Esperanto already has a very rich literature with books from all nations.
COME TO SWEDEN and you will
say: always smiling, always be helpful,
describes the fair fine race that
welcomed the Esperantists to this
“Venice of the North,” this “Queen
of the Baltic,” this gay Stockholm
flying flags of fifty nations, Esperanto
flags and hundreds of Swedish
flags. Each Swede seemed to act as
--PHOTO--
Miss Almida Zetterlund, Bahá’i Esperantist of Stockholm, who presided at the Bahá’i Esperanto session of this great Congress.
host, intuitively knowing our needs. They have somehow captured the magic wand of civilization and wafted it over their nation. I liked the way Mr. J. B. Philip praised them for he said that the imagination of a northern people has crystalized into a city which is a poem in stone.
The first Esperanto film ever presented to the world was made in Sweden by Swedish Esperantists and was given in Stockholm during the Congress week. It will be historic and perhaps is the forerunner of Esperanto films that will circle the five continents.
THE WHOLE Congress was honored
in having as its President,
H. R. H. Prince Carl, brother of
His Majesty King Gustavus V of
Sweden. A most noteworthy feature
of this Congress too, was that
for the first time in the history of
Universal Congresses of Esperanto, the imposing “Solena Malfermo”* the magnificent opening in the Concert Hall, was broadcast. The most awaited, the most eagerly-heard speech that memorable evening was the radio address of Dr. Edmond Privat, for many years President of the Universal Esperanto Association, an idealist and one of the most eloquent of Esperanto orators. He spoke by telephone from Lausanne via Germany into the radio-station in Stockholm. Breathlessly this seated international audience listened to every word, even every nuance as his loved voice carried his light-bringing message over the air to them. The writer felt that both Dr. Privat and Miss Lidja Zamenhof, who was also one of the speakers in this “Solena Malfermo” that day, had their lips touched with Fire of God!
THE journalists of Stockholm
gave a dinner for visiting Esperanto
journalists, in their renowned Press
Club. The Chairman for the toasts
was Mr. Anton Lindberger of the
Stockholm “Dagens Nyheter” who
spoke in English and the writer had
the privilege of being his interpreter
into Esperanto. He said
among other things: “It seems to
us that you, O colleagues, represent
in double measure two of the most
important objects of the newspaper
press. I mean the transmission of
international information and the
furthering of international understanding.
We know that these objects
are at the very root of the
world language idea, but in such
times as we live in, it is of no less
importance that the press of all
languages after the measure of its
* The Opening ceremonies.
powers and as far as its political freedom of movement allows, makes of itself an instrument for these tasks.
THE BAHA’I Esperanto session of
this great Congress was held in one
of the beautiful Council rooms, of
the Parliament, attended by Esperantists
from twenty countries.
Every seat was occupied. There
was a fine display of Bahá’i literature
in different languages. Miss Almida
Zetterlund, a Bahá’i Esperantist
of Stockholm presided and
welcomed the guests to Sweden also
giving a short talk. The writer
spoke and Miss Lidja Zamenhof,
daughter of the creator of Esperanto
(herself a Bahá’i who has translated
into classic Esperanto, “Baha’u’llah
and the New Era,” “Paris
Talks,” “Some Answered Questions”
and “Iqán”) gave a vivid,
profound and philosophical Bahá’i
address which was much applauded
and later praised in the press. The
last day of the Congress at the great
“Laborkunsido,” a two minute resume
of the Bahá’i session was
given before nine hundred Esperantists.
THE WHOLE Congress was most
interesting for it gave visitors from
many lands a deeper insight into the
high spirit of the Swedes, and one
sees how they have taken the best
from all cultures and adapted it to
their tranquil and beautiful nature;
likewise, they are themselves
outstanding in their own creative
genius in music, art, literature, inventions,
explorations. Where did
Jenny Lind, Anders Zorn, August
Strindberg, John Ericsson, Alfred
Nobel, S. A. Andre, and Sven Hedin
come from? They came from this Sweden that has just had the initiative to stage one of the greatest Congresses of Esperanto that the world has yet witnessed.
Rector Sam Jansson of Beskow School in Stockholm where some members of the Royal Family have studied, who is himself a noted European Esperantist and had personally taken the responsibility for this Esperanto Summer University, said to me one day at the Congress that it was interesting to him to see the great mixture of nationalities from Southern Europe and how here in Stockholm, through Esperanto, they were all blended into perfect unity. I could also state that all delegates remarked that the Swedish atmosphere had a tranquilizing and friendly-making influence upon all guests. Even the little foibles which always occur in big congresses were met with such good humor and forbearing mind that everything in and outside the Congress was sunshine here in Sweden. No wonder that we have become not only good will ambassadors of our own country and Esperantujo but of this land which, through the World Congress language, we have come to know and to love!
The Blind Esperantist delegates also had some special Congress sessions in the Royal Swedish Institute for the Instruction of the Blind where the visiting blind from other lands were lodged. The reports from that section are illuminating and the rest of the world could look to Sweden as a model of the way to give blind brothers a more equal opportunity when they are striving to make themselves useful members of the community.
* Long live the Bahá’i Movement, creator of unity, savior of differences! Long live Esperanto, the peace instrument! Long live hospitality loving Stockholm! And until we meet again in Rome! (Instead of good-bye in Esperanto, we say, until we meet again, gis la revido!)
General Louis Bastien of France in the name of the Congress expressed thanks for the Congress week, mentioning the names of many eminent members, but he also said: “Let us not forget the other man, to whom we owe so much. One always speaks of the great man, but so many Esperantists work unceasingly for our world language in little cities and towns, whose names one does not even know—those whom one does not meet in congresses because they have not the means to travel. Let us salute The Unknown Esperantist.” And the audience arose and applauded.
THESE ARE only a few of the outer
impressions of the Congress, but the
great inner peace revolutionary
forces unloosed at this World Language
Congress are still another
story, for this world language ideal,
the Bahá’i Faith, the many universal
brotherhood ideas set forth here
will spread, the very winds of
heaven will be their messengers;
ignorance, superstitions, narrow nationalisms
may nail them to the
cross, but they will resurrect of
themselves, span the seas, encircle
the earth and sweep onward to the
very confines of human intelligence
and understanding.
The Twenty-seventh Universal Congress of Esperanto will be held in Rome next year, in the early days of August.
So, dear readers, let us raise our glass (of water, if you will), to our next mental banquet in Rome: Vivu la Baha Movado, Kreanto de unueco kaj Savanto de diverseco! Viva Esperanto la viviga pacilo! Vivu gastama Stockholmo! Kaj gis la revido en Romo!*
I DO not remember much of what happened at the meeting—my first Bahá’i meeting. There were readings of beautiful prayers, and I had a slight feeling of regret that they had to use a book. The Bahá’i friend from London talked, but nothing of what she said remains. No hymns, none of the religious trappings I had been accustomed to: but there was a spirit that attracted my heart. So when the meeting was over I asked the speaker if she could recommend someone who would come over to Jersey City and tell the story to my people. She introduced me to Mountfort Mills who, within a week or two did give a talk in the Brotherhood Church. I remember his subject was The Divine Springtime. One of my people sitting in front of me, for I sat in the audience while Mr. Mills was speaking, seemed enthralled. She turned to me as we all rose to leave and said in a hushed voice: “There, indeed, is a man!” Her succeeding remarks indicated her meaning: A feeling of awe for the speaker and his subject. “If we could only be sure it were all true,” she concluded.
Then began a period of about three months upon which I now look back as the most remarkable of my life. The Divine Voice calling from on high seemed constantly ringing in my ears. Not that I was at all convinced of the truth underlying what I heard on every hand. In
* The author wishes his name withheld for the present.
fact I did not understand half of what most of these people talked about. Sometimes I was definitely repelled and would try to put it all out of my mind. But it was no use. My heart was in a turmoil and yet incredibly attracted. Mr. Mills devoted much time to me, why I was at a loss to understand. At his home I met several of the Bahá’i friends. And here I received my first copy of The Seven Valleys by Bahá’ulláh. I read it on my way home that night and it stirred me beyond measure. Not one word in ten did I understand but doors seemed to be opening before me. It was like a leit motif from a heavenly opus of which the theme could not be guessed. Certain passages struck my heart like paeans from angelic choirs. Even The Hidden Words, by Bahá’u’lláh, which Mr. Mills had given me a few days before, did not approach the core of my being as did this.
I BEGAN going over almost weekly
to meetings in New York. There I
met more of the “friends” as I
heard them designated. They certainly
expressed a type of friendship
new to me. I bought all the
books I could find and read, read,
read constantly. I could hardly
think of anything else. It reflected
in my sermons so that my people
remarked and spoke of it. Always
I had written my sermons,
rather priding myself on style and
ratiocination. Suddenly that all
dropped away. I found myself going into the pulpit with only the preparation of prayer and meditation. And what a new meaning began to attach itself to this word prayer! I had always prayed after a fashion, but since religion had become a “profession”, public prayer-pulpit prayer had to a great extent displaced personal devotions. I began vaguely to understand what communion might mean.
But I was not happy. Strange to say I was more unhappy than ever. It seemed as though the very roots of my being were rent asunder. Perhaps, I thought when ‘Abdu’l-'Bahá arrives He will be able to calm my restless soul. Certainly none of the proponents of His cause could do it. I had tried them all.
ONE DAY I was walking with
Mountfort Mills near his home on
west End Ave. It was in February
and the winter winds were chill. We
walked briskly talking of the ever
enthralling subject, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
approaching visit; what He looked
like; what effect His meeting had
on souls; stories of Mr. Mills contacts
with Him in ‘Akká and Paris.
Impulsively I said:
“When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arrives I would like very much to have a talk with Him alone, without even an interpreter.”
Mr. Mills smiled sympathetically but remarked:
“I fear you couldn’t get very far without an interpreter, for ‘Addu’l-Bahá speaks little English and you, I imagine, less Persian.”
I would not be dissuaded. “If He at all approaches in spiritual discernment what I hear and read of Him,” I said, “we would get
closer together, and I might have a better chance of understanding even if no words were spoken. I am very tired of words,” I concluded rather lamely.
This was about six weeks before ‘Abdu’l-Bahá came, two months perhaps. We never referred to the subject again nor did Mr. Mills speak of my wish to anyone, as he afterwards assured me.
Finally the day arrived. I did not go to the steamship wharf to meet Him but I did make an effort to get at least a glimpse of Him at a gathering specially arranged for Him at the home of Bahá’i friends. A glimpse was all I succeeded in getting. The press of eager friends and curious ones was so great that it was difficult even to get inside the doors. I have only the memory of an impressive silence most unusual at such functions. In all that- crowded mass of folk, so wedged together that tea drinking was almost an impossibility, though the attempt was made, there was little or no speech. A whispered word; a remark implying awe or love, was all. I strove to get where I could at least see Him. All but impossible. At last I managed to press forward where I could peep over a shoulder and so got my first glimpse of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He was seated. A cream colored fez upon His head from under which white hair flowed almost to His shoulders. His robe, what little I could see of it, was oriental, almost white. But these were incidentals to which I could pay little attention. The impressive thing, and what I have never forgotten, was an indefinable aspect of majesty combined with an exquisite courtesy. He was just in
the moment of accepting a cup of tea from the hostess. Such gentleness, such love emanated from Him as I had never seen. I was not emotionally disturbed. Remember that at that time I had no conviction, almost, I might say little or no interest in what I came later to undersand by the term “His Station.” I was an onlooker at a scene concerning the significance of which I was totally ignorant. Yes, ignorant. What matter that I had read and prayed! My mind was attracted and my heart, but inner doors were shut—and looked. No wonder that I was unhappy. But within my soul was an urge, a longing, that would not be stilled or thwarted. What was it that these people around me had which gave to their eyes such illumination, to their hearts such gladness? What connotation did the word “wonderful” have to them that so often it was upon their lips? I did not know but I wanted to know as I think I had never known the want of anything before.
THE MEASURE of that desire and
the determination to discover may
be indicated in that the very next
morning, early, I was at the Hotel
Ansonia where the friends had reserved
rooms for Him—a beautiful
suite which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá used only
a few days, removing to a simple
apartment, and refusing with kindly
dignity the urgent offer of the
friends to meet any expense. “It
is not the part of wisdom,” He said.
So before nine o’clock in the morning I was there, which meant, since I lived some distance from New York, an early start indeed. Already the large reception room was well filled. Evidently others
also were conscious of a similar urge. I wondered if they too felt as I a burning in the breast.
I remember as if it were yesterday the scene and my impressions. I did not want to talk to anyone. In fact I would not. I withdrew to the window overlooking Broadway and turned my back upon them all. Below me stretched the great city but I saw it not. What was it all about? Why was I here? What did I expect from the coming interview: indeed how did I know there was to be any interview at all? I had no appointment. Plainly all these other folk had come expecting to see and talk with Him. Why should I expect any attention from such an evident personage?
So I was somewhat withdrawn from the others when my attention was attracted by a rustling throughout the room. A door was opening far across from me and a group was emerging and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appeared saying farewell. None had any eyes save for Him. Again I had the impression of a unique dignity and courtesy and love. The morning sunlight which flooded the room seemed to center on His robe. His fez was slightly tilted and as I gazed, His hand raised with a gesture evidently characteristic and, touching, restored it to its proper place. His eyes met mine as my fascinated glance was on Him. He smiled and with a gesture which no word but lordly can describe He beckoned me. Startled gives no hint of my sensations. Something incredible had happened. Why to me, a stranger unknown, unheard of, should He raise that friendly hand? I glanced around. Surely it was to someone else that gesture
was addressed, those eyes were smiling! But there was no one near and again I looked and again He beckoned and such understanding love enveloped me that even at that distance and with a heart still cold a thrill ran through me as if a breeze from a divine morning had touched my brow!
SLOWLY I obeyed that imperative
command and, as I approached the
door where still He stood, He motioned
others away and stretched
His hand to me as if He had always
known me. And, as our right hands
met, with His left He indicated that
all should leave the room, and He
drew me in and closed the door. I
remember how surprised the interpreter
looked when he too was included
in this general dismissal. But
I had little thought then for anything
but this incredible happening.
I was absolutely alone with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The halting desire expressed
weeks ago was fulfilled the very moment
that our eyes first met.
Still holding my hand Abdu’l-Bahá walked across the room towards where, in the window, two chairs were waiting. Even then the majesty of His tread impressed me and I felt like a child led by His father, a more than earthly father, to a comforting conference. His hand still held mine and frequently His grasp tightened and held more closely. And then, for the first time He spoke, and in my own tongue:
“You are my very dear son.” He said.
What there was in these simple words that carried such conviction to my heart I cannot say. Or was it the tone of voice or the atmosphere pervading the room, filled with spiritual
vibrations beyond anything I had ever known, that melted my heart almost to tears? I only know that a sense of verity invaded me. Here at last was my Father. What earthly paternal relationship could equal this? A new and exquisite emotion all but mastered me. My throat swelled. My eyes filled. I could not have spoken had life depended on a word. I followed those masterly feet like a little child.
Then we sat in the two chairs by the window: knee to knee, eye to eye. At last He looked right into me. It was the first time since our eyes met with His first beckoning gesture that this had happened. And now nothing intervened between us and He looked at me. He looked at me! It seemed as though never before had anyone really seen me. I felt a sense of gladness that I at last was at home, and that one who knew me utterly, my Father, in truth, was alone with me.
As He looked such play of thought found reflection in His face, that if He had talked an hour not nearly so much could have been said. A little surprise, perhaps, followed swiftly by such sympathy, such understanding, such overwhelming love—it was as if His very being opened to receive me. With that the heart within me melted and the tears flowed. I did not weep, in any ordinary sense. There was no breaking up of feature. It was as it a long-pent stream was at last undammed. Unheeded as I looked at Him they flowed.
He put His two thumbs to my eyes while He wiped the tears from my face. “Don’t cry,” He said, “Don’t cry. You must be happy. You must be happy.” And He
laughed. Such a ringing, boyish laugh. It was as though He had discovered the most delightful joke imaginable: a divine joke which only He could appreciate.
I could not speak. We both sat perfectly silent for what seemed a long while, and gradually a great peace came to me. Then ‘Abdu’l-Bahá placed His hand upon my breast. “Ah!” He said, “The heart speaks.” Again silence: at long, heart-enthralling silence. No word further was spoken, and all the time I was with Him not one single sound came from me. But no word
was necessary from me to Him. I knew that, even then, and how I thanked God it was so.
Suddenly He leaped from His chair with another laugh as though consumed with a heavenly joy. Turning He took me under the elbows and lifted me to my feet and swept me into his arms. Such a hug! No mere embrace! My very ribs cracked. He kissed me on both cheeks, laid His arm across my shoulders and led me to the door.
That is all. But life has never been quite the same since.
THE body-politic or the social unity of the human world may be likened to an ocean and each member, each individual a wave upon that same ocean.
The light of the sun becomes apparent in each object according to the capacity of that object. The difference is simply one of degree and receptivity. The stone would be a recipient only to a limited extent; another created thing might be as a mirror wherein the sun is fully reflected; but the same light shines upon both.
The most important thing is to polish the mirrors of hearts in order that they may become illumined and receptive of the divine light. One heart may possess the capacity of the polished mirror; another be covered and obscured by the dust and dross of this world. Although the same Sun is shining upon both, in the mirror which is polished, pure and sanctified you may behold the Sun in all its fullness, glory and power revealing its majesty and effulgence, but in the mirror which is rusted and obscured there is no capacity for reflection although so far as the Sun itself is concerned it is shining thereon and is neither lessened nor deprived. Therefore our duty lies in seeking to polish the mirrors of our hearts in order that we shall become reflectors of that light and recipients of the divine bounties which may be fully revealed through them.
This means the oneness of the world of humanity. That is to say, when this human body-politic reaches a state of absolute unity, the effulgence of the eternal Sun will make its fullest light and heat manifest.
ABDU’L-BAHÁ wrote: “There is a great wisdom in the fact that equality is not imposed by law; it is therefore preferable for moderation to do its work.”
A PRACTICAL plan for representation
of workers in determining conditions
of labor and for prevention
of industrial disputes must have its
foundation in a soil which cannot
fertilize and fructify the seeds of
discontent. This will lie in a mutuality
of consideration of related
rights and the establishment of
“laws and regulations which would
permit the workmen to receive from
the factory owner their wages and a
share in the fourth or fifth part of
the profits, according to the wants
of the factory; or, in some other
way the body of the workmen and
manufacturers should share equitably
the profits and advantages. Indeed,
the direction and administration
of affairs comes from the owner
of the factory, and the work and labor
from the body of the workmen.”
As we are aware, there are numbers of such profit-sharing business enterprises existent today wherein there is shown to be a minimum of discontent and a practical elimination of the strike attitude. “When matters will be thus fixed,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the owner of the factory will no longer put aside daily a treasure of which he has absolutely no need, and the workmen and artisans will no longer be in the greatest misery and want.”
In regard to the relationship between
capital and labor, Abdu’l-Bahá has also said: “Strikes are due to two causes—one, the extreme sharpness and rapacity of the capitalists and manufacturers, and the other the excesses, the avidity and ill will of the workmen and artisans.”
And further He says: “The principal cause of these difficulties lies in the laws of the present civilization, for they lead to a small number of individuals accumulating incomparable fortunes beyond their needs, whilst the greater number remain 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.” By this “you see that general peace and joy are destroyed, the welfare of humanity is partially annihilated, and that collective life is fruitless.”
WHILE A DEEP consideration of
these conditions must stir in many
people an urge to bring about a correction
of existing laws it is evident
that better conditions can also be
brought about by relations directly
established between the employer
and the employed.
When brotherhood shall come to stand for something more than mere words—a voice without action—therein will lie the minimum of unemployment, because each will see the benefit to himself in the benefit others receive and will find that universal employment, (i. e. work
for everybody,) brings about a universality of leisure—a leisure for intellectual and healthful pursuits. It may be seen that one reason for great unemployment rests in competition for those evanescent benefits of which every individual is certain to be deprived by death.
Under a wide-spread sympathetic cooperation the matter of wages in the major sense should not and will not occupy the paramount station in the relation of capital and labor. When all share in proportion to their capacity, their devotion to industry and their application of the powers they possess to the development of the project, a long-sought era of industrial and spiritual peace will follow.
It is not impossible nor, indeed, improbable that either from independent inner prompting or from the application of laws in the absence of such inner urge, the not far-distant future shall witness a world in which there are no longer those who are abnormally wealthy and none abjectly poor—that even the poorest, shall possess a competence and the richest shall not be rich to profligacy.
HOWEVER OPTIMISTIC one may feel,
it must be conceded that there is no
promising outlook for an evolution
in the existing methods of determining
conditions of work which shall
eliminate disputes. Therefore, no
modification of the present plan
whereby its basic features shall be
preserved can be looked to as practical,
for the reason that it must
carry the seed of the original error
which any time and at all times will
be capable of germinating and developing the identical trouble which it is sought to eliminate.
Labor, regarding itself as the base of prosperity, must in future continue to resent abnormal profits to capital through its employment of the wage-earning class. The system, therefore, must be subject to a study of possibilities based upon human nature as we find it, striving with altruistic purpose for a desirable end.
No system except one in which capital shall be accorded recognition proportional to its investment, and labor in proportion to its capabilities and intelligent application, and which shall place the greater emphasis upon general betterment, can possess the potentials of endurance and harmony.
The major trouble in the world of humanity today is that it has almost entirely lost sight of the intended harmonious association of humankind and deliberately adopts and pursues the precise modes of action which tend to perpetuate a destructive and degrading inharmony, discontent and conflict.
War has sent its missiles of hate into the heart of the world and by reason of its attendant sorrows and miseries has burned away some of the dross. Mankind has wakened in a measure to the sense of interdependence and inter-responsibility. What remains to be accomplished is that oncoming generations shall attain to a vision enabling them to recognize a higher than existing human relationships and a nobler than the prevailing limited concept of gain and riches.
PROGRESS . . . . . . .
world equal and keep pace with
material progress in the future?”IN a living organism the full measure of its development is not known or realized at the time of its inception or birth. Development and progression imply gradual stages or degress. For example, spiritual advancement may be likened to the light of the early dawn. Although this dawn light is dim and pale, a wise man who views the march of the sunrise at its very beginning can foretell the ascendancy of the sun in its full glory and effulgence. He knows for a certainty that it is the beginning of its manifestation and later that it will assume great power and potency.
Again, for example, if he takes a seed and observes that it is sprouting, he will know assuredly that ultimately it will become a tree.
NOW is the beginning of the manifestation of the power spiritual and inevitably its potency of life forces will assume greater and greater proportions. Therefore this twentieth century is the dawn or beginning of spiritual illumination and it is evident that day by day it will advance.
AMONG the results of the manifestation of spiritual forces will be that the human world will adapt itself to a new social form, the justice of God will become manifest throughout human affairs. . . . Through the manifestation of God's great equity the poor of the world will be rewarded and assisted fully and there will be a readjustment in the economic conditions of mankind so that in the future there will not be the abnormally rich nor the abject poor.
THE essence of the matter is that divine justice will become manifest in human conditions and affairs, and all mankind will find comfort and enjoyment in life. It is not meant that all will be equal, for inequality in degree and capacity is a property of nature. . . . There will be an equilibrium of interests, and a condition will be established which will make both rich and poor comfortable and content. This will be an eternal and blessed outcome of the glorious twentieth century which will be realized universally. The significance of it is that the gladtidings of great joy revealed in the promises of the Holy Books will be fulfilled.
- O God, I was weary with searching,
- The world was a wonderland maze,
- I climbed to high turrets of learning,
- I walked the roughest roadways.
- I sought Thee, the Light of my spirit,
- In crystal bright globes of the seers,
- I sang sweet lays with the poets,
- I talked with plebians and peers.
- And still, the pearl of great beauty
- Eluded my hungering hand,—
- Buried, perhaps, in an acorn!
- Or, hiding away in the sand!
- And then one hour in a vision
- My heart burned a scarlet flame,
- And I saw through smoke and confusion
- A door to God’s Greatest Name:
- “Beloved,” Creation was singing,
- “God waits for the hearts of His own!
- Your love is the sacred portal,
- Your virtue the seat of His Throne
- “The Father will manifest always
- As Infinite Heavens unroll,
- Mighty, Supreme and Triumphant,
- If standing within your soul."
- By method of Baconian renown,
- Man counts the ages o’er,
- Till human reason stands in cap and gown
- At heaven’s door.
- From prehistoric days of Adam’s call,
- By long induction through the years
- He hears the Truth from Prophets, one and all,
- Their saints and seers.
- “God is, and man was in His image made,
- First premises of Law,
- And man may be His son, as Christ essayed;”—
- Therein man saw:
- If Spirit of God, His Power and Harmony
- Were breathed into him at birth,
- In the soul of him must lie the golden key
- To heaven on earth.
- But not to wisdom's store, alone, replete,
- He learns the portal swings,
- God's final word is “He who loves” may meet
- The King of Kings!
- Must souls like mine arise to joyful mood
- When shadows fleck the globe of highest
- dreams,
- And should I walk in peace by drying streams
- When shadows fleck the globe of highest
- If o’er the hills I see Life’s plenitude
- What Stoic penned the saddest platitude
- That happiness is never where it seems,
- But flashes as a wisp its burning gleams
- And never knows the rest of certitude?
- The buttercup finds bliss in heart of gold,
- The night is lulled in peace by pungent stock,
- And when the sky takes out her evening frock
- The stars trip forth on pleasures manifold:
- When things of earth are fragrant of God’s Will,
- My heart is loth to be content with ill,
- For I am sure God opens many gates
- To souls that burn with passionate desire,
- And in the quest of Guidance never tire,
- Or forfeit Joy to bravely smile at Fates;
- Divine Assurance lifts the latch and waits
- Upon the highway, by the sweet rose brier,
- In cloisters of an atom’s smouldering fire—
- Where God with wakened souls communicates;
- These mysteries of Life I ask to know,
- From which are born the joys that never fade;
- For eyes that see with God I’ve served and
- prayed,
- Beyond the hills of doubt I rise and go.
- No heart of the world?
- Ah! It beats tonight
- As waves on a far, clean shore,
- Sounding the depths of a people's plight,
- Drowning the uproar of wealth and of might.
- Setting the pulse of the nations right,
- Their happiness to restore.
- Oh, heart of the world!
- Now the old rules fail
- And confusion beats at the brain,
- Pounding on souls with the bite of hail,
- Withering cheeks already grown pale,
- Blinding eyes to the well-marked trail,—
- Whence comes the dawn of your reign?
- Haste heart of the world!
- Thou art Love! Beat strong,
- Let thy rhythm touch each ear,
- Tuning all souls with thy vibrant song,
- Sending elixir to cure old wrong,
- Binding all earth with thy joyous thong,
- For a life-giving brotherhood here.
personal greed and personal godlessness. Nothing can exterminate these evils except personal and undefiled religion.”
Dr. S. Parkes Cadman—Brooklyn Daily Eagle.NO COLLECTIVE provision will contribute more to ensure security, banish war and destroy the menace of aggression than the total abolition of national armed forces and the substitution of an international police force.”—Honorable Arthur Henderson, Montreal Daily Star.
“RELIGION really has something to say about the meaning of life; and, to put it very bluntly, a religion is at least just as valid a part of human experience as is science or philosophy. The day will surely come again when religion and science and philosophy will be fitted together once more into a great positive synthesis, a world-view which all educated men will accept and share.”—Frederick C. Grant, Real America.
IF NATIONS, like individuals, were regarded as being called upon to live according to the moral law, they would certainly fall short of loving their neighbours as themselves, but they would at least endeavour to understand them.
Modern nationalism, in fact, is moved by three thing's which have, throughout the ages been forbidden to individuals—envy, hatred and malice.
What is necessary to good will between nations is a positive effort on
the part of all to understand each other’s qualities as well as their defects. As soon as teachers, in their attitude to other people, adopt a positive in place of a negative attitude, as soon as they begin to look for the good qualities of foreign nations, mutual goodwill will take the place of prejudice.
Every nation has something likeable about it, as it is proved by the fact that every person who goes abroad and lives among a foreign people returns home liking them.—Prof. R. B. Mowat, World Digest.
“IT MAY BE that, without freedom from one’s self, all other freedom is vain. . . . Clearly, too, in the minds of a great portion of the people is the conviction that the victory over our present-day evil cannot be won by an individual or by any class alone.
“Perhaps in the deeper realization of our inevitable brotherhood, perhaps in our increased awareness of values other than material, there may lie the germs of lasting faith by means of which the diverse peoples of this nation may be united in a common purpose . . .
“We need a unifying faith, by means of which some part of the responsibilities that we are now carrying may be lifted from us, in the light of which our way may be made clearer before us. We need a
body of conviction in harmony with our corporate welfare by which our decisions may be weighted. We need a way of life which only faith can blaze. For few of us are strong enough or wise enough to make our way alone.”—Margaret Carey Madeira, Atlantic Monthly.
THE SITUATION in the Occident where bankruptcy has overtaken the world’s greatest achievement in production of the substances of life, calls for a drastic revision of the technique of human relationships, and a complete alteration of the attitude and intention of such relationships. It calls for a technique of life which must itself be a living technique. Life can never be fully alive when controlled by the powers of death, as in armaments and organized force, or when supported by death, as in the blood-thirsty appetites of people in their food. Disintegration is death; integration is life.
No system of human relationships can succeed if operated in the attitude and with the intention of mutual exploitation; any system will succeed if operated in the spirit of mutual service; indeed, in this spirit, the need of systems would disappear.—James H. Cousins, The Young Builder.
“A STONE ARCH built across the road at Endicott, N. Y. reads, “Home of the Square Deal.” Since Mr. George F. Johnson, head of the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Corporation, sincerely believes and practices the truth implied in these inscriptions, the industrial reforms NRA stands for—decent hours, decent; wages, decent conditions of labor
and representation are an old story in Endicott, and four other towns of the Susquehanna Valley, West Endicott, Johnson City, Oswego, and Binghamton. In these towns the population dependent upon the Endicott-Johnson shoe making plants scarcely knew that the world was suffering for lack of a solvent consuming class.”—Rose C. Field, New York Times.
“IF COUNTRIES will only lay aside ‘nationalism’ and ‘internationalism’ and substitute in their places a world-wide principle of cooperation, . . . I feel confident that their efforts would be many times repaid.”—John D. Rockefeller III, in a speech at LaMaison Francaise, a unit of Rockefeller Center.
SCIENCE today is smashing atoms, transmuting them into other elements, transforming matter into energy and discovering new fundamental things, such as the positron, the neutron, the deuton, and now the triton. NO one can forsee the application of this new knowledge, but the electron brought us long distance telephony, radio broadcasting, talking pictures, television and scores of useful automatic controls. Surely from its newly discovered colleagues we may confidently expect in time applications of equal or greater importance.
Since the stone age, men have thought the world finished, but history shows that one thing is certain—change.—Dr. W. R. Whitney, Vice President in charge of Research, General Electric Co.—The Scientific Monthly.
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.
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[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."
