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WORLD ORDER .
OCTOBER. 1944
Renewal of Religion - H. M. Manji
Unto the Hills, poem - Clara E. Hill
Primer for Bahá’í Assemblies - Marzieh Gail
Prayer of Desperation, editorial - Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick
Communion with the Infinite - Horace Holley
The Purpose of Human Development, book review - Arthur Dahl
Tablet to a Jew - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
A Radio Symposium
Dawn, poem - Florence V. Mayberry
With Our Readers
THE BAHA’I’ MAGAZINE
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WOBLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME X
OCTOBER, 1944
NUMBER 7
Renewal of Religion
H. M. MANJi
OD is eternal and unchangeable, but everything in His creation is subject to change and alteration. Anyone or anything that is not ready to change according to the needs of the time and demands of the circumstances is sooner or later removed from the path of progress. An egg-shell, however strong it may be, must break at a certain time. A seed, if it does not burst into a tree or a plant at the time of spring, will be destroyed by decay through the action of germs, nature’s powerful army which balances life and death. Similarly, divine laws are as persistent as the laws of nature. If we do not obey them when we ought, eventually we obey them because we must.
So, we realize God alone is unchangeable; none else and nothing else can have that unique condition. Every religion is subject to change.
“And now concerning thy question regarding the nature
of religion,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote. “Know thou that they who are truly wise have likened the world unto the human temple. As the body of man needeth a garment to clothe it, so the body of mankind must needs be adorned with the mantle of justice and wisdom. Its robe is the revelation vouchsafed unto it by God. Whenever this robe hath fulfilled its purpose, the Almighty will assuredly renew it. For every age requireth a fresh measure of the light of God. Every Divine revelation hath been sent down in a manner that befitted the circumstances of the age in which it hath appeared.”
This is not only what Bahá’u’lláh has said in this day, but what the Prophets and Messengers, Ishwari Avatars and Founders of the Great Religions, have also said in the past, all with one accord and in unequivocal terms. I will quote a few references from all the available Sacred Scriptures of the past.
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The Holy V edas say: “0 All-Providing Father God!
Cause the Glorious Ones to give us knowledge again and again, through which we can attain to Life and the Laws.” (Yajur Veda, III, 55.)
“God, the Protector of men, the One Who eternally keepeth awake, the possessor of all strengths, the One Who is knowable everywhere through His glory, the most Holy, the One Who causeth the onward march of all, manifesteth Himself for new and unprecedented benefits every time.” (Sama Veda, Uttararchika, III, [1] 6, 5-3; 6.)
“The Lord is attained to by the motionless ten through acquiring suitable Dharma (lit. religions) which are different in every age.” (Sama Veda, Uttararchika, III [2] 20, 6-7; 21.)
“0 men and women! 0 charioteers of this physical body! In spite of being the travelers of the low-lands, now come upwards and realize the ever-increasing, the continuously rising Dharma (i.e., religion).” (Sama Veda, Uttararchika, IX [3] 15-19, 4; 15.)
Shrimad Bhagwat Gita says:
“From time to time whenever there occurs a downfall of religion, O Bharata, and the rise of irreligion, then My Spirit do I create.
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“For the protection of the righteous, for the destruction of the wicked-doers, and for the purpose of firmly establishing the Religion, manifest I myself from age to age.” (IV, 7, 8.)
Bhagwan Buddha says in His “Dhammapada” : ’
“ ‘Impermanent are all component things.’ He who perceives this with insight'becomes thereby immediately unmoved by suffering. This is the Path of Purity Supreme.” (Magga Vaggo [lit. Canto of the Path] XX, 5.)
“Renounce what lies in the future, give up that which is past, and surrendering the present, cross to the other Shore.” (Tanha Vaggo, Canto of the Craving, XXIV, 15.)
The Old Testament of the H oly B ible says:
“And the gentiles shall see thy righteouness, and all things thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
“Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the Hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the Hand of thy God.” (Isaiah 62:2-3.)
The sacred Zoroastrian Scripture, Gathas, says:
“With that Thy Divine Being Vohu Mano and Shehrivar, at last shalt come Thou Thyself, 0 Ahura Mazda. Thou shalt then
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do such things as can flourish the people of the world and make them enter Thy Kingdom; to them Thine Own Ordinances of Wisdom shalt Thou manifest and teach. This shall come to pass and none stop or misinterpret it.”
(Ushtavad Gatha, Ha XXXXIII, 6.)
“Ahura Mazda, who wisheth the world to flourish, hath created these verses through purity. Ahura Mazda, who increaseth prosperity, hath ordained progress for the world and Words of
Wisdom for the righteous.” (Ahunavad Catha, Ha XXIX, 7.)
The Sacred Analects of Confucius say:
“Once the Master was standing by a stream, he said, Could one but go on and on like this, never ceasing day or night.”
(Book IX, 16.)
“The Master said, The words of the Fa yii (Model Saying) cannot fail to stir us; but what matters is that they should change our ways. The words of the Hsuan Chu (Moral Sayings on the ‘Choice’ and ‘promotion’ of the virtuous) cannot fail to commend themselves. to us; but what matters is that we should carry them out. For those who approve but do not carry out, who are stirred, but do not
change, I can do nothing at all.” (Book IX, 23.)
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“The Master said, if it is the Will of Heaven that the Way shall prevail, then the Way will prevail. But if it is the Will of Heaven that the Way should perish, then it must needs perish. What can Kung-po Liao do against Heaven’s Will?” (Book XIV, 38.)
“The Master said, There is difference in instructions, but
none in kind.” (Book XV, 38.)
“The one who can change the methods of teaching can become a true master.” (Doctrines V, 17.)
“The object of the Laws in the Great Temple: to prevent a disease before it becomes apparent; to give education at the right times of need; to give suitable Lessons in accordance with the prevailing circumstances.” (Doc trines V, 22.)
After delineating at length “that Greatest Disorder” which was to come to pass (today in this world), Lord Confucius predicted “this is that Most Great Disorder which shall come to pass.” “Then the Ordinances shall be enacted in accordance with the requirements and neces sities of the collective body of mankind.” (XI, 17, 18.)
The New Testament of the H oly Bible says:
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven
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and the first earth were passed
away.
“And I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation, XXI: 1, 2.)
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that Great City, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God.
“Having the Glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a
jasper stone, clear as crystal.” (Revelation XXI: 10, 11.)
“And the City had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the Glory of God did lighten it.” (Revelation XXI: 23.)
“Blessed are they that do His Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the Gates
into the City.” (Revelation XXII:14.)
“Behold I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we
shall be changed, for the Trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed.” (St. Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians XV.)
“Therefore he ye also ready; for in such hour as ye think not,
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the Son of Man cometh.” (Matthew XXV:44.)
“The Lord of that servant shall
come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
“And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teet .”
(Matthew XXV:50, 51.)
The Qur’dn-i-Sharif says:
“Unto every community there is a prefixed term; therefore when their term is expired, they shall not have respite for an hour, neither shall they be anticipated. 0 children of Adam! Verily, Messengers shall come unto you who shall expound My Signs (Verses) unto you: Whosoever therefore shall fear God and amend and shall have conciliation with them there shall come no fear on them, neither shall they be grieved. But they who shall accuse Our Signs (Revelations) of falsehood, and shall proudly reject them, they shall be the companions of Hell fire; they shall remain therein forever. And who is more unjust than he who deviseth a lie concerning God, or accuseth His signs of imposture.” (Sfirih 7, entitled A’raf. Siparé VIII, 10, 34-37.)
“Therefore I swear by the redness of the sky after sunset, and by the night, and that which it
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driveth together, and by the moon when she is in the full; ye shall surely be transferred successively from state to state. What aileth them, therefore, that they believe not the renewal?” (Sfirih 84 entitled Inshiqéq, Bending in Sunder. Sipara XXX, 9, 16-20.)
“Will ye not therefore consider? He arrangeth the administration of His command from Heaven even unto the earth; thereafter it shall ascend unto Him within a day whose length shall be a thousand years of those which ye compute. This is He Who knoweth that which is hidden and that which is manifest, the Mighty, the Merciful.” (Sfirih 32, entitled Sijdah or Adoration. Sipara XXI, 14, 4-6.)
Bahá’u’lláh RENEWS
Bahá’u’lláh declares that just as lesser livings things have times of sudden emergence into new and fuller life, so for mankind also a “critical stage,” a time of “rebirth” is at hand. Modes of life which have persisted from the dawn of history up till now will be quickly, irrevocably altered, and humanity enter on a new phase of life as different from the old as the butterfly is different from the caterpillar, or the bird from the egg. Mankind, as a whole, in the light of new revelation, will attain to a new
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vision of truth; as a whole country is illumined when the sun rises, so all men see clearly, where but an hour before everything was dark and dim. The analogies of nature are all in favor of such a view; the Prophets of old have with one accord foretold the advent of such a glorious day; the signs of the times show clearly that profound and revolutionary changes in human ideas and institutions are even now in progress. What could be more futile and baseless, therefore, than the pessimistic argument that, although all things else change, “human nature cannot change?”
Bahá’u’lláh says:
“A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause or perceived its motive. Consider the peoples of the West; witness how, in their pursuit of that which is vain and trivial, they have sacrificed, and are still sacrificing, countless lives for the sake of its establishment and promotion. The peoples of Persia, on the other hand, though the repository of a perspicuous and luminous Revelation, the Glory of whose loftiness and renown hath encompassed the whole earth, are dispirited and sunk deep in lethargy.”
“O people! The doors of the Kingdom are opened. The sun
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of the Truth is shining upon the world. The fountains of Life are flowing. The day-springs of mercy have appeared. The Greatest and Most Glorious Light is now manifest to illumine the hearts of men. Wake up and hear the Voice of God calling from all parts of the Supreme World, ‘Come unto me, O ye children of men, come unto Me, O ye who are thirsty, and drink from this sweet water which is descending
in torrents upon all parts of the globe!”
“Once in a thousand years shall this city be renewed and readorned. That city is none other than the Word of God revealed in every age and Dispensation. In the days of Moses, it was the Pentateuch; in the days of J esus the Gospel; in the days of Muhammad, the Messenger of God, the Qur’án; in this day, the Bayén, and in the Dispensation of Him Whom God will make manifest, His Own Book, the Book unto which all the books of former Dispensations must need be referred, the Book that standeth amongst them all transcendent and Supreme.”
“. . . By the term ‘earth’ is meant the earth of understanding and knowledge, and by ‘heavens’ the heavens of divine Revelation. Reflect thou, how, on one hand,
He hath, by His Mighty Grasp,
turned the earth of knowledge and understanding, previbusly unfolded, into a mere handful, and, on the other, spread out a new and highly exalted earth in the hearts of men, thus causing the freshest and loveliest blossoms, and the mightiest and loftiest trees to spring forth from the illumined bosom of man.
“In like manner, reflect how the elevated heavens of the Dispensations of the past have, in the right hand of Power, been folded together, how the heavens of divine Revelation have been raised by the command of God, and been adorned by the sun, the moon, and stars of His wondrous commandments.”
From all these unambiguous quotations cited from each and all of the extant Holy Scriptures of all times and countries revealed up to now, we see that in spite of the essential oneness of the foundation of all religions, religion is renewed and changed in every age as required by the age. It is absolutely false to pretend that this particular religion or that is eternal in all of its aspects. For no religious Scripture whatsoever has ever sanctioned in the past or will ever sanction in the future such a strange and baseless supposition. The idea of changelessness is a
mistaken idea altogether. It can
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never be substantiated by any of the Holy Revelations. All Scriptures unanimously admit without exception that “religion is subject to renewal.”
Can anyone say, “My religion will not change,” and yet call himself a true follower of his religion? No, never. Your Prophet, your Master, your Lord, the Author of the Faith you profess, has unequivocally said that your religion should and shall change, and how dare one say it will not change, and at the'same time call
oneself a follower of a divine Teacher?
UNTO THE HILLS CLARA E. HILL
Across the valley marauder night Stepped with slow feet, erasing light.
The great firs listened; they were still, Awaiting his command and will.
The canyon seemed more strange and deep As welling waters lulled to sleep.
I leaned against a mighty pine, And contemplated how divine
This majesty before me spread; Spender touching the mountain’s head.
And all at once my soul was free, For heaven came close and spoke to me.
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This is why Bahá’u’lláh says: “O People, if ye deny these verses, by what proof have ye be lieved in God? Produce it, 0 assemblage of false ones.
“Nay, by the One in Whose hand is My Soul, they are not, and never shall be able to do this, even should they combine to assist one another. . . .
“Be thou assured in thyself that verily, he who turns away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from all eternity to all eternity.”
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Primer for Bahá’í Assemblies
MARZIEH GAIL
N often-quoted individual has remarked that a book is a letter written to unknown friends. The word which I like in that sentence is unknown. For some reason your friends—those who meet and speak with you—can’t read you. You keep rising up before them, obstructing what you are trying to say.
The ideal reader is a person who doesn’t know you, and who has chosen to spend an hour or so with your words instead of another person’s, because yours happen to suit him at the time.
Now about this article, I suppose a number of my friends will read it—my friends and their friends. Most of these readers will be Bahá’ís, or close to it. If you don’t happen to be a Bahá’í,
you may not see any reason for looking at it.
But perhaps you have children and want to develop ways of thinking with them. Or perhaps you belong to a club, or serve on a committee, or, one way or another, have to consult about this and that with other people.
If so, the techniques of consultation which Bahá’ís are developing may be of some use to you. Of course, you will find good
material on group thinking at your library. But I believe we have a plus factor to contribute, because what we are doing is different: we have a “something not ourselves” to which we all refer ——a common focal center. That is why we, who are all kinds of previously unrelated, or even hostile, people—can get together, and think and act together.
The matriarch, the man on the pillar, the Victorian father, the dictator—are all water over the dam these days. The new way of living is being together and sharing life together, adding our light to other people’s light, accumulating phases of truth. We are all partners now. The job we are doing is building a world. The method we are using involves “loving consultation.”
Perhaps it is sentimental, but I hope somewhere there will be an unknown friend or so Who will
feel like reading this.
Some years ago in Persia I startled fellow committee-members who had mistakenly appointed me their chairman, by coming to work with a bell. It was a small metal hell. You punched it and it clanged. I explained to my fellows—who were mostly digni 208
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fied, older men—that whenever the bell clanged, some one else was to have the floor. I said that in my opinion a committee chairman’s main function was to regulate conversational traflic, and to make absolutely certain that every member had expressed himself freely. Persia’s history goes back several thousand years, during which years, I believe, no one had ever stopped the flow of anyone’s conversation by punching a hell. I can only hope that the then members of the EastWest Committee have long since forgiven and forgotten the whole thing.
I still believe that a chairman’s first duty is to extract everyone’s opinion. If he does this conscientiously, no one person will hold the floor too long, especially on the Assembly, where nine are involved. In cases where one or two members do all the talking, the chairman’s technique is still deficient. Members of new, untried Assemblies can discipline one another and the chair by insisting that everyone he heard, for unless all nine have expressed themselves, the consultation cannot be said to represent spiritual guidance.
The chairman’s first job is to bring out what is in the minds of his eight fellow-members, and he needs a good sense of timing and pacing to get through an even 209
ing’s work. It seems wise for him to express his own views last of all. Certainly he should never take advantage of his position to give himself the floor. One of the best chairmen I know always asks permission before stating his view. Other functions of the chairman are to serve as the Assembly’s spokesman and representative to the outside world; he presides at F easts; he addresses visitors to the Assembly; he, in some states, must be present at Bahá’í marriage ceremonies, and so on. As someone has said, he is the Assembly’s fagade.
The corresponding secretary, however, has the hardest task. In a large community his phone rings at all hours. Everyone applies to him for everything, blames him for everything. In voting for a secretary one may ask oneself such questions as: Has he tact? Can he write a letter? Has he an orderly mind? The chairman is Sunday-best, but the secretary is all-day-long; and if not always an archangel, the secretary is invariably a martyr.
As for the recording secretary, he is also a vital factor in Assembly life, because any legal or other subsequent action that may eventuate will center around the minutes he has made. It is a mistake to fall asleep when the minutes are being read; they hold your history—you must see
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to it that they include an accurate account of whatever your Assembly is doing.
We come to the treasurer. Perhaps of all the Assembly members, he must be the one who shows the most love to the community. This is not an attempt at humor. We are still infantile spiritually speaking, in our attitude toward the fund, because we were bred in a materialistic world where money seems hard to get and once got must be held on to. The Bahá’í teaching on contributions to the fund is that we should open our hands, relax, let go. “We must be like the fountain or spring that is continually emptying itself of all that it has and is continually being refilled from an invisible source.” Infants need love. The best treasurer I know expresses gratitude even for the smallest contributions. During consultation periods he does not evaluate a man’s opinion on the basis of the man’s gifts to the fund. He does not harangue the friends at the Nineteen Day Feast. He does,
L however, take them into his con fidence, explain his problems, and show how their contributions are carrying the Faith forward, and how, without the fund, activity must cease. Once in a while he tells, not mentioning names, the story of some outstanding
sacrifice that has come to his attention.
Each Assembly member is the voice of such community members as elected him. I do not mean that the voters can exert pressure on him and get him to speak for them—nothing so clumsy as that. I mean that, automatically, different voters elect diflerent types of people. One can state it better by saying that this and that quality in a given Bahá’í community finds expression in the ballot.
We should pause here and examine the voter. He wields terrific power. The fate of his community for the year is placed in his hands. One thing seems apparent in Bahá’í community life——we do not really know an individual until we have served on a committee with him; for this reason it is a good idea to place every member of the community on committees. Everyone is charming over a tea-cup, or when viewed from the lecture platform; but it is only after a period of what is often real suffering on committees that his aptitudes become known. And like Assembly members, committee members can discipline one another by insisting that Bahá’í procedures be followed—in this way training one another for possible future Assembly work.
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Maturity in voting is a goal that may take a long time to reach. We should not vote for a person unless we have a pretty fair idea of how he will behave on the Assembly. We should not vote for him because he has had terrible sorrows and needs to be cheered up, or because his greataunt was an early believer, or because we can spell his name. In voting we are creating a body which is to serve us for an entire year. The year’s fate hangs on the names we write down.
The new voter will often find himself relying on material considerations when he sits down to fill out his ballot. But the oldtimer comes to realize that he can vote for a cripple in a charity hospital providing after reflection and prayer, he feels that this individual has the qualities defined by the Guardian: “unquestioned loyalty . . . selfless devotion . . . a well-trained mind
. recognized ability and mature experience.”
In American life we occasionally see elected bodies blamed for every thing that goes wrong; these bodies are apparently set up as targets for malcontents; we are told that if only they were out and some other group were in we would have utopia immediately. In Bahá’í administrative life, however, there is no “we” and “they”; one could say that
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the Assembly is the community in action; one could also say that the Assembly mirrors the community.
Sometimes you will hear this comment: Our Assembly doesn’t meet very often, because there isn’t much work to do. The answer to that is: Meet more often and there will be work. Where do people expect the work to come from? The Tihran Assembly, if memory serves, meets every night. A good community pushes its Assembly, never giving it a moment’s rest; a good Assembly harries its community, always urging it forward. The combined process is something like a wheel going round.
Incidentally, if you are in doubt as to the duties of a Bahá’í Assembly, read page 33 of Bahá’í Administration.
True Bahá’í consultation is something to remember. In those moments when we, groping toward the techniques of the future, experience collective harmonywhen we become, briefly, a composite reflection of spiritual light —the world is a lovely place to be in. Perhaps, to the amateur, pleasure results when a committee reaches harmony because of the members’ similarity to one another; to the connoisseur, however, the real joy of harmony is only reached when dissimilari
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ties are at work together—when opposites are reconciledflwhen tension is balanced, poised, distributed.
The more truly Bahá’í a community is, the more varied it will be, and the more varied its Assembly membership. Youth is there with the faults of youth, age with the faults of age. The fluttery blonde is there, along with the judge and the garbage man; the intellectual is there, gravely studying the opinion of the business man who left school when he was twelve. Each is compensating for another’s deficiency, each seeing an aspect of the problem that another cannot see, each representing some quality in the community and therefore duty-bound to express his view.
A human being is never just right. He is either too young or too old or too middle-aged; tired out from a day’s work or fretful with leisure; bowed with care or unsympathetic from lack of sorrow; too poor for breadth of vision or too rich to understand the value of a postage stamp; so bold that he will violate sacred conventions, or so timid that he will apologize for holding a thought; in love, not in love, or at the “dangerous age”——a vague period covering apparently some
fifty years of life. All these
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elements in human nature are teamed on the Assembly, and one makes un for another.
You never know whom you will find as your fellow Assemblymember; but even if you have only been a Bahá’í for a week, your opinion is entitled to as much consideration as anyone else’s, if each member is to formulate his view in accord with the Teachings.
A friend of mine was faced with a problem recently and I asked Why she did not take it to the Assembly. “I have spoken to all the members individually,” she answered. Another believer, member of an Assembly, was consulted on some issue. “The Assembly would say thus and so about it,” he replied. I mention these two cases because they represent fairly general attitudes. The first individual had not grasped the fact that the nine persons, consulted separately, were only community members and therefore could not arrive at an Assembly decision. The second had taken it upon himself to think for eight other minds besides his own.
Keith Ransom-Kehler used to explain Bahá’í consultation in a homely but unforgettable way. She said it was like making a soup. One person put in the salt, one the meat, one the vegetables,
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and so forth. In the end you had not salt, not meat, not vegetables, but something new, the result of all that had been put together.
In successful Bahá’í consultation, every member is happy with the result, or at least. satisfied with the way the consultation has proceeded. Business as the world conducts it apparently means to go to work on a majority, win them over to your side, and carry your vote; you then gloat politely over the defeated side, and go home and tell your wife how you laid down the law. This is not Bahá’í consultation. The Bahá’í Assembly member has no side to take, except insofar as all nine members are on the same side: they all want the greatest good of the Cause. The Bahá’í Assembly member does not attend the meeting to railroad a thing through. He attends to find out what his opinion will be after he has heard eight other opinions. Since he sees a question from his angle only, he knows that he must add eight other versions of a problem to his own, in order to reach a
r);
decision in accord with Baha 1 administrative principles. The best decision is that which has assimilated all nine opinions, and in this light a Bahá’í Assembly is structurally very like the Temple at Wilmette.
Assembly members should see
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to it that no one leaves the meeting with the feeling that he has been unjustly treated, stifled, belittled or ignored. A member may, however, feel that he is always in a minority, and that the Assembly is making mistakes. This does not matter. The Teachings require majority decisions, and affirm that even if a mistake is made, this can be rectified providing unity is safeguarded at all times. A particularly gifted member may often find himself in a minority because he is ahead of his fellows. In this case, he should continue patient and loving, for as events prove him right his fellow-members will gradually come to understand and value the particular aspect of truth which he represents. Resigning in protest is the new Assembly member’s invariable first impulse. This move chokes ofi whatever elements in the community elected him, and also has a harmful effect on his character.
After his resignation, he does not quite know what to do with himself; he does not approve of what it going on, but he has thrown away his best means of correcting it; and his action has lessened the weight his opinions once had in the community, so that the measures he advocates find few supporters.
The Bahá’í way is rather to
‘tflvzvi’m—xt :; .m:z=:—;w.
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face the guns, to seek out tribulation, not to hide from it. One can, of course, remain a devoted believer and still arrange one’s life so as to avoid all administrative responsibilities, but as a rule the cost in character and effectiveness is much too high.
Assembly consultation cannot be carried on without extreme courtesy, which may be one reason why courtesy is so much stressed by Bahá’u’lláh. Interruption, raising of the voice, unpleasant facial expressionssuch as we see on many a secular committee—certainly are not proper to a gathering Which is looking for truth in the laboratory sense. If the chairman gives each of you the floor—as he must, and through many sessions, if need be, till a satisfactory decision is reached—you do not need to interrupt. If your fellows listen to you carefully—as they are duty-bound to do if they are to formulate their own decision in accord with Bahá’í principles you do not need to raise your voice.
There is a secret, it seems to me, that makes Bahá’í consultation a very easy thing. It is to be found in the Visitation Tablet that we chant in the Shrine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The particular words I am thinking of are: “Make me as dust in the pathway of Thy loved ones. . . .” nine persons who are all striving for this goal will experience few ad ministrative difficulties.
What it all means, really, is that Assembly members must love one another. If they do not, they will poison their community, which will then become too weak either to attract new members or retain old ones.
A Bahá’í went to ‘Akká in the early days and saw the beauty of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He said, “I wish I could take Thy face with me, back to the friends in America.” The Master said that My love is My face. Take it to them. Tell them to see Me in their love for one another.
By good deeds, pure lives, humility and meekness be a lesson for others.
—‘ABDU’L-BAHA
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Ealitoria/
PRAYER OF DESPERATION
ERTAIN writers in our periodicals have commented somewhat critically in regard to the prayers on D-Day. One publication uses a column and a half to tell just what some dozen of the world’s military and political leaders did or did not do in regard to prayer on that day. It speaks of such prayers as “emergency religion” and remarks: “Certainly the occasion called for some evocation of faith. But the appeals to God seemed to have less the quality of religion than they did of desperation.” The writer complains that “The war had thrown up no great human documents such as inspired men at other crises; no Gettysburg address, no Declaration of Independence. Neither the deep humility of the former, nor the inspired ardor of the latter were to be found in what anyone had said before or on D-Day.” This writer does not understand that the very tremendousness of this world crisis so overpowers humanity that “the learned are bewildered and the wise men confounded.” No mere man can arise to the greatness of this occasion. This is the Day of God.
His words alone are adequate. A writer in another magazine with perhaps more feeling of reverence and a deeper questioning says: “A striking phenomenon occurred in the United States on June 6th; by the million, Americans went to their churches for services of penitence and prayer. That was natural to the devout, to professing members of the churches, but I am thinking of people like me, the unorthodox, the unbelievers, impelled by something they could not understand to invoke symbols in which they acknowledged no authority.” In the remainder of the articles each writer sets out his attitude toward the D-Day prayers. The irony of prayer to the former writer is that the prayer was simply for victory and that no adequate plan for the right use of victory went with the prayers. To the second writer the inconsistency of D-Day prayers was that while men in the fighting forces are dying to defend liberty for people in other lands of whatever race, creed, color or religion, yet in certain places in our own land neither Jew nor Negro is safe from persecution
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and injustice, or even sure that his life will be protected.
Surely these writers are correct in urging that prayer alone cannot change the world as long as hearts remain selfish and deeds are contrary to prayers. And that these writers represent many others Who are demanding right deeds and farseeing plans to establish right and righteousness after victory gives us hope.
But the world today is in desperate need of God. Neither deeds alone nor prayers alone are sufficient. We need not only people of physical courage to win victories on the field of battle, but people with wise, unselfish and pure hearts to carry the victory into an enduring peace. Is there anyone save God who can bring this victory of the hearts?
Should we then completely condemn the prayer of desperation? Is it not a hopeful sign when masses in this country and in other countries turn to God as “The Help in peril?” Is it not a hopeful sign when men adrift upon the water with no food, turn, at first almost ashamedly and then with confidence and hope, to God as the only Helper? What shall we say of those men of the air who feel, as some tell us, a nearness to a Power outside themselves when they soar in the stratosphere far from the
earth and human life? When the
unbeliever, the agnostic, joins
even blindly, with those invoking God’s aid?
It seems plain that suffering and calamity are often the cause of a first step in turning to God. The tragedy is when it is not followed by a continued seeking for God. We recall Christ’s story of the ten lepers who were healed and only one of whom returned to give thanks.
All the Holy Messengers of God have taught that prayer and good deeds are essential for spiritual development and the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh for the needs of man today do not differ. “Holy Words and pure and goodly deeds ascend unto the heaven of celestial glory. Strive that your deeds may be cleansed from the dust of self and hypocrisy and find favor at the court of glory,” He exhorts. He has revealed prayers for the use of mankind in this New Age; prayers of praise, thanksgiving and petition; prayers for forgiveness, for assistance, for help in peril and comfort in sorrow, for daily needs, for spiritual growth. These revealed prayers teach us how to pray; they assure us that no words of praise are too lofty and no petition too humble to reach God. He is a “prayer-hearing, prayer-answering Cod.”—B.K.H.
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Communion With the Infinite
HORACE HOLLEY
VERY LIVING thing that
exists in the universe ls immersed in an ocean of mysterious power. What We call “life” is capacity to transform energy, not capacity to produce it. The world contains no engines of self—contained character —each form of existence is sustained by drawing upon the inexhaustible reservoir of force, and each in turn contributes some share to the mysterious store.
Human beings in their physical nature are bound by the same limitations and conditions as operate upon the animal. Our ignorance may believe that man is independent and free, but the scientist’s vision rises above conceit to perceive the successive links by which the power of life is connected from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to man.
We difl'er fundamentally from all visible types of life, however, in that men receive and transform energy on many levels. When the body is nourished and sheltered, the feelings, thoughts and aspirations reach out for sustenance, and the consciousness receives the quality of im material food for which it seeks. Within ourselves we are continually developing and altering those elements of the non-physical self by which the mental, ethical and spiritual values are instinctively selected. Man’s universe of values is an infinite universe, even though you and I have become aware of only the small area in which our personality has become accustomed to
dwell.
No man can transform into his own spiritual uses more than one level of values at a time. If we habitually exclude all save a few interests, our capacity to seek larger values becomes weakened, and by the lack of seeking we end by insisting that the world of the soul. is limited, darkened, and devoid of inspiration.
Communion with the Infinite is the most Vital gift of human life. It means the opening of windows to the light of truth, to the warmth of love. All men commune daily, but most men commune with finite objects of interest. The miser communes with his material wealth. The self—centered man of affairs communes with the problems and
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opportunities of his business or profession. The devoted parent communes with his child. The sick man communes with his pain and weakness. The statesman communes with the evolving life of his nation. Communion is a faculty inherent in man; it is the spiritual equivalent. to the taking in of nourishment for the physical organism. But how few in this day practice communion as a source of joy, of inner integrity, of renewal for the powers of hope and faith and truth! Why do we live in so darkened a corner of the universe, when the heavens of consciousness are flooded always with
light from God?
To become conscious of this divine bounty of communion; to practice it day by day as the great musician perfects his power to evoke beauty from a violin —this is the essence of life, for all other gifts and talents become worthless if we fail to commune with God.
There is a mighty saying from the East: “Those who forget God, He causeth to forget themselves.” That is, if we commune with lower interests exclusively, we lose the capacity to receive pure Light within the mind and soul. Little by little our horizon shrinks, little by little the sunlight ceases to shine in the heart.
At moments of relaxation from the day’s work, we look within, and what we see is frequently depressing.
Our capacity to enter into communion is like the capacity of a mirror to reflect. The mirror reflects only the objects toward which it is turned, and likewise one communes with the interest uppermost in his heart. Freedom of will, potentiality of spiritual development, consist in our power to turn the mirror of meditation upon truth at its source, shutting out the myriad conflicting realities of worldly life for at least a few recreative moments day by day.
What is the Infinite with which man must learn to commune? Is it an infinity of variety, like the universe of space and time? Is it an infinity of knowledge, like a great library full of books? Is it an infinity of emotions, like the possession of a thousand difl'erent friends? No, not if we turn to those who illumine history with their power to commune with God. These great souls have found a Revealer of the Infinite -——- a Prophet whose life and message brings God within our human capacity to know, to love, to obey. Not by extension of knowledge but by singleness of purpose do we enter into that true communion
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which kindles eternity within the humblest human heart. By rising above our daily habits which degrade our energy to physical levels, by centering our aspirations upon one point of worship, by transforming our stubborn characters with new capacity to receive truth in terms of enhanced daily life—it is here that we can enter the secret portals of communion and tread the eternal path that leads from the man of flesh to the man of spirit, reborn in the likeness of God. For the Prophet, the Messenger, is the perfect man, and until we have a true standard of perfection we know not where to turn for guidance upon this chaotic earth.
How reassuring are the words of this Commune revealed by Bahá’u’lláh:
“Unto Thee be praise,0 Lord my God! I entreat Thee, by Thy signs that have encompassed the entire creation, and by the light of Thy Countenance that hath illuminated all that are in heaven and on earth, and by Thy mercy that hath surpassed all created things, and by Thy grace that hath sufiused the
whole universe, to rend asunder
Radio talk delivered over WGN, Chicago, May 3, 1938.
the veils that shut me out from Thee, that I may hasten unto the F ountain-H‘ead of Thy mighty inspiration, and to the DaySpring of Thy Revelation and bountiful favors, and may be immersed beneath the ocean of Thy nearness and pleasure.
“Sufler me not, O my Lord, to be deprived of the knowledge of Thee in Thy days, and divest me not of the robe of Thy guidance. Give me to drink of the river that is life indeed, whose waters have streamed forth from the Paradise in which the throne of Thy Name, the All-Merciful, was established, that mine eyes may be opened, and my soul be illumined, and my steps be made firm.
“Thou art He Who from everlasting was, through the potency of His might, supreme over all things, and, through the operation of His will, was able to ordain all things. Nothing whatsoever, whether in Thy heaven or on earth, can frustrate Thy purpose. Have mercy, then, upon me, O my Lord, through Thy gracious providence and generosity, and incline mine ear to the sweet melodies of the birds that warble their praise of Thee, amidst the branches of the tree of Thy oneness.”
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THE PURPOSE OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Book Review ARTHUR DAHLV
The Condition of Man, by Lewis Mumford. Harcourt, Brace 81 Co., 1944.
HENRY LUCE, publisher of Time
-—Lif e—Fortune, recently called Lewis Mumford one of the dozen or so men living today who really understand the rise and fall of civilizations.
The fruit of Professor Mumford’s life-long study of the influences upon man’s social relationships has been poured into a monumental three-volume work, the concluding volume of which has just been published under the title The Condition of Man. This trilogy contains a vast amount of historical material, a keen sense of the continuity of history, and what is probably the best analysis of the relationship of man and the machine yet written. The books should have particular appeal to Bahá’ís, for Professor Mumford has brilliantly and pitilessly laid bare the fatal weaknesses of our contemporary age, weaknesses which need the very qualities offered by the Bahá’í Faith for correction.
Technics and Civilization, which appeared in 1934, presented a detailed history of the development of the machine, the relative importance of various inventions, and their influence upon successive civilizations. It laid the groundwork for Professor Mumford’s thesis, later developed more at length, that scientific progress has gone far ahead of moral progress, and that unleSS a better
balance is brought between the two, our civilization is doomed.
The Culture of Cities, published in 1938, contained a history of man’s physical concentration in urban areas, pointing out the change in the character of cities as the need for this concentration changed from protection to social advantage to economic necessity in the age of mass production; and in addition a thorough exposition of the theoretical basis for the modern concepts of regional and city planning, as originally conceived by Mumford’s master, Patrick Geddes. This book has had great influence on recent experiments in community planning in both Europe and the United States.
The Condition of Man, which Professor Mumford himself ranks first in importance in the series, “deals with the purp05es and ends of human development.” In a detailed and brilliantly analytical step-by-step study, Professor Mumford traces the successive moral, intellectual, religious, and ethical forces which have molded man’s thought, conduct, and social institutions, from the Greek philosophers to contemporary fascism. Always he seeks to distill the essential from each particular system, institution, or school of thought, to isolate the constructive from the destructive, the permanent from the temporary. For always he has in mind both the horrifying picture of our own times he is to paint in the concluding chapters, and his
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constructive belief, stated in the preface, that “not once, but repeatedly in man’s history, has an all-enveloping crisis provided the condition essential to a renewal of the personality and the community. In the darkness of the present day, that memory is also a promise.”
7,,
Of particular interest to Baha IS is Professor Mumford’s treatment of Christianity’s influence on Western man. Although he takes a scientific, objective approach, never directly accepting the authenticity of divine revelation, he is extremely apt at filtering out those elements in Christian institutions and Christian practice which still truly reflect the words and intentions of Jesus, and can be accepted by anyone as constructive forces. The remainder, the man-created institutional dogma, and ritual, and narrowness, he is pitiless in dissecting and discrediting, heightening the effectiveness of his blow through skillfully imaginative use of analogy. For example:
“Economically speaking, the Catholic Church had become a machine for manufacturing salvation. Its churches, its shrines, its art, above all its relics, were so much capital goods devoted to the production of its peculiar form of immaterial wealth. As the institution grew in power, this whole apparatus of production rested more and more upon an elaborate system of credits and
debits, cleared through its ‘musical banks.’
“The internal finances of this system lent themselves, unfortunately, to inflation. Every priest, by a twelfth century doctrine, solidly established by Hugh of St. Victor and Thomas Aquinas, had an unlimited right to issue credit: by the act of absolution
he could wipe out an unfavorable moral balance, while by special prayers, gifts, candles, masses, the purchase of salvation could indefinitely increase his assets; so that if he died under the proper form of the Church, all his speculative certificates would be redeemed at par in Heaven.”
Professor Mumford is actually aware of the moral degeneracy that characterizes the present age. He has made this clear not only in this trilogy but also in two eloquent addresses the writer has been privileged to hear him make. We have lost any semblance of balance between our control over the physical environment and our control over ourselves. Scientific progress is not being used for the betterment of human life, but for its degradation. No longer is a rich, balanced, and fruitful life for the individual and the social community the goal of either our economic, political, or social institutions. And so: “Even if valor and skill in war give the democratic peoples a temporary military ascendancy, that in itself will not be sufficient either to secure a lasting peace or to raise up this battered civilization. For the disease that threatens us is an organic one: it is no localized infection that can be lanced, cleaned, bandaged; on the contrary, it requires a reorientation of our whole life, a change in occupation, a change in regimen, a change in personal relationships, not least, a change in attitude and conscious direction: fundamentally, a change in religion, our total sense of the world and life and time. If we seek salvation more cheaply, we shall not be ready to undertake the heroic feats and sacrifices, the spiritual and practical efforts that
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will be necessary to create a lifesustaining community and a lifedirected personality.”
What is the solution? Professor Mumford has already pointed out the weakness of institutionalized Christianity so forcibly it is not surprising that he holds out little hope from this source. “With all the talk of reunion between Churches and sects, which has occupied the leaders of Christianity during the last half century, there are few real signs of the deeper spiritual effort required for Christianity’s renewal—its admission of the local and relative nature of its original mission and its willingness to merge for the sake of the universal values all men should share, with the faiths of other races and peoples which Western man too long spurned. An unchristian pride, disguising itself as a unique revelation of a truth not granted to other
peoples, still blocks that essential sacrifice.”
Instead, Mumford looks to a form of humanism under which men, realizing the dangers and the needs of this age, will exercise their reasonable nature to realign the direction of our entire civilization toward human values, toward creating for all peoples a balanced life rich in all the elements which go to make up the complete personality.
He is neither clear nor specific as to the forces which will bring about this change. Possibly he feels its is ample to point out the need and the corrective principles to have them widely adopted, without any driving, dynamic and cohesive force such as has characterized the religious civilizations of the past in their prime. Other critics have also felt the inadequacy of his construc WORLD ORDER
tive proposals, after the vehemence of his denunciation of the status quo.
Professor Mumford’s work at the new Stanford University School of Humanities, a pioneering effort in humanistic education, suggests that he holds much hope for the adoption of his concepts through the channels of education. Yet one may well question whether this alone will reach the mass of the people with a force sufficiently strong to overcome the powerful negative elements now dominating the world.
Bahá’ís feel that only the force of true religion, once more reaching the hearts of all people, lifting them to a new vision of life, can accomplish the ends Professor Mumford seeks. Basically, there is nothing incompatible between the Bahá’í principles and Mumford’s goals for the new world. Time and again he indicates that he is working toward the same line of thought by a different route.
For example, he criticizes the asceticism of past religion as unnatural. There is no asceticism in the Bahá’í Faith. He feels that the wealthy, power-wielding clergy negate the true spirit of the religion they are supposed to represent. The Bahá’í Faith does not have paid clergy, nor does it permit its membership to exercise influence in political affairs.
He says: “For lack of willingness to meet other religions on common ground, the Christian churches showed a pride that could only awaken a pride equally stubborn in those they sought to convert; they brought down on themselves an odium derived from Western man’s crass belief in his own inevitable tightness, superiority, and
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uniqueness; his lack of perspective on his own and the world’s development.” The Bahá’í Faith recognizes the divine source and unity of all great religions, and actively promotes the oneness of all the races of mankind. (Incidentally, Professor Mumford is somewhat guilty of the same fault he criticizes here, for his history deals almost entirely with Western culture, and only makes passing mention of the vast contribution of the F ar Eastern and Islamic) cultures to our own civilization).
Again Professor Mumford states: “When reason must appeal to authority, authority should remain open to reason. By accepting its special revelation as final, Christian dogma provided no means for revising its postulates and replacing its crumbling underpinnings.” The Bahá’í Faith does not consider that revelation is ever final, but believes instead that it must be continuous, being renewed every few centuries by a new prophet in order to meet the changing conditions in the world, and to revitalize the force of the spirit in men’s hearts.
In discussing government, Professor Mumford states: “Where have the permanent gains in political government been achieved? They have arisen in states that respected the will and intelligence of their citizens: that slowly perfected the practices of corporate consultation and action: that learned to substitute law and orderly procedure for untutored tyrannical whim: that supplanted the arbitrary commands of
hereditary or self-chosen leaders by a periodic canvass and a formal consent, expressed through the ballot and through parliament.” Surely a better description could not be formulated of the principles and spirit underlying Bahá’í administrative procedure, with its orderly, truly democratic process, its distribution of equal rights to all individuals, regardless of their color or the size of their bank account, the respect that is held for the dignity and in tegrity of all the members of the Bahá’í community.
Even some of the more detailed Bahá’í principles are also advocated by Professor Mumford. For example, of a world language which Bahá’u’lláh called for more than sixty years ago, he says: “A world language is more important for mankind at the' present moment than any conceivable advance in television and telepathy: the pathetic provincialism of our present efforts at universal linguistics, from Esperanto to Basic English, proves the need here for moral self-examination and discipline, as well as semantic and linguistic skill.”
In short, Bahá’ís will find much of value in Professor Mumford’s hook, both in comprehensive information and in solid thought. By the same token, we feel that Professor Mumford, and those who follow the humanistic philosophy, will find in the Bahá’í teachings much to stimulate and challenge their thought, and to add to their confidence and hope in the future and destiny of man.
Tear asunder, in My Name, the veils that have grievously blinded your vision, and, through the power born of your belief in the unity of God, scatter the idols of vain imitation.——Bahá’u’lláh
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TABLET TO A JEW
THOU CHILD of the lineage of the glorious Friend (i. e., Abraham)!
Be thankful to the Presence of God that thou art, in this time, exhilarated from the Cup of the Covenant, and hast entered the Divine Jerusalem and the heavenly Stronghold, that thou hast partaken of the same gift with which thy ancestors and forefathers and the grandees of Israel were endowed, and art favored with the praiseworthy character of the progeny of Abraham.
In this Day, His Holiness the F riend (i. e., Abraham) proclaims from the glorious Kingdom saying:
“O my descendents, the Covenant which was made by the glorious God has in this Day appeared throughout the world of creation. Exert yourselves with all your heart, that ye may enter into this great Tent and participate in the infinite Bounty of God. The time of the fulfillment of the Divine Promise has come, in which whatever God has promised to Israel will appear and become manifest.
“Cast languor and weariness aside, and deliver yourselves from the snare Of worldly attachments, and make an excursion in the field of the Love of God with all firmness in the Testament of God, so that ye may ascend from the contingent world up to the horizon of the Placeless.
“Seize the opportunity and appreciate this gift, that ye may inherit an ample share of My bequeathed Bounties, and take and abundant portion of My proper Favors.
“Glad tidings be unto you for this manifest Light! Blessed are ye because of this great Favor!”
——‘ABDU’L-BAHA
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A Radio Symposium
Announcer: We have in our studios tonight three outstanding representatives of the Bahá’í Faith. These people have come to Chicago for the Bahá’í Centenary celebration, which opened this morning at their House of Worship in Wilmette, Ill. Mr. George Latimer, of Portland, Oregon, Chairman of the National Bahá’í Assembly, will introduce the two guests with him. Mr. Latimer.
Latimer: Thank you. First I should like to present Mrs.
Marzieh Gail of New York City.
Gail: Good evening.
Latimer: And Sefior Octavio Illescas of Lima, Peru.
Illescas: How do you do. Mr. Latimer, I don’t believe that it’s sufficient to introduce Mrs. Gail
just by saying she’s from New York, is it?
Latimer: No, it isn’t, Sefior Illescas. Mrs. Gail, would you mind telling up a little about your unusual heritage?
Gail: Not at all, Mr. Latimer.
You see I’m half Persian and have lived in Persia, or Irén as
Broadcast over station WMAQ, N.B.C., Chicago, Illinois, May 19th, during Bahá’í Centenary. Conducted by the National Bahá’í Radio Committee.
it is now known, in the city of Ṭihrán. Latimer: You mean the city
that’s been so much in the news these past months?
Gail: That’s right. My mother is a descendant of an old American family, and my father . . .
Latimer: Your father is a distinguished Persian, isn’t he? Gail: Yes—he headed the
Persian Legation at Washington for many years.
Latimer: And you attended American universities, did you not?
Gail: Yes, I did, Mr. Latimer —Vassar, Mills, Leland Stanford and the University of California. I returned to Persia for a while, where I worked on the staff of the leading Ṭihrán Newspaper; and I’ve just completed a year’s work with the Office of War Information as Assistant Language Editor of the Persian Section.
Latimer: Thank you, Mrs. Gail. Now, Sefior Illescas . . .
Illescas: Although I’m not half North-American like Mrs.
Gail, I too was educated in the United States—at the University
- of Minnesota to be exact. I am a
scientist specializing in horticulture.
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Latimer: Do you plan to re main in the United States, Sefior Illescas?
Illescas: No, Mr. Latimer, I hope to travel back and forth between Peru and the United States, as soon as the war is over.
Latimer: Do you mean to carry on scientific work?
Illescas: My scientific work, and my religious work. I should like very much to tour the entire continent of South America in the interest of the Bahá’í Faith.
Gail: There are many Bahá’ís in our country, are there not, who have left their homes to live and work as pioneers in LatinAmerica?
Illescas: Quite true—and because of their efforts we new number many Bahá’ís in every country of Central and South America, among them the distinguished educator Mr. Alfred Osborne of Panama; Dr. David S. Escalante of Costa Rica and Venezuela; and Camales Leyton of Santiago, Chile. All three of these men are attending our Bahá’í Centenary at Wilmette.
Gail: You know, that to me, was one of the biggest thrills of our meeting tonight——to know that we sat with Bahá’ís from both near and far-away places. I was thinking of the words of Bahá’u’lláh, the great Founder
of our Faith; when He said:
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“The tabernacle of Unity has been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers . . . the world is but one country and mankind its citizens.”
Latimer: That’s one of my favorite quotations, Mrs. Gail. Now, Sefior Illescas, would you mind telling us what impressed you most tonight?
Illescas: I’m sure that the thing I’ll remember longest is
the magnificent sight of our Temple lighted with floodlights.
Gail: It’s really one of the loveliest examples of architecture in America. Don’t you agree?
Latimer: I do indeed, and it will be flood-lighted each evening from now until the end of May. I am 'sure that the thousands of people who come to see it will be inspired by the sight.
Illescas: Each time I’ve been privileged to see our House of Worship, I’ve been amazed at the beautiful design and painstaking labor that have gone into its ornamentation. Its whole concept is as majestic as its details are exquisite.
Gail: I’ve always liked the
words which inspired the building of our Temple. In Chicago,
more than thirty years ago,
‘Abdu’l-Bahá said of His father:
“His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh, has
commanded that a place of wor
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RADIO SYMPOSIUM
ship be built for all the religionists of the world; that all religions, races, and sects may come together within its universal shelter; that the proclamation of the oneness of mankind shall go forth from its open courts of holiness.”
Latimer: It is this universal aspect of the Bahá’í Faith——the idea that all religions have much to offer—that makes our heritage so rich. And speaking of heritage, it was just a hundred years ago, May 23, 1844 that the Persian youth known as the Báb made His prophecy which established the Bahá’í Faith. He foretold that a mighty world educator would come whose teachings would establish a new world order.
Illescas: We should also recall that, like followers of other religions, Bahá’ís have suiTered martyrdom: the Báb was put to death by tyrannical Persian rulers; our Founder, Bahá’u’lláh was exiled from Persia; and He and His son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, suffered forty years imprisonment.
More than 20,000 Persian be lievers were martyred.
Gail: Yes, it’s a story of magnificent suflering, endured to establish unity among mankind.
Latimer: As our understanding of the world in which we live develops, we come to realize that
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science must go hand and hand with religion. You, Sefior Illescas, as a scientist realize that.
Illescas: I do, indeed, Mr.
Latimer. Scientists are discoverers, they are not creators.
Gail: That very thought occurred to me once as I stood at the tomb of Bahá’u’lláh in Palestine. Not all the scientists in the world can create a prophet who can open a whole new spiritual life for millions of people.
Illescas: It must have been a rich experience to visit the shrine of the F ounder of our Faith.
Gail: It was really an unforgettable experience. I have been there three times, and each time I was amazed at the absence of any thought or symbol of death. Instead there were tuberoses and crystal candelabra and Persian carpets —— only beauty — as it
should be.
Latimer: Inspiring indeed! Also inspiring must have been the Congress of Religions in Chicago, in 1893, where the Bahá’í Faith was first mentioned in the Western Hemisphere.
Illescas: That was half a century ago, was it not?
Latimer: Yes, at the World’s Columbian Exposition, to be exact. Four thousand people assembled at the Congress of Religion, rose as one body, as the representatives of faiths from all
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over the world marched to the platform. Cardinal Gibbons in robes of red; priests in long, flowing garments of white; patriarchs of the Creek Church leaning on ivory ceremonial sticks; Buddhist monks in white and yellow attire; a Brahman in orange turban and robe, and Protestant clergy and laymen.
Gail: That must have been something to remember.
Illescas: Will you tell us, Mr. Latimer, just how the Bahá’í Cause was first mentioned in this Congress of Religions?
Latimer: Yes, it was in a paper presented by the Reverend Henry Jessup, a missionary to northern Syria. Reverend Jessup wrote of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of our faith as “the famous Persian sage who teaches that the New Testament is the Word of God, and that Christ is the deliverer of men.” Reverend Jessup continued in his praise and chose to end his paper with a quotation
from Bahá’u’lláh:
Illescas: And the quotation Latimer: You probably know it from memory, Mrs. Gail.
Gail: Yes—He said that all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers: that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease,
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and differences of race he annulled. . . . These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away and the “most Great Peace” shall come.
“Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.”
Latimer: Thank you, Mrs. Gail, for this quotation from Bahá’u’lláh.
Illescas: Wasn’t the first Bahá’í Center founded here in Chicago the following year?
Latimer: That’s right, Sefior Illescas—in 1894—making it possible for us to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith in the Western Hemisphere at the same time that we celebrate the centenary of its actual founding in Persia. '
Gail: And don’t forget the third cause for rejoicing—the completion of the exterior ornamentation of our House of Worship, in Wilmette.
Illescas: The Bahá’í Centenary lectures are open to the general public, are they not?
Latimer: Yes, they are.
Illescas: Are any of the talks directed toward Pan-American Unity?
Latimer: Yes. It’s a subject in which you’re especially interested, isn’t it?
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Illescas: Naturally. I not only have a keen interest in my native South America; but the thing nearest my heart is a real unity of all our Western Hemisphere.
Gail: There could hardly be anything that would give people a greater incentive to strive for unity than the present war.
Illescas: That’s true, Mrs. Gail. And Bahá’u’lláh’s message is the divine standard for a new civilization—a civilization based on the true principles of religion, where boundaries will lose their importance and prejudices will disappear . . . in short, as St. J ohn described it: “A new heaven and a new earth.”
Latimer: I think we need to point out that this war is in itself a testimony to the lack of foresight on the part of the nations.
Illescas: Yes, of course, and as a result it’s the evidence of a need for a concrete plan of reconstruction. We can’t build a new world order by wishing. We must set up machinery for worldwide cooperation that will really work.
Gail: And machinery will never work unless we can do away with race hatred and economic insecurity. And we can’t do away with them without a definite program of universal education.
Latimer: It’s sometimes pretty
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hard to look ahead in these anxious days when so much suflering and oppression cloud our vision.
Gail: But when we realize that through the Bahá’í Faith the eternal religion of God has once more been renewed, and its teachings adapted to the problems of our modern age, we get new courage to go ahead and plan for world reconstruction.
Illescas: Yes, it’s going to take the counsel of the greatest minds of the world to straighten out present world conditionsstatesmen, scientists, educators, religious leaders—with a concrete program of international law and economic principles that shall give the most liberty to the most people.
Latimer: We might say that wherever Bahá’ís live throughout all the continents of the world, in those places the future already exists. For they are endeavoring to develop the pattern and the institutions of the new world civilization that will in time embrace the whole of mankind.
Gail: And we must not forget that above and beyond guiding the reconstruction of the economic world, Bahá’í teachings safeguard and foster the highest qualities of every individual.
Illescas: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had something to say about this,
didn’t he, Mrs. Gail?
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Gail: Yes, He said, “The body of the human world is sick. Its remedy and healing will be the oneness of the kingdom of humanity. It is my wish and hope that in the bounties and favors of Bahá’u’lláh we may find a new
WORLD ORDER
life, acquire a new power, and attain to a wonderful and supreme source of energy so that the Most Great Peace of divine intention shall be established upon the foundations of the unity
of the world of man with God.”
DAWN
FLORENCE V.
MAYBERRY
Cold fire of dawn enflames the dark horizon,
Strong, triumphant, purging. Yet its warmth is gentle, loving. It touches the dead fields into life.
It kisses the checks of the mained,
And suffering ceases in its glory.
Look up, look up! Cry out, “The Glory of God has come!”
Whisper the Message on the sweet dawn winds, Carol it high as the New Day seeds
Are planted in the waiting earth.
Far stretch the furrows plowed by destiny. Bodies of men have fertilized the soil.
Weep not, weep not, ye sufferers,
Their sacrifice will make the planting sure.
Kneel down, kneel down! Cry out,
“The Glory of God has come!”
Swiftly have the nightingales hushed their song.
The swallows of morn are here.
There come the people from every clime And stand with bowed heads on the plain;
Consecrating their living dead,
And consecrating their fellow birth.
There, overhead, flies the new world banner,
Lion and kid and a dawn-eyed child.
Praise God, praise God! Cry out, “The Glory of God has come!”
/-_t A A t... ”A w.w.M-W “f
[Page 231]
WITH OUR READERS
NE of Our readers calls attention
to an incident in connection with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to Philadelphia in 1912 which was unique. She writes: “A most interesting and unusual church visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was the Baptist Temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Russell H. Conwell, founder and pastor at that time, had made a visit to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká in 1908 and while there he extended an invitation to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. to speak in his church if He should ever come to Philadelphia. The Sunday previous to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s talk there Dr. Conwell made his congregation acquainted with the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. In his introduction of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá he said: ‘The text with which we greet the great teacher and prophet is to be found in the second chapter of Romans and the eleventh verse, “There is no respect of persons with God.” Our own people know well the history of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; visitors are here who already know Him; hence there is no need for any further introduction. We wish to hear of the efforts of those gone before Him, and of His own splendid efforts in bringing about the unity of all mankind. I give therefore the entire time to our friend, and the friend of humanity everywhere, ‘Abdu’laBahz—i ‘Abbés of
Persia, more recently of Palestine.’
“A congregation of about 3,000 heard that memorable address and at the end of the service Dr. Conwell invited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. into his study and here He greeted the peo ple individually. In the brief visit to Philadelphia ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke in two churches, at the hotel and in the home of Mrs. Revell and everywhere people gathered around Him and were very reluctant to leave.
“Dr. Conwell was well known throughout the country for his lecture called Acres of Diamonds and for the church, university and hospital which he founded. He, of course, passed on several years ago, and the unusual fact remains that he visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká and at that time invited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to speak to his. congregation.”
Q Q
Our readers will be interested to know that H. N. Manji whose contribution entitled “Renewal of Religion” is printed in this issue is an active promoter of the Faith in Bombay, India. Long-time readers of. W orld Order will remember Mr. Manji’s article, “The Flute of Shri Krishna” in the October, 1937, number.
The title “Primer for Bahá’í Assemblies” suggests the contents of the article in which Marzieh Gail happily reminds us that in many ways ideal Bahá’í practices difier from those of the old order and yet in some cases Bahá’ís do not live up to the best in the old order. W orld Order recently printed the
talk which Mrs. Gail gave at the Centenary celebration,g “‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America.”
l l §
Horace Holley, known to Bahá’ís and many others as secretary of the
231
232
National Spiritual Assembly and as one of the editors of W orld Order, shares with us his reflections on prayer in his article, “Communion with the Infinite,” and Mrs. Kirkpatrick, also one of the editorial committee of W orld Order, offers other thoughts on prayer under the title “Prayer of Desperation.” ‘I ‘I‘ I’
On the first evening of the Centenary celebration, May 19th, at 10:45 p.m., a Bahá’í program went out from Chicago over station WMAQ. In this issue we print the talks given on that occasion by George Latimer of Portland, Oregon, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, Marzieh Gail of San Francisco, and Sr. Octavio Illescas, a Peruvian now resident in Los Angeles and former chairman of the Inter-America Teaching Committee.
I' 4" 'I’
Arthur Dahl reviews a current and timely book which deals with humanistic philosophy and in which there is much of interest and information to the Bahá’ís.
A friend who had sent a gift Slibscription of World Order to a library writes: “The young woman in charge of the colored Y.M.C.A. enjoys it [W orld Order] immensely and always circulates it around. I am going to use it as a teaching medium more than I have. I believe for those interested in the Faith, a gift subscription will be a constant teaching medium and a source of inspiration. Sometimes these friends cannot get out to meetings and the magazine will maintain their
touch With the Faith.”
<I- i- it
The Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá re printed in this issue is one which,
WORLD ORDER
as far as we know, has never before been published. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has expressed the essence of the message of Bahá’u’lláh in calling upon the Jews, in the name of their prophet, Abraham, to recognize the Bahá’í
Faith as the fulfillment of the Divine
Promise to Israel.
- ‘I *
Clara E. Hill, author of the poem, “Unto the Hills,” appearing in this issue, has contributed verse on several previous occasions. She is a member of the Bahá’í Community
of Penticton, B. C., Canada.
- * *
We are glad to welcome Florence V. Mayberry as one of the new contributors. Mrs. Mayberry is a member of the Bahá’í Community of
Reno, Nevada.
- * ‘I'
In our September number we printed Miss Angela Morgan’s poem, “Answer, World” and lack of space prevented expression of our appreciation. Miss Morgan is a well known poet and much of her poetry reflects the spirit of the new day. In our August, 1941, issue we were privi leged to print her poem “Song of the New World.”
The name of Mrs. Mary Alice McClennen was also omitted from this department in September. Her contribution was the prose poem entitled “A Bahá’í Friend.” Mrs. McClennen has been an active helper at Green Acre this past summer and at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during the past year.
if * ‘l
The Publishing Committee and the Editorial Committee regret the lateness in publishing recent issues of W orld Order due to war conditions.
—-THE EDITORS.
[Page 233]
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One of the great events, which is to occur in the Day of the manifestation of that Incomparable Branch (Bahá’u’lláh) is the hoisting of the Standard of God among all nations. By this is meant that all nations and kindreds will be gathered together under the shadow of this Divine Banner, which is no other than the Lordly Branch itself, and will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian antagonism, the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will have one common faith, will be blended into one race, and become a single people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself. —‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
