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NOVEMBER. 1945

The Assurance of World Peace

1. The Evolution of Peace - Horace Holley
2. The Nations Build the Lesser Peace - George Orr Latimer
3. The Most Great Peace - Dorothy Baker

Prayer, Poem - Silvia Margolis

Palestine, Editorial - Gertrude K. Henning

Deep Shadows in the Orient - Duart Brown

The Bahá’í Faith in America to 1912 - Albert R. Windust

With Our Readers

15:

§ THE BAHA’I’ MAGAZINE

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World Order was founded 'Marc'h 21,1910 a1 Bahá’í News, the first organ of the American Bahals In March, 1911, its title was changed to Star of the West Beginning Novembér. 1922 thJ magazine appeared under the name of The Bahá’í Magazine. The issue of April, 1935 carried the present title of World Order, combining The Bahd' l Magazine and W orld Unity, which had been fbunded October, 1927. The

present number 1epresents Volume XXXVI of the continuous Bahá’í publication.

WORLD ORDER is publishéd mohthly in Wilmette, 111., ‘by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly, of the Baha” 13 of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Caneta Busey, Gertrude K. Kenning, Horace Holl-ey, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.

Editorial Office Mrs Gertrude K. Kenning, Secretary 69 Annorsronn R0111, WINNETKA, ILL.

Publication Office 110 LINDEN AVENUE, WEMEHE, 11.1..

C. R. Wood, Business Manager ' Printed in U.S.A.

NOVEMBER, 1945, VOLUME X1, NUMBER 8

. l

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $1.50 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions; {01' Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 151;. Foreign subscriptions, $1. 75. Make checks and money orders payable to World Order Magazine, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Entered as second class matter April 1,1940, at the post office at Wilmette, 11]., 11min the Act of March

3,1879. Contents copyrighted 194-5 hy Bah"1' Publishing Committee Title‘

registered at U. 5. Patent Office.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE

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The Bahá’í Magazine

VOLUME XI

NOVEMBER, 1945

NUMBER 8

The Assurance of World Peace

1. THE EVOLUTION OF PEACE

H orace H alley

HE first of what people of to day would call a “peace society” was not founded until 1815; nevertheless the principle of peace, under different names and forms, has always been men’s first concern. Unity is the condition of human survival.

Thus it is possible to see the working out of the peace principle in these various manifestations of the capacity to survive:

a. The development of the stabilized family unit, bringing peace to the individual man and woman, and security to the child;

b. The formation of clans and tribes, eliminating inter-family disputes;

c. The rise of the historic peoples — the Chinese, the Jewish, Persian, etc., when peace was maintained in one area previously held by separate and competitive clans, tribes and city-states, often with religious sanction and meaning, as in the case of the

Amphitrionic Council uniting Greek cities in 1497 B.C.;

d. The Roman Empire, the type of the peace imposed by a central authority after conquest and forceful assimilation into one political system;

e. The Swiss Confederation, 1393 A.D., and the American Federal Government, 1787, signalizing the attainment of peace by a number of independent sovereignties through, voluntary agreement.

Even a cursory survey of history reveals the fact that “peace” has worn many garbs and spoken many tongues, but whether weak or strong in one case, or local or widespread in another, or voluntary or involuntary in a third, or predominantly political or religious, it has involved at least that minimum degree of unity and cooperation required for the maintenance of human life under any and all conditions. No doubt a

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clearer insight into the realm of social value would reveal to us the fact that some of the most vital victories of peace were won in days before the word had attained general significance. Just as the political complexion of ‘peace has been diverse, so has its religious meaning or connection.

a. Judaism s o u g h t peace among tribes through devotion to their common race and their common Prophet and Law-giver.

b. In one of its branches Christianity makes peace a matter of doctrinal uniformity under one ecclesiastical authority; in another branch it has produced the dissenting sects in some of which the individual has claimed peace for himself as a loyalty to Christ divorced from social responsibility; in others of which peace has been both a moral and a social ideal to be worked out through reforms of the political and economic institutions.

c. Islam, to a degree not generally realized by western peoples, combined religious and civil authority in a new type of society in which diflerent tribes and sects might find peace under law. Islém did not convert by the sword. The followers of Moses and of Christ could retain their faiths provided they participated in the new and larger ethical domain embraced in Islém. They

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were offered terms of a treaty. When they broke the treaty they were attacked if necessary by the military power.

In Europe by the sixteenth century the uniformity of Christendom attained by extension of the Roman empire through the post-empire church body had been replaced by the diversity of the modern nations. The peace effort took on the form of internationalism, the union of the different equal sovereignties represented by secular kings.

During that period we note the following manifestations of peace:

a. Henry IV of France in 1603 put forth a “Great Design” of federal relationships among sovereign states with a representative international body for Europe.

I). In 1694 William Penn published his “Plan for Permanent Peace” in Europe.

0. The philosophy of federalism was expressed by Emmanuel

Kant in 1795 in his work on “Perpetual Peace.”

In Beal’s “History of Peace,” an admirable text dealing with the subject up to about the year 1930, we find emphasis laid upon the fact that the F rench and American revolutions transformed the nature of the state, identifying it with the people in [Page 227]WORLD PEACE 227

stead of with the dynasty, and this transformation of society broadened the concept of peace from political agreement among a few leaders to that of efiective human relations among masses of citizens.

With the termination of the Napoleonic wars begins the modern phase of the evolution of peace. This event marks, broadly speaking, the demarcation between the two social eras of agriculture-trade economy and manufacture-trade economy. The religious spirit likewise deepened and intensified, and combined with the spirit of internationalism in effort to prevent economic as well as military conflict.

During the nineteenth century the peace movements undertook measures for popular education, to arouse the masses to the pitch of crusade, and gradually formulated a program urged upon the national governments to carry out, embracing five points:

a. Arbitration of disputes

[7. International court

6. Code of international law

(Z. International legislation

6. Disarmament

The force of public opinion and the weight of organized effort seemed to come to fruitage with

the Czar’s call of the first Hague Conference in 1899. Opinion,

idealism and reason could thenceforth express themselves through public policy and an enhanced degree of government responsibility. However, the two Hague Conferences produced the means for arbitrating minor disputes but could not impinge upon the sacred realms of national honor and national interest and hence were unable to produce any new social organism capable of maintaining international peace. Fifteen years after the first Hague Conference, 1914, the outer crash of civilization began, revealing its fundamental lack of spiritual integrity and moral force. Even the terrible fury and destructive‘ ness of that first “world war” could not stay the fatal trend. The League of Nations created an unparalleled opportunity for consultation on international problems, conditions and trends, but the opportunity was employed as a means of postponing the fundamental decision and not as the

means of making and carrying it out.

What emerges from study of the evolution of peace is that history reveals the existence of a true criterion for judging the sincerity of the peace effort put forth at any given time. If the peoples, groups or sovereignties concerned create a new and larger organism vested with sovereignty over all

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its constituent parts, the work done is peace. If, however, the participating units (whether nations, churches, business firms and labor unions) each insists upon retaining its own independent sovereignty, and together the units create no new and inclusive body, then the work done may be called wonderful but it is not

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peace. Treaties, agreements and charters have been made but to be broken, for they are the temporary adjustment of an organism that seeks its own preservation above all things. The union of the nations in one order, a world order and a superstate__ this is the ultimate goal of man’s evolution of peace.

2. THE NATIONS BUILD THE LESSER PEACE

George 0rr Latimer

The concept of a federated world was unfolded by Bahá’u’lláh more than seventy-five years ago in a series of Epistles addressed to the kings and rulers of the world. At that time He pointed out that the sovereign remedy for the healing of the world’s ills was the union of all its nations and peoples in one universal Cause. In the Tablets to Queen Victoria the heads of government were admonished to disarm, save in a measure to protect and safeguard their territories; representative government was praised and collective force was to be imposed against any nation by all the others if such a nation took up arms against another. Napoleon III was advised that “the sword of wisdom is sharper than the sword of steel,” and Czar Alexander II of Russia was directed: “arise thou amongst men in the name of this all compelling Cause and summon, then, the nations unto God.” These messages to the rulers appealed for the application of the highest principles governing human as well as international relations.

History records the fact that these appeals for the establishment of some form of a world State were rejected by the crowned heads and the resultant chaos produced two world wars within a period of twenty-five years. The world today has been given its second opportunity to establish peace by political action on the part of the sovereign nations. A number of plans have been proposed for world control within recent years, the latest of which is the United Nations World Organization Plan outlined at Dumbarton Oaks with its two divisions

of the Security Council and the General Assembly, which will be

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considered at the present inter national peace congress at San Francisco.*

Any plan for world security based upon a continuation of military alliances resulting from the present world conflict is doomed to failure, for as Mr. Sumner Welles has pointed out in his recent book, The Time for Decision, history proves these alliances have lasted but a few years and nations will not be reconciled to being dominated indefinitely by a dictatorship of a few Great Powers. The building of a permanent world peace must be based upon recognition of the moral and spiritual rights of all peoples and nations; it is not sufficient just to establish the mechanics for stopping quarrels between nations.

In order to build the “Lesser Peace” the limited idea of sovereignty as expressed by the proponents of nationalism will have to undergo a revision. The eminent Chief Justice Jay defined sovereignty as the “right to govern.” This right is not merely an arbitrary one, but arises out of the nature of any relationship to which it is applied. There can be local, national and international sovereign power at the same time. Nations may be un

l"I'he United Nations Conference, April 25, to June 26, 1945.

equal in power and influence and impotent in isolation, but they should be equal before the law. A nation does not give up its sovereign power when it enters a world organization. On this point the Senior Judge, United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit, Honorable Orie L. Phillips amplifies this very important theme in the following statement: “It is an act of sovereignty, not a surrender thereof, to engage in war. It is an act of sovereignty, not a surrender thereof, to enter into an international arrangement to provide a substitute of peaceful processes for war, to create a world order based on law and justice as a substitute for world anarchy. It is a question of how we shall exercise, not a surrender of, our sovereignty if we face the facts and view the alternatives objectively.” (“The Proposed International Organization for Peace and Law,” J anuary 1945.) The narrow principle of absolute national sovereignty is outmoded as the nations move forward to establish a world order, for the voice and will of the people must find expression at the council table, to insure their future peace and security. This view has been ably expressed by the Honorable Harold E. Stassen in a recent article on “The Cost of Lasting Peace” (Collier’s, April 21,

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1945) wherein he writes: “That we hold that true sovereignty rests in the people, and that there is and must be a law of humanity above and beyond the narrow rule of nationalistic absolute sovereignty. That man is in truth and in fact endowed, not by his nation, but by his Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

In the Bahá’í plan for a new World Order, the word “security” implies both a state of mind and a state of affairs. All previous attempts to lay a foundation for lasting peace have failed to recognize the underlying moral principle, a unity of conscience that blazes from the fire of a vital living faith. This security must be vouchsafed to all individuals, communities and nations alike. “The plans of religious leaders,” writes Professor Otto Tod Mallery, “to spiritualize the inner man are as essential to any plan as mortar’ is to bricks.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá emphasized this all important principle in a letter to a distinguished minister and classmate of the former President Woodrow Wilson, written at the time the delegates were gathered at the so-called peace chamber at Versailles in 1919, by stating: “Universal Peace will not be brought about through human power and shall not shine in full splendor unless this weighty and important

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matter be realized through the Word of God.”

The Plan given to the rulers of the world by Bahá’u’lláh calls for a World parliament composed of elected representatives of the people with an International Executive strong enough to enforce the compact entered into by the signatory nations. By general agreement the nations will gradually disarm, retaining only sufficient arms to preserve internal order. However, these governments will contribute a proportionate share of their army and navy toward the formation of an international police force. Each nation will surrender its claims to make war, as well as the right to impose certain taxes, to this supreme commonwealth. The national assemblies of each country will elect the choicest men of its country who are well informed concerning international law and the relationships between governments, men who are aware of the essential social and economic needs of humanity. The number of representatives are in proportion to the population of each country. Their election is to be confirmed by the congress or parliament of each nation. The members of the Supreme Tribunal will be chosen from these delegates so that the will of the people will be fully expressed at the

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council table and when a decision is arrived at, either unanimously or by majority-rule, there will be no longer any pretext for objection as both the plaintiff and defendant are properly represented by their duly accredited representatives.

On March 26th, 1945, as the

representatives of the nations and peoples of the world were turning their attention to the coming Peace conference at San Francisco, the National Bahá’í Assembly sent a telegram to the President of the United States quoting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statement on the destiny of the American democracy to establish the foundation of international agreement and expressing the prayerful hope of the American Bahá’ís that the creation of a new world order would appear at the forthcoming conference under his leadership. The following reply from the Department of State, dated April 17, 1945 has just been received:

“I acknowledge the receipt, by reference from the White House, of your telegram of March 26, 1945, on behalf of the American Bahá’ís, in which you express the ‘prayerful hope’ that the President ‘Will he spiritually guided and reinforced to lead the nations and peoples of the world in the inauguration of universal peace.’

“The Department of State shares with the American Bahá’ís the hope that universal peace may be inaug 231

urated at the conclusion of this war. As you are doubtless aware, it is the policy of this Government to establish an international organization for peace and security. The attainment of this objective will require the sustained support of an active and in formed public opinion, and for this reason, it is heartening to know of the active interest of the American Bahá’ís in the problems of peace and security.

“As of interest to you and your associates, I am enclosing some recently released material on the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals. I believe you will be especially interested in the

speech by Mr. Henry S. Villard, entitled ‘The Positive Approach to an Enduring Peace.’

“You are assured that the views contained in your telegram have been carefully examined by the appropriate officers of the Department of State, and your courtesy in making them available is very much appreciated.

“Sincerely yours,

“For the Secretary of State; Francis H. Russel, Chief

Division of Public Liaison”

Mr. Herbert Hoover recently pointed out that the great principles of political rights of nations and men are absent in the proposals of the Dumbarton Oaks conference and he warns of the danger of setting up “a purely mechanistic body without spiritual inspiration or soul.” It is to be hoped that the delegates to the forthcoming United Nations Peace Congress will lay the foundation for a world order on a

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basis of the noblest principles that have yet animated the minds and hearts of mankind. The fate of the previous effort after the last world war should stand as a guide post for charting the path of the new order away from the shifting sands of national and personal ambitions. Shoghi Effendi has pictured the former failure in these poignant words: “The ideals that fired the imagination of America’s tragically unappreciated President, whose high endeavors, however much nullified by a visionless generation, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through His own pen, acclaimed as signalizing the dawn of the Most Great Peace, though now lying in the dust, bitterly reproach a heedless gen WORLD ORDER

eration for having so cruelly abandoned them.”

World peace and world organization are not impracticable. There is a great power latent in human endeavor which is guided by the power of the Word, but an indomitable determination and ceaseless vigilance and endeavor are required to achieve this goal. When the political foundations for the “Lesser Peace” are firmly established so that war, as a means of settling disputes, is disbarred forever, then humanity may look forward to the day of the “Most Great Peace,” promised by Bahá’u’lláh,—the ultimate achievement of the organic and spiritual unity of the entire human race.

3. THE MOST GREAT PEACE Dorothy Baker

‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “There is not one soul whose conscience does not testify that in this day there is no more important matter in the world than that of Universal Peace . . . but unity of conscience is essential, so that the foundation of this matter may become secure, its establishment firm and its edifice strong.

“Therefore His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh, fifty years ago, expounded this question of Universal Peace at a time when He was

confined in the fortress of ‘Akká

and was wronged and imprisoned. He wrote about this important matter of Universal Peace to all the sovereigns of the world, and established it among His friends in the Orient. The horizon of the East was in utter darkness, nations displayed the utmost hatred and enmity towards each other, religions thirsted for each other’s blood, and it was darkness upon darkness. At such a time His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh shone forth like the sun from the horizon of the East and illumined

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Persia with the lights of His teachings.”

Nor is His prophetic challenge lost. Across the bay from ‘Akká in the city of Haifa there lives

today the great-grandson of

Bahá’u’lláh Himself, first guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi, whose World Order Let ters have cast a brilliant searchlight on the path to peace. The community of Bahá’u’lláh has spread its wings over sixty countries and seventeen dependencies. Its unifying teachings are disseminated in over forty languages, and within its own ranks are to be found thirty races, all classes, and a vast diversity of gifts. Its influence in press and radio, forum and platform is gaining ground. The uncompromising unity of its own membership assures the world that men can live together despite differences of color, nationality or creedal inheritance, and this in itself is an assurance of the world’s peace.

Meanwhile the forces of unity, stirred by the pen of a mighty Prophet, have swept from prison to palace and gradually permeated the world. In His Tablets to the kings, Bahá’u’lláh seventy years ago enjoined upon them a vast, all embracing assembly, one universal language, and one common script, reduction of armaments and excessive expenditures, a representative form of govern 233

ment, a world tribunal, abolishment of racial, national, and religious prejudice, equality of men and women, and the adherence to one common Faith. World force for the common safety was likewise advised. “Should any one among you take up arms against another,” He said, “rise ye all against him.” Shoghi Effendi writes, “The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united . . . a world federal system, ruling the Whole earth and exercising unchallengeable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East and the West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of all the available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, 3 system in which Force is made the servant of J ustice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation —— such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving.”

A few were not careless of

Bahá’u’lláh’s clarion call. The revered Queen Victoria of England received the Message with

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great sympathy, and her granddaughter, Queen Marie of Roumania has had the historic distinction of being the first of Royalty to embrace the Faith. She has written: “The Bahá’í teaching brings peace and understanding.” “It is like a wide embrace.” “To those in search of assurance, the words of the Father are as a fountain in the desert after long wandering.”

Many of the monarchs and religious leaders bluntly opposed the call; others were preoccupied. In vain the great Prisoner of ‘Akká pleaded with them to regard the things of the earth as transitory and worthless. “The generations that have gone before you,” He reminded them, “whither are they fled? And those round whom have circled the fairest and loveliest of the land, where now are they?” “Your lives pass away as the winds pass away, and the carpets of your glory are folded as the carpets of old were folded.”

His voice alone seemed to he the Voice crying in the wilderness with grave warnings. “The world is in travail, and its agitation waxeth day by day . . . and when the appointed hour is come, there shall suddenly appear that which shall cause the limbs of mankind to quake.”

Indeed, so dark are the warn WORLD ORDER

ings, descriptive of the heartshattering suffering that must purge and purify an unregenerated and careless world, that without His promise of God’s ultimate design we might well find ourselves hopeless in the face of our own holocaust of madness. “Soon will the old order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.” “War shall cease‘ between nations,” explains ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “ and by the will of God, the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.” “The Call of God, when raised, breathed a new life into the body of mankind, and infused a new spirit into the whole creation. It is for this reason that the world hath been moved to its depths, and the hearts and consciences of men been quickened.” “Ere the close of this century and of this age, it shall he made clear and evident how wondrous was that spring-tide, and how heavenly was that gift.”

Has religion a part to play in the “Most Great Peace”? Bahá’u’lláh’s answer rings around the

world: “That which the Lord

hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common

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Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except threugh the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This verily is the truth, and all else naught but error.” Religion is the soul of world order. The old world is divided into more than a thousand “souls.” Sect upon sect has arisen, each striving to reform religion. Christ said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against itself falleth.” It is evident that sectarian religion cannot create a whole world soul. “Who, contemplating the helplessness, the fears and miseries of humanity in this day, can any longer question the redemptive love and guidance?” The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh comes to us as an unfoldment of the Plan of God for our time, “divine in origin and all-embracing in scope.” We can only recall with deepest gratitude the long years of exile and suffering in the path of God of One who turned from the world to write the Tablets to the kings. We can only “shout for joy” with Carmel, the scene of His exile, that historic mountain of the Jews where the “Law of God” was to “come unto Zion” in the “latter days.” Ours to thank God with contrite hearts

that a World Faith has been born,

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suffered its martyrdoms, and lived to encircle the earth with hope and wisdom.

And what can a World Faith do? It is the work of World Faith today to re-fire the dying spirit, to give birth to the consciousness of the oneness of mankind, and to provide the power and form of peace in brilliant, indestructible pattern. Of the first ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant, and beautiful it may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like the spirit, and the body gets its life from the spirit, otherwise it becomes a corpse. It has thus been made clear that the world of mankind is in need of the breaths of the Holy Spirit.” The forces of irreligion, sweeping over the world today, often in militant, aggressive forms, give ample proof that “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; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it?” “Religion is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.” True religion is the

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Most Great Peace. Of the birth of the conscious ness of the oneness of man He said, “Naught but the celestial potency of the Word of God, which ruleth and transcendeth the realities of all things, is capable of harmonizing the divergent thoughts, sentiments, ideas, and convictions of the children of men.” The false gods of racialism and nationalism have so far perverted the masses that nothing short of a complete reversal of thought can save us from such aftermath of the war as may prove totally destructive. “Be as the fingers of one hand,” commanded Bahá’u’lláh, “and the members of one body.” Such an emphasis is the need of the hour.

The third necessity is a new and universal pattern. For Bahá’u’lláh, according to Shoghi Effendi, “has not only imbued mankind with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however potent, sound and universal these may. be. In addition to these, He, as well as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá after Him, have, unlike the Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set of laws, established definite institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These are des WORLD ORDER

tined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign

of righteousness and justice upon the earth.”

Everyone is today aware that unorganized aspiration cannot unite the world. Let us examine the pattern of Bahá’u’lláh with unprejudiced eyes. Every major Prophet of God releases an emphasis according to the crying needs of His time. For example, Moses taught righteousness as an emphasis; J esus stressed personal mercy. Muhammad taught submission to God because of the lawless condition of His people. Today the emphasis of God’s Law is unity. “In every dispensation the light of divine guidance has been focussed upon one central theme,” explains ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God and the distinguishing features of His Law is the consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind.” Unity is not just a principle today; unity is a Law! The command of God has gone forth, and with it the power to see it through. Out of our chaos a Voice has been heard, a Voice above the false gods of racialism, nationalism, and mili [Page 237]WORLD PEACE

tant atheism, a Voice ringing with authority, a Voice that is the Law that alone can set in motion new and far-reaching social trends.

How often in the past the divinely revealed Laws have set in motion social trends destined to completely re-shape the affairs of men. Who shall dare to limit the effect of the ten commandments of Moses? Who can deny the effect of the Laws of Jesus? Who can fail to see the rise of the Arabic people in the middle ages, following the proclamation of Muhammad’s Law? Every stability we claim must acknowledge as its source the coming of divine Law to a people. A single example is the working week. What a factor in social well being is the Law of Moses for a sabbath day of rest and worship. Or the institution of marriage. Millions have obeyed, though often ignorant of the Biblical source of such a social obligation. Gigantic trends, born of the Word of God, periodically sweep forward an ever advancing civilization.

Government without law is anarchy. Even the lesser or political peace must have its charter.

The Book of Laws of Bahá’u’lláh has been called the Charter of the Most Great Peace. “Blessed is the man,” wrote Bahá’u’lláh, “who will read it and ponder the

verses.” “Ere long will its sov 237

ereign power, Eits pervasive influence, and the greatness of its might be manifested on earth.” In addition to the emphatic command to social unity, we find laws prescribing prayer and fasting, laws condemning intoxication and the use of opiates, prohibiting beggary, slavery, gambling, and such ritualistic Observances as penance, monasticism, confession, and professional priesthood; providing for marriage and controling divorce, governing taxation, inheritance, and treatment of criminals; commanding universal education, fellowship with all religions, and complete obedience to governments; exalting serviceable work to the plane of worship, and exhorting the people to cleanliness, honesty, chastity, hospitality, courtesy, forebearance, justice, and a clean and wholesome life. Such laws strike at the roots of our modern corrosions. Already their leaven is spreading.

Following upon the revelation of His laws, Bahá’u’lláh, mindful of the intense spirit of division rampant in the world, forged a unity capable of succeeding Him. Two institutions He gave to the world, by which His laws and teachings could be applied and preserved from corruption.

F oremost in importance, and closely linked to the heart of the Revealer Himself, is the institu [Page 238]

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tion of His own hereditary succession. It fell to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His eldest son, and the appointed Center of His Covenant, to gather together the bereaved handful of His followers after His passing. Without ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, these followers, persecuted by enemies within and without, grief—stricken and bewildered by the loss of their adored One, might well have lost, not only their own identity, but the chosen pattern for world unity so recently entrusted to them. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was everywhere. By pilgrimages of newly awakened souls of the western world to the sacred soil of ‘Akkái, by written Tablets to all lands, and by means of an historic journey westward in 1911 and 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá lent His spiritually transforming presence to the friends of God, serving at once the closely knitted community of Bahá’ís themselves, and implanting the seeds of the education for peace that was to progressively flower in a League of Nations, and eventually a Federation of

the World.

With the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921, the need, far from growing less, became greater with the rising tide of sharp spiritual and social differences in the world at large. The guardianship of the Faith, implied in the Book of Laws, became a fact in the Will

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and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who appointed as first guardian, his grandson, Shoghi Effendi. In this remarkable document each passing generation of Bahá’ís receives its assurance of leadership by a lineal deseendent of Bahá’u’lláh. Each generation will enjoy, in its guardian, complete protection from schism. In him will be vested the right of interpretation of the Word, and to him is given the promise of the direct guidance of God. Thus the Ocean of Truth chooses its tributary in the Day of Unity. The voice of division is stilled; compromise and sectarian corruption are banned in an age that has torn into countless sects the essential truth of the ages.

If the succession is important in the preservation of the truth, legislation is no less needed for the application of the laws. The second pillar of the new society is an institution specifically set forth by Bahá’u’lláh for the government of His world community; namely the Universal House of Justice, to be selected by the people of all countries, having the Guardian as its permanent head, and to be vested with final authority in all matters. Such universal representation, freedom of selection, and strength of authority combine to create an organism in which stability is

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perfectly blended with freedom.

Completely representative gow ernment in religion, for the people and by the people, without professional clergy, and on a world-wide scale, strikes a new note in religion. Alfred Martin wrote significantly; “Who shall say but that just as the little company of the Mayflower, landing on Plymouth rock, proved to be the small beginning of a mighty nation, the ideal germ of a democracy which is true to its principles, shall yet overspread the habitable globe; so the little company of Bahá’ís, exiled from their Persian home may yet prove to be the small beginning of the worldwide movement, the ideal germ of democracy in religion, the Universal Church of Mankind?” The elements of its principles and its government are the elements of the Most Great Peace.

It is not for us to say by what steps the world at large will adopt the laws and institutions of a newborn Revelation. Nor can we phophesy how long will be the period of the half light, encompassed as it is by the confusions and fears of a bitterly disillusioned humanity. But it is for the Community of God to offer three gifts without price or limitation: It will continue its education for peace. It will continue to conduct its ordered life on the

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practical basis of example, that all the world may witness a Goddirected autonomy of fusion in race, class, creed, and nationality, without compromise or fear; for here lies an evident assurance of the world’s peace. It will maintain a pattern, divine in origin and all-embracing in scope, which if chosen by the world, could outlaw war, and maintain in its own essential unity the God-given rights of the individual and of society. At no time will such a pattern permit or condone opposition to any government. At all times its very being will continue to be the sign of fellowship and loving association with all religions. “The method it employs, the standard it inculcates, incline it to neither East nor West, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor poor, neither white nor colored. Its watchword is the unification of the human race; its standard the Most Great Peace.”

And in conclusion, let us all take heart and see the hand of God in every matter. We have only to look about us to discern God’s bow of promise. In what other age has popular education swept the earth? When, previous to our present time, have men walked the ocean beds and plumbed the stratosphere? In what other age has science hurled together the very ends of the earth?

[Page 240]240

In which previous dispensations has the light of God entered in a single century seventy-eight countries, on all five continents

and some of the islands of the seas?

“The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose supreme mission is none other but the achievement of this organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of nations, should if we be faithful to its implications, be regarded as signalizing through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race.” We can no more divorce His mission from the social problems of our time than we can divorce religion from life or God from human affairs. If religion is life, religion then is

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economy, race relations, public safety, government, and moral living. Religion is civilization. At our very gate stands the first universal civilization, clothed in the Most Great Peace. The forces, powers and instruments by which we may forge a new world are in our hands. “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” “War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God, the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.”

These three talks on the general theme “The Assurance of World Peace" were given in Foundation Hall, Baha” 1 House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois, on April 29, 1945

PRAYER S ilvia M argolis

Lest our tongues incline us to chatter, Our spirits to scorn misbeliefs;

Lest our children, untaught of the Lord, Betray one another like thieves;

Lest our hearts wax like iron sinew, And like brass the souls of our youth God, give us the will and the courage To search out and follow the Truth!

[Page 241]Eclilfon'a/

T IS recorded in the Bible that

one of the signs of the Day of God and the resurrection of the spiritual teachings of the Christ would be the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. In the past half century the Jews have been returning to their homeland and Palestine is at present actually undergoing a rebirth. Colonization is making the desert blossom so that the contrast between the desolate spots inhabited by the Arabs and the active areas being rebuilt by the J ews is quite apparent.

Since the promulgation of the Immigration Ordinance (1920) there has been a large influx of Jews. By hard labor these pioneers have wrestled with stubborn soil and battled disease and starvation with the ultimate success of settling desert and swamp country. Many Jewish agricultural settlements formed on unpromising land have transformed the waste land into 'flourishing plantations of vine, almond and orange, and of timber trees of pine and eucalyptus. Modern and democratic Palestine has taken her place in the global war so actively that for the time being

Palestine

the religious associations of the Holy Land are being overshadowed. The economic and political emancipation of Palestine was initiated in 1917 when General Allenby captured Jerusalem. As a result Palestine became a mandated territory of the British Empire with Jerusalem as its capital. Prior to this time Muslim rule had reigned for a long period of history.

Thirty-three centuries of history have shown how the city of Jerusalem has suffered both at the hands of nature and man. She has been rocked by earthquakes and sacked by invaders. Poised on the watershed between desert and sea, the city is a most

natural meeting place of East and West. She has borne all this

harsh treatment bravely, and remains in her unique position a Holy City. It is said that she has

passed from one religion to another six times.

It is interesting to Bahá’ís to note the unawareness of the importance of Haifa in the written histories of Palestine. Encyclopaedia Britannica states that it is to become the chief seaport of Palestine because of its fine

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natural reef-free anchorage for ships. It is the principal harbor of export for Hauran wheat and the products of Trans-Jordania. In the last twenty-five years it has been transformed into a city of modern manufactories and apartment buildings. The Jews have returned and brought this material growth. But mention is seldom made of Haifa’s religious significance other than its being at the base of the ancient and hallowed Mount Carmel. Few people know that there is the Shrine of the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the home of Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian of the Bahá’í World Faith.

Haifa’s twin city, ‘Akká, has particular religious significance because it was to its plains that Bahá’u’lláh was exiled by the Turkish government and it was there that He wrote His letters to the chief rulers and sovereigns of the world warning them of the coming of the great war if they remained heedless of God’s revelation for this day.

About thirty years ago ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that in the future ‘Akká and Haifa would be joined into one mighty metropolis, “one of the first emporiums Of the world.” The great semi-circular hay between these two cities would be made into the finest harbor and great vessels from all over the world would bring thousands of

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people to this port. The mountain and plain would be built up with modern buildings, industries and philanthropic institutions. “The entire harbor from ‘Akká to Haifa will be one path of illumination . . . Mount Carmel itself, from top to bottom, will be submerged in a sea of lights.” “The flowers of civilization and culture from all nations will be brought here to blend their fragrances together and blaze the way for the brotherhood of man.”

Four great Faiths have been nurtured in Palestine since the recording of history: the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Bahá’í. The latter, the Bahá’í Faith, emerging from its infancy since its beginning in 1844, has passed through its Heroic Age of Forerunner, Prophet, and Exemplar, and now is building the structure of “its world-encompassing administrative Order” under the guidance of the first Guardian. F r e e d o m from restrictions through the emancipation of Turkish rule in Palestine gave the Bahá’í Cause its chance to clearly show its purpose and its institutions.

The Holy Land, now liberated, harbors the Center and Heart of the World Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The Bahá’í Faith discloses the eternal Bounty of God and the future progress of humanity.

—G. K. H.

[Page 243]Deep Shadows in the Orient DUART BROWN

HEN I was seventeen I

sailed away as an ordinary seaman on a freighter to the Orient. That was long ago, in 1930 to be exact, but the eyes of youth are bright and searching; they see much beneath the surface what other people miss, and store it in a photographic memory. And on that voyage I saw the shadows of things to come; dark and deep shadows that will remain after this war is over to forecast more terror unless we learn to face the evil facts and drive their causes away.

Remember that 1930 was the last year of peace before the beginning of the storm that was World War II. In 1931 the Japanese struck into Manchuria'and the long struggle was on.

I remember the green lovely hills of Kyushu, the southmost Japanese Island as we passed them to southward, rocking on the huge swells of a distant typhoon. The quaint fishing boats bobbed in the clear ocean water and their sails fluttered butterfly-like in the fresh morning breeze. To me on that day Japan was a fairy kingdom like a pretty picture painted on a wall, and I did not dream of the possibility of the deep laid plans of a mili tary caste for world conquest.

But in the great cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong in China and Haiphong and Saigon in French Indo China I saw the concentrated human misery of the ancient east and I was Heeply troubled. The myriad thousand sampans of the dirty Whangpo River below Shanghai were not meant for the dignity of human life and the shock was great to see a disease-struck family of ten living beneath a six by twelve foot matt roof. Children and their parents swam and dived in water thick with garbage and sewage and with dead bodies floating by which they unconcernedly shoved out of the way. When I told my Violent reactions to the Danish mate, who was leaning over the rail with a long “cheroot” clamped between his yellowed lips, he laughed and scornfully said: “They’re only Chinese rats!” Then it was that I first learned the vast hopeless fatalism of the swarming millions of yellow men and the indifference of the white westerner to their fate.

In the cities I saw a wealth and luxury side by side with the pitiful mud hut and the protruding ribs of abject poverty.

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[Page 244]

“w?" __-____.,____ _ . a ,_

244 WORLD ORDER

To see a large heavy jowled man covered with silks and with diamond rings on his fingers climb, helped by obsequious servants, into a ricksha hauled by a man like a scarecrow was to the soul of youth as repugnant as mixing oil with ice cream.

In Shanghai my companions threw pennies in the streets and laughed as Chinese children of both sexes fought and clawed for the pitiful metal. In Haiphong, where half of the population seemed to be diseased beggars or screaming ricksha coolies, I stared in horror as an ulcercovered woman lifted a nearly dead baby toward me with its neck hanging by a thread and mumbling through toothless gums for alms. Yet on the same street

' were beautiful frescoed build ings, green lovely parks, dashing French officers in many¥colored uniforms, and handsome benignlooking officials in Panama hats and speckless linen suits.

At the little coastal port of Kamfa near the China-French Indo China border our ship was loaded with anthracite coal by hand. Day and night a line of

coolies chanting monotonously climbed the improvised bridge to a point above the after hold from whence they poured baskets of coal into the darkness below. On and on they worked until some poor half—starved creatures

fell exhausted by the side. Yet even while they worked, on the dock beside them other workers were preparing the traveling crane and the endless bucket machine that in a few more days would make the coolies’ job out of date and useless. When I asked, I found that no one cared what would happen to those small Chinese coal luggers and their families. Yet I had smiled at them and they had smiled back showing the light of human brotherhood in their eyes.

In another part of Kamfa we found the sturdy independent fishermen building their own boats by hand and without nails to help them wring a hardy livelihood from the sea. In their faces was the courage and wisdom and gentle happiness of those who created useful things. Their wooden houses were clean and well thatched; their women and children happy with laughter. These were men to make the backbone of a nation yet they were the same people as the Chinese I had seen begging half-starved and disease-ridden in the city streets.

I found more of the same sturdy-independent folk in the villages and towns of the Philippines and less of the squalor and ignorance and pain. Yet even there one saw too often in the dark liquid eyes of Orientals the

[Page 245]DEEP SHADOWS

bitter resentment for being treated as if they were subhumans by the self appointed “superior” whites.

It was while going down the Red River in a sampan from the French Indo Chinese capital of Saigon all one long wonderful night that I glimpsed the Oriental soul. We moved among funeral barges filled with mourners. The black water of the river was fired with phosphorus like the milky lights of wandering ghosts and the red glare of torches that were flung periodically out of the barges lit up a scene with the fantastic beauty of a strange dream. Women with high piled black coifiures and dead white powdered faces bowed and wailed with rhythmic unity while giant, stolid boatmen, their naked torsos gleaming bronze in the torchlight, stood up to work the long black sweeps. Musical instruments made from gourds and bamboos strummed and wailed a heartbreaking tune while through the air, solid as fist blows, came the savage beat of the drums. A dancer rose to sway and bow and twist with the slow careful movements the oriental seems to love and always the wailing and the drums went on and on.

There was a genuine feeling one heard in the paroxysms of

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‘grief for this one man who had

died and yet one sensed that it was not for him as an individual that they wept. The people of the orient who so callously seemed to watch the dead float by on their rivers have souls that seek an outlet from the rigid poverty of their lives. Music, drums, night, a unity of purpose, brings to them the same happiness that comes to all men when they forget self and think first of others even if only to weep over the death of a relative.

Is it not the task of the individual Bahá’í to teach to all men that sensitive souls rest in the bodies of those of different color and race than us? These souls are equal before God regardless of race or creed, and each has the power to be touched by the fire of love and devotion for all mankind. While squalor and filth and disease and ignorance exist anywhere in the world, we bearers of the new world faith must strive to end it. Even as I in my youth saw the current of a second world war stirring‘in the oppressed East, so in my middle age shall I see those currents stirring again unless the love we generate to replace the contempt and indifference of the past be

strong etnough to prevent the flood.

[Page 246]

The Bahá’í Faith in America to 1912

ALBERT R.

N PRESENTING the subject

assigned to me, mention shall be limited to a few historic facts recorded and preserved in the Bahá’í Archives and Writings, together with certain other activities it has been my privilege to observe—and in some measure participate—since 1898, the year it was my pleasure to hear of and accept the Bahá’í Faith.

As is now generally known, mention of the Faith and its Great Founder, Bahá’u’lláh, was first voiced in America at the Parliament of Religions held at Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, through the reading of a paper prepared and sent by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D. D., of the American Presbyterian College at Beirut, Syria.

In 1894, the Message of the Coming of this unique Personage was given to a small group of interested souls in Chicago, by a SyTian named Ibrahim Khayru’lláh, who heard of the Faith from a Bahá’í teacher in Cairo, Egypt. Of thisgroup, four accepted its Message, thereby becoming the first registered

Address delivered May 23, 1944, on the program of the Bahá’í Centenary, May 1925, 1944, Wilmette, Illinois.

WINDUST

Bahá’ís in the Western World. One of these souls was the stouthearted Thornton Chase whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, eighteen years later, declared to be “the first American believer”.

During the following five years, from 1894 to 1899, hundreds of men and women in many cities of North America heard the glad-tidings and were enrolled as believers. The three localities known to be the earliest to receive the Message in the United States, and are so recorded, reveals the following

data: Cities 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 Total

Chicago,111. 4 5 37 192 264 211 713 New York, N. Y.

1 3 5 124 124 257

Kenosha, Wis. 18 59 135 212

Toward the end of the year 1898, Ifllayru’lláh left the United States for ‘Akká, Palestine, his first visit to ‘Abbés Effendi, “The Master”, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was then known. Upon his return it soon became apparent that his attitude had changed, with the result that great numbers fell away from the Faith. It was reported privately that during Khayru’lláh’s stay in ‘Akká, he spoke of his

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[Page 247]BAHA’I' FAITH

achievements in giving the Message to hundreds in the United States, and supplicated “The Master” to make him the Chief of the Cause in America. To this request ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is said to have replied: “We have no chiefs, we are all servants at the Holy Threshold, and I am the Servant of the servants.” Evidently, this ambition for leadership became the undoing of Ifliayru’lláh, who soon after his return separated himself from those who would not accept his views. Later, he became associated with the arch-enemy of the Faith and was shunned by those whose eyes were opened to what had happened.

Thus 1894 to 1898, was a period of great rejoicing, while the year 1899 was one of testing and deep tragedy to many.

During the years 1900 through 1903, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent messengers and teachers to enlighten and strengthen the comparatively few remaining believers. They were: Haji ‘Abdu’l-Karim-i-Ṭihráni, Haji Mirza Hasan-i-K_huraséni and Mirzá Assadu’llah. The first named had given the Message to Ifiiayru’lláh and had made an effort to show him the evil of his attitude, but to no avail. This teacher delivered addresses in New York City and Chicago which proved a powerful spiritual uplift for the faith 247

ful believers. These messengers were assisted by Bahá’í interpreters and translators familiar with Persian and a fair knowledge of English. They were:

Anton Haddad, Hussein Rouhy, Mirzá Buzork, Mirza Raffle and Ameen Fareed. Later came the disciple of Bahá’u’lláh, the renowned scholar Mirzá Abu’lFadl, ably assisted by ‘Ali Kuli Iflién as his interpreter and translator.

The services rendered by these outstanding servants during the months following the storm of tests, became a solid foundation for the establishment of the Faith in the Western World. At this time, in the city of Chicago, the first “HOuse of Justice” was established in 1901, its members elected for one year, followed by the “House of Spirituality” in 1902, its members elected for five years~—-the first of a series of Spiritual Assemblies which today cover the North American Continent from coast to coast.

Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Faith today, writing some years ago in one of his letters, referred to the first mentioning of the Cause at the Parliament of Religions in 1893, and also to Ifllayru’lláh, as follows:

“Of pomp and circumstance, of any manifestations of public rejoicing or popular applause, there were none to greet this first

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intimation to America’s citizens of the existence and purpose of the Revelation proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh.

“Nor did he who was its chosen instrumeht [Ighayru’lláh] profess himself a believer in the indwelling potency of the tidings he conveyed, or suspect the magnitude of the forces which so cursory a mention was destined to release.

“Announced through the mouth of an avowed supporter [Jessup] of that narrow ecclesiasticism which the Faith has challenged . . . the Message of the Most Great Name, fed by streams of unceasing trial and warmed by the sunshine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s tender care, has succeeded in driving its roots deep in America’s genial soil, has in less than half a century sent out its shoots and tendrils as far as the remotest corners of the globe, and now stands, clothed in the majesty of the consecrated Edifice it has reared in the heart of that Continent, determined to proclaim its right and vindicate its capacity to redeem a stricken people. Unsupported by any advantages which talent, rank and riches can confer, the Community of the American believers, despite its tender age, its numerical strength, its limited experience, has by virtue of the inspired wisdom, the

WORLD ORDER

united will, the incorruptible loyalty of its administrators and teachers. achieved the distinction of an undisputed leadership among its sister communities of East and West, in hastening the‘ advent of the Golden Age of Bahá’u’lláh.”

In the series of Tablets revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during the years 1916 and 1917, first published under the title The Unveiling of the Divine Plan (later known as America’s Spiritual Mission), we find in one addressed to the Central States, these words:

“These twelve Central States of the United States are like unto the heart of America; and the heart is connected with all the organs and parts of man. . . . Now, praise be to God, that Chicago and its environs from the beginning of the diffusion of the Fragrances of God, have been a strong heart. . . . The call of the Kingdom [in the Western Hemisphere] was in the beginning raised from Chicago. . . . Up to the present time [1917] every movement initiated in Chicago, its effect was spread to all parts and to all directions; just as everything that appears in and manifests from the heart influences all the organs and structures of the

body. . . . The first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in America was insti [Page 249]BAHA’I' FAITH

tuted in Chicago . . . likewise, the general Annual Conventions, the foundation of the Star of the West [The Bahá’í Magazine], and the Publishing Society . . .”

We abruptly pause at the mention of these four institutions to inform our listeners of certain facts leading to their initiation in the early days of the Faith in America.

The Mashriqu’l-Adfikdr

(The Dawning-Place of the Mentionings of God)

During the early part of the first five-year period of service [1902-1907] by the twelve men elected to the “House of Spirituality” in Chicago, at its meeting on March 7, 1903—-inspired hy the news of the building of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in ‘Isiiqéhad, Russia, — the eleven members present supplicated ‘Abdu’l-Bahá concerning the erection of a Bahá’í House of Worship in America.

From that historic document we quote as follows:

“The members of the House of Spirituality assembled together . . . supplicate with humility and suhmissiveness . . . that in these parts and regions there may arise a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, built in the Name of the Glorious Cod. . . . We turn our faces to the Holy Threshold and in the dust before the feet of all the

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beloved of God, we pray to God, the Merciful, the Generous . . .

“0 our Gracious Master, the Beloved! . . . We supplicate before Thee Who art the Servant of God and the Center of His Covenant: We implore from Thee the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár., and from Thy precious lips, on the part of God, the Merciful? that Creative Word which is the Command that it he—and, it is! . . . Permit us to begin the blessed undertaking of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Chicago. . . . In joy and hope that Thou wilt grant our supplication, the eleven members present raised a starting fund of eleven hundred dollars. . . . Humbly Thy servants, —THE HOUSE OF SPIRITUALITY.”

Two months later, in May, a Tablet acknowledging the supplication was received. After mentioning the names of the eleven members together with inspiring words of greeting, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote:

“I perused your recent letter dated March 7, 1903, and my heart was filled with joy through its beautiful meanings and its eloquent contents. Truly they were suggested by the breaths of confirmation from the Glorious Lord.

“O friends of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his co-sharers and partners in the servitude of the Lord of. Hosts! Verily the greatest

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affair and the most important matter today is to establish a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, and to found a Temple from which the voice of praisings may rise to the Kingdom of the Majestic Lord. Blessings be upon you for having thought to do so and for intending to erect such an Edifice, advancing all in devoting your wealth in this Great Purpose and in this splendid work. You will soon see the angels of confirmation succeeding you and the hosts of reinforcement’crowding before you.”

In a second Tablet, also received in May, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote:

“Verily, I herald unto you the confirmations which will sustain you, by the Mercy of your Lord, for ye have arisen with all your power to serve God’s Cause in that vast region. Ponder over this great Bounty and manifest attainment. . . . Verily, you are the first to arise . . . exert your energy in accomplishing what ye have undertaken so that this glorious Temple may be built, that the beloved of God may assemble therein and that they may pray and offer glory to God for guiding them to the Kingdom.”

During the years that followed, the Bahá’ís were as children, growing gradually in knowledge and firmness in the

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Faith. Although the members of the House of Spirituality seemingly made little headway with the Temple project some progress was made.

Four years passed until early in the year 1907, Mrs. Corinne True of Chicago went to ‘Akká to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, carrying with her a petition signed by hundreds of believers, suggesting a Convention be called to stimu late greater interest in the building of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá commended the petitioners and Mrs. True, who returned filled with zeal and the fire of the spirit. The House of Spirituality, cooperating with her, sent forth an invitation to their fellow-believers in various parts of the country, with the result that representatives from many communities met in Chicago in November, 1907. This gathering was the forerunner of the annual conventions.

The A nnual C onventions

The first general Convention of the Bahá’ís was held in Corinthian Hall Masonic Temple, in March, 1909. The Bahá’í Temple Unity — forerunner of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada —came into being during the sessions of that Convention.

With the outstanding enthusiasm and labor of Mrs. True

[Page 251]Bahá’í FAITH 251

and those representative gatherings, the Temple project soon absorbed the minds and hearts of the Bahá’ís of America. She is present here this evening and I am sure we all rejoice with her that she has lived to see the Temple erected. It is the “Mother Temple” of the Western Hemisphere, and we sense many meanings when we hear the friends

lovingly refer to her as “Mother True”.

As a member of that body of men of long ago—and one of the committee to draft the supplication to ‘Abdu’l-Bahám—I hereby testify that they, and we, have witnessed a remarkable phenomenon. Was it to awaken in the Bahá’ís a realization of the equality of men and women—a principle stressed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit in 1912, when women were first elected as members of Spiritual Assemblies?—or, was it the fulfilment of the prophetic utterance of our beloved Master that that Body would “soon see the angels of confirmation succeeding, and the hosts of reinforcement crowding before them”?

The Publishing Society

The first members of the Publishing Society were Arthur

Agnew, Charles Creenleaf and Frank Hoffman. We believe that

the publishing work was inaug urated by Mr. Agnew. As early as 1900 he was supervising the printing of the booklet, “Addresses of ‘Abdu’l-Karim” delivered in New York City and Chicago, at the Hollister Brothers press where he was employed as bookkeeper. In 1901, the beautiful “Album of Views” of ‘Akká, Haifa, Mt. Carmel and other places, was produced by the Society. From that time until 1907 many pilgrim’s notes, pamphlets and Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were published, including Paul Dealy’s “Dawn of Knowledge and The Most Great Peace”.

In the year 1907, Mr. Agnew, Mr. Chase and Mr. Scheffler visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, carrying with them a compilation of translations of Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’u’lláh for one volumeand presented the idea of their publication to Him. These were from the Archives of the House of Spirituality, the result of a project initiated by that body in the year 1904. To this ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave consent. In 1907, the librarian, Mr. Windust, a printer by trade, was also made a member of the Publishing Society, and by the end of 1908 a sufficient number of Tablets had been received to produce three volumes During the first four months of 1909, he devoted his

entire time to the supervision of

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the typesetting, makeup and electroplating of the volumes,

together with Thornton Chase’s book, The Bahá’í Revelation.

In the year 1911, during the convention of the Bahá’í Temple Unity, the matter of re-organizing the Publishing Society was considered. This was due to the serious illness of Mr. Agnew, who with his wife had, for many years, devoted their services to the distribution of the twenty-five Bahá’í publications produced up to that time. Miss Mary Lesch came forward to carry on this important work, and served for over ten years. Many of the books were reprinted, and the two volumes of the addresses of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America, entitled The Promulgation of Universal Peace, compiled and edited by Howard McNutt, were produced. The following years of devotion and service rendered without renumeration by Miss Lesch to the Publishing Society were most valuable and outstanding. After the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá this activity came under the Administration of the National Spiritual Assembly.

Star of the West (The Bahá’í Magazine) In the month of September, 1909, at the residence of Thorn ton Chase, a number of the Bahá’ís were invited to meet in

consultation regarding the founding of a Magazine. After discussion it was decided it could be inaugurated in Chicago. Editors were selected, a publication committee appointed, secretaries enrolled and an art editor suggested.

Then unlooked for conditions arose. Mr. Chase was requested by the Life Insurance Company he represented, to leave Chicago and establish a branch office in Los Angeles, California, and soon moved to that city; Mr. Agnew was serving to the limit of his strength, and as everyone looked to them to inaugurate the project, the matter came to a standstill. Months went by and other members of the group begged that something be done. Mr. Windust, a member of the committee, went to Miss Gertrude Buikema, one of the secretaries enrolled, and explained the situation, agreeing that if she would undertake the correspondence, he would look after the printing. She consented and thus the little publication began. The initial number was issued March 21, 1910, entitled Bahá’í News. In due time it received the confirmation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through a remarkable Tablet. The second year it bore the title Star of the West, and in the third year, 1912, was sufficiently developed to publish the addresses of

[Page 253]BAHA’I’ FAITH

‘Abdu’l-Bahá delivered in America. During the first year, a Persian section was begun by Ahmad Sohrab, who was later replaced by Dr. Zia Bagdadi. To Dr. Bagdadi we owe a debt of gratitude for the splendid service he rendered during many years, as well as assisting us to a deeper understanding of the meaning of “firmness in the Covenant”. Miss Gertrude Buikema was of Holland descent, horn in America. She was employed as a secretary in the business world during the entire period of her service on the Star of the West, which was also given without renumeration after the day’s work. The sturdy qualities of her ancestors, who had wrestled with the sea, were deeply engraved in her character; seemingly insurmountable obstacles never baffled her, and because of this and her love of the Cause ———together with the confirmation

253

of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and financial aid from friends—the little Magazine became established the first year of its existence. Every nineteen days for twelve years and more, an issue was produced and mailed, making a total of 232 issues, until both she and Mr. Windust were- released through the wise and merciful edict Of Shoghi Effendi that the Magazine be henceforth under the administration of the National Spiritual Assembly. It has been said that this publication set the pattern for ( 1) Bahá’í News, the present official organ of the National Body; for (2) W orld Order, the present title of the Magazine, and its bound volumes were a potential year book foreshadowing (3) The Bahá’í W orld, published

every two years. . fi ' This is but a brief outline of certain activities initiated in Chi cago during the early days of the Faith before the year 1912.

This American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people.

May this American democracy he the first nation to establish the foundation of international agreement. May it be the first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it he the first to unfurl the standard of the Most

Great Peace . .

. May the inhabitants of this country rise from their present

material attainment to such heights that heavenly illumination may stream from this center to all the peoples of the world.

—‘ABDU’L-BAHA

[Page 254]

WITH OUR READERS

NE of our readers, Mrs. Floyd

H. Munson, writes as follows: “Having noted in the June issue of World Order your statement that you welcomed letters from readers, it occurred to me that you might be interested in the enclosed letter which my husband wrote in response to this rather astonishing advertisement which I noticed in the New York Times this morning. I quote: ‘Philosopher, Scientist, Churchman, Religionist, Artist, Mystic, Catholic, Protestant, Jew. Wanted to contact anyone who has really found GOD and will share the find. Y6003 Times.’

“Of course we realize that the advertisement may not be sincere seeking, but we felt it was worth meeting more than half way.

“I like your ‘With Our Readers’ section in World Order and wish you had more contributions. The majority of people are interested in the experiences of others, especially spiritual experiences, or the ways of doing things to further the Faith . . .”

Mr. Munson’s letter answering the advertisement follows, somewhat condensed on account of our limited space:

“Dear Seeker:

“Your notice intrigued me since I, too, have done much searching and I believe I have found some answers which only come through independent search for truth.

“By way of introduction, I’m a portrait painter ‘in the traditional vein’, . . . This is my first step in a new direction having been an advertising artist for many years.

“I’ve always been intensely interested in religion and although haptizeq a Presbyterian I lost interest in the orthodox approach to this problem of relation with God. There is no question but that the purpose of existence is to know, conform with and have this relationship. . . .

“Of course if you are speaking of God, the Absolute, the Essence, you will never have your answer. . The created cannot encompass its Creator. The greatest philosophers down through the ages have struggled to understand that which is Incomprehensible. Don’t try! It is utter futility. But—we know this—the All-Powerful, All-Knowing One has sent down to earth, in every new cycle, Manifestations (Manifestors) , Educators, in human form and has decreed that he who stands in their presence has stood in the presence of God; . . . These are the Mediators between finite man and the inaccessible Essence, the Suhtile. These ‘Suns of Glory’ are given the qualities and attributes of God since eternal realities are qualities such as knowledge, power, mercy, peace (or cosmically speaking equipoise), justice, divine love, harmony, etc. Now, everything in the way of bounty comes through a mediator. The clouds release the rain, the atmosphere conducts the radiation of the sun, a tree is the mediator between the earth and the fruit it bears. So with man; to satisfy his thirst for knowledge the Most High sends the Fountain Heads of knowledge. When such a One appears, that is the beginning of a new world, a new civilization, another

254

[Page 255]WITH OUR READERS

great step forward for the people of the contingent world. This has been going on down throng h the ages: first Adam, then follgowed Noah, Abraham, Krishna, the Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, the Báb (Herald or Gate) and finally, in our day, Bahá’u’lláh.

“At the time of the appearance, in each cycle, of these Prophets of God, the people are enjoined to turn to this Fountainhead of grace, . . . Those who do this are vivified, refreshed spiritually by the elixir released; those who in pride turn away, are denied its bounty and are accounted as ones who are dead.

“When these Manifestations appear, with them is released from the One Power that governs all a new life . . . that acts on those who accept, study and abide by the teachings and injunctions of the Educator. Between the powerhouse and light there is the conductor; between you and the Source of power and infinite knowledge is the Mediator.

“The cycle of Moses has long been completed, the time of Muhammad also, likewise the time of Jesus, for each comes with a prescribed mission, 8 fore-ordained message, to suit the time and capacity of the people. In this day a very great one has appeared, and the people sleep. Nonethe-less hundreds of thousands of he lievers in the divineness of His mission are to be found in every corner

of the earth.”

I l I'

The Herald of the South is a sister Bahá’í magazine published quarterly in Adelaide, Australia. The July issue contains, among other things, an article “A Reply.” We quote from the introductory paragraphs of this excellent article showing why

255

a reply was necessary. The article itself is dignified, firm and kindly, clearly sets out Bahá’í belief and history, and corrects false statements. The writer says:

“The Bahá’ís of Adelaide have read with painful dismay the article by the Rev. H. C. Gurney, published in the April and May issues of the Adelaide Church Guardian, and entitled “Bahá’ísm—a Menace to Christianity in Australia.” In the first part of his article the Rev. Gurney has incorrectly outlined the origin of the Bahá’í Movement, and in the second installment has strayed still farther from the truth in his statements concerning the aims of the Faith and the actions of its adherents, and has lost his sense of fair play and justice altogether.

“The Rev. Gurney, as a Britisher and also as a follower of Jesus Christ, will, the Adelaide Bahá’ís are sure, be ready to allow them to state their case, and to correct those impressions which will otherwise cause many readers to have wrong ideas of the Bahá’í Fait .”

The Herald of the South is .a fine and valuable magazine and may be had for 5 shillings a year. Send money order to Treasurer, N.S.A. and address, Box 447D, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

It * .

Last spring at convention time, although the convention did not assemble, the usual public meeting was held in the Foundation Hall of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. Under the general title, “The Assurance of World Peace,” three talks were given which showed: past efforts towards outlawing war; the progress today in this direction; and what we have every right to expect and certainty of

[Page 256]

256

attaining in the future. Horace Holley, secretary of the National Assembly, spoke on “The Evolution of Peace” in history; George 0. Latimer, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, used the subject, “The Nations Build the Lesser Peace”; and Mrs. Dorothy Baker, who is a member of the National Spiritual Assembly and chairman of the Bahá’í National Inter-America Committee, told of Bahá’u’lláh and “The Most Great Peace.” We are printing in this issue the three talks given on that occasion.

No one will read unmoved Duart Brown’s “Deep Shadows in the Orient,” reflecting memories of his own observations and experiences in the East. What power can remove from human nature this sin of indifference to human suffering, this holding human life so cheaply? Our readers will remember Mr. Brown’s poem, “The Light of Life” in the March, 1945, World Order, signed Vinson Brown. Mr. Brown writes us that he has decided to use his first name in signing his poems and other literary productions. At present D‘uart Vinson Brown is stationed at an army separation center in California.

F ollowing the Bahá’í Centenary Observances in May, 1944, World Order has printed from month to month the addresses given at that time. On Tuesday evening, May 23, Albert Windust gave the story of the first twenty years of the Bahá’í Faith in America. We are glad to be able

WORLD ORDER

to present that talk to our readers under the title, “The Bahá’í Faith in America to 1912.” Mr. Windust’s own part in that history is most important. Among his many services was the editing and publishing with the help of Miss Gertrude Buikema of the Star of the West, the predecessor of World Order, for thirteen successive years. Mr. Windust’s home is in Chicago.

Mrs. Henning’s editorial surveying briefly and commenting on the religious history of Palestine would indicate that problems connected with Palestine are not only international as some maintain, but also interreligious.

Two of the three contributors of poems in the October issue were new names in W orld Order. Janet R. Lindstrom lives in Brookline, Mass, and is a member of the National Bahá’í Child Education committee. Bahá’ís are acquainted with William M. Sears through his work on the National Bahá’í Radio committee. We felt sure that Philip Amalfi Marangella had contributed poems to World Order but in looking through indexes we find his last previous contribution was a tribute to Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler published in April, 1934, when the magazine was called The Bahá’í Magazine. Mr. Marangella has served the Cause in Cuba, in Virginia and Louisiana, and is active now in the Wilmington, Delaware, Bahá’í community.

-—THE EDITORS

[Page 257]Bahal ' " Literature

Gleanings from the Writings of ,Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by

Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’í teachings on the nature of religion, the soul,

1 the basis of civilization and the oneness of mankind. Bound 1n fabrikoid. ‘ 360 pages. 32. 00.

The Kitdb-i-fqén, traiislated ‘hy Shoghi Effendi; This work (The Book of Certitude) unifies and coordinates the revealed Religions of the past, 1 demonstrating their oneness in fulfillment of the purposes of Revelation. Bound 1n cloth. 262 pages. $2. 50.

Prayers and Meditations by Baha’ u’lláh, selected and translated by Shoghi

Effendi. The supreme expression of devotion to God; a spiritual flame

which enkindles the heart and illumines the mind. 348 pages. Bound in fabrikoid. $2. 00.

Bahd” 1. Prayers, a selection of Prayers revealed by Baha ’u’lláh, the B613 and ‘Abdu’l- Baha, each Prayer translated by Shoghi Effendi. 72 pages. Bound in fabrikoid, $0.75. Paper cover, $0.35.

.Some Answered Questions. ‘Abdu’l- Bahá’s explanation of questions conIceming the relation of man to God, the nature of the Manifestation, human capacities, fulfillment of prophecy, etc. Bound in cloth. 350 pages. 31. 50. .

The Promulgation of Universal Peace. In this collection of His American talks, ‘Abdu’l- Bahá. laid the basis for a firm understanding of‘the attitudes; principles'and spiritual laws which enter into the establishment of true '

I ‘ Peace. 492 pagee. Boundin cloth. $2.50.

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, By Shoghi Effendi. On the nature of the new social pattern revealed; by. Bahá’u’lláh for the attainment of divine justice in civilization. Bound in fabrikoid.- 234 pages. $1.50.

' God Passes By, by Shoghi Effendi. The authoritative documented histori ' ' cal survey of the Bahá’í Faith through the four periods of its first

century. The Ministry of the Báb, the Ministry of Bahá’u’lláh, the Ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the Inception of the Formative Age (1921 1944). In these pages the world’s supreme spiritual drama unfolds. x'xiii plus 412‘pages. Bound in fabrikoid. $2.50.

‘ Bahá’í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois

[Page 258]TRUTHS F011 A NEW DAY

' promulgated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá throughout North America in 1912

These teachings were‘ given by Bahá’u’lláh over seventy years ago and are to be

found in His published writings of that time. The oneness of mankind. Independent investigation of truth; The foundation of all religions is one. Religion must be the cause of unity. I

Religion must be in ‘accérd with science and reason.

Equality between men and women.

/ Prejudice of all. kinds must be, forgotten. Universal peace. ‘ i ’ Universal education; Spiritual solution .of the economic problem. A universal language. An i'nternatitmal tribunal;

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