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WORLD
ORDER
DECEMBER, 1944
DOES SOUL SURVIVE BODY?—Louis G. Gregory
THE WORLD IN TRANSFORMATION—Horace Holley
THE CALL TO UNITY—Marion Holley and Shirley Warde
EQUAL BEFORE GOD, Editorial—Garreta Busey
A HIGHWAY TO ENDURING PEACE—David S. Ruhe
PIONEERING AT HOME—Marguerite True
ILLIMANI—“Condor of Silver,” Poem—Flora Emily Hottis
INDEX OF CENTENARY ARTICLES IN WORLD ORDER MAGAZINE
WITH OUR READERS
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
World Order was founded March 21, 1910 as Bahá’í News, the first organ of the American Bahá’ís. In March, 1911, its title was changed to Star of the West. Beginning November, 1922 the magazine appeared under the name of The Bahá’í Magazine. The issue of April, 1935 carried the present title of World Order, combining The Bahá’í Magazine and World Unity, which had been founded October, 1927. The present number represents Volume XXXV of the continuous Bahá’í publication.
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Garreta Busey, Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
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DECEMBER, 1944, VOLUME X, NUMBER 9
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3, 1879. Contents copyrighted 1944 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title
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WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME X DECEMBER, 1944 NUMBER 9
Does Soul Survive Body?
LOUIS G. GREGORY
DOES soul survive body? This
question has at times puzzled
sages as well as peoples of
lesser rank. What we know as
death is so common that man,
even in early life, is impressed
with the certainty that mortal
existence must sooner or later
end. He soon discovers that his
body is subject to the changes,
decay and ultimate dissolution
which attend all other earthly
objects. But does his inner being,
variously called soul, mind or
spirit, really perish with the
body as seems to be true? Assurance
of life beyond the grave
will in this day bring solace to
millions who are concerned not
only with their own fate, but that
of loved ones of all ages who
often prematurely cross the great
divide. It was an eminent Greek
who observed that it is usual
during peace for sons to bury
their fathers; but in war time
fathers bury their sons. In such
an unprecedented time as this,
not only fathers and sons, but
entire families, fellow citizens
of great cities and nationals of
vast areas, are forced to take
their last journey in such numbers
and under such tragic conditions
as inspire awe. And so
the eternal question presses as
never before for an answer. And
the answer, by divine favor, is
now made complete.
The fact that religious devotees
in all ages, whether in
primitive stages of culture or
highly developed, have believed
in immortality is in itself impressive.
Such people, whether
their religious connections be
formal or not, doubtless constitute
an overwhelming majority
of mortals. The probative value
of this would not be impressive
to the logician, falling into the
category of the fallacy of argumentum
ad hominem. It is however
one often used by lawyers
in court and sways both judges
and jurors. Some of our greatest
statesmen who have moulded the
people’s will, have yet in times
[Page 266]
of great emergency, been led to
make wise decisions by that selfsame
will, indeed they have but
voiced that will—acted that will.
This however is not a proof in
itself of immortality, because
people believe it and because
to most mortals, life would be
meaningless without it. Mass beliefs
often err.
The belief in immortality has its foundation in the lives and teachings of the most eminent Beings that have ever appeared among mankind. These are the founders of the great Religions of the world, the Prophets of God. These not only proclaimed the truth but embodied the truth. Their tremendous influence throughout the ages is not only venerated by their followers but admitted by students of history and sociology who are not of their faith. They are the supreme authorities appearing among mortals and although living at times remote from each other and in different parts of the earth, they have without exception given their followers assurance of the joys of a heavenly home, this a reward for virtue and fidelity upon earth. They were the mouth-pieces of God upon earth. If we acknowledge the greatness of their stations, sustained as they can readily be by both logic and science as well as spiritual proofs, we must also acknowledge that theirs was a clear and perfect vision of life both upon this plane and those of the worlds beyond. The sunshine establishes its reality without the need of formal proof. Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Zoroaster, etc., each and all taught immortality. Their sacrifices and endurance in the path of God are also among the most wonderful signs of it.
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans
and other ancients believed in
immortality. Cicero, greatest orator
of Rome, hailed a belief in
it as a solace of his old age.
Mindful of the scepticism of his
day, with a sense of humor, he
reminded his contemporaries
that if the soul were not immortal,
those who now thought
so would not be able to banter
him about his credulity in another
world. If however it were
true, he would later have the
joke upon his fellow mortals
who now disbelieved. We now
know through ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that
Socrates, who was so serene in
the presence of death, owed his
composure and strength of character
to the influence of the
Hebrew Prophets whose teachings
he discovered when in
Palestine. A modern mystic,
Swedenborg, has given vivid and
realistic visions of life hereafter.
But even though himself
a great scientist, he offers not
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scientific evidence to support his
visions, however wonderful and
no doubt true. A few years ago
a great American journal had a
symposium on immortality, with
doctors of philosophy, divinity
and science among the contributors.
Some were agnostic, others
believing, but they were almost
unanimous in saying that such a
thing could never be proven.
But now mankind is blessed with a new Revelation. It floods the entire horizon with light. Not only is the assurance of past Prophets reaffirmed and fortified, but in the majestic Words of Bahá’u’lláh and the interpretations of the Center of His Covenant, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, rational and scientific proofs appear to convince even the agnostic and sceptic should they present attentive ears.
Bahá’u’lláh gives this assurance:
“O Son of Worldliness! Pleasant is the realm of being, wert thou to attain thereunto; glorious is the realm of eternity, shouldst thou pass beyond this mortal world; sweet is the holy ecstacy, if thou quaffest the mystic chalice from the hands of the celestial Youth. Shouldst thou attain this station thou shalt be freed from death and perdition, from toil and sin.”
The evidences of immortality are found in His Books and those of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Although these proofs are rational and scientific, they yet come from a source of the highest inspiration. Their appeal is thus to mind and heart, with full assurance. Some of them are briefly stated as follows:
1. There is such a thing as immortality in matter. Any material thing that cannot be divided is indestructible and therefore must endure forever. But all material things as we study their makeup, can be divided. But there comes an end to divisions when we reach the very smallest elements combined. These ‘Abdu’l-Bahá designates primordial elements. Since these cannot be divided they last forever, forming new combinations when their present communities are destroyed. Man’s body is composed of such elements, as is true of all other material substances. But the soul of man is a sole or single element, indivisible, and hence indestructible. Psychologists generally teach the essential unity of the human soul. Unity being an innate and inseparable quality of the soul, this is the first scientific proof of is immortality.
2. The body of man is limited
by time and space. The inner
reality is free from such limitations.
The body exists sixty or
seventy years. The mind or rational
soul can concentrate upon
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present happenings, or with
equal ease, events of millions
of years ago. It requires time for
the body to journey from one
place to another; but instantly
the mind can traverse the remotest
realms of space. Soul and
body are not homogeneous. The
limitations of the latter do not
apply to the former. A philosopher
once asked what mind is,
answered, “No matter!” When
asked what matter was he with
equal pungency replied! “Never
mind!”
3. The soul is not a part of the body, as indicated by the fact that the loss of a limb does not impair one’s ability to think. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains that the body reflects the spirit as a mirror reflects the light. This is the only connection, a vital one, however, for the body, because as soon as this connection is broken the body begins to disintegrate. It is therefore the spirit that gives life to the body. This bodily connection also affects the spirit, which through it is likened to a bird in a cage. When the connection is severed the bird is capable of a lofty flight for which in the meantime it should get prepared. The spirit too has its limitations. It may be affected by the animal nature of the body and assume dark qualities. Intelligence, industry and the spirit of faith free the soul from such darkness and aid the certainty of immortality.
4. In the physical world bodies may often be changed at will from one form to another; but it is impossible for any grouping of elements which is called a body to assume two forms at the same time. If a cube is made into a globe such a change is possible only by destroying the cube. But in the mental realm one can proceed from form to form without destruction. The mind can concentrate upon a single object in a room or upon various objects. Singly or simultaneously one can think of one volume or the whole library; of one star or the celestial sphere; of man, two men or mankind. Going from form to form necessitates no destruction. This greater range of power of the inner reality over the outer demonstrates the eternality of the former in contrast to the temporary structure of the latter.
5. Consider the common human
experience of dreams.
Dream pictures are as vivid and
real while in dreamland as are
outward forms during waking
hours. They are sometimes blurred
and meaningless; at other
times they may foreshadow coming
events. An American statesman
during the period of the
former world war always slept
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with pad and pencil at his bedside.
From time to time he would
awake from a deep sleep and
make notations. Problems of
state were thus solved. People
are sometimes wiser asleep than
when awake. Bahá’u’lláh explains
that the power of God
which created man has placed
such mysteries in his inward being
as a sign to him that the true
life for him is beyond that of
this limited world; that there is
a higher plane of existence in
which inward powers may find
fuller expression. Dreams and
visions are truly significant only
as they reflect the purity of the
heart. Such individual experiences
are apparently intended
for personal direction, however,
rather than for the guidance of
one’s fellows, probably to preserve
harmony.
6. What is variously called soul, mind or spirit is in reality but one power. These names appear to indicate different functions. The connection between the higher and lower worlds in man seems indicated by soul. The mind, says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is the rational soul, to which he gives high praise for its capacity and achievements. He also highly evaluates the spirit of faith which enables man to discover divine mysteries. But these various powers adorn one reality. The bounty of the Holy Spirit which is the Reality of the Holy Manifestation, quickens the spirit of man with new life and understanding, teaching him the lessons he should know so as rightly and effectively to serve mankind.
7. The gift of a conscious
knowledge of immortality frees
man from fear and the gloomy
clouds of superstition and fancy
that overshadow him. The spirit
of true faith and enlightenment
appears to recede as religious
revelation grows old, leaving
man victimized by many heresies
and doubts. The resurrection of
the physical body and its being
reunited with the soul has been
adhered to by many religionists
when remote from the fountainhead
of truth. It is of course
illogical and unscientific, and
has no basis in reality. Christ
said to the repentant thief on the
cross: “This day shalt thou be
with me in Paradise.” He also
said that flesh and blood shall
not inherit eternal life. Bahá’u’lláh
in the Book of Assurance
explains the resurrection as the
awakening of the souls of men
to a deeper consciousness of
nearness to the Creator and
obedience to His new made laws
to set the world in order. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
explains that even were it
possible to bring a dead man
back to life he would assuredly
die again, since death and change
are inseparable from material
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bodies. If any references to a
bodily resurrection are to be
found in the Holy Books they
have but a symbolic meaning.
The spirit of man attains its second
birth through faith. Paul
was truly resurrected on his
memorable journey to Damascus.
Through the Spirit of Bahá’u’lláh
myriads of souls are now
recreated in all parts of the
world. Their faith in the Eternal
has uplifted above the clouds
of rancor, superstition and prejudice
which blight mankind.
Christ said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” So wonderful a life gave life to the Christian world. Bahá’u’lláh in this new day describes the Resurrection as the rise of the Self of God in His universal Manifestation. It is thus that the spiritually dead may arise from their bodily graves to attain newness of life. This truly is the proof of immortality and the hour of victory.
Let us take with us this picture of the great passing:
“A friend asked: How should one look forward to death?
“‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered: How does one look forward to the goal of any journey? With hope and expectation. It is even so with the end of this earthly journey. In the next world man will find himself freed from many of the disabilities from which he now suffers. Those who have passed on through death have a sphere of their own. It is not removed from ours: their work of the Kingdom is ours; but it is sanctified from what we call time and space. Time with us is measured by the sun. When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.”
“In prayer there is a mingling of stations, a mingling of conditions. Pray for them as they pray for you.”
The souls who have been enlightened with the light of the Kingdom, however, have founded eternal sovereignty. They shine, like unto the stars, upon the horizon of everlasting glory. . . . Any person whose insight is opened by God seeth the souls in their stations after the disintegration of the bodies.
The World in Transformation
HORACE HOLLEY
OUR generation has experienced
the greatest transformation
the world has ever
undergone. We have been witness
to the power of science in revolutionizing
industry, releasing
uncontrollable forces which have
destroyed the old ways of life
for nations as for men and
women; we have become part of
a system of mechanical power
through which communication
and transportation have made
the whole earth a single unit.
We have felt the shock of the
fall of ancient and mighty social
regimes in China, Russia, Spain,
Turkey, Persia and Germany, involving
hundreds of millions of
human beings in a blind struggle
for a new principle of civilization.
We face the demands of
submerged races and classes for
participation in the rights, the
privileges and the responsibilities
of society, when the whole
of our society as we have known
it has become a denial of right
and truth for all mankind. Two
successive wars have engulfed
our lives and our institutions,
concentrating supreme effort upon
strife. The people today walk
in the valley of the shadow of
death, and no mortal power can
raise this shadow and restore the
light of peace which is the light
of truth.
Many have been the efforts to subdue this chaos of affairs to conceptions of order and knowledge, in order to restore the reign of reason and bring understanding into the problems of human relations. We have been offered many a careful study of our world lost between two wars and darkened by many revolutions. But each of these has been a description and an analysis, whether economic, political or cultural in scope—a description of the disease instead of a remedy. Of what good to a desperately sick man to be offered descriptions of the physiology of his agony, when he has such direct experience of it in every fiber and nerve and longs only for a healing medicine which can overcome the malady, resist the disease, conquer the causes of his peril, and restore the blessing and joy of health?
“The Prophets of God,” Bahá’u’lláh
has written, “should be
regarded as physicians whose
task is to foster the well-being
of the world and its peoples,
that, through the spirit of oneness,
they hay heal the sickness
of a divided humanity. . . . The
[Page 272]
whole of mankind is in the grip
of manifold ills. Strive, therefore,
to save its life through the
wholesome medicine which the
almighty hand of the unerring
Physician hath prepared.” He,
moreover, has warned that “Its
sickness is approaching the stage
of utter hopelessness, inasmuch
as the true Physician is debarred
from administering the remedy,
whilst unskilled practitioners are
regarded with favor, and are
accorded full freedom to act.”
The meaning of the transforming power at work eludes attention directed upon any one manifestation. Though the age is notable by its invention, our capacity for invention has been employed in diverse and irreconcilable ways. If we say the times represent a trend toward democracy, our view is contradicted by the rise of extreme autocracy in government, business and religious organizations. While we stand vividly aware of change as an external pressure operating through the social structure, we are given evidence that the change is also a subjective influence exercising control over minds and hearts. It is as though the whole world had been plunged into a sea of force, or as though the earth in its circuit had become immersed in a new and unpredictable atmosphere producing changes in and upon all things. The social group, whether race, class, creed or nation, feels cast adrift from a civilization in upheaval, with unbridgable gulfs between it and all other groups. The individual is haunted by an insecurity arising from the alteration of his relationship to his traditional society and his relationship even to himself.
This is no “revolution” in any historical sense of the word:— no industrial revolution nor revolution in the political field which can be satisfied by mere changes of party leadership or structural and statutory form. A new and more potent life has been poured out upon the human spirit, and our spirits, passively adapted to the older and more limited molds of feeling and thought, recoil in desperate fear.
Life has evolved beyond man in his historic type and his society-maintaining power. Until we look beyond man we can never save ourselves as men.
Religion in essence is the one
society-building power. By the
power of faith alone have great
communities of human beings
been created and unified sufficiently
to receive the blessings
which God sends to humanity in
every age. Thus we find that the
historical record of true cause
and effect associates the development
of the civilization of Solomon
[Page 273]
with the religion revealed
by Moses, and the civilization of
Europe with the Dispensation of
Christ, and the civilization we
know as Islám with the inspiration
given by Muḥammad to His
people. Similarly we find that
when this faith in the Prophet
exemplified by obedience to His
laws and teachings becomes
moribund and inefiective, and
society falls from response to
the divine will to the depths of
denial in creed, ecclesiastism,
pretentious ceremonialism and
tyrannical exploitation of the
masses, the civilization itself
comes to the point of death, and
the blessing of unity and understanding
is withheld until a later
Prophet is manifest in the world.
The Manifestation of God releases the spirit of union among human beings. He evokes from them the higher qualities of the soul which can discern the oneness of truth and the oneness of destiny embracing the whole of mankind. It is through inner enlightenment that human beings cohere and accept mutual trusts, missions and duties which are the very soul of civilization.
For the Bahá’ís who reverently acclaim this date[1] as marking the centenary of their religion, the Báb signalizes the era of world civilization culminating and fulfilling the racial and national civilizations of the past. His creative spirit went forth to every part of earth, summoning the people to worship the God who is the life and being of mankind. The effect of His Revelation was to create the nucleus of a new community composed of those who recognize that the spirit of God manifest in Him is the reality of their own Prophet and of the Prophet of the peoples they have traditionally hated and resisted. In this conception they might, coming in spirit from all parts of the world, meet together before one Throne and conjoin in one Kingdom.
There are two valid proofs of religion: the quickening, the regeneration of the individual being, and the creation of a community in which quickened lives are fulfilled. Civilization is organic to spiritual experience, for lacking reality it becomes the agency for the punishment of every materialist who would attach power and property to himself for his own selfish end. The death of a civilization attests the power of God no less than its heroic rise and birth.
After the Báb had summoned
the peoples, and raised up the
new point of unity for East and
West, Bahá’u’lláh came with the
power needed to endow the new
and weak community with full
[Page 274]
realization of its world mission.
Under His guidance the followers
of the pure light in the
Báb became Bahá’ís, members
of a world religion.
For now the causes of isolation —which have been the justifications of separation—have been removed from the peoples of earth. Therefore the truth revealed to our age is universal in ethics and sociology as well as in worship. Bahá’u’lláh addresses Himself to a world mind, a world heart and a world character, invoking its steady development and eventual triumph over the racial mind and national loyalties of the past. In the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh human beings can attain their utmost development, for His creative spirit has given life to a new mind and a new soul in man.
“The vitality of men’s belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society”: thus has the divine vision penetrated to the abysm of our modern poverty, restlessness, ignorance and strife. “Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.”
How else may one realize the whole scope and purpose of this transforming power which has caught us up? We may not measure it by the measure of national power, nor by industrial energy nor by the efforts of churches nor by the policies of classes who would make economics the light of a new day. All these expressions of force are nothing else than waves upon the vast sea. They rise and fall, but the great ocean hurls them up and receives them, spent, into its depths. More than international peace, more than the schemes of statesmen, the unification of the world of humanity proceeds from stage to stage, changing our consciousness and reshaping our minds, evolving in its own way the sense of citizenship in one world. To worship Bahá’u’lláh in truth is to become a willing and active worker for that destiny which He defined that we might have knowledge and power to obey.
“My object”, Bahá’u’lláh declares, “is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed are suffered to pass unheeded.”
Address delivered May 22 on the program
of the Bahá’í Centenary, May 19-25,
1944
The Call to Unity
MARION HOLLEY AND SHIRLEY WARDE
Broadcast over Radio Station WCFL Chicago, May 21, 1944, as a contribution to the Bahá’í Centenary Program.
TO THE Bahá’ís of the world
the year 1944 stands as a
milestone which has focussed the
energies and hopes of their fast-consolidating
world community
through many decades. This is
an hour they have long anticipated,
for they have recognized
in it the climax of a process
which has carried the Message
of their Faith from a solitary
prison in ‘Akká, Palestine, to its
present vantage of support by
peoples of every race, nation
and religion, as the dynamic
spirit and vital nucleus of World
Order.
Yet in the truest sense, 1944— this hundredth year—is not alone an occasion for the Bahá’ís of the world to celebrate. Men and women everywhere, whether they be conscious of this triumphant hour or not, have reason to join in the joyful commemoration of a century which is the very turning point and pivot in the unfolding of human history. For the great fact, which today is but partially recognized, is that these past hundred years, so significant in the birth and rise of the Bahá’í Faith, have an even wider claim as the preliminary stage in a “new cycle of human power.” They mark the opening chapter of an age, tremendous in its possibilities, inconceivably rich in its promise, which is destined to culminate “in the unification of the whole world, the final object and the crowning glory of human evolution on this planet.”
No one who reviews the events and achievements of this century, can doubt its compelling influence upon the destiny of mankind. “We are,” says one writer, “in the midst of a period of change that is likely to be as profound as any in the history of the human race.” So great and far-reaching have been these changes in every phase of thought and action that many a contemporary student has estimated these hundred years as outweighing in accomplishment ten previous centuries.
Who can adequately describe
the revolution in our way of life
resulting from the prodigious development
of scientific and technical
knowledge? Who can evaluate
the transformation in human
relationships, half-unconscious
yet reaching to the roots of our
responsibility and concern for
the welfare of mankind? The
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abolition of slavery in the United
States and of serfdom in Russia;
the growth and spread of education,
of equal rights for men and
women, of legislation for the
protection of labor and to provide
basic forms of social security;
the breathtaking advance in
physical sciences, in medicine,
psychology, anthropology, and
the industrial arts,—in these and
in every field tremendous progress
has been won since 1844.
Today, under the impact of this universal war, our old complacency is gone. New hopes, new forces, new ideals are stirring. Today there are no isolated countries, no inaccessible places or peoples. For the first time in recorded history, a true conception of the world-wide nature of social and spiritual problems is taking shape, while the physical and economic unity of the world is already an accomplished fact. Only one hundred years, a moment in time as the universe reckons it, has been required to give substance and validity to these words by the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith which, less than a century ago, carried little meaning or conviction to His generation. I quote: “A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth. . . . Soon will the present-day Order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. . . . This handful of dust, the earth, is one home; let it be in unity.”
It is the widespread recognition of this goal, and our visible and thrilling progress towards it, which all humanity can celebrate in 1944! Let us not cloud our vision by the anxious and painful days which surround us. We are involved in a crisis of death and birth. Outworn and meaningless forms of society are speedily vanishing, while the birth-pangs of World Civilization convulse and absorb us. The old structure “is being rolled up, and is crashing in oppression, bloodshed, and ruin.” The unfolding Order “opens up vistas of a justice, a unity, a peace, a culture, such as no age has ever seen.”
Who among us, standing upon the threshold of this mighty age, has not in some measure realized its swift approach? Have we not, in the last decades, begun to read the signs of its coming, and felt in our lives its quickening momentum? Nevertheless, it is likely that few of us have as yet discovered the cause and source of this new vitality which is altering the customs and relations of East and West.
For the immense truth, somehow
overlooked by most people
during this century, which Bahá’ís
around the world proclaim
and celebrate on May 23rd, is
that through Bahá’u’lláh, Founder
[Page 277]
of the Bahá’í Faith, the
power of the Word of God has
again been released for the
guidance of humanity. The eternal
Religion of God has once
more been renewed, and its
teachings adapted to the problems
of our modern age. It is
this renewal of the spirit of true
religion, penetrating our darkened
world like a glorious springtime,
which has motivated and
energized the life of mankind for
a hundred years.
Yes, a hundred years has passed since the first announcement that the Promised Day— foretold since earliest times, and so long awaited by the peoples and religions of the world—has at last dawned. Speaking to a generation shrouded in unbelief, superstition, corruption and materialism, Bahá’u’lláh shone forth with a radiance befitting His name, which means the Glory of God, and proclaimed a Message signalizing the coming of age of the entire human race. In His own words, He “lent a fresh impulse and set a new direction” to the vast process which we have since seen operating in human affairs. How vividly He foresaw the world-shaking events which must transpire under the impact of this “potent Revelation”! Yet even today, a hundred years after such a momentous happening, humanity is for the most part unawakened to the significance of the vast upheaval which is transforming the thought and institutions of society.
Do we not recall a striking and sobering parallel? Certainly the world of nineteen hundred years ago lacked even the slightest recognition of the influence to be exerted upon it by the humble figure of Jesus, the Christ, despite His open and dynamic claim to be the way and the life for mankind. As Lecky, an eminent historian, has said: “There is no fact in the history of humanity more remarkable than the complete unconsciousness of the importance and the destiny of Christianity displayed by the scholars and writers of the Roman empire during that first century.”
Thus it has always been. At given intervals throughout history God has sent His Messengers— the Divine Physicians—with the potent medicine of His Law for the healing of an afflicted civilization. Whether it be Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Muḥammad, or Christ—the people of Their day, save for a few, have always rejected and persecuted the Messengers of God; and not until long afterwards, when Their influence had so permeated the heart of age that few could deny it, has the truth of Their claim been widely accepted.
Just so today! Little does the
[Page 278]
world at large yet realize that,
with the appearance of Bahá’u’lláh,
its long-expected Promised
Day has come! Addressing Himself
to the peoples of the earth,
Bahá’u’lláh has proclaimed:
“The Word which the Son concealed
is made manifest. . . .
‘The Father is come, and that
which ye were promised in the
Kingdom is fulfilled.’” And
again, “O thou who art waiting,
tarry no longer, for He is come.
Behold His Tabernacle and His
Glory dwelling therein. It is the
Ancient Glory, with a new Manifestation.”
Persecuted in Persia, the land of His birth, where more than twenty thousand early followers were martyred for their Faith; forty years an exile and a prisoner of two powerful kings; finally incarcerated in the historic prison-city of ‘Akká, in the Holy Land,—Bahá’u’lláh nevertheless, more clearly than any of the Prophets before Him, unmistakably announced and demonstrated His mission and His God-given authority. In a hundred volumes, in Tablets addressed to kings, governments, clergy, and peoples of both East and West, He called mankind to unity and to the Most Great Peace, and laid the basis of a new World Order.
Here, in His own words, is the heart of Bahá’u’lláh’s message to our day: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”
Upon this strong foundation— world unity, the genuine oneness of mankind,—Bahá’u’lláh has built His mighty Plan. It is more than a rich and vast body of principles for the guidance of world society; it inaugurates the very methods by which such a society must operate. In brief, the Faith which He founded is an all-embracing program, unfolding the requirements of world citizenship; laying down the outlines of a world-wide economy; creating a basis of racial and national unity, of religious unity; asserting the harmony of religion and science; and devising the very structure of World Order on its international, national, and local levels. Wherever Bahá’ís live, throughout the five continents, in those places the future already exists. For they are sustaining and developing the responsibilities, the pattern itself, the very institutions of that New World Civilization which they believe is “destined to embrace in the fullness of time the whole of mankind.”
This week, in the light of such
a glorious prospect, standing
upon the threshold of this immense
new age, Bahá’ís around
the world are joyfully celebrating
the birth, one hundred years
[Page 279]
ago in Persia, of their universal
Faith. Would not the whole earth
acclaim this anniversary, did it
but know the significance of this
“radiant century”!
In the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Son of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith: “Do you know in what Day you are living? Do you realize in what Dispensation you are alive? Have you not heard in the Holy Scriptures that at the consummation of the ages there shall appear a day which is the Sun of all the past Days? . . . This is the Day in which the inhabitants of all the world shall enter under the shelter of the Word of God. . . . Now is the dawn; ere long . . . you shall behold what heavenly illumination has become manifest. . . . (For) the principles of . . . Bahá’u’lláh, like unto the spirit, shall penetrate the dead body of the world, and the Love of God, like unto an artery, shall beat through the heart of the five continents.”
Mighty indeed have been the tasks accomplished and the victories achieved by this sorely tried yet undefeatable Faith within the space of a century! Its unfinished tasks, its future victories, as it stands on the threshold of the second Bahá’í century, are greater still. In the brief space of the first hundred years of its existence it has succeeded in diffusing its light over five continents, in erecting its outposts in the furthermost corners of the earth, in establishing, on an impregnable basis its Covenant with all mankind, in rearing the fabric of its world-encompassing Administrative Order. . . .
The Golden Age of the Faith itself that must witness the unification of all the peoples and nations of the world, the establishment of the Most Great Peace, the inauguration of the Kingdom of the Father upon earth, the coming of age of the entire human race and the birth of a world civilization, inspired and directed by the creative energies released by Bahá’u’lláh’s World Order, shining in its meridian splendor, is still unborn and its glories unsuspected.
Editorial
EQUAL BEFORE GOD
THE leading article in a recent
number of The Saturday
Review of Literature was entitled
“Mr. Simple on Race Equality.”
It is a little story of a conversation
between two men who agree
that all races should have equal
opportunities for advancement.
The bone of contention between
them was Dr. Etali’s little book,
“The Human Races,” which presents
biological data to show
that the various races of mankind
are essentially alike. Mr.
Simple contends that this is propaganda
to combat that of the
Nazis. Dr. Etali, he says, does in
fact teach in his classroom that
the Eskimos, for instance, are
vastly superior in intelligence to
the Onas of Tierra del Fuego.
To promulgate the doctrine of
racial equality on biological
grounds, Mr. Simple points out,
is dangerous because those
grounds may be subject to controversy.
“The only sound basis
on which one can ultimately rest
the doctrine of equality,” he continues,
“is in the assumption that
men are distinguished from the
rest of the animal kingdom by
the possession of souls, that their
souls partake of the divine nature
of their Maker, and that by virtue
of their souls they stand outside
the final judgment of their fellow
men.”
Let us examine this subject from the point of view of the Bahá’í teachings. Science and religion, we are taught, must be in harmony. True religion does not teach that which can be disproved by science, although religion does sometimes teach that which scientists have not yet discovered. If anthropologists today are proving that there are no inferior races, they only substantiate a truth promulgated by Bahá’u’lláh over seven decades ago.
But it is true that a better basis
for our attitude towards all men
is that which Mr. Simple advocates,
the equality of men before
God. Scientific knowledge
changes as new facts are observed,
and the newest pronouncements
of the scientist are
often subject to controversy. Nor
are all scientists the coldly impersonal
instruments for the discovery
of truth that they are
ideally represented to be. Human
emotions do sway them.
Pressure can be brought to bear
[Page 281]
on them under certain political
conditions. And until their discoveries
have been subjected to
the most thorough proof, there
may be disagreements among
them. Moreover, even after a
theory has been proved, its acceptance
is often slow on the
part of the masses of the people,
who are more easily influenced
by emotion than by reason. In
matters which vitally affect human
conduct, then, science, proceeding
by its own method, confirms
the laws which have previously
been laid down by the
Prophets of God for the well-being
of humanity. Religious
laws influence men’s actions because
they control the emotions.
The truths discovered by scientists
later support these laws by
showing men their basis in reason.
Moses provided rules for
healthful daily life thousands of
years before the science of sanitation
was born. Centuries before
psychology was a science
and the harmful effects of repression
were reasonably explained,
Christ showed that love
is more effective than force.
In this day, Bahá’u’lláh has anticipated the anthropologists in giving us a body of teachings based on the principle that mankind is an organic whole composed of various branches, each in a different state of development. There are backward races, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained, but no inferior races. All, without exception, are created in the image of God and are therefore capable of infinite development.
That certain races are backward is due not to any inherent defect but to the accident of their environment. But now the time has come when all the fragments of humanity, advancing together, must merge to produce one great culture in a unity to be accomplished partly by physical, but chiefly by spiritual means. For if all races are to develop according to their highest possibilities, if none is to be kept down, they must all submit to a spiritual unifying force.
Such a force is today being poured out in unprecedented abundance over the whole earth. As the races come to recognize it, they will grow to their full capacity and bring forth such various fruits as they are destined to contribute to a world civilization. All are of the utmost value, none can be dispensed with, for the whole is dependent on all its parts.
When the divisions of humanity have become united in obedience to one God, when all recognize that they have been created to carry forward together an ever-advancing civilization, then, and then only, will mankind attain its full stature. —G. B.
A Highway to Enduring Peace
DAVID S. RUHE
THE world of tomorrow Will
be the product of our world
of today. Our problem is to
judge correctly our world today.
And judging it accurately,
we can alter our life purposes,
knowing that our hopes and
works will build that world of
tomorrow, will alter its physical
surface, will change its peoples,
and will bend all the swirling
sideroads of life down the broad
highway toward God’s bounty for
all men in the day of the Most
Great Peace.
What is the physical world of today, that we may judge it? If, like Archimedes’ wish, we could stand on a platform in space, we would see a semi-solid ball of rock spinning in space about a distant sun, nine-tenths covered with salt seas, and trapped within an immense solar system, racing . . . a speck in the universe . . . toward a remote galactic neighbor. On this spheroid are animals, among them those called men. They are diminutive as individuals, yet these men possess qualities named understanding, insight, reason; they own, along with biological capacities, a mass of half-understood qualities given the name of souls. Men are tiny, tiny. Hendrik van Loon crowds all of mankind’s two billions into a mile cube box, teeters it on the rim of the Grand Canyon, and pushes it, a mere spadeful of matter, into that great river gash. But men are huge. They are composed of atoms in infinite number, each one of which has structural relationships like those of solar systems. And most marvelous of all, neither the diminutiveness nor the immensity of men are limitations upon their capacity to understand and measure the great symphony of Nature which is our progressing Creation on this physical Earth.
But what are men, that we
may judge them? The physical
world is complex; but those who
have studied mankind find a
complexity no less in degree.
The anatomic differences in
men’s bodies are only equalled
by their mental and emotional
variety. Individual activities are
as varied as those of groups of
individuals. The great flow of
humans in their environments
spins the skein of history, whose
shape and directions we would
give much to know. Individual
man, group man, and the record
of their manifold activities must
be of vital interest to all. Fortunate
[Page 283]
it is that in the immeasurable
differences there are basic
similarities, laws of function,
laws of motion, of progress and
regress. Fortunately indeed we
can say that humans are fundamentally
similar, and that their
groups are fundamentally similar.
But our times in this world defy all but the most penetrating minds of men. Mankind is still yoked to her past. On its neck rides the heavy yoke of disease and malnutrition, the cursed yoke of ignorance and stupidity, and the human yoke of pride, power, lust, fear, prejudice, and pleasure-seeking. Many beginnings have been made, solutions attempted. Health, education, enlightenment with modernity, are only part of the solution of our times, when we know so little about the methods of conditioning the mind of man to Truth, and when man himself is apparently so unwilling to apply the great truths of self-help already clearly known.
To guess at the shape of the world in which we hope to live would be foolish. Suppose that we had God’s eyes, could unroll the world, flatten it, see each of the two billions of people in full focus, in his individual surroundings, know his emotions and responses, know his ambitions and directions, see his exact stature in his community and in the flow of events of which he is a part. We should then be able to accurately estimate present and future, and even lacking God’s clear vision of days to be, —we yet could draw an accurate world of tomorrow. But we cannot have such eyes, and so we are left two methods: the method of scientific observation and the method of divine revelation.
Many there are today who hold to the method of scientific observation, and the conclusions that can be drawn from masses of data collected and arranged. Few in this modern scientific age hold with the method of revelation, since it partakes of certain extra-sensory powers and capacities that the measurements of science do not yet, and perhaps never shall, encompass; most of the scientifically trained youth of today are profoundly skeptical of revelation—and who shall blame them—unless it is plain that the great principles of both, arrived at differently, have a high degree of correlation?
The method of science, and of
intelligent modern man, is to
observe closely, and to grasp
principles, and key facts, from
what is seen, and can be measured,
and finally to guide his or
her response as directed by these
salient ideas—not confident that
[Page 284]
everything will work as conceived,
not sure that his efforts
are going to have a reward of
success, but supremely confident
that self-guidance along these
ways will bring personal satisfaction,
and will in effect alter
the stream of world events in the
general direction of good.
Scientists are observing these items, and what may they conclude from their examinations? From the welter of occurrences, they may elucidate perhaps nine great principles, nubs to which hang the many strings of circumstance.
Many distinguished anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers agree that all men are fundamentally the same in their desires, capacities, and physical powers, that theories of racial superiority are myths, and untenable. Some might term this the great humanistic truth of the Oneness of Mankind.
Many liberal religious leaders are attempting to escape from formalism and dogma, and to reach common grounds of agreement among their several sects, and between major religious organizations, all with the disarmingly simple contention that all persons are seeking to worship God, whatever their method; this might be called the Oneness of Religion principle.
Whatever material success we have had in our days, this we can mostly attribute to the method of science, which is simply the application of reason with controlled experimentation to the problems of mankind. That there are spheres that science is not now prepared to explore, scientists would be quick to affirm. That the problems of human emotion, motivation, personality, and spirituality fall into realms outside of science as now defined, scientists would also be quick to affirm, though with justice, reserving their conclusions to a future date when these different systems may succumb to a different approach. But scientists find their facts in no disagreement with spirituality; nor do enlightened clerics find scientific studies clashing with the Holy Books. Both are facets of a truth that is so many-sided that apparent frictions are generally discovered to be based on falsities of concepts. And in any event, whether science or religion are the subjects, those who consider either must use the method of science: Abandonment of prejudices of all types, with free and independent investigation of the truth.
Today, the rise of so-called
Socialism, whatever its synonyms,
serves as an index of a
new social principle: The Principle
[Page 285]
of the Group as superimposed
upon, and modifying the
still completely valid principle
of individual rights to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
The group principle does
not predicate any special form
of political organization, but
rather it is the moral and ethical
principle which governs our
obedience or cooperation, with
measures that are designed to
give the greatest good to the
greatest number, whatever these
measures may be under any set
of circumstances.
Politicians and thinkers of today are beginning to favor the “method of alliance”, with a police system, with a world congress and tribunal, free trade and with mutual cooperation between nations as the safeguards of peace and the tools of economic success—and in effect, on the political stage, this is the principle of Internationalism.
Certain tools must be forged from the soundest metal before these sweeping principles can be effective in our unbelievably complex world; common understanding can be effective and will be easy only when we have a universal auxiliary language, and the wheels of commerce will roll more fluidly when there is a common currency, common weights and measures, common exchange of scientific data of all kinds.
Few men of any breadth are there in our world today who will not admit that all men must have their inherent abilities explored with the tool of Universal Education. Few will deny that our success in the great principles enunciated will depend upon our sound and stimulating teaching of men.
Those who work for the emancipation of the human everywhere, are quick to proclaim that, not withstanding their basic physical differences, there must be an Equality of the Sexes in opportunity and under the law.
The problems of economic justice are so devilishly muddled, so hopelessly bound by greed and rapacity, power and lust and cruelty, that it is apparent how profound an effect upon any solution must be the basic ethical and moral codes of the men who build the commerce of the world. How economic justice will be brought about, thinkers do not know; the materialists rely upon the pseudo-science of economics now in its formative stages. They rest their case on the goods and the money, but the more profound thinkers point to the importance of a Moral Solution of the Economic Problem! and these men prefer men as the ends, goods as the means to be shaped only by the ends.
[Page 286]
These perhaps are the principles
that seem to be the crystals
of thinking of our current
writers and leaders. Are they
correct in essence? Are there
others omitted? But whatever
one’s personal conviction, there
seems to be a weight of a certain
public opinion behind each
one of the points briefly defined.
And these are the conclusions,
very broadly, of the keen scientific
observer of our times. These
principles are the method of our
day.
But what of the method of divine revelation? Is there in the New Testament, or in the Qur’án, in the Torah or in any of the modern off-shoots therefrom a clear definition of principles which may be said to obtain the pattern for today? Yes, doubtless the great massive fundamentals of good human behavior are present in the recognized holy books. But the clergy who build the Social Gospel, or who propound Zionism or who preach a new Muhammadanism do not clearly agree as to the principles, or to the method for applying those which may be enunciated, because their holy messages were given centuries ago, before the need for newer and more precise definitions, for wider and greater social teachings.
A new great teacher has arisen in Persia and in Palestine, His name is Bahá’u’lláh, and he lived and taught through the latter portion of the nineteenth century, a man prescribed and imprisoned for his great teachings of modernity. Spiritually, ethically, morally, this man is the spirit of Christ and of all the prophets come again to unify the diverse faiths. Clear indication of this to the scientifically minded trained to see parallelisms, is that all the principles above, and many more of major and minor nature, were proclaimed almost a century ago by Bahá’u’lláh in the lands of the bigoted rulers of Írán, ‘Iráq, and Turkey. He reemphasized the old laws of personal conduct, of service, of prayer and love. Moreover, he so loved his teachings that his followers had multiplied to tens of thousands during his lifetime, and to several millions since then.
Science can point out principles,
and can work with them
to a degree. But what it seemingly
cannot do is to supply the
emotional conviction which
alone can bring the invigorating
motivation, so necessary to the
success of human endeavor. And
motivation is not gained by
words, by maxims, but by examples
and deeds. And in the
case of a divine revealer, the
superhuman quality of the man
and his deeds brings the conviction
[Page 287]
that is true religion. What
the scientist gains in allowing
himself to become convinced of
the truth of a religious utterance
(and such conviction of truth is
not incompatible in the least
with scientific integrity) is great
spiritual enrichment with the
highest of motivation. In this
world today the faith of Bahá’u’lláh
alone adequately can fulfill
the need for the religious
synergism of science.
What will be the world in which we hope to live? Shall we describe the wonders of the physical progress of our time after this war, as might a Wells or a Verne—radio, television, rocket travel,—in a maze of earth-meshing air routes, the work of the world made easy, disease conquered? Or shall we describe the leisure of man in that world, his pleasure, and the defeat of drudgery and discomfort? These things are being won now, and ceaseless effort is being bent toward winning them. But they are only the form and the shape of things, not the inner reality. Power and knowledge in the scientific realm may well mean destruction incarnate. We see it now in the mass psychosis called war!
Rather, we prefer to describe the world in which we hope to live as one where the great principles of good living are felt by all and rule all men’s actions. Without spirituality, material power is perverted. With spirituality, with prayer and meditation, service through useful work, love of one’s fellow man without reference to his race, color or creed, what in the material world will not be possible!
Shall we describe science triumphant, controlling our world of technocracy in a circus-land of dangerous boomerang wonders? No, for “science without religion falls into the dreary bog of materialism.” Shall we describe religion renascent and all-encompassing? Yes, but “religion without science and reason falls into the slough of superstition.”
The world of tomorrow—we shall see it—is one where the imbuing motivation of honest religious conviction, of prayer, and service to others will unite its great moral force with the data of science, and divert the stream of men and events down the highway to a Golden Age of Peace, with health and happiness for most of mankind.
Almost a century ago, Bahá’u’lláh
began His teaching, and
cast into our troubled world the
vivifying voice and life of a messenger
of God. He brought the
fulfillment of religious thought
in this day; His is the stage of
maturity in religious evolution;
[Page 288]
and His great message is convincing
to inquiring scientific
youth because He has so firmly
linked spiritual endeavor with
scientific truth and method. The
highway to tomorrow is a method
and a man, scientific knowledge
and a divine revelation, technology
and Bahá’u’lláh.
Bahá’u’lláh’s message is the spiritual beacon of our day. Hear it:
“. . . 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, and differences of race he annulled—what harm is there in this? . . . yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come. . . . Do not you in Europe need this also? Is not this that which Christ foretold? Yet do we see your rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would conduce to the happiness of mankind. . . . These strifes and this blood-shed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family. . . . Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.”
The call of Bahá’u’lláh is primarily directed against all forms of provincialism, all insularities and prejudices. . . . For legal standards, political and economic theories are solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole, and not humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the integrity of any particular law or doctrine. . . . The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve—is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. . . . Its implications are deeper, its claims greater than any which the Prophets of old were allowed to advance. Its message is applicable not only to the individual, but concerns itself primarily with the nature of those essential relationships that must bind all the states and nations as members of one human family. . . .
It represents the consummation of human evolution. . . .
Pioneering at Home
MARGUERITE TRUE
WHENEVER a call has come
for Bahá’ís to pioneer, to
arise and leave their homes, their
friends and jobs, and to go to
virgin territories to live and
spread the story of the coming
of Bahá’u’lláh, many of us have
wished with all our hearts that
it were possible to be numbered
among those historic souls who
might answer this call. In fact,
many Bahá’ís have taken the
necessary steps of closing their
homes and ending their business
affairs in their great desire to be
of service to the Faith. But for
some reason over which they
have no control, they often find
that they are not able to set out
for distant lands, to travel to
foreign soil, and to participate in
the thrilling work of pioneering
in other countries.
I am reminded of one person who made all the arrangements and was ready to move at any moment to another state to pioneer, when she suddenly found herself moving, not to another state or even another city, but in the house next door to the one she was just leaving! How bewildering must have been her thoughts! How crushing the immediate disappointment of not being able to join those courageous pioneers who helped us so nobly to achieve the crowning victory of the Seven Year Plan, the dissemination throughout the whole Western Hemisphere of Bahá’í communities!
I am reminded also of another person who wrote to the Guardian, expressing the desire to move to other regions to teach the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. To this person the Guardian answered that she could teach best by remaining in her own city, with her own friends.
Because of these instances I
am wondering how many of us
have ever thought of pioneering
at home? It may not seem so
glamorous, the fields may not
look so green, the task may seem
more mundane, but we forget
that most of us know the customs,
the tastes, the habits of the people
who are our neighbors better
than we do those of other communities
in distant lands. We
may not he promised a “rich
harvest” of believers, nor be
counted among those martyrs
who live and die on foreign soil.
But we are promised by Bahá’u’lláh
that “every drop proffered
in His path is as the sea in that
mirror. . . . One single breath
exhaled in the love of God and
[Page 290]
for His service is written down
by the Pen of Glory as a princely
deed.”
We may sometimes feel that we are “left behind” and that what we at home are doing is a sort of second-choice. However, we should all realize that if we turn our hearts to God, and are receptive to His Will, and still find ourselves in our own homes, in the same cities, that our job of teaching lies right at home, and that we cannot hope to be given greater tasks until we have first proven that we can follow His Will, accept our positions with radiant acquiescence, and fulfill that mission which is given to us at home.
Looking at it from the practical viewpoint, the pioneer at home has many advantages. Usually he has a job, he has a home, he has his friends. In addition to that, he knows his community, knows his newspapers, the possible meeting places, the leaders in his city, and the sort of approach that might appeal. Sometimes it takes months to learn these things in virgin areas, and often through bitter experience are they learned.
And I am wondering if any of us have thought of the prayer of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in which He says, “Make me a brilliant lamp, a shining star, a blessed tree adorned with fruit, its branches overshadowing all these regions”; and of the words of Bahá’u’lláh when He says, “Blessed is the spot, and the house and the place and the city and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow where the mention of God hath been made and His praise glorified.” Such words should help us to realize that no matter where we make our home, we can be used as channels for the spreading of the Faith if we but make ourselves receptive.
It is one thing to find strangers embracing the Faith, it is even more thrilling to witness the change in our neighbors, those friends with whom we have lived and struggled for years—to see the awakening of their hearts, and to notice the change in their very lives!
Perhaps the reason that many
of us at home have not felt that
the work we are doing is pioneering,
is because we have not been
using the prayers which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
revealed for the region in
which we live, those prayers revealed
in America’s Spiritual
Mission. It would undoubtedly
help us in our work to study the
tablet for our particular region,
and to repeat the prayer at least
once a day. Once the spiritual
forces are released through the
[Page 291]
use of these prayers, those souls
who are awakened begin to lift
up their heads, and to find their
way to the doors of the Bahá’ís.
In addition to this, the new
pioneer might do well to study
the passages in the “Advent of
Divine Justice” which suggests
ways and means of spreading the
Faith. “Let him carefully consider
every avenue of approach
which he might utilize in his
personal attempts to capture the
attention, maintain the interest,
and deepen the faith, of those
whom he seeks to bring into the
fold of his Faith. Let him survey
the possibilities which the particular
circumstances in which
he lives offer him, evaluate their
advantages, and proceed intelligently
and systematically to utilize
them for the achievement of
the object he has in mind. Let
him also attempt to devise such
methods as association with
clubs, exhibitions, and societies,
lectures on subjects akin to the
teachings and ideals of his
Cause, such as temperance, morality,
social welfare, religious
and racial tolerance, economic
cooperation, Islám and Comparative
Religion, or participation
in social, cultural, humanitarian,
charitable, and educational organizations
and enterprises
which, while safeguarding the
integrity of his Faith, will open
up to him a multitude of ways
and means whereby he can enlist
successively the sympathy,
the support, and ultimately the
allegiance of those with whom
he comes in contact. Let him,
while such contacts are being
made, bear in mind the claims
which his Faith is constantly
making upon him to preserve its
dignity, and station, to safeguard
the integrity of its laws and
principles, to demonstrate its
comprehensiveness and universality,
and to defend fearlessly
its manifold and vital interests.
Let him consider the degree of
his hearer’s receptivity, and decide
for himself the suitability
of either the direct or indirect
method of teaching, whereby he
can impress upon the seeker the
vital importance of the Divine
Message and persuade him to
throw in his lot with those who
have already embraced it. . . .
In his daily activities and contacts,
in his journeys, whether
for business or otherwise, on
his holidays and outings, and on
any mission he may be called
upon to undertake, every bearer
of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh
should consider it not only an
obligation but a privilege to
scatter far and wide the seeds of
His Faith, and to rest content in
the abiding knowledge that whatever
be the immediate response
to that Message, and however inadequate
the vehicle that conveyed
[Page 292]
it, the power of the Author
will, as He sees fit, enable those
seeds to germinate and in circumstances
which no one can
foresee enrich the harvest which
the labor of His followers will
gather.”
It is the deepest desire of each true Bahá’í to be of service to the Faith, and by becoming a pioneer at home, he can be sure that he is doing his vital part in scattering the seeds of the new civilization in his neighborhood. Since, in the second century, we will need to consolidate those gains made in the first century, and to be instrumental in establishing Bahá’í communities in every small village and city and county in this hemisphere, might we not do well to arise and pioneer in our own community, and there help to raise the banner of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh?
ILLIMANI—“CONDOR OF SILVER”
FLORA EMILY HOTTIS
Illimani, “Condor of Silver” in the Aymara Indian tongue, is the beautiful snow-peak,
21,030 feet high, which dominates the Andean valley in which lies La Paz, Bolivia,
loftiest capital in the world at an altitude of 11,910 feet.
- Condor of silver, poised across the sky,
- The head enwreathed in clouds,
- Thy snowy wings aslope across the blue;—
- First herald of the dawn;
- Last benediction of the day;
- We raise our eyes to where thy whiteness soars,
- And lift our quickened hearts to thy pure East,
- Upon thy pinions souls take flight in prayer
- To that Perfection loftier than thine own,
- And to that Beauty eye can never see:
- “We beseech Thee, O our God,
- By the Tabernacle of Thy majesty upon the loftiest summits,
- And the canopy of Thy Revelation upon the highest hills,
- Graciously to aid us to do what Thy Will hath desired,
- And Thy Purpose hath manifested.”
- Condor of silver, bird of untrodden heights
- Bear up our earth-bound souls to heaven’s gate.
INDEX OF CENTENARY ARTICLES IN
WORLD ORDER MAGAZINE
BEGINNING with the issue of
January, 1944, the Editorial
Committee of World Order Magazine
has sought to make this
Bahá’í periodical a direct contribution
to the celebration of the
Centenary by the Bahá’í Community
of North America. In
this effort the Committee has
been encouraged and assisted by
the National Spiritual Assembly,
which not only approved the plan
to make the May number a special
Centenary issue, but also
permitted the Committee to reprint
the public addresses delivered
on the Centenary program.
An unexpected bounty and
privilege was the publication of
the Foreword and Chapters One
and Two, with the Guardian’s
consent, of his book entitled
“God Passes By” while the believers
were awaiting complete
copies of this book from the
press.
In reporting the list of Tablets, excerpts, articles and addresses bearing upon the Centenary theme which World Order Magazine has made available, the Editors call attention to the fact that many of the believers may desire to make use of the following references as a source of Centenary material not only for personal consideration and review but also for the annual program carried out locally in observance of the Anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb.
For convenience as well as clarity, the list of references is divided into three parts: Selections from Bahá’í Writings; Articles and Editorials; and Centenary Addresses and Radio Programs.
1. SELECTIONS FROM BAHÁ’Í WRITINGS
- 1. The First Bahá’í Centenary, by Shoghi Effendi. March.
- 2. Bahá’í Holy Days: Declaration of the Báb. March.
- 3. The Birth of the Bábí Revelation, by Shoghi Effendi. April.
- 4. The Day of God, Bahá’u’lláh. May.
- 5. Bahá’u’lláh’s Tribute to the Báb. May.
- 6. The Báb’s Farewell Address to the Letters of the Living. May.
- 7. Utterances of the Báb. May.
- 8. The Second Coming of Christ, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. May.
- 9. The Báb’s Captivity in ‘Adhirbáyján, by Shoghi Effendi. May.
- 10. Dedication of the Bahá’í House of Worship. September. (Selected Bahá’í readings)
- 11. Commemoration of the Declaration of the Báb. September. (Selected readings from Old and New Testament, the Qur’án, and Bahá’í Sacred Writings)
2. ARTICLES AND EDITORIALS
- 12. Reflected in the West, by Garreta Busey. January.
- 13. Bahá’í Teachings for a World Religion, by Horace Holley. February.
- 14. He Calleth the Nations, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. February.
- 15. Headlines Tomorrow, by Marzieh Gail. March.
- 16. The First World Holy Day, by Horace Holley. March.
- 17. His Heavenly Example, by Horace Holley. May.
- 18. A Personal Impression of the Báb, by Dr. Connick. May.
- 19. 1844—Orient and Occident, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. June.
- 20. A New Heaven, by Garreta Busey. July.
- 21. Bahá’í Centenary Banquet, by Gertrude K. Henning. August.
- 22. The Gifts of God, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. September.
3. PUBLIC ADDRESSES AND RADIO PROGRAMS
- 23. A Universal House of Worship. June.
- Its Construction, by Allen B. McDaniel.
- Its Significance, by Carl Scheffler.
- 24. The Meeting of the Americas. June.
- Cosmic Mission of the Americas, by Philip Leonard Green.
- Bahá’u’lláh’s Gift to Latin America, by Octavio Illescas.
- The Awakening of Latin America, by Mrs. Stuart W. French.
- 25. The Oneness of Humanity, by William Kenneth Christian. June.
- 26. America and the Most Great Peace, by Rowland Estall. June.
- 27. The Architect’s Design, by Earl H. Reed. July.
- 28. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America, by Marzieh Gail. July.
- 29. The Spirit of Inter-American Fellowship, by Loulie A. Mathews. July.
- 30. Social Basis of World Unity, by Elsie Austin. July.
- 31. The Oneness of Religion, by Mrs. Charles Reed Bishop. July.
- 32. The Chairman’s Introductory Remarks, by Albert R. Windust. August.
- 33. Religious Foundations of World Unity, by Raymond Frank Piper. August.
- 34. Bahá’í Centenary Radio Program, by Mrs. Shirley Warde, Albert R. Windust, Alfred E. Osborne, Elsie Austin, Eduardo Gonzales Lopez, Dr. Fernando Nova, Firuz Kasemzadi and Hilda Yen. August.
- 35. Religion Comes Again to Mankind, by Dorothy Baker. September.
- 36. The Growth of the American Bahá’í Community, by Marion Holley. September.
- 37. A Radio Program for World Unity, a symposium, by WMAQ Station Announcer, George O. Latimer, Marzieh Gail, and Octavio Illescas. October.
- 38. The Transformation of Society, by Horace Holley. December.
- 39. The Call to Unity, radio program, by Marion Holley and Shirley Warde. December.
WITH OUR READERS
DURING the current year World
Order has devoted its pages extensively,
though not exclusively, to
the Centenary celebration of the
birth of the Bahá’í Faith. A survey
of the contents for the twelve months
ending with December shows that we
have published thirty-nine different
titles related to the Centenary theme
during that time. These titles include
selections from Sacred Writings, articles
and editorials, public addresses
and radio programs. This month we
print an index of Centenary articles.
These issues of 1944, therefore, make
a valuable record of the Centenary
celebration and of historic events in
the Faith during the first century
which all Bahá’ís will wish to possess
and preserve. The May and June
numbers were special issues entirely
devoted to the Centenary and are
still available from the business
manager at the special price of ten
copies for one dollar.
This issue contains two pieces concerned with the Centenary theme, the article by Horace Holley and the radio script, “The Call to Unity”.
In “The World in Transformation” Horace Holley makes clear the Bahá’í belief that only a divine remedy can heal the ills of the world today, that Bahá’u’lláh is the Divine Physician and His teachings the remedy. This address was given at the Centenary celebration on the evening of May 22nd. Mr. Holley, one of our editors and secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, is well known to our readers.
Under the title “The Call to Unity” we print the radio script by Marion Holley and Shirley Warde which was transcribed and used so widely over many stations during Centenary week. Mrs. Warde has received wide recognition and high standing as actress, author and radio artist as well as public speaker, and at present is devoting herself largely to radio production. Bahá’ís remember her as radio announcer at the Centenary banquet. Miss Holley is known to our readers through her contributions to our magazine and her Centenary address on the evening of May 23rd. Miss Holley serves the Cause as member of the National Teaching Committee through her writings and public talks and in many other ways. Both Mrs. Warde and Miss Holley have their homes in California.
Louis Gregory, who is also a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, contributes to this issue answers to the question “Does Soul Survive Body?” We believe readers will find his answers satisfying from both scientific and spiritual points of view to this question which so many are asking today. Mr. Gregory travels widely in spreading the Bahá’í Faith particularly in the South. “Dr. Carver’s Tribute” from his pen appeared in our September, 1943, issue.
David S. Ruhe, one of our younger believers, is a physician in the federal health department and is stationed at present in Atlanta, Georgia. His article, “A Highway to Enduring Peace” makes plain that a peace which will endure demands changes that go deep into the hearts and lives of men. We welcome Dr. Ruhe as a new contributor to World Order.
[Page 296]
Our readers will find practical
suggestions in Marguerite True’s article,
“Pioneering at Home”. Mrs.
True is active in Bahá’í teaching and
is secretary of the Bahá’í National
Contacts Committee. Another contribution
from Mrs. True is “The
Power of Prayer” in our December,
1943 issue. Her home is in Grosse
Point, Michigan.
The editorial this month is contributed by Garreta Busey under the title, “Equal Before God”. Miss Busey makes clear the Bahá’í teaching in regard to racial equality and the race question.
* * *
The poem “Letter of the Living” was printed in our November issue but no mention made of the writer, Alice Simmons Cox, whom our readers know as one of our editors for a number of years and as a frequent contributor to these pages. With her returning health we shall hope to have more pieces from her pen. Mrs. Cox is a member of the Peoria, Illinois, Bahá’í community.
Another omission in this column in November was the name of Clara Edmunds Hemingway whose poem “Faith Must Stand” was printed in that number. Mrs. Hemingway has received prizes and wide recognition for her creative writing in both prose and poetry. Her poem, “Temple by the Lake” was printed in our January, 1942, issue. Mrs. Hemingway’s home is in Chicago and that poem was inspired by one of her visits to the Bahá’í House of Worship.
* * *
Here are just a few of the ninety-five questions answered by ‘Alí Kuli-Khán in his course at Green Acre Bahá’í School last summer. Can you answer them?
What is God? Is God in nature different from God in history? What is the wisdom of prayer? What was the chief reason for man’s creation? What is the meaning of a “new heaven and a new earth”? Is mere continuity of existence the goal to be sought by man? Is man a free agent or subject to the laws of necessity? What is the difference between mediate and immediate knowledge? What are cycles in the world’s history? What are proofs of immortality? What is faith? What is the “Day of Resurrection”? What is the “Time of the End”?
* * *
A group of young college women in the class of Comparative Religion was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith through material in some copies of World Order. One of these students remarked, “Why this is a beautiful religion.” Another said, “One should not really call Bahá’ís a sect when they have such inclusive principles and such expansive ideals of living and of service.”
* * *
It may seem a little late to be enthusiastic over the July issue of this magazine, but Bahá’í truths and articles about them are true for a very long time and we feel sure copies of that issue are still available. The following excerpt is from a letter ordering eight copies of that July number: “To my feeble intellect this number is the most outstanding teaching medium I have seen. The article by Helen Bishop alone is worth its weight in gold. The other writers are all good and there are no classes of people who, if they will read without prejudice, will not grasp the significance of the Bahá’í Faith.” —THE EDITORS
Bahá’í World Faith
This book contains a representative selection of the Writings of
Bahá’u’lláh and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and is the largest collection of Bahá’í
literature in English translation now available in one volume.
A detailed Table of Contents and an Index make the Bahá’í teachings readily accessible for study as well as reading and meditation.
The plan of the book arranges the contents in nine chapters, as follows:—
- Part One—Writings of Bahá’u’lláh
- Chapter One—The Great Announcement
- Chapter Two—The Promised One
- Chapter Three—The Life of the Soul
- Chapter Four—Laws of the New Age
- Chapter Five—The Mystery of God
- Part Two—Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
- Chapter Six—The Faith of Bahá’u’lláh
- Chapter Seven—Soul, Mind and Spirit
- Chapter Eight—The Loom of Reality
- Chapter Nine—The Divine Plan
Each of these chapters has been treated as a unit of significance, and the sequence of the nine chapters conveys a sense of the unfoldment of the Bahá’í Dispensation in the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, His Will and Testament, the Tablets and Addresses of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and in His Testament and Plan for the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
The passages selected have been taken from fifteen different publications as well as from the National Archives.
Printed on thin light paper and bound in green fabrikoid. 465 pages. Per copy, $1.50.
BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
Recognizes the unity of God and His Prophets,
Upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth,
Condemns all forms of superstition and prejudice,
Teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand in hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society. . . .
Inculcates the principle of equal opponunity, rights and privileges for both sexes,
Advocates compulsory education,
Abolishes extremes of poverty and wealth.
Exalts work performed in the spirit of service to the rank of worship,
Recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, . . .
Provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.
- ↑ May 22, 1944.