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STAR OF THE WEST
"We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; that all nations shall become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men shall be strengthened; that diversity of religion shall cease and differences of race be annulled. So it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come."—BAHA'O'LLAH.
Vol. VIII Kalamat 1, 73 (July 13, 1917) No. 7
Religion and Science in the Light of the Bahai Revelation
By J. E. ESSLEMONT, M.B.
ONE of the fundamental teachings of Baha'o'llah is that true science and true religion must always be in harmony. Truth is one and wherever conflict appears it is due not to truth but to error. Between so-called science and so-called religion there has been conflict all down the ages, but looking back on these conflicts in the light of fuller truth we can trace them every time to ignorance, prejudice, vanity, greed, narrow-mindedness, intolerance, obstinacy, vested interests or something of the kind,—something foreign to the true spirit of both science and religion for the spirit of both is one.
As Huxley tells us, "The great deeds of philosophers have been less the fruit of their intellect than the direction of that intellect by an eminently religious tone of mind. Truth has yielded herself rather to their patience, their love, their single-heartedness and self-denial than to their logical acumen." Boole, the mathematician, assures us that "geometric induction is essentially a process of prayer—an appeal from the finite mind to the Infinite for light on finite concerns." The great prophets of religion and science have never denounced one another. They have always reverently received the torch of inspiration from their predecessors in the prophetic series, and lighted the way for their successors. It is the unworthy followers of these great world-teachers—worshippers of the letter but not of the spirit of their teaching—who have always been the persecutors of the later prophets and the bitterest opponents of progress.
They have studied the light of the particular revelation which they hold sacred, and have defined its properties and peculiarities as seen by their limited vision, with the utmost care and precision. That is for them the one true light. If God in His infinite bounty sends fuller light from another quarter, and the torch of inspiration burns brighter than before from a new torch-holder, instead of welcoming the new light and worshipping with renewed gratitude the Father of all lights, they are angry and alarmed. This new light does not correspond with their definitions. It has not the orthodox color and does not shine from the orthodox place, therefore it must at all costs be extinguished lest it lead men astray into the paths of heresy! Many enemies of the prophets are of this type—blind leaders of the blind, who oppose new and fuller truth in the supposed interests of what they believe to be the truth. Others are of baser sort and are either moved by selfish interests to fight against truth, or else block the path of progress by reason of spiritual deadness and inertia. The appearance of a prophet is always a testing time for mankind—a day of judgment, in which the sheep are separated from the goats, those who worship the living reality of truth from those who worship only the material garments in which it is clothed. Alas! how few there have always been who were ready to welcome truth in a new garment—to welcome the spiritual light when it shone from a new torch!
The great prophets of religion have always been, at their coming, despised
and rejected of men. Both they and their early followers have given their backs to the smiters and sacrificed their possessions and their lives in the path of God. Even in our own times this has been so. Since 1844 some twenty thousand of the Babis and Bahais in Persia have suffered cruel deaths for their faith, and many more have borne imprisonment, poverty, exile and degradation. This latest of the great religions has been baptized in blood more than its predecessors, and martyrdoms have continued down to the present year.
With the prophets of science the same thing has happened. Giordano Bruno was burned as a heretic in 1600 A. D. for teaching, amongst other things, that the earth moved around the sun. A few years later the veteran philosopher Galileo had to abjure the same doctrine on his knees, in order to escape the same fate. In later times Darwin, and the pioneers of modern geology were vehemently denounced for daring to dispute the teaching of Holy Writ that the world was made in six days, and in the year 4004 B. C.! The opposition to new scientific truth has not all come from the church, however. The orthodox in science have been just as hostile to progress as the orthodox in religion. Columbus was laughed to scorn by the so-called scientists of his day who proved to their satisfaction that if ships did succeed in getting down to the Antipodes over the side of the globe, it would be absolutely impossible for them to get up again! Galvani, the pioneer of electrical science, was scoffed at by his learned colleagues and called the "frogs' dancing master." Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, was ridiculed and persecuted by his professional brethren on account of his heresy and driven from his lecture chair. When Stephenson invented his locomotive engine, European mathematicians of the time, instead of opening their eyes and studying the facts, went on for years proving from their preconceived ideas that an engine on smooth rails could never pull a load, as the wheels would simply slip round and the train get no "forarder."
To examples like these one might add indefinitely, both from ancient and modern history, and even from our own times. Dr. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto*, (who has just passed away), had to battle for his wonderful international language against the same sort of ridicule, contempt and stupid opposition which greeted Columbus, Galvani, and Stephenson. Even Esperanto which was given to the world less than thirty years ago has had its martyrs. In the last half century or so, however, a change has come over the spirit of the times, a New Light of Truth has arisen which has already made the controversies of last century seem strangely out of date.
Where are now the boastful materialists and dogmatic atheists who, only a few short years ago were threatening to drive religion out of the world? And where the preachers who so confidently consigned those who did not accept their dogmas to the fires of hell and the tortures of the damned? Echoes of their clamor we may still hear, but their day is done and their doctrines are discredited. We can see now that the doctrines around which their controversies waxed most bitter were neither true science nor true religion. What scientist in the light of modern psychical research, could still maintain that "brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile"?—or that decay of the body is necessarily accompanied by decay of the soul?
We now see that thought to be really free must soar to the realms of psychical and spiritual phenomena and not be confined to the material only. We realize that what we now know about nature is but as a drop in the ocean compared with what remains to be discovered. We therefore freely admit the possibility of miracles, not indeed in the sense of the breaking of nature's laws, but as manifestations of the operation of subtle forces which are still unknown to us, as electricity and X-rays to our ancestors.
*See page 80.
On the other hand who among our leading religious teachers would still declare that it is necessary to salvation to believe that the world was made in six days, or that the description of the plagues of Egypt as given in the book of Exodus is literally true, or that the sun stood still in the heavens (i. e., that the earth stopped its rotation) to let Joshua pursue his enemies? Such beliefs may still be repeated in form, but who, even among the clergy, accepts them in their literal sense and without reservation? Their hold on people's hearts and minds has gone or is fast going.
The religious world owes a debt of gratitude to the men of science who helped to tear such wornout creeds and dogmas to tatters and allowed the truth to step forth free. But the scientific world owes an even heavier debt to the real saints and mystics who, through good report and ill, held to the vital truths of spiritual experience and demonstrated to an incredulous world that the life is more than meat and the unseen greater than the seen. These scientists and saints were like the mountain peaks which caught the first rays of the rising sun and reflected them to the lower world, but now the sun has risen and its rays are illuminating the world.
In the teachings of Baha'o'llah we have a glorious revelation of truth which satisfies both heart and mind, in which religion and science are at one. Before going further let us first hear what the Bahai teachings say about the way in which we must seek the truth:
THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH
Man must cut himself free from all prejudice and from the result of his own imagination so that he may search for truth unhindered. He must accept nothing as final which he has received simply on the authority of parents or ancestors or teachers. He must aim at seeing all things with his own eyes, understanding them with his own mind. If he accepts any creed or doctrine which is either opposed to his reason or beyond his comprehension, he is putting into practice superstition and not true faith. Teachers are necessary, of course, but they must be educators, not crammers. The real educator draws out the innate powers of his pupils so that they can grasp things for themselves, and does not aim simply at packing their memories with ready made information and rules. The good pupil is he who while accepting his teacher as an indispensable guide and help, yet tests every step of his progress by the light of his own reason and intuition—in other words, by the Inner Light of the Divine Spirit in his own mind and heart. That Inner Light must be his final authority. "Turn thy sight unto thyself that thou mayest find Me standing within thee powerful, mighty and supreme." In this spirit of search let us now examine the main features of the teaching and see whether it affords a satisfactory basis for the reconciliation of reason and faith.
TRUE AGNOSTICISM.
The Bahai teaching is at one with science and philosophy in declaring the essential nature of God to be entirely beyond human comprehension. As emphatically as Huxley and Spencer teach that the nature of the Great First Cause is unknowable, does Baha'o'llah teach that "God comprehends all; He cannot be comprehended." To knowledge of the Divine Essence "the way is barred; seeking is forbidden." How can the finite comprehend the Infinite? How can a drop contain the ocean or a mote dancing in the sunbeam embrace the universe? Yet in each drop of water are hidden oceans of meaning and in each mote is concealed a whole universe of significances, reaching far beyond the ken of the most learned scientist. The chemist and physicist, pursuing their researches into the nature of matter, have passed from masses to molecules, from molecules to atoms, from atoms to electrons and ether, but at every step the difficulties of the search increase till the most profound intellect can penetrate
no further, and can but bow in silent awe before the Great First Cause which remains ever shrouded in inscrutable mystery.
"Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies.
I hold you here, root and all in my hand,
Little flower; but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is."
- (Tennyson)
If the flower in the crannied wall, if even a single atom of matter, presents mysteries which the most profound intellect cannot solve, how is it possible for man to comprehend the universe? How dare he pretend to define or describe the Infinite Cause of all things? All theological speculations about the nature of God's Essence are thus swept aside as foolish and futile.
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
But if the Essence is unknowable, the manifestations of its bounty are everywhere apparent. If the First Cause cannot be conceived, its effects appeal to our every faculty. A cat cannot comprehend the sun or fathom the mysteries of its daily appearance and disappearance, its composition, or its career through celestial space, but she can bask in its beams and appreciate their warmth. Her eyes are a miracle of organization which enable her to guide her movements by means of the sun's rays reflected from every visible object in her environment. At every step she skilfully uses these rays, although she may never dream that they have any connection with the sun. There may be cats who have never seen the sun and have no idea of its existence, yet at every moment their lives depend on it, and they know very well how to take advantage in a thousand ways of the beneficent effects of this unknown cause. So it is with our relation to God. At every moment we are absolutely dependent on Him, whether we know it or not. He has, however, given us the power to know Him through His Works. All things are from Him, and just as knowledge of a painter's pictures gives to the connoisseur a true knowledge of the artist, so knowledge of the universe in any of its aspects—knowledge of nature or of human nature, of things visible or of things invisible—is knowledge of God's handiwork, and gives to the seeker for Divine Truth a real knowledge of His glory. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge." (Psalm xix:1.)
THE DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS
All things manifest the bounty of God with greater or less clearness, as all material objects exposed to the sun reflect its light in greater or less degree. A heap of soot reflects a little, a stone reflects more, a piece of chalk more still, but in none of these reflections can we trace the form and color of the glorious orb. A perfect mirror however reflects the sun's very form and color, so that looking into it is like looking at the sun itself. So is it with the way in which things speak to us of God. The stone can tell us something of the divine attributes, the flower can tell us more, the animal with its marvelous senses, instincts and powers of movement, more still. In the lowest of our fellow-men we can trace wonderful faculties which tell of a wonderful Creator. In the poet, the saint, the genius, we find a higher revelation still, but the great prophets and founders of religions, like Moses, Christ, Mohammed and Baha'o'llah are the perfect mirrors by which the love and wisdom of God are reflected to the rest of mankind. Other men's mirrors have been dulled by the stains and accretions of selfishness and prejudice, but these were pure and without blemish—wholly devoted to the will of God. Thus they became the greatest educators of mankind. The divine teachings and the power of the Holy Spirit proceeding through them have been and are the
cause of the progress of humanity, for God helps men through other men (embodied or disembodied). Each man who is higher in the ascent of life is the means of helping those below him, and those who are highest of all are the helpers of all mankind. It is as if all men were connected together by elastic cords. If a man rises a little above the general level of his fellows, the cords tighten. His former companions tend to drag him back, but with a precisely equal force he draws them upwards. The higher he gets the more he feels the weight of the whole world pulling him back, and the more dependent he is on the divine support, which reaches him through the few who are still above him. Highest of all are the great Prophets and Saviors, the Divine "Manifestiations"—those Perfect Men who were each, in their day, without peer or companion, and bore the burden of the whole world, supported by God alone. "The burden of our sins was upon him" was true of each of them. Each was the "Way, the Truth and the Life" to his followers. Each was the unobstructed channel of God's bounty to every heart that would receive it.
The love that flows from the "Manifestation" is God's love. The wisdom is God's wisdom, the spirit is God's spirit. He is indeed divine—God manifest in a human temple; but God is One, and the same One God conferred the gift of His Holy Spirit through all the "Manifestations," not indeed according to His power to give, but according to the people's power to receive. The messages differed, because the peoples for whom they were given were at different stages of development, but the differences were only in the externals, the forms and ceremonies, the rules and punishments, not in the inner spiritual realities of love to God and love to man which have been the heart and soul of all the great religions.
CREATION
Baha'o'llah teaches that the universe is without beginning in time. It is a perpetual emanation from the Great First Cause. The Creator always had His creation and always will have. This is in harmony with the teachings of science regarding the conservation of matter and energy. Worlds and systems may come and go, but the universe remains. All things that undergo composition, in time undergo decomposition, but the component elements remain. The creation of a world, a daisy or a human body is not "making something out of nothing," it is but a bringing together of elements which before were scattered, a making visible of something which before was hidden. By and by the elements will again be scattered, the form will disappear, but nothing is really lost or annihilated, ever new combinations and forms arise from the ruins of the old. Baha'o'llah has no quarrel with the scientists who claim, not six thousand, but millions and billions of years for the history of the earth's creation. The evolution theory does not deny Creative Power. It only tries to describe the method of its manifestation, and the wonderful story of the material universe which the astronomer, the geologist, the physicist and the biologist are gradually unfolding to our gaze is, rightly appreciated, far more capable of evoking the deepest reverence and worship, than the crude and bald account of creation given in the Hebrew Scriptures. The old account in the book of Genesis had however the advantage of indicating by a few bold strokes of symbolism, the essential spiritual meanings of the story, as a master painter may by a few strokes of the brush convey expressions which the mere plodder with the most laborious accuracy of detail may utterly fail to express. If the material detail blinds us to the spiritual meaning then we should be better without it, but if we have once firmly grasped the essential meaning of the whole scheme, then knowledge of the detail will give our conception a wonderful added richness and
splendor and make it a magnificent picture instead of a mere sketch plan. Of course, even the most magnificent picture which the trained imagination can frame is in itself but the rudest and crudest of sketches compared with the wonderful universe it attempts to portray.
THE DESCENT OF MAN
Neither does Baha'o'llah quarrel with the biologist who finds for the body of man, a history reaching back in the development of the species, through millions of years—a history which, starting from a very simple, apparently insignificant form, gradually develops in the course of untold generations, becoming more and more complex, and better and better organized until the man of the present day is reached. Each individual human body develops through such a series of stages from a tiny round speck of jelly-like protoplasm to the fully developed man. If this is true of the individual, as nobody denies, why should we consider it derogatory to human dignity to admit a similar development for the species? This is a very different thing from claiming (as Darwin is popularly although quite erroneously supposed to have claimed) that man is descended from the monkey. The human embryo may at one time resemble a fish with gill-slits and tail, but it is not a fish. It is a human embryo. So the human species may at various stages of its long development have resembled to the outward eye various species of lower animals, but it was still the human species, possessing the mysterious latent power of developing into man as we know him today, nay more, of developing in the future, we trust, into something far higher still.
BODY AND SOUL
The materialist idea that "mind is a function of matter" is no longer tenable in the light of psychical research. A large body of scientific evidence has gradually been accumulating which in the opinion of impartial but highly critical investigators is amply sufficient to establish beyond all question the fact of a life after death—of the continued life and activity of the conscious "soul" after the dissolution of the material body. As F. W. H. Myers says in his Human Personality: "Observation, experiment, inference, have led many enquirers, of whom I am one, to a belief in direct or telepathic intercommunication, not only between the minds of men still on earth, but between minds or spirits still on earth and spirits departed. Such a discovery opens the door also to revelation. . . . We have shown that amid much deception and self-deception, fraud and illusion, veritable manifestations do reach us from beyond the grave."
The Bahai teachings with regard to body and soul, and the life after death, are quite in harmony with the results of psychical research. They teach that death is but a new birth—the escape from the prison of the body into a larger life. They teach that soul can affect soul independently of spoken or written communication, and that this influence is independent of the body and can take place whether the soul is embodied or disembodied. They advocate the use of prayers for the "dead" and teach that mutual communion and help are still possible between the "living" and the so-called "dead." They speak much of the "Supreme Concourse" of holy souls, whose assistance is available for every human being who is advancing in the path of God. The relation of the soul to the body they picture as like that of a musician to his instrument. If the instrument is broken and out of tune, the musician will no longer be able to produce beautiful music from it, although he may be as capable as ever. So when the body is diseased and out of order, the soul can no longer adequately manifest through it on the material plane, and to the eye sees only the body it might appear as if the whole man had decayed, instead of only the material instrument.
HEAVEN AND HELL
The Bahais regard the descriptions of heaven and hell given in some of the older religious writings as symbolic, like the Biblical story of the Creation, and not literally true. According to them, heaven is the state of perfection and hell that of imperfection, heaven is harmony with God's will and with one's fellows, and hell is the want of such harmony, heaven is the condition of spiritual life, and hell that of spiritual death. A man may be either in heaven or in hell while still in the body. The joys of heaven are spiritual joys, and the pains of hell consist in the deprivation of these joys. There is no worse hell in the after-death life than the hell in which many of the people around us are living. Those who have not been "born again," whose spiritual life has not awakened, are dead while they live, and although their souls continue to exist after the death of the body, their condition compared with that of those who rejoice in the love of God is as death. Even for those who have died in ignorance and sin, however, there is still hope, because the bounty of God is infinite. For these also we should pray, for our prayers can bear them help from the Source of all help.
The Bahais believe in progress in the afterlife as well as in the present. The divine worlds are infinite, and the possibilities of progress in knowledge, love and good-will are without limit. This progress depends on God's infinite bounty, and that bounty is available for all who seek it. The only condition is that we must seek it. "Love Me that I may love thee, for if thou lovest Me not, My love can never reach thee." As long as we are content with the animal and material side of life and prefer self to God, so long are we spiritually dead. It is only when we turn to God and say with all our hearts, "Not my will but Thine be done," that we become spiritually alive and enter the heaven of the blessed.
With such a view as this, surely no true lover of science could quarrel. F. H. Myers says in the work previously quoted which summarizes much of the work of the Psychical Research Society: "By discovery and by revelation certain theses have been provisionally established with regard to such departed souls as we have been able to encounter. First and chiefly I at least see ground to believe that their state is one of endless evolution in wisdom and in love. Their loves of earth persist, and most of all those highest loves which find their outlet in adoration and worship. . . . . Evil to them seems less a terrible than a slavish thing. It is embodied in no mighty potentate; rather it forms an isolating madness from which higher spirits strive to free the distorted soul. There needs no chastisement of fire; self-knowledge is man's punishment and his reward; self-knowledge and the nearness or the aloofness of companion souls. For in that world love is actually self-preservation; the communion of saints not only adorns but constitutes the life everlasting. Nay, from the laws of telepathy it follows that that communion is valid to us here and now. Even now the love of souls departed makes answer to our invocations. Even now our loving memory—love is itself a prayer—supports and strengthens those delivered spirits upon their upward way."
THE NATURE OF EVIL
According to the Bahai philosophy it follows from the doctrine of the unity of God that there can be no such thing as positive evil. There can only be One Infinite. If there were any other power in the universe outside of or opposed to the One, then the One would not be Infinite. In the realm of created things however, there is variety—variety of light and shade, of color, of consistence, of taste, of smell. Among human beings there is variety of physical strength, of health, of intelligence, of courage, of every possible faculty and attribute.
(Continued on page 83)
STAR OF THE WEST
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Entered as second-class matter April 9, 1911, at the post office at Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
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TABLET FROM ABDUL-BAHA.
HE IS GOD!
O thou Star of the West!
Be thou happy! Be thou happy! Shouldst thou continue to remain firm and eternal, ere long, thou shalt become the Star of the East and shalt spread in every country and clime. Thou art the first paper of the Bahais which is organized in the country of America. Although for the present thy subscribers are limited, thy form is small and thy voice weak, yet shouldst thou stand unshakable, become the object of the attention of the friends and the center of the generosity of the leaders of the faith who are firm in the Covenant, in the future thy subscribers will become hosts after hosts like unto the waves of the sea; thy volume will increase, thy arena will become vast and spacious and thy voice and fame will be raised and become world-wide—and at last thou shalt become the first paper of the world of humanity. Yet all these depend upon firmness, firmness, firmness!
(Signed) ABDUL-BAHA ABBAS.
Vol. VIII
No. 7
"Baha'o'llah has proclaimed the promise of the Oneness of Humanity"
Address by Abdul-Baha at Green Acre, Maine, August 17, 1912
ARE you all well and happy? This is a delightful spot; the scenery is beautiful and an atmosphere of spirituality haloes everything. In the future, God willing, Green Acre shall become a great center, the cause of the unity of the world of humanity, the cause of uniting hearts, the cause of binding together the East and the West. This is my hope.
Tonight I wish to speak upon the Oneness of the World of Humanity. This is one of the important subjects of the present period. If the oneness of the human world were effected all the differences which separate mankind would be eradicated. All strife and warfare would cease and the world of humanity would find repose. Universal peace would be promoted and the East and West would be conjoined in a strong bond. All men would be sheltered beneath one tabernacle. All nativities would become one, all races and religions be unified. The people of the world would live together in peace and their well-being would be assured.
From the beginning of human history down to the present time the various religions of the world have anathematized and accused one another of falsity. Each religion has considered the others bereft of the face of God, rejected of God and in the direct line of divine wrath. Therefore they have shunned one another most rigidly, exercising mutual animosity and rancor. Consider the record of religious warfare,—the battles between nations, the bloodshed and destruction in the name of religion. One of the greatest religious wars, the Crusades, extended over a period of two hundred years. In this succession of great campaigns the Western Crusaders were constantly invading the Orient bent upon recovering the Holy City from the hands of the Islamic people. Army after army raised in Europe poured its fanatical legions into the East. The kings of European nations personally led these Crusades, killing and shedding the blood of the orientals. During this period of two hundred years the East and West were in a state of violence and commotion. Sometimes the Crusaders were successful,—killing, pillaging and taking captive the Mohammedan people; sometimes the Mussulmen
were victorious, inflicting bloodshed, death and ruin in turn upon the invaders. So it continued for two centuries alternately fighting with fury and relaxing from weakness until the European religionists withdrew from the East, leaving ashes of desolation behind them and finding their own nations in a condition of turbulence and upheaval.
For hundreds of thousands of human beings have been killed and untold wealth wasted in fruitless warfare. How many fathers mourned the loss of their sons! How many mothers and wives bemoaned the absence of their dear ones! Yet this was only one of the "holy" wars. Consider and reflect.
For religious wars have been many. Nine hundred thousand martyrs to the Protestant Cause was the record of conflict and difference between that sect of Christians and the Catholics. Consult history and confirm this. How many languished in prisons! How merciless the treatment of captives! All in the name of religion! Consider and estimate the outcome of other wars between the people and sects of religious belief.
From the beginning of human history down to this time the world of humanity has not enjoyed a day of absolute rest and relaxation from conflict and strife. Most of the wars have been caused by religious prejudice, fanaticism and sectarian hatred. Religionists have anathematized religionists, each considering the other as deprived of the mercy of God, abiding in gross darkness and the children of Satan. For example, the Christians and Mohammedans considered the Jews satanic and the enemies of God. Therefore they cursed and persecuted them. Great numbers of Jews were killed, their houses burned and pillaged, their children carried into captivity. The Jews in turn regarded the Christians as infidels, and the Mohammedans as enemies and destroyers of the Law of Moses. Therefore they call down vengeance upon them and curse them even to this day.
Consider what injuries, ordeals and calamities have been inflicted by humanity since the beginning of history. Every city, country, nation and people has been subjected to the destruction and havoc of war. Each one of the divine religions considers itself as belonging to a goodly and blessed tree,—the tree of the Merciful, and other religious systems as belonging to a tree of evil,—the tree of Satan. For this reason they heap execration and abuse upon one another. This is clearly apparent in books of historical record and prevailed until the time of the appearance of His Holiness Baha'o'llah.
When the light of Baha'o'llah dawned from the East, He proclaimed the promise of the oneness of humanity. He addressed all mankind, saying: "Ye are all the fruits of one tree. There are not two trees,—one a tree of divine mercy, the other the tree of Satan." Again he said, "Ye are all the fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch." This was his announcement; this was his promise of the oneness of the world of humanity. Anathema and execration were utterly abrogated. He said, "It is not becoming in man to curse another;—it is not befitting that man should attribute darkness to another;—it is not meet that one human being should ever consider another human being as bad,—nay rather, all mankind are the servants of one God;—God is the Father of all,—there is not a single exception to that law. There are no people of Satan;—all belong to the Merciful. There is no darkness;—all is light. All are the servants of God, and man must love all humanity from his heart. He must verily behold all humanity as submerged in the divine mercy."
Baha'o'llah has made no exception to this rule. He said that among mankind there may be those who are ignorant; they must be trained. Some are sick; they must be treated. Some are immature; they must be helped to attain maturity. In other respects all humanity
is submerged in the ocean of divine mercy. God is the Father of all. He educates all. He provides for all. He loves all. For they are all His servants and His creation. Surely the Creator loves His creatures. It would be impossible to find an artist who does not love his own production. Have you ever seen a man who did not love his own actions? Even though they be bad actions he loves them. How ignorant therefore the thought that God who created man, educated and nurtured him, surrounded him with all blessings, made the sun and all phenomenal existence for his benefit, bestowed upon him tenderness and kindness, and then did not love him. This is palpable ignorance, for no matter to what religion a man belongs even though he be an atheist or materialist nevertheless God nurtures him, bestows His kindness and sheds upon him His light. How then can we believe God is inimical and unloving? How can we even imagine this when as a matter of fact, we are witnesses of the tenderness and mercy of God upon every hand. All about us we behold manifestations of the love of God, If therefore God be loving, what should we do? We have nothing else to do but to emulate Him. Just as God loves all and is kind to all, so must we really love and be kind to everybody. We must consider none bad, none worthy of detestation, no one as an enemy. We must love all;—nay we must consider every one as our relation, for all are the servants of one God. All are under the instructions of one educator. We must strive day and night that love and amity may increase,—that this bond of unity may be strengthened,—that joy and happiness may more and more prevail,—that in unity and solidarity all mankind may gather beneath the shadow of God,—that people may turn to God for their sustenance, finding in Him the life that is everlasting. Thus may they be confirmed in the Kingdom of God and live forever through His grace and bounty.
Baha'o'llah has clearly said in his Tablets that if you have an enemy, consider him not as an enemy. Do not simply be long-suffering,—nay rather love him. Your treatment of him should be that which is becoming lovers. Do not even say that he is your enemy. Do not see any enemies. Though he be your murderer, see no enemy. Look upon him with the eye of friendship. Be mindful that you do not consider him as an enemy and simply tolerate him, for that is but stratagem and hypocrisy. To consider a man your enemy and love him is hypocrisy. This is not becoming of any soul. You must behold him as a friend. You must treat him well. This is right.
We return to the subject: When we observe the phenomena of the universe, we realize the axis around which life revolves is love, while the axis around which death and destruction revolve is animosity and hatred. Let us view the mineral kingdom. Here we see that if attraction did not exist between the atoms the substance of matter would not cohere. Every existent phenomenon you look upon is composed of single elements and cellular particles. This is scientifically true and correct. If there be no attraction among the elements and among the cellular particles the composition of that phenomenon would never have come into existence. For instance the stone is an existent phenomenon. The stone is made up of single elements. A bond of attraction has brought them together and through this cohesion of ingredients this petrous object has been formed. The stone is the lowest degree of phenomena but nevertheless within it a power of attraction is manifest without which the stone could not exist. This power of attraction in the mineral world is love,—the only expression of love the stone can manifest.
Look now upon the next higher stage of life:—the vegetable kingdom. Here we see that the plant is the result of cohesion among various elements, just as the mineral in its kingdom. But furthermore
the plant has the power of absorption from the earth. This is a higher degree of attraction which differentiates the plant from the mineral. In the kingdom of the vegetable this is an expression of love,—the highest capacity of expression the vegetable possesses. By this power of attraction or augmentation the plant grows day by day. Therefore in this kingdom also love is the cause of life. If repulsion existed among the elements instead of attraction the result would be disintegration, destruction and non-existence. Because cohesion exists among the elements and cellular attraction is manifest, the plant appears. When this attraction disappears and the ingredients separate, the plant ceases to exist.
Then we come to the animal world which is still higher in degree than the vegetable kingdom. In it the power of love makes itself still more manifest. The light of love is more resplendent in the animal kingdom because the power of attraction whereby elements cohere, and cellular atoms commingle now reveals itself in certain emotions and sensibilities which produce instinctive fellowship and association. The animals are imbued with kindness and affinity which manifests itself among those of the same species.
Finally we reach the kingdom of man. Here we find that all the degrees of the mineral, vegetable and animal expressions of love are present plus unmistakable attractions of the conscience. That is to say, man is the possessor of a degree of attraction which is conscious and spiritual. Here is an immeasurable advance. In the human kingdom spiritual susceptibilities come into view, love exercises its superlative degree, and this is the cause of human life.
The proof is clear that in all degrees and kingdoms unity and agreement, love and fellowship are the cause of life, whereas dissension, animosity and separation are ever conducive to death. Therefore we must strive with life and soul in order that day by day unity and agreement may be increased among humanity and that love and affinity may become more resplendently glorious and manifest. In the animal kingdom you will observe that domestic species live together in the utmost fellowship. See how sociable and friendly sheep gather together in a flock. Look at the doves and other domestic birds. There is no sectarianism among them, no separation due to notions of patriotism. They live together in the utmost love and unity, flying, feeding, associating. Ferocious animals, beasts of prey such as the wolf, bear, tiger and hyena are never amiable and do not associate together. They attack one another. Whenever they meet they fight. Three wolves are never seen associating happily. If you see them together it is with some ferocious intent. They are like selfish brutal men who are inimical, cursing and killing one another. Better that man should resemble the domestic animals than the ferocious beasts of prey, for in the estimation of God love is acceptable whereas hatred and animosity are rejected. Why should we act contrary to the good-pleasure of God? Why should we be as ferocious animals, constantly shedding blood, pillaging and destroying? Because we belong to one race or family of humankind why should we consider all others bad and inferior, deserving of death, pillage and invasion, worthy of hatred and detestation by God, people of darkness? Why does man show forth such attitude and actions toward his fellowman? We see that God is kind to all. Just as He loves us He loves all others, just as He provides for us He provides for the rest. He nurtures and trains all with equal solicitude.
God is great, God is kind! He does not behold human shortcomings; He does not regard human weaknesses. Man is a creature of His mercy and to His mercy He summons all. Why then should we despise or detest His creatures because this one is a Jew, another a Buddhist or Zoroastrian and so on? This is ignorance; for the oneness of humanity as
servants of God is an assured and certain fact.
Baha'o'llah has proclaimed the promise of the oneness of humanity. Therefore we must exercise the utmost love toward one another. We must be loving to all the people of the world. We must not consider any people the people of Satan, but know and recognize all as the servants of the one God. At most it is this,—some do not know, they must be guided and trained. They must be taught humanitarianism and encouraged in the acquisition of virtues. Some are ignorant,—they must be informed. Some are as children, undeveloped,—they must be helped to reach maturity. Some are ailing,—their moral condition is bad,—they must be treated until their morals are purified. But the sick man is not to be hated because he is sick,—the child must not be shunned because he is a child,—the ignorant one is not to be despised because he lacks knowledge. They must be treated, educated, trained and assisted in love. Everything must be done, in order that all humanity may live under the shadow of God in the utmost security,—in happiness of the highest type.
The Religious Aspect of Esperanto
Address by Mr. Rufus W. Powell, given in New York City, recently
THE topic assigned to me this evening is one which it is very difficult to treat adequately in the ten minutes given for its presentation, and all that I can hope to do is to stimulate you to serious consideration of an important aspect of a movement which is destined to play a large part in the future adaptation of basic religious thought to the broad social and economic life of humanity. But the difficulty to a layman in speaking under such circumstances is greatly lessened by the fact that the presentation is made from a platform which represents such firm conviction in fundamental truth that it does not fear question and, while loyal to its own form of worship and doctrine, judges others only by their faith in reality and leaves to them the full right to their own history and their own lives in the sight of God. For, no matter what any of us may say, we all believe in something beyond and above us although now but imperfectly comprehending just what that beyond and above may be. The tree does not know why its sap rises and its life begins anew each springtime. So we cannot ourselves quite understand what has given us the impulse forward.
Abdul-Baha has said that "when a man turns his face to God he sees sunshine everywhere. All men are his brothers,"
*Dr. Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof, a Russian-Polish Jew, was born in Bjelostok, Russia, December 15, 1859 (Russian calendar, December 3rd). He died in Varsovio, April 14, 1917.
His father was a teacher of French and German, therefore giving the young Zamenhof an opportunity to get acquainted with the languages in his early boyhood. At the age of four years the boy showed such brilliancy as to read and write although he was of a delicate constitution. In 1869 he commenced to study in the Bjelostok high school. Later, in 1873, his parents sent him to Varsovio to study, where his father was an education inspector and sometime later a professor.
The following quotations are from his own words (Esperantaj Prozajij, pp. 239, 244, 246): "I was born at Bjelostok, in the province of Grodno. This scene of my birth and childhood determined the trend of my future aspirations. In Bjelostok the population contains four different elements—Russians, Poles, Germans and Jews. Each of these sections speaks a different language, and is on bad terms with the others. . . . I was educated to be an idealist; I was taught that all men were brothers, while, all the time, everything around me made me feel that men did not exist; there only existed Russians, Poles, Germans, Jews, and so on."
After describing various steps in the evolution of Esperanto, Dr. Zamenhof continues:—
"Practical experience convinced me that the language still lacked an intangible something, a unifying element, which would give life and a definite spirit, . . I began to avoid literal translations from this or that language, and tried to think straight away in the neutral tongue. I then noticed that the language . . . acquired a spirit of its own."
Referring to the momentous final step which he took, in 1887, by publishing his language to the world. Dr. Zamenhof says:—
"I felt that I stood on the banks of the Rubicon, and that from the day that my booklet appeared, I should no longer have the possibility of retreating; I knew the fate that awaits a medical man who depends on the public, if that public looks upon him as a crank, as a man who occupies himself with outside matters; I felt I was staking the future peace of mind of myself and my family; but I could not give up the idea, which had entered into the fibres of my being, and I crossed the Rubicon." The Editors.
and it is this idea which is so basic in the life and work of Dr. Zamenhof* that one cannot escape the feeling that he was, in some sense, God-inspired, and that his work will go on and profoundly influence mankind for good, not only in a social but also in a spiritual way. None of the three hundred or more attempts to form a common international tongue has had for its founder a man who went through such a pathetic personal experience as this tender-hearted Jew, and his whole life seems to us who loved him to have been developed by the work he was doing.
We are our real selves when we are at our best, for it is only then that we are more nearly at one with God. And how can we be at one with God unless we are at one with our fellow man, and how can we be at one with our fellow man if we have to judge him without the help of common thought which can more easily come through a common tongue? It is just eighty years ago that De Tocqueville said in his great book Democracy in America: "The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind." He was writing about our national life by itself, but since then we have learned that the world is larger than our own nation, larger even than those who speak the English tongue, large as all humanity, and we are now to consider briefly how far the use of Esperanto already has been and still more may be of service to all men in their religious and spiritual life as well as in their social welfare.
Transportation by railroad and steamboat, the use of the telegraph and telephone, cable codes and maritime signals, and things of that kind, have done more to bring men together in material matters during the last 70 years than they had been unified during the 700 years preceding, and during the same 70 years men have been released from many political and religious bonds which had hampered their spiritual development, but the same progress has not yet been made in the transmission of ideas. It is the order of the day to eliminate the middlemen in the distribution of the world's goods, so why not eliminate the middlemen, (i. e., the interpreter and the translator), in the distribution of the best ideas, both spoken and written?
The archaic translation of the common version of our English Bible, and even Moulton's adaptation of it to literary form, makes the Psalmist say that he prevented the night watches that he might meditate in God's Word, but Zamenhof's version reads, (Ps. cxix:147) "Antau la Matenrugo mi vokas; Vian vorton mi fidas (Before the dawn I call; in thy word I trust), and this is typical of much that might be said about the way in which we have been "prevented" by old habits of thought from awakening to the dawning of the light already beginning before the Most Great Peace which is sure to come. This is a time to remember the prophecy of Zephaniah (iii:9) where he says, "For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." We are told that the prophets themselves did not know the full meaning of what was put into their mouths to say, and it may be that Zephaniah could not foresee that this is the time when men may be helped to a better knowledge of the largeness of God's nature through being better able to understand their fellow men.
This is the age of universals, and it is time to turn from some of our narrow conceptions of God and our mere local and inherited habits of religious thought and remember that in the human world there are two kinds of undertakings—universal and particular. The results of universal undertakings are infinite and are, therefore, limitless, and we may properly look upon Esperanto as almost limitless in its possible effects upon the minds and hearts of mankind as compared to the past use of any simply national tongue which confirmed men in their own separate interests. We can hardly imagine a family life where each
child had to address his brothers and his parents in a different language. Whatever tongue he might use in his outside work or pleasure he would most certainly use in his home that language which could be fully understood by all. And how much more important that we should have for use in our higher life with our fellow man a means of communication such as Esperanto furnishes.
You have probably heard from others here this evening about the Esperanto translation of the New Testament, said to be the best rendering yet made from the most correct Greek version; the regard that some of the best Hebrew scholars in England have for the Esperanto rendering of the Old Testament; how the prayer book of the Roman Catholics and quite a number of their spiritual writings have been acceptably rendered into Esperanto; how the Swedenborgians, the Quakers, the Theosophists, the Socialists, the Scientists, the Red Cross, the Good Templars and many other organizations of that kind are using this effective tool of common thought to make known their writings to one another and to the world. And the very best things regarding the Peace Movement have been written by Esperantists and published in the organ of the Universal Esperanto Association at their headquarters in Geneva. This ought to be a sufficient answer to the question which might properly be made as to the capacity of this common language to express their higher thought.
A still stronger example can be given by a statement about a very interesting matter so far known to but few: A few words said in the United States to a lady born in the Hawaiian Islands led her to look into the merits of Esperanto and, while in Switzerland soon afterwards, she took the study up further with a Russian lady residing in Geneva, and, while lately in Japan, she took the matter up still further with a blind Russian* who had just come from London, and this resulted in a translation into Esperanto of a part of one of the deepest
* See STAR OF THE WEST, p. 39, Vol. VII.
books of devotion of the East, which has since been followed by a translation just completed in England of a further part of the same work from the original Persian into Esperanto, which translation was done jointly by an English physician, a Persian prince in Teheran, a Persian merchant living in London, and finally passed upon as thoroughly satisfactory by one of the best Persian scholars in England, a retired English officer of the East Indian medical service, who has made the most correct translation of Omar Khayyam into English. This special instance ought to be a sufficient answer to any doubt as to the power of this common language to help men towards higher thought in a universal way.
Esperanto does not say that any one form of thought is the only form that is the best. It is free for the use of all. It is like the sun that shines and the rain that falls alike on the just and the unjust, but why should we not use it for the highest things, and, even dissatisfied as we are because of our imperfections, try to raise our souls into the higher atmosphere of better communion with God through sympathy with the common aspirations of our fellow man?—and, in this way, feel that we have done something to advance the world towards the New Day in which all peoples shall raise their faces towards the divine Light and be able to call to God and praise him in the same tongue; when we may all see that the sons of God have in common many noble thoughts which they will be better able to feel towards one another when a common means of expressing shall be used.
We have met here this evening to commemorate the life and work of one of the really great men of the age; a man whose life was one of constant service to humanity and who never lost his love for and his faith in his fellow man notwithstanding the many disappointments that were his lot. But he was greater than his disappointments, greater than what may seem to be his unfinished life, and it now remains for us to do what
we can to carry on his work and show that our love for this noble language and its founder is not simply a feeling; that it is an earnest and abiding purpose.
Religion and Science in the Light of the Bahai Revelation
(Continued from page 75)
With regard to every one of these qualities however the differences among different people are differences of degree, not of essence. Just as darkness is but the absence or lesser degree of light, so evil is but the absence or lesser degree of good—the undeveloped state. A bad man is a man with the higher side of his nature still undeveloped. If we are selfish, the evil is not in our love of self—all love, even self love, is good, is divine. The evil is that we have such a poor, inadequate, misguided love of self and such a lack of love for others and for God. We look upon ourself as only a superior sort of animal and foolishly pamper our lower nature as we might pamper a pet dog—with worse results in our own case than in that of the dog. We may be brilliantly intellectual with regard to material things but we are blind to the things of the spirit and lacking in the higher and nobler part of life. Evil is always lack of life. If the lower side of man's nature is disproportionately developed, the remedy is not less life for that side, but more life for the higher side, so that the balance may be restored. "I am come," said Christ, "that ye may have life and that ye may have it more abundantly." That is what we all need—life, more life, the life that is life indeed!
THE BAHAI TEACHING OF UNITY
"Ye are all the fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch, flowers of one garden, sons and daughters of one Father whose name is Love." That is one of the most characteristic sayings of Baha'o'llah, and another is like it: "Glory is not his who loves his (own) country, but glory is his who loves his kind." Unity—unity of mankind, and of all created beings in God—is the main theme of his teaching. Men must cast away all prejudices of race, religion, nation, class and sect, and realize that they are all "leaves of one tree." As the leaf cannot reach its best development unless the whole tree is healthy, so neither can we attain the highest life of which we are capable until the whole of humanity does so too. One man cannot be truly rich, so long as his brothers are poor, nor can he be perfectly healthy so long as his brothers are sick. We are all members of one body, and the spirit that animates that body is God's Spirit.
Each individual life is but a fragment of the whole and cannot live apart from the whole any more than a single muscle-cell or brain-cell from the human body could live apart from the rest of the body. Just as each cell of the body must live not for itself, but in the service of the whole man and in obedience to his will, so each individual man must live not for himself, but in the service of humanity and in obedience to God's will. Only so can humanity be healthy. Only so can each man truly prosper. Never must self-interest, or family interest, or church interest, or national interest or any limited interest whatever take precedence of our supreme duties to mankind and to God. God first! If our attitude to Him be right then we shall serve aright ourselves, our families, our church, our nation, our kind. Devotion to God—severance from everything that would interfere with our devotion to Him—that is the one great secret of successful living. All the evil and misery in the world come from one cause—forsaking the path of God's will and saying, "My will not Thine be done."
Baha'o'llah has given us a new and wonderful revelation of God's will. If men and nations will but obey His commands, the world will be a paradise indeed!
Now for the first time in the history of the world have the mechanical difficulties in the way of the unity of mankind been overcome by railway trains and steamships, tunnels and aeroplanes, post office and printing press, telegraph and telephone. Now for the first time in the world (at any rate since the Tower of Babel!) has a solution for the language difficulty been found, and now for the first time in the world, as it seems to me, has a complete and adequate plan for the reconciliation of the conflicting interests of mankind been given to the world. Baha'o'llah has raised the Standard of Peace and Unity and called on all mankind to gather under its ample folds: "O people of the earth! Make not the religion of God a cause for variance among you. Verily it was revealed for the purpose of unifying the whole world. Blessed is he who loves the world simply for the sake of his generous Lord." "These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away and the Most Great Peace shall come, and all nations shall be as one kindred and one family."
Here again the harmony between true religion and science is evident. With every advance in science the oneness of the universe and the interdependence of its parts has become more clearly evident. The astronomer's domain is inseparably bound up with the physicist's, the physicist's with the chemist's, the chemist's with the biologist's, the biologist's with the psychologist's, and so on. Every new discovery in one field of research throws new light on other fields. Just as physical science has shown that every particle of matter in the universe attracts and influences every other particle, no matter how minute or how distant, so psychical science is finding that every soul in the universe affects and influences every other soul. Prince Kropotkin, in his book on Mutual Aid, shows most clearly that even among the lower animals mutual aid is absolutely necessary to continued life, while in the case of man, the progress of civilization depends on the increasing substitution of mutual aid for mutual enmity. "Each for all and all for each" is the only principle on which a community can prosper.
CONCLUSION
All the signs of the times indicate that we are at the dawn of an new era in the history of mankind. Hitherto the young eagle of humanity has clung to the old eyrie in the solid rock of selfishness and materialism. Its attempts to use its wings have been timid and tentative. It has had restless longings for something still unattained. More and more it has been chafing in the confinement of the old dogmas and orthodoxies. But now the era of confinement is at an end, and it can launch on the wings of faith and reason into the higher realms of spiritual love and truth. It will no longer be earth-bound as it was before its wings had grown, but will soar at will to the regions of wide outlook and glorious freedom.
One thing is necessary, however, if its flight is to be sure and steady. Its wings must not only be strong, but they must act in perfect harmony and co-ordination. As Abdul-Baha, says: "It cannot fly with one wing alone. If it tries to fly with the wing of religion alone it will land in the slough of superstition, and if it tries to fly with the wing of science alone it will end in the dreary bog of materialism." Perfect harmony between religion and science is the sine qua non of the higher life for humanity. When that is achieved, and every child is trained not only in the study of the sciences and arts, but equally in love to all mankind and in radiant acquiescence to the will of God as revealed in the progress of evolution and the teachings of the prophets, and through the Inner Light in our own hearts, then and not till then, shall the Kingdom of God have come on earth and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then and not till then shall the Most Great Peace have fully come.
