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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
JUNE, 1947
A Religious World Community
Horace Holley
If—With All Thy Heart
Gene W. Crist
Symbols of America, Poem
Stanwood Cobb
No Flags, No Drums, Editorial
William Kenneth Christian
Color Blind, Book Review
Robert K. Christian
For the Advancement of Her Race
Gertrude Schurgast
Wings Take Flight, Poem
Ida Elaine James
Guidance, Compilation
Ella L. Rowland
With Our Readers
20c
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 XXXVIII 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: Eleanor S. Hutchens, William Kenneth Christian,
Gertrude K. Henning, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
Publication Office
110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILL.
C. R. Wood, Business Manager
Editorial Office
Mrs. Gertrude K. Henning, Secretary
69 ABBOTSFORD ROAD, WINNETKA, ILL.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions;
for Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 20c.
Foreign subscriptions, $2.25. 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, Ill., under the Act of March
3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1947 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title
registered at U. S. Patent Office.
ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
APRIL, 1945. Forty-six nations represented at United Nations Conference,
San Francisco. Can peace be attained through a new combination
of war-making powers? Continents desolated. Peoples starving.
League of Nations abandoned. Has a new era begun or an old
tragedy reincarnated in a different form? To Bahá’ís, peace is a divine
creation, the expression of the oneness of humanity through social order.
The Bahá’í Peace Program is one of the vital themes set forth
in World Order Magazine.
THE spirit of man, like all other living things, grows according to its nature, from season to season, through the influence of the returning sun.
THE sun of the human spirit is the
Word of God, revealed in every age by the
Founders of the great religions. Moses, Jesus,
Muḥammad, Krishna, Buddha, were the Mediators
through which this sun shone in past ages.
Owing to them, great civilizations arose.
TODAY is another springtime, when
in fulfillment of the ancient promises, the spiritual
sun has again risen to guide mankind in his
hour of darkness, to shed the light of truth upon
the difficult problems of the age, and to evoke
in human hearts that faith and radiant love which
are the first requirements for reconstruction.
THE Word of God is revealed today
by Bahá’u’lláh. The world religion which
He founded is called the Bahá’í Faith, and its
purpose is none other than the creation of a
world civilization. It offers to mankind a rebirth
of spiritual life, together with laws and
principles adequate to embody that new spirit
in a universal, all embracing World Order.
Excerpts from
The Renewal of Civilization
By DAVID HOFMAN
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIII JUNE, 1947 NUMBER 3
A Religious World Community
HORACE HOLLEY
IN ACCEPTING the message of
Bahá’u’lláh, every Bahá’í has
opened his mind and heart to the
dominion of certain fundamental
truths. These truths he recognizes
as divine in origin, beyond human
capacity to produce. In the
realm of spirit he attests that
these truths are revealed evidences
of a higher reality than
man. They are to the soul what
natural law is to physical body
of animal or plant. Therefore the
believer today, as in the Dispensation
of Christ or Moses, enters
into the faith as a status of relationship
to God and not of satisfaction
to his own limited human
and personal will or awareness.
His faith exists as his participation
in a heavenly world. It is the
essence of his responsibility and
not a temporary compromise effected
between his conscience or
reason and the meaning of truth,
society, virtue, or life.
The Bahá’í accepts a quality of existence, a level of being which has been created above the control of his own active power. Because on that plane the truth exists that mankind is one, part of his acceptance of the message of Bahá’u’lláh is capacity to see that truth as existing, as a heavenly reality to be confirmed on earth. Because likewise on that higher level the inmost being of Moses, Christ, Muḥammad, the Báb, and Bahá’u’lláh is one being, part of the believer’s acceptance of the Bahá’í message is capacity to realize the eternal continuance of that oneness, so that thereafter never will he again think of those holy and majestic Prophets according to the separateness of their bodies, their countries and their times.
The Bahá’í, moreover, recognizes
that the realm of truth is
inexhaustible, the creator of truth
God Himself. Hence the Bahá’í
can identify truth as the eternal
flow of life itself in a channel
that deepens and broadens as
[Page 76]
man’s capacity for truth enlarges
from age to age. For him, that
definition of truth which regards
truth as tiny fragments of experience,
to be taken up and laid
down, as a shopper handling
gems on a counter, to buy, if one
gem happens to please or seems
becoming:—such a definition
measures man’s own knowledge,
or interest, or loyalty, but truth
is a living unity which no man
can condition. It is the sun in the
heavens of spiritual reality,
while self-will denies its dominion
because self-will is the shadow
of a cloud.
There are times for the revelation of a larger area of the indivisible truth to mankind. The Manifestation of God signalizes the times and He is the revelation. When He appears on earth He moves and speaks with the power of all truth, known and unknown, revealed in the past, revealed in Him, or to be revealed in the future. That realm of heavenly reality is brought again in its power and universality to knock at the closed door of human experience, a divine guest whose entrance will bless the household eternally, or a divine punishment when debarred and forbidden and condemned.
Bahá’u’lláh reveals that area of divine truth which underlies all human association. He enlarges man’s capacity to receive truth in the realm of experience where all men have condemned themselves to social chaos by ignorance of truth and readiness to substitute the implacable will of races, classes, nations and creeds for the pure spiritual radiance beneficently shining for all. Spiritual reality today has become the principle of human unity, the law for the nations, the devotion to mankind on which the future civilization can alone repose. As long as men cling to truth as definition, past experience, aspects of self-will, so long must this dire period of chaos continue when the separate fragments of humanity employ life not to unite but to struggle and destroy.
In the world of time, Bahá’u’lláh has created capacity for unison and world civilization. His Dispensation is historically new and unique. In the spiritual world it is nothing else than the ancient and timeless reality of Moses, Jesus and Muḥammad disclosed to the race in a stage of added growth and development so that men can take a larger measure of that which always existed.
Like the man of faith in former
ages, the Bahá’í has been
given sacred truths to cherish in
his heart as lamps for darkness
[Page 77]
and medicines for healing, convictions
of immortality and evidences
of divine love. But in addition
to these gifts, the Bahá’í
has that bestowal which only the
Promised One of all ages could
bring: nearness to a process of
creation which opens a door of
entrance into a world of purified
and regenerated human relations.
The final element in his
recognition of the message of
Bahá’u’lláh is that Bahá’u’lláh
came to found a civilization of
unity, progress and peace.
“O Children of Men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times how ye were created. Since We have created you all from the same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the sea of wondrous glory.”
Thus He describes the law of survival revealed for the world today, mystical only in that He addressed these particular words to our deepest inner understanding. Their import is not confined to any subjective realm. The motive and the realization He invokes has become the whole truth of sociology in this era.
Or, as we find its expression in another passage: “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.” And the truth reappears in still another form: “How vast is the tabernacle of the Cause of God! It hath overshadowed all the peoples and kindreds of the earth, and will, erelong, gather together the whole of mankind behind its shelter.”
The encompassing reach of the Cause of God in each cycle means the particular aspect of experience for which men are held responsible. Not until our day could there be the creation of the principle of moral cause and effect in terms of mankind itself, in terms of the unifiable world.
The mission of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
following Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension
in 1892, was to raise up a
community of believers through
whom collectively He might
demonstrate the operation of the
law of unity. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
mission became fulfilled historically
in the experience of the
Bahá’ís of North America. In
[Page 78]
them He developed the administrative
order, the organic society,
which exemplifies the pattern
of justice and order Bahá’u’lláh
had creatively ordained.
By His wisdom, His tenderness,
His justice and His complete
consecration to Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
conveyed to this body
of Bahá’ís a sense of partnership
in the process of divine creation:
that it is for men to re-create, as
civilization, a human and earthly
replica of the heavenly order existing
in the divine will.
The Bahá’í administrative order has been described by the Guardian of the Faith as the pattern of the world order to be gradually attained as the Faith spreads throughout all countries. Its authority is Bahá’u’lláh, its sources the teachings He revealed in writing, with the interpretation and amplification made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
The first conveyance of authority by Bahá’u’lláh was to His eldest son. By this conveyance the integrity of the teachings was safeguarded, and the power of action implicit in all true faith directed into channels of unity for the development of the Cause in its universal aspects. No prior Dispensation has ever raised up an instrument like ‘Abdu’l-Bahá through whom the spirit and purpose of the Founder could continue to flow out in its wholeness and purity until His purpose had been achieved. The faith of the Bahá’í thus remains untainted by those elements of self-will which in previous ages have translated revealed truth into creeds, rites and institutions of human origin and limited aim. Those who enter the Bahá’í community subdue themselves and their personal interests to its sovereign standard, for they are unable to alter the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and exploit its teachings or its community for their own advantage.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s life exemplified the working of the one spirit and the one truth sustaining the body of believers throughout the world. He was the light connecting the sun of truth with the earth, the radiance enabling all Bahá’ís to realize that truth penetrates human affairs, illumines human problems, transcends conventional barriers, changes the climate of life from cold to warm. He infused Himself so completely into the hearts of the Bahá’ís that they associated the administrative institutions of the Faith with His trusted and cherished methods of service, so that the contact between their society and their religion has remained continuous and unimpared.
The second conveyance of authority
made by Bahá’u’lláh was
[Page 79]
to the institution He termed
“House of Justice”:—“The Lord
hath ordained that in every city
a House of Justice be established
wherein shall gather counsellors
to the number of Bahá (i.e.,
nine) . . . It behooveth them to
be the trusted ones of the Merciful
among men and to regard
themselves as the guardians appointed
of God for all that dwell
on earth. It is incumbent upon
them to take counsel together and
to have regard for the interests
of the servants of God, for His
sake, even as they regard their
own interests, and to choose that
which is meet and seemly. . . .
Those souls who arise to serve
the Cause sincerely to please
God will be inspired by the divine,
invisible inspirations. It is
incumbent upon all (i.e., all believers)
to obey. . . . Administrative
affairs are all in charge of
the House of Justice; but acts of
worship must be observed according
as they are revealed in
the Book”
The House of Justice is limited in its legislative capacity to matters not covered by the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh Himself:— “It is incumbent upon the Trustees of the House of Justice to take counsel together regarding such laws as have not been expressly revealed in the Book.” A high aim is defined for this central administrative organ of the Faiths:—“The men of the House of Justice must, night and day, gaze toward that which hath been revealed from the horizon of the Supreme Pen for the training of the servants, for the upbuilding of countries, for the preservation of human honor.”
In creating this institution for His community, Bahá’u’lláh made it clear that His Dispensation rests upon continuity of divine purpose, and associates human beings directly with the operation of His law. The House of Justice, an elective body, transforms society into an organism reflecting spiritual life. By the just direction of affairs this Faith replaces the institution of the professional clergy developed in all previous Dispensations.
By 1921, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
laid down His earthly mission,
the American Bahá’í community
had been extended to scores of
cities and acquired power to undertake
tasks of considerable
magnitude, but the administrative
order remained incomplete.
His Will and Testament inaugurated
a new era in the Faith, a
further conveyance of authority
and a clear exposition of the nature
of the elective institutions
which the Bahá’ís were called
upon to form. In Shoghi Effendi,
His grandson, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá established
[Page 80]
the function of Guardianship
with sole power to interpret
the teachings and with authority
to carry out the provisions
of the Will. The Guardianship
connects the spiritual
and social realms of the Faith in
that, in addition to the office of
interpreter, he is constituted the
presiding officer of the international
House of Justice when
elected; and the Guardianship
is made to descend from generation
to generation through the
male line.
From the Will these excerpts are cited:
“After the passing of this wronged one, it is incumbent upon . . . the loved ones of the ‘Abhá Beauty (i.e., Bahá’u’lláh) to turn unto Shoghi Effendi— the youthful branch branched from the two hallowed Lote-Trees (i.e., descended from both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh) . . . as he is the sign of God, the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God . . . unto whom . . . His loved ones must turn. He is the expounder of the words of God and after him will succeed the first-born of his lineal descendants.
“The sacred and youthful branch, the guardian of the Cause of God, as well as the Universal House of Justice, to be universally elected and established, are both under the care and protection of the ‘Abhá Beauty . . . Whatsoever they decide is of God. . . . The mighty stronghold shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the guardian of the Cause of God. . . . No doubt every vainglorious one that purposeth dissension and discord will not openly declare his evil purposes, nay rather, even as impure gold would he seize upon divers measures and various pretexts that he may separate the gathering of the people of Bahá.”
“Wherefore, O my loving friends! Consort with all the peoples, kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and friendliness; that all the world of being may be filled with the holy ecstasy of the grace of Bahá. . . .”
“O ye beloved of the Lord!
Strive with all your heart to
shield the Cause of God from the
onslaught of the insincere, for
souls such as these cause the
straight to become crooked and
all benevolent efforts to produce
contrary results. . . . To none is
given the right to put forth his
own opinion or express his particular
convictions. All must seek
guidance and turn unto the Center
[Page 81]
of the Cause and the House
of Justice.”
In each country where Bahá’ís exist, they participate in the world unity of their Faith through the office of the Guardian at this time, and they maintain local and national Bahá’í institutions for conducting their own activities.
In each local civil community, whether city, township or county, the Bahá’ís annually elect nine members to their local Spiritual Assembly. In America the Bahá’ís of each State or Canadian Province, (a direction of the Guardian having effect for the first time in connection with the Convention of 1944, the one hundredth year of the Faith) join in the election of delegates by proportionate representation and these delegates, to the full number of one hundred and seventy-one, constitute the Annual Convention which elects the members of the National Spiritual Assembly. These national bodies, in turn, will join in the election of an international Assembly, or House of Justice, when the world Bahá’í community is sufficiently developed.
The inter-relationship of all
these administrative bodies provides
the world spirit of the Faith
with the agencies required for the
maintenance of a constitutional
society balancing the rights of
the individual with the paramount
principle of unity preserving the
whole structure of the Cause. The
Bahá’í as an individual accepts
guidance for his conduct and
doctrinal beliefs, for not otherwise
can he contribute his share
to the general unity which is
God’s supreme blessing to the
world today. This general unity
is the believer’s moral environment,
his social universe, his
psychic health and his goal of effort
transcending any personal
aim. In the Bahá’í order, the individual
is the musical note, but
the teachings revealed by Bahá’u’lláh
are the symphony in
which the note finds its real fulfillment;
the person attains value
by recognizing that truth transcends
his capacity and includes
him in a relationship which
‘Abdu’l-Bahá said endowed the
part with the quality of the
whole. To receive, we give. In
comparison to this divine creation,
the traditional claims of individual
conscience, of personal
judgment, of private freedom,
seem nothing more than empty
assertions advanced in opposition
to the divine will. It cannot
be sufficiently emphasized that
the Bahá’í’s relationship to this
new spiritual society is an expression
of faith, and faith alone
raises personality out of the pit
[Page 82]
of self-will and moral isolation
into which so much of the world
has fallen.
There can be no organic society, in fact, without social truth and social law embracing the individual members and evoking a loyalty both voluntary and complete. The political and economic groups which the individual enters with reservations are not true societies but temporary combinations of restless personalities, met in a truce which can not endure. Bahá’u’lláh has for ever solved the artificial dilemma which confuses and betrays the ardent upholder of individual freedom by His categorical statement that human freedom consists in obedience to God’s law. The freedom revolving around self-will He declares “must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flames none can quench. . . . Know ye that the embodiment of liberty and its symbol is the animal . . . True liberty consists in man’s submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it.”
The Guardian, applying the terms of the Will and Testament to an evolving order, has given the present generation of Bahá’ís a thorough understanding of Bahá’í institutions and administrative principles. Rising to its vastly increased responsibility resulting from the loss of the beloved Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Bahá’í community itself has intensified its effort until in America alone the number of believers has been more than doubled since 1921. It has been their destiny to perfect the local and national Bahá’í institutions as models for the believers in other lands. Within the scope of a single lifetime, the the American Bahá’í community has developed from a small local group to a national unit of a world society, passing through the successive stages by which a civilization achieves its pristine pattern and severs itself from the anarchy and confusion of the past.
In Shoghi Effendi’s letters addressed to this Bahá’í community, we have the statement of the form of the administrative order, its function and purpose, its scope and activity, as well as its significance, which unites the thoughts and inspires the actions of all believers today.
From these letters are selected a number of passages presenting fundamental aspects of the world order initiated by Bahá’u’lláh.
1. On its nature and scope:—
“I cannot refrain from appealing
to them who stand identified
with the Faith to disregard the
prevailing notions and the fleeting
[Page 83]
fashions of the day, and to
realize as never before that the
exploded theories and the tottering
institutions of present-day
civilization must needs appear in
sharp contrast with those God-given
institutions which are destined
to arise upon their ruin.
“For Bahá’u’lláh . . . 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 destined 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. . . .”
2. On its local and national institutions:—
“A perusal of some of the words of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the duties and functions of the Spiritual Assemblies in every land (later to be designated as the local Houses of Justice), emphatically reveals the sacredness of their nature, the wide scope of their activity, and the grave responsibility which rests upon them.
“In the Most Holy Book is revealed:— ‘The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established wherein shall gather counselors to the number of Bahá, and should it exceed this number it does not matter. It behooveth them to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth. It is incumbent upon them to take counsel together and to have regard for the interests of the servants of God, for His sake, even as they regard their own interests, and to choose that which is meet and seemly. Thus hath the Lord your God commanded you. Beware lest ye put away that which is clearly revealed in His Tablet. Fear God, O ye that perceive.’
“Furthermore, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
reveals the following:—‘It is incumbent
upon every one not to
take any step without consulting
the Spiritual Assembly, and they
must assuredly obey with heart
and soul its bidding and be submissive
unto it, that things may
be properly ordered and well arranged.
Otherwise every person
[Page 84]
will act independently and after
his own judgment, will follow his
own desire, and do harm to the
Cause’.”
“Regarding the establishment of ‘National Assemblies,’ it is of vital importance that in every country, where the conditions are favorable and the number of the friends has grown and reached a considerable size, such as America, Great Britain and Germany, that a ‘National Spiritual Assembly’ be immediately established, representative of the friends throughout that country.”
“Its immediate purpose is to stimulate, unify and coordinate by frequent personal consultations, the manifold activities of the friends as well as the local Assemblies; and by keeping in close and constant touch with the Holy Land, initiate measures, and direct in general the affairs of the Cause in that country.
“It serves also another purpose, no less essential than the first, as in the course of time it shall evolve into the National House of Justice (referred to in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will as the “secondary House of Justice”), which according to the explicit text of the Testament will have, in conjunction with the other National Assemblies throughout the Bahá’í world, to elect directly the members of the International House of Justice, that Supreme Council that will guide, organize and unify the affairs of the Movement throughout the world.”
“With these Assemblies, local as well as national, harmoniously, vigorously, and efficiently functioning throughout the Bahá’í world, the only means for the establishment of the Supreme House of Justice will have been secured. And when this Supreme Body will have been properly established, it will have to consider afresh the whole situation, and lay down the principles which shall direct, so long as it deems advisable, the affairs of the Cause. . . .
“Hitherto the National Convention
has been primarily called
together for the consideration of
the various circumstances attending
the election of the National
Spiritual Assembly. I feel, however,
that in view of the expansion
and the growing importance
of the administrative sphere of
the Cause, the general sentiments
and tendencies prevailing among
the friends, and the signs of increasing
interdependence among
the National Spiritual Assemblies
throughout the world, the
assembled accredited representatives
of the American believers
should exercise not only the vital
and responsible right of electing
the National Assembly, but
[Page 85]
should also fulfill the functions
of an enlightened, consultative
and cooperative body that will
enrich the experience, enhance
the prestige, support the authority,
and assist the deliberations
of the National Spiritual Assembly.
It is my firm conviction that
it is the bounden duty, in the interest
of the Cause we all love
and serve, of the members of the
incoming National Assembly,
once elected by the delegates at
Convention time, to seek and
have the utmost regard, individually
as well as collectively, for
the advice, the considered opinion
and the true sentiments of the
assembled delegates. Banishing
every vestige of secrecy, of undue
reticence, of dictatorial aloofness,
from their midst, they
should radiantly and abundantly
unfold to the eyes of the delegates,
by whom they are elected,
their plans, their hopes, and
their cares. They should familiarize
the delegates with the various
matters that will have to be considered
in the current year, and
calmly and conscientiously study
and weigh the opinions and judgments
of the delegates. The newly
elected National Assembly,
during the few days when the
Convention is in session and after
the dispersal of the delegates,
should seek ways and means to
cultivate understanding, facilitate
and maintain the exchange
of views, deepen confidence, and
vindicate by every tangible evidence
their one desire to serve
and advance the common weal.
Not infrequently, nay oftentimes,
the most lowly, untutored and inexperienced
among the friends
will, by the sheer inspiring force
of selfless and ardent devotion,
contribute a distinct and memorable
share to a highly involved
discussion in any given Assembly.
Great must be the regard
paid by those whom the delegates
call upon to serve in high position
to this all-important though
inconspicuous manifestation of
the revealing power of sincere
and earnest devotion.”
“Nothing short of the all-encompassing, all-pervading power of His Guidance and Love can enable this newly-enfolded order to gather strength and flourish amid the storm and stress of a turbulent age, and in the fulness of time vindicate its high claim to be universally recognized as the one Haven of abiding felicity and peace.”
3. On its international institutions:—
“It should be stated, at the
very outset, in clear and unambiguous
language, that these twin
institutions of the Administrative
Order of Bahá’u’lláh should be
regarded as divine in origin, essential
[Page 86]
in their functions and
complementary in their aim and
purpose. Their common, their
fundamental object is to insure
the continuity of that divinely-appointed
authority which flows
from the Source of our Faith, to
safeguard the unity of its followers
and to maintain the integrity
and flexibility of its teachings.
Acting in conjunction with each
other these two inseparable institutions
administer its affairs, coordinate
its activities, promote its
interests, execute its laws and defend
its subsidiary institutions.
Severally, each operates within a
clearly defined sphere of jurisdiction;
each is equipped with its
own attendant institutions—instruments
designed for the effective
discharge of its particular
responsibilities and duties. Each
exercises, within the limitations
imposed upon it, its powers, its
authority, its rights and prerogatives.
These are neither contradictory,
nor detract in the slightest
degree from the position
which each of these institutions
occupies. Far from being incompatible
or mutually destructive,
they supplement each other’s authority
and functions, and are
permanently and fundamentally
united in their aims.
“Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has written, has been invariably upheld by the Law of God. ‘In all the Divine Dispensations,’ He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, ‘the eldest son hath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright.’ Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be imperilled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely endangered.
“Severed from the no less essential institution of the Universal House of Justice this same System of the Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would be paralyzed in its action and would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His legislative and administrative ordinances.”
“Let no one, while this System
is still in its infancy, misconceive
its character, belittle its significance
or misrepresent its purpose.
The bedrock on which this
Administrative Order is founded
is God’s immutable Purpose for
mankind in this day. The Source
from which it derives its inspiration
is no less than Bahá’u’lláh
Himself. Its shield and defender
[Page 87]
are the embattled hosts of the
Abhá Kingdom. Its seed is the
blood of no less than twenty
thousand martyrs who have offered
up their lives that it may
be born and flourish. The axis
round which its institutions revolve
are the authentic provisions
of the Will and Testament of
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Its guiding principles
are the truths which He
Who is the unerring Interpreter
of the teachings of our Faith has
so clearly enunciated in His public
addresses throughout the
West. The laws that govern its
operation and limit its functions
are those which have been expressly
ordained in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.”
Over fifty years have passed since the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh was first brought to North America. Three generations of believers have worked and sacrificed and prayed in order to produce a body of Bahá’ís large enough to demonstrate the principles here summarized in a few pages for the present-day student of these teachings. What ‘Abdu’l-Bahá employed as unifying element for the American community during a period before more than rudimentary local administrative bodies could be established was the construction of the House of Worship, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, in Wilmette. He in fact referred to the House of Worship as the “inception of the Kingdom.” Around its construction devotedly gathered the American friends. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá approved their action in setting up a religious corporation to hold title to the property and provide a basis for collective action. In surveying those days from 1904 to 1921, one realizes how, in every stage of progress, the believers rushed forward in devotion before they could perceive the full results of action or comprehend the full unfoldment of their beloved Master’s intention. In their hearts they knew that unity is the keynote of their Faith, and they were assured that the new power of unity would augment until it encompassed the whole of mankind. But as to the nature of world order, the foundation of universal peace, the principles of the future economy, while the clear picture eluded them, they went forward with enthusiasm to the Light.
In a continent consecrated to the pioneer, the early American Bahá’ís pioneered in the world of spirit, striving to participate in a work of supreme importance whose final result was the laying of a foundation on which human society might raise a house of justice and a mansion of peace.
If—With All Thy Heart
GENE W. CRIST
IN SPIRITUAL seeking there
are two opposing influences.
The first is the desire to find a
satisfying faith or to broaden
spiritual horizons. The second is
the obstacles to accepting anything
that is unfamiliar and new
caused by conditioning, fears, orthodoxy,
prejudices and loyalties.
This is a brief story of the conflict of these two influences, a very personal testimony.
My quest for Truth began at
my mother’s knee where I had
many questions answered, and
where I learned the security,
blessedness and efficacy of
prayer; where I learned, also,
to love the Word of God. And
thus began a life-long devotion to
the Christ and service in God’s
Cause. My faith led me to teaching
very early; later to an intense
interest in comparative religions;
and finally into the study of philosophy
and metaphysics.
The study of comparative religions began after I had spent some months in China and Japan, and saw, first-hand, the sickening inadequacy of the religions which have become intermingled with superstition, destructive practices and devil worship. I knew nothing of “Progressive Revelation” at that time.
To some who are familiar with this longer view of God’s method of educating mankind spiritually, my lack of this vision may seem strange. Perhaps I should explain that in the Methodist Church in which I grew up, we were taught that there is but one Source of Revelation; namely the Old and New Testaments. More than this, we were taught that all other religions are pagan and heathen. We learned in the Missionary Society all about the debasing, degraded practices of the Brahmins; of the murderous invasions of the Muḥammadans and their promises of a revolting heaven. And so for years, from this scanty knowledge, I “prejudged” all religions other than Christian. When I studied philosophy at George Washington university with the professor of philosophy who was also a Baptist minister and tied to a narrow orthodoxy, the prejudices in which I was steeped were greatly strengthened.
It was the summer after I had
pursued with this professor my
studies far into metaphysics, that
we visited our daughter who is a
radiant Bahá’í. Knowing of my
[Page 89]
interest in philosophy and religion,
she said almost as soon as we
arrived, "Mother, we have the
true philosophy, and it has all
the answers to your questions.”
Well, all that evening we talked about the Bahá’í Faith. I knew at once that I must investigate this; I must know if Bahá’u’lláh was a Manifestation of God and if His writings really contained the Revelation from God.
Just before I went to sleep, I said to my husband, “I have such a strange feeling. I feel as though I am a Jewish woman and have just been told about the Christ. I am thinking of how many of those Jewish women missed the glory of knowing the Christ because they turned away from Him. I would not like to be one of them.”
So the first thing in the morning I began to ask questions. Then I began to read. But nothing was clear; for around my mind and soul there were veils that obscured my spiritual vision.
When I read that Bahá’u’lláh was born a Muḥammadan I was not sure that I cared to read any more; but an insatiable need led me on, so I did read and kept on reading—always interested, always doubting—but finding many answers to as many queries.
One day after some weeks, I returned home and attended the regular missionary society meeting of our church. I was not especially interested or attentive until I heard the chairman introducing the speaker as “a missionary from Persia.” I will not attempt to report on her talk but at the climax she stated, with great emphasis, “There are hundreds of millions of Muḥammadans and they will never be reached by the Christian religion—they will never accept it.”
In that moment the truth of her startling statement burned away one of my veils of prejudice, for I realized that when a people need special Guidance, and are ready for it, God will raise a holy Soul from among them through whom He will give His Revelations.
I had been reading The
Chosen Highway which is a history
written by an English woman,
authenticating the story of
the three figures of the Bahá’í
Faith, the Báb (the Forerunner),
Bahá’u’lláh (the Prophet Himself)
and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (the latter’s
son). I had selected this
book, because I wanted very
much to have the testimony of
those outside the Faith as to the
things claimed and as to the lives
of these holy men. I also read
Táhirih the Pure, Irán’s Greatest
[Page 90]
Woman, written by an American,
which is an account of the life
of one of the early martyrs of
the Faith; and then also Some
Answered Questions by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Before I had finished The
Chosen Highway I had developed
an unshakable love for
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This was a long
step toward my goal.
One of the factors which led me to seek the truth was an experience I had as a member of the Official Board of a Methodist Church. In the deliberations of that body I saw things which made me inexpressibly sad and which I could not conscientiously support. So I resigned from the Board, much against my pastor’s wishes. Furthermore, I was witnessing the inadequacy of the Christian churches. I was listening to the statements of Christian ministers, as their crusades failed and as their programs fell on indifferent ears. I was hearing them frankly state that they did not know what was happening in the affairs of men or what solution could be found for the confusion in the world.
This was my personal predicament also as a teacher of a large class of mature women. I began to feel a terrified need for answers and for more enlightenment. My heart was searching for an authoritative voice.
But every time I tried to face the idea of leaving the church and becoming a Bahá’í I found myself almost smothered in Christian orthodoxy. The veils were tight about me, paralyzing my efforts to grow.
Gradually, though, as I turned irresistibly every night to read the wonderful prayers and meditations of Bahá’u’lláh, the conviction came to me that any human being who could think such lofty thoughts and put into words such pure and inspiring prayers must be a holy soul—that surely he could not lie—and he must have been telling the truth when he described what happened to himself.
For many years I had been
familiar with Christ’s words of
promise and prophecy as recorded
in the gospel of St. John:
“And when he is come he will reprove
the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment
. . . When he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into
all truth: for he shall not speak
of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak:
and he will shew you things to
come. He shall glorify me.” I
had been taught that this referred
to the Holy Spirit. Also, embedded
into my very soul was
the statement that the one unforgivable
sin was blasphemy
[Page 91]
against the Holy Spirit. So it almost
terrified me to be confronted
with the substitution of a
human being for this “Spirit of
truth,” the Holy Spirit.
So back to the Bible and also to the Bahá’í writings and prayers I went; and as a result of deep prayer for guidance and constant meditation I finally came to see that those statements could not possibly refer to the Holy Spirit without human form. Thus part of the veils were burned away by the Power of the Word. The next step was to be sure that Bahá’u’lláh was that Promised One.
I took Christ’s promise and prophecy statement by statement. And I found this:
“He will reprove the world.” Never have there been such amazing tablets to the rulers of the world and the ecclesiastical heads as those which came from the pen of Bahá’u’lláh in his prison cell.
“He will guide you into all truth.” Bahá’u’lláh brought the old truth restated and illuminated; but he also brought new and wonderful truths about this unknown New Era, unfolding a New World Order that answers every need of mankind today. Building solidly on the revealed Truth of the Word of God, he does indeed guide us to “all truth” and the spiritual vision which, alone, can save the world.
“He shall not speak of himself.” In that same prison to which he was condemned for life because of his claims, Bahá’u’lláh, face to face with God, wrote: “From my pen floweth only the summons which Thine own exalted pen hath voiced, and my tongue uttereth naught save what the Most Great Spirit hath itself proclaimed in the kingdom of Thine eternity. I am stirred by nothing else except the winds of Thy will, and breathe no word except the words which, by Thy leave and Thine inspiration, I am led to pronounce.”
“He will shew you things to come.” The prophecies made by Bahá’u’lláh, many of which have already been fulfilled, are indeed a “showing of things to come.” And when I realized that their fulfillment has been as a result, largely, of the divine release of scientific knowledge during the last century, then I became convinced that God was the Author of those prophecies.
“He shall glorify me.” There
is no more glorious testimony in
all literature, I believe, as to the
station of Jesus Christ, than that
written by Bahá’u’lláh: “Know
thou that when the Son of Man
yielded up His breath to God, the
[Page 92]
whole creation wept with a great
weeping. By sacrificing Himself,
however, a fresh capacity was infused
into all created things. Its
evidences, as witnessed in all the
peoples of the earth, are now
manifest before thee. The deepest
wisdom which the sages have
uttered, the profoundest learning
which any mind hath unfolded,
the arts which the ablest
hands have produced, the influence
exerted by the most potent
of rulers, are but manifestations
of the quickening power released
by His transcendent, His all-pervasive,
and resplendent Spirit.”
I was assured by these words that
Bahá’u’lláh could not be anti-Christ.
I saw that the things I had
feared and dreaded were without
substance. I did not have to give
up my loyalty to Jesus Christ in
order to accept Bahá’u’lláh. I
was simply to add another Testament
to the Old and the New
which I loved—a modern Testament,
glorious and all-sufficing
for this New Era. To me, part of
Bahá’u’lláh’s message to the
Pope clarified this whole matter:
his statement that Christ
came in the “station” of the Son,
while God has sent the new Messenger
in the station of the Father:
“Guard thyself, lest darkness
spread its veil over thee, and
fold thee away from His light.
Consider those who opposed the
Son (Jesus), when He came unto
them with sovereignty and power.
How many the Pharisees who
were waiting to behold Him, and
were lamenting their separation
from Him! And yet, when the
fragrance of His coming was
wafted over them, and His beauty
was unveiled, they turned
aside from Him and disputed
with Him. . . . None save a very
few, who were destitute of any
power amongst men, turned towards
His face.” Bahá’u’lláh
then draws a parallel with the
monks who, today, in the name
of God, have “secluded themselves
in their churches,” and
who, when God unveiled His
Messenger in this day, knew Him
not; and continues, “The Word
which the Son concealed is made
manifest.” (Remember, Jesus
said, “I have many things to tell
you but ye cannot bear them
now.”) Bahá’u’lláh goes on: “It
hath been sent down in the form
of the human temple in this day.
Blessed be the Lord who is the
Father! He, verily, is come unto
the nations in His most great
majesty . . . This is the day
whereon the Rock (Peter) crieth
out and shouteth, and celebrateth
the praise of its Lord, the
All-Possessing, the Most High,
saying: ‘Lo! The Father is come,
and that which ye were promised
[Page 93]
in the Kingdom is fulfilled!’”
Under the conviction of this truth I went to church the next Sunday. I took a place near the front and sat gazing at the lovely face of the Christ on the reredos. And suddenly there came to me, with thrilling assurance, the words: “Because of your loyalty —because of your devotion to me—you are ready for this greater Truth.”
This was the answer for which I had longed, to enable me to take the final, tremendous step. I had been tortured, ever since I had been reminded of the passage in Revelations which says, about those who are first hot and then cold, “God spewed them out of His mouth.” I had felt that I was one of those “rejected souls.” But now this assurance brought with it the confirmation of acceptance.
That night when I was reading in the Prayers and Meditations I came upon God’s message for me—the words stood out from the page and they electrified me: “Let my prayers be a fire that will burn away the veils that shut me out from Thy Beauty and a light that will lead me unto Thy Presence.” At last I found myself in the glory of His Presence!
As I closed my eyes to sleep, I recalled what my mother used to say when I was a child: “But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him—if thou seek with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”
The Revelation, of which Bahá’u’lláh is the source and center, abrogates none of the religions that have preceded it, nor does it attempt, in the slightest degree, to distort their features or to belittle their value. It disclaims any intention of dwarfing any of the Prophets of the past, or of whittling down the eternal verity of their teachings. It can, in no wise, conflict with the spirit that animates their claims, nor does it seek to undermine the basis of any man’s allegiance to their cause. Its declared, its primary purpose is to enable every adherent of these Faiths to obtain a fuller understanding of the religion with which he stands identified. . . . Its teachings revolve around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final.
SYMBOLS OF AMERICA
STANWOOD COBB
- God saw that Europe would one day grow old—
- That the fires of her genius would burn cold.
- To take the torch of progress from her hands
- He formed a people great in faith and lands
- Whose goings forth should be from East to West—
- Whose blood should drain from Earth its very best.
- And so God, when He divided waters from the land,
- Kept half-earth a secret. There He planned,
- When Man had reached maturity, to found
- A nation where the human race unbound
- From shackles of dead custom could face free
- The bounties of vast land, vast sky, vast sea
- And create a culture vigorous, bold and true
- In which no ancient wrong should mar a place so new.
The Quest for Gold
- To that New Land, snatched from the Womb of Time,
- Came men adventure-led from every clime.
- On many a coast they landed, but paused not
- Upon this brink when dazzling rumor brought
- Enticing tales of golden treasure wrought
- By savage culture and stored heap on heap—
- A mighty prize for those who dared o’er leap
- The perilous barriers of wild land and foe
- To grasp quick wealth. This tempting glitter-show
- Of gold thus proved a bait that westward lured,
- For which a myriad hardships were endured.
The Quest for Religion
- When waves of cleric persecution broke
- The peace of England, a stern and stoic folk
- Ventured their way to bleak and rock-ribbed coast;
- And firm in exiled want made good their boast
- To worship as they willed. And since those days [Page 95]
- When Pilgrim fathers grimly sought to praise
- God in their own peculiar way, this land
- Has proved a haven to many a weary band
- Of pilgrims who worldly sacrifice would make
- To find a freedom for conviction’s sake.
The Quest for Democracy
- And now report came back to Europe’s shore
- Of land immeasurable; enough and more.
- To sate earth-hunger of a countless tide
- Who felt the essential urge of human pride
- To be at last Somebody. Not mere cogs
- Of feudalism doomed to tend the hogs,
- The sheep, the cattle of land-owning lord.
- To vassal bumpkins Fate could now afford
- A land where meek obsequiousness to rank
- Soon died away; where titled glory sank
- Forever ’neath the western wave. Now man
- In dignity of self-hood rose to scan
- Far horizons that knew no servile class.
- “All men are equal, or can be!” So pass
- The magic words from lip to lip. And lo,
- Indentured servants countless rise to go
- Across vast waters to an unknown strand;
- Where, freedom earned, they own at last some land—
- Themselves proprietors, conscious and elate
- As free-hold citizens of a mighty state.
- If lawless, then their contract’s term they breach
- And flee to frontiers safe from law’s far reach;
- Perils of wilds and aborigine
- They gladly brave, more fully to be free.
- So potent soon this freedom-germ has grown,
- That by its power an empire is o’erthrown:
- A nation rises in the colonies’ place,
- To democratize and free the human race.
Excerpt from Symbols of America, by Stanwood Cobb, The Avalon Press, Washington,
D.C., 1946.
No Flags, No Drums
Editorial
IN APRIL of last year the
Bahá’ís of the United States
and Canada undertook a great
spiritual crusade. Part of this
crusade concerns western Europe.
The Bahá’ís of this hemisphere
have pledged themselves to establish
their Faith in ten of the
countries of western Europe before
1953. To do this, they must
start out, as many of their forebears
did, as pioneers.
We are so far now from the great pioneering days of American history that the term “pioneer” is clouded with romance. We forget too easily that the push westward over this continent meant many grim struggles with the elements. It meant putting behind all accustomed safety and security. It frequently meant never seeing friends and family again. It meant toil and sweat, and constant adaptation to new conditions. Facing the unknown tests a man and woman to the full.
But the Bahá’í pioneers have already started to Europe. And more will follow in the months and years ahead. Why do they leave? Why leave the freedom of America for those shadowed and blighted lands? Why do they leave the accustomed way and cast their lot among people who have faced horror upon horror, people who have seen what happens to men and women when civilization’s thin veneer is gashed open?
They go because they are Bahá’ís. They go because Bahá’u’lláh said: “That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race.” . . . “Center your energies in the propogation of the Faith of God. Whoso is worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation. . .” . . . “Vie ye with each other in the service of God and of His Cause.” . . . “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 mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.”
They go because Bahá’u’lláh
has reestablished the vitality of
religion. They go to condemn no
religion but to tell the people that
[Page 97]
Christianity and Judaism have
been at last fulfilled. They go to
tell the people that division of
religion and race and nation is
part of the adolescent past. They
go to tell the people that while
lesser gods fail, the eternal and
unknowable God of all men has
not forgotten His people. Indeed,
the God of all men has neither
forgotten His people, nor have
the majestic promises of old been
vain.
In the hearts of these Bahá’í pioneers is the knowledge that the God Who spoke through Moses and Jesus, has spoken again through Bahá’u’lláh. And upon those who believe in Him, Bahá’u’lláh has placed a mandate. The Bahá’í Faith is a religion which must find expression in service instead of sacrament. To the Bahá’í, there is no substitute for continuous effort to develop a finer character. There is no substitute for united feeling and action in dedication to God. There is no substitute for the principles of World Order which Bahá’u’lláh has revealed for the modern world. There is no substitute for the power of God to change the human heart. Bahá’u’lláh called men and women to a new standard of spiritual and social maturity. These things the Bahá’í pioneers know in their hearts.
And the pioneers going to Europe have a great experience in living to share. In the past nine years this Faith has spread into all the countries of Latin America. Wherever the word Bahá’í has found a place in the human heart and mind, a transformation has taken place. Prejudices are shattered, and men and women of various races come together in the spiritual democracy of the Bahá’í world community. The old divisions of religion seem useless and unimportant, and men and women enter and work together in the larger unity of faith created by Bahá’u’lláh. The unity which Bahá’ís possess is a divine foundation for society. Through this unity Bahá’ís are able to achieve great things in the service of God. . . . The pioneers do not take a theory nor a soothing-syrup philosophy; they are ready to share experience in living in a growing world community.
There are no flags for them when they depart, no drums. There will be no medals or citations. There may only be a monument in some graveyard distant from home, marking the place where they fell exhausted. This —perhaps. But in the heart of God and man there will be a fragrance and a memory.
COLOR BLIND
Book Review
ROBERTA K. CHRISTIAN
Color Blind by Margaret Halsey, published by Simon and Schuster, New York, N. Y., 1946.
On Christmas afternoon I sat down
to read a book. As a Bahá’í,
“the race question” is important to
me. However, I was still smarting
from the experience of almost a year
of living in the South and trying to
cope with that question. And we had
gone there with our unprejudice
waving before us like a scarlet banner.
My first thought after digesting
the final, nourishing passage of Mrs.
Halsey’s book was, “If only I had
read this before going South!” And
so I hasten to suggest it as essential
reading for anyone who feels that
just being ashamed of and sorry
about the race problem in America
is not enough. Particularly do I recommend
it to anyone who ever hopes
to live in peace anywhere south of
the Mason-Dixon line.
The book deals with something that was done about race relations, during the war, at a servicemen’s canteen where the author served, and where non-discrimination on account of color was a basic policy. Her views and conclusions are therefore substantiated by the most valuable tests—actual experiences, not only of her own, but of other people, both workers and guests.
Mrs. Halsey has penetrated ruthlessly and fearlessly into the literal depths of American people, both white and colored, and comes through on the other side, so that one feels, seeing through her eyes, very much like Alice when she finally got through the looking glass. One wonders if one has ever really applied one’s mind to the problem of American Negroes before. (I use the plural term deliberately, because with my brain still scorched by the sheer intelligence of this book’s viewpoint, I believe I can never again use the loose and inclusive term “The Negro”.)
If you are at all squeamish or delicate about the use of plain language, be warned that Margaret Halsey calls a spade a spade and is not above occasional glibness in her use of the vernacular. The book is not in any sense literary. The words that come to mind in regard to it are: sensible, intelligent, forthright, unequivocal, and, above all, unromantic.
So many books on this subject do
one of two things: they simply state
the case, as does Richard Wright’s
Black Boy, or present rules and methods
for the extreme and idealistic
abolishing of the whole issue. Color
Blind walks the tightrope between
these two extremes without a hesitant
moment nor the pausing for the regaining
of lost balance. The progress
from pole to pole is steady, secure
and serene. One feels the author’s
knowledge of her subject and
it is a bulwark against the questions
[Page 99]
which often arise when reading such
a theme.
Perhaps my favorite statement is this:
“The assertion that nothing can be done about prejudice is suspicious in character, but it is certainly true that prejudice will always exist. So will sickness and disease, but that scarcely seems sufficient reason for telling our medical scientists to put on their hats, close up their laboratories, and give the spirochetes, bacilli and viruses a free hand. Nobody with any pretensions to realism expects to obliterate prejudice and expunge it from the surface of this planet . . . The task is not to do away with prejudice. From our present knowledge of human psychology, that is, at the moment, an impractical objective. The task is to narrow the field in which prejudice operates —to create more and more places, zones and institutions where people may not bring it in with them. . .”
Mrs. Halsey, you see, practices what she preaches in one of her chapter titles: “Start With The Learner Where He Is.” She tells the reader that there is something to be done and then she tells what that something is and exactly how to start doing it. The fact that, in the telling, she also spoons out a goodly dosage of somewhat unpleasant facts and figures about the attitudes, feelings, and false ideas held by people everywhere, on both sides of the line, pleases the consumer rather than annoys him when he has put down the book and discovers, by the taste in his mouth, that he has just been fooled by very fast and clever word-tossing into imbibing some real education.
It was a borrowed book. Now I shall have to buy a copy. This is another friendly warning. Buy your own copy of Color Blind in the beginning, for it will be a text book for the Bahá’í who is trying to teach “the abandonment of all prejudices” including race prejudice. It will make you see just what race prejudice is made of.
I can almost wish that I could have its text in my mind and have another opportunity to live in the South. I think I would not again sit and writhe in impotent rage against what seems an impenetrable wall. Just read it and you’ll see what I and this is the day of winnowing,
“A religion,” is yet another testimony, from the pen of the late Queen Marie of Rumania, “which links all creeds . . . a religion based upon the inner spirit of God. . . . It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions, evil words, all aggressive patriotism even, are outside the one essential law of God, and that special beliefs are but surface things whereas the heart that beats with Divine love knows no tribe nor race.”
For the Advancement of Her Race
GERTRUDE SCHURGAST
My best friend is a lady belonging
to the colored race.
She holds her head up proudly
and looks into your eyes. Her
brown, unwrinkled face is
crowned by beautiful silvery
hair. She is one of those rare persons
who combines strength of
character with kindness.
The other day I discovered a little picture on her mantle. It was a picture of a white woman in an old-fashioned, high-necked dress. Her hair, which was parted in the middle, was combed straight back and made her look rather severe. This was accentuated by her eyes, the most remarkable eyes I have ever seen, piercing, fearless, betraying an indomitable character.
“Who is that?” I asked her in surprise.
“That was my mother,” she answered gently, and seeing my puzzled look, she added: “Her father was a white man, a slaveholder of Scotch-Irish stock. Her mother was a slave, mostly American-Indian blood. In those days slaves had to obey their masters. My grandfather must have loved his little white daughter who had inherited his looks and also his character. She was high-spirited and quick-tempered. She was allowed to grow up together with the other children of his family. Nobody was to touch her. Whenever her stepmother demanded that she call her stepbrothers ‘Master’, she refused, saying, that they all had the same father!”
“Tell me more about her,” I asked.
“From early childhood the
idea of serfdom must have been
unbearable to her,” she continued.
“She and her mother
spent hours and hours in their
little cabin making candles,
which she later sold. As soon as
she had learned to sew, she began
to make corsets for the town
people. She had a large clientele
and soon had saved up enough
money to buy her mother’s and
her own freedom. She married
a Negro who was a member of
the legislature in Alabama. My
father,” continued my friend,
“was sometimes hunted by the
Ku Klux Klan, but they never
hurt him, as they were afraid of
‘the little woman’. Although she
was only five feet tall, she soon
represented a power in that little
town of Livingston, Alabama.
Even today, when you ask the
people there about Louisa Dotson,
they will remember her. The
[Page 101]
white farmers especially remember
her, for she often went to
them demanding that they give
better treatment to the poor Negroes
whom they employed as
sharecroppers. Those landowners
always managed to settle the
account with these workers in
such a way that, at the end of
the summer, there were no earnings
left, only debts. Louisa Dotson
made it her business to
change this condition. Throughout
the years her sole purpose
in life was to work for the advancement
of her race. All her
life she fought oppression and
demonstrated to black and white
alike, by her own conduct, the
pride and dignity of human beings.”
“Was she still a young woman at the time of the Emancipation?” I asked.
“Yes, by then the family had saved up enough money to buy a home. It was only a four-room house and much too small for the large family—there were fourteen children—but they had an enormous back yard. That’s where my mother built a schoolhouse for Negro children. She, herself, acted as the teacher.”
“How did she manage with all those children? Were they all as dark as you?”
“No. Have you heard of Mendel’s law of heredity? Well, we proved it. Some of us were white. (There is a brother I have never seen. He went to California and passed into the white race.) Some of us were dark, and some had the character traits of both races. But you asked me how she managed. That was not all my mother did. She by and by became well known as a dressmaker. All the prominent people in town used to get their clothes from her.
“I remember one day, a lady came to her for a dress fitting. She was very much upset. ‘Louisa’, she said, ‘this is Monday, and not a single wash woman has come to any of us ladies to collect the weekly wash. I wonder what’s the matter with them.’ My Mother was just kneeling in front of the lady to pin up her skirt. She slowly took a pin out of her mouth and remarked quietly: ‘I have told them to stay home’.”
“‘But why Louisa?” the lady asked.
“Louisa rose to her full height. As it happened, she reached only to the lady’s shoulder, but had she been a tall woman, she could not have been more impressive. With blazing eyes she asked her:
“‘Would you do a family wash for 25c and furnish soap and starch besides?’
[Page 102]
“Louisa, how much do you
think, we should pay these
women?’ the lady asked meekly.
“Without batting an eye my mother said: ‘$1.50.’ And that settled it.”
“In spite of all her other duties and interests she took her job as mother very seriously. One day a neighbor came rushing in. I, the youngest, was sitting at her feet, playing with some buttons. ‘Oh Louisa,’ the woman exclaimed, ‘your daughter, Naomi, is at my house, crying. She went with my girl to pick a dress at the store and there was that lanky Joe, you know, the owner’s son. He made eyes at Naomi, put the dress into her hands and said: ‘You don’t have to pay for that dress, beautiful, but I’ll be over to see you tonight.’”
“My mother, when she heard that, got up from her sewing, shoved her spectacles back to her forehead, and, without saying a word, grimly marched out of the room, out of the house. I was tagging behind her. She never noticed it. She walked straight up to the store where lanky Joe was slouching over the counter. When he saw my mother, he tried to slink away. But she confronted him. ‘Joe,’ she said with a voice which I had never heard her use before, ‘If anything would happen to my child, I would shoot you, but I don’t want to soil my hands with your dirty blood. Don’t ever let me see you again. By tomorrow morning you will have left town.’ The next day he was gone.”
“Was she strict with you too?” I asked.
My friend nodded. “I’ll never forget the day,” she said. “I was about twelve years old, when I came home from school and asked her: ‘Mamma, can I go to a party tonight? The kids are having a party’.
“She bent over her sewing and frowned. Then she said just ‘No’. I got mad then and told her she was old-fashioned, and was it because we were playing with some of the white boys? and then, feeling very grown up and important, I said: ‘Mother, you know, if I really wanted to, I could have some fun, party or no party.’
“She slapped me then and
said quietly: ‘This is for talking
to your mother like that.’ Then
she just looked at me, sad-like,
and said: ‘You are my youngest
child, I would have liked to keep
you with me a little longer. But
I must send you away. You are
going to a boarding school. It’s
run by a wonderful man, Booker
T. Washington. You will study
[Page 103]
there and become a teacher and
amount to something.’
“This changed my whole life. Nothing much has become of my childhood friends, but I started on a career at the Tuskegee Institute. I stayed there for many years. Men like Dr. George Carver were my teachers and later on my friends. I was a teacher there too. I found my dear husband there, married at the Institute and had my children there. The older I grew, the more I realized, how wise she had been. I owe all my happiness to her.”
Just then the telephone rang. “That’s probably that clubwoman I tried to interest for that inter-racial dinner,” my friend said as she took the receiver. The conversation was short. I heard her say: “That’s perfectly all right. Good bye.”
“As I thought”, she said to me. “She excused herself, saying: ‘Our little efforts mean so little.’”
I looked at the white woman’s picture again. Her eyes seemed to reach beyond the grave, as if they were saying: “Our little individual efforts, sister, that’s just what counts.”
WINGS TAKE FLIGHT
IDA ELAINE JAMES
- Each tower, each aspiring arch,
- Disintegrates to dust.
- We halt the broken march
- Of life, because we must.
- Our interest palls, and then
- We fear the interim.
- But wings take flight again,
- And brush the barrier’s rim.
Guidance
A Compilation from the Bahá’í Writings
ELLA L. ROWLAND
SUFFER me not, O my Lord,
to be deprived of the knowledge
of Thee in Thy days, and
divest me not of the robe of Thy
Guidance.
* * *
Thou art, verily, He Whose grace hath guided them aright.
* * *
Glory be to Thee, O King of eternity, and the Maker of nations, and the Fashioner of every moldering bone! I pray Thee, by Thy Name through which Thou didst call all mankind unto the horizon of Thy majesty and glory, and didst guide Thy servants to the court of Thy grace and favors, to number me with such as have rid themselves from everything except Thyself, and have set themselves from everything except Thyself, and have set themselves towards Thee, and have not been kept back by such misfortunes as were decreed by Thee, from turning in the direction of Thy gifts.
* * *
I beseech Thee, O Thou Who art the Lord of all being and the Enlightener of all things visible and invisible, to grant that every one of them may become an ensign of Thy guidance among Thy servants, and a revelation of the splendors of the Day-Star of Thy loving-kindness amidst Thy creatures.
* * *
These! The people of Bahá. Through them have been shed the splendors of the light of guidance.
* * *
The glory of Thy might beareth
me witness! Whoso claimeth
to have known Thee hath, by virtue
of such a claim, testified to
his own ignorance; and whoso
believeth himself to have attained
unto Thee, all the atoms of the
earth would attest his powerlessness
and proclaim his failure.
Thou hast, however, by virtue of
Thy mercy that hath surpassed
the kingdoms of earth and heaven,
deigned to accept from Thy
servants the laud and honor they
pay to Thine exalted Self, and
hast bidden them celebrate Thy
glory, that the ensigns of Thy
guidance may be unfurled in Thy
cities and the tokens of Thy
mercy be spread abroad among
Thy nations, and that each and
all may be enabled to attain unto
[Page 105]
that which Thou has destined for
them by Thy decree, and ordained
unto them through Thine
irrevocable will and purpose.
* * *
Thou art He, O my God, through Whose names the sick are healed and the ailing are restored, and the thirsty are given drink, and the sore-vexed are tranquilized, and the wayward are guided, and the abased are exalted, and the poor are enriched, and the ignorant are enlightened, and the gloomy are illumined, and the sorrowful are cheered, and the chilled are warmed, and the downtrodden are raised up.
* * *
We beg of Thee, O Providence, to show Thy way unto all men, and to guide them aright. Thou art, verily, the All-Mighty, the Most Powerful, and All-Knowing, the All-Seeing.
* * *
Behold, how the divers people and kindreds of the earth have been waiting for the coming of the Promised One. No sooner had He, Who is the Sun of Truth, been made manifest, than lo, all turned away from Him, except them whom God was pleased to guide.
* * *
So blind hath become the human heart that neither the disruption of the city, nor the reduction of the mountain in dust, nor even the cleaving of the earth, can shake off its torpor. The allusions made in the Scriptures have been unfolded, and the signs recorded therein have been revealed, and the prophetic cry is continually being raised. And yet all, except such as God was pleased to guide, are bewildered in the drunkenness of their heedlessness!
* * *
Beware that ye divest not yourselves of the raiment of Divine Guidance.
The purpose of the one true God in manifesting Himself is to summon all mankind to truthfulness and sincerity, to piety and trustworthiness, to resignation and submissiveness to the Will of God, to forebearance and kindliness, to uprightness and wisdom. His object is to array every man with the mantle of a saintly character, and to adorn him with the ornament of holy and goodly deeds.
WITH OUR READERS
The possibility of uniting the
world in a community through
the power of religion is still an idea
foreign to most minds, even thoughtful
ones. This is partly, at least, because
religion as it is known is divisive
rather than unifying; and
partly because religion is not recognized
as a social force by many, perhaps
most, religionists. Our leading
article “A Religious World Community”
sets out clearly the Bahá’í
Plan for such a worldwide community
which is already being built in
many countries of the world. Horace
Holley tells us this was specially
written at the time of the Bahá’í
Centenary and will appear in Volume
X of the Bahá’í World which,
we understand, is now on the press.
Mr. Holley is Secretary of our Bahá’í
National Assembly, one of the editors
of World Order, and a frequent
contributor to our magazine.
The illustration on page one shows the signing of the United Nations Charter, an event which marks one step toward world unity, the aim of the Bahá’í Faith and “the goal toward which,” Shoghi Effendi says, “a harassed humanity is striving.” We are warned by him, too, that “Delays must inevitably arise, setbacks must be suffered.”
The selection on page two will reveal to those unfamiliar with the Bahá’í Faith something of the scope of this world religion.
“If—With All Thy Heart” is the first contribution of Gene W. Crist to World Order and introduces her to our readers better than anything we can say further. Mrs. Crist lives in Washington, D. C.
This month’s editorial “No Flags, No Drums” is by Kenneth Christian, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, whose home is in Lansing, Michigan.
A most important book for Bahá’ís and all working for racial equality is Color Blind reviewed by Roberta Christian. In July, 1942, we printed “The Invisible Man” by Mrs. Christian and in February, 1941, “Living the Life”. Mrs. Christian and her husband, Kenneth Christian, are well known among Bahá’ís as active workers for the Faith throughout the country. Their home is in Lansing, Michigan.
In connection with this book we should like to mention another valuable publication on the subject of Race. The January issue of Survey Graphic is devoted to a portrayal of the evils of segregation. This was a special issue, entitled “Segregation,” of over one hundred pages of text and excellent illustrations showing conditions in the United States today. This special issue may be obtained from Survey Graphic, 112 East 19 Street, New York 3, N. Y. for 60 cents or two copies for one dollar.
The story entitled “For the Advancement
of Her Race” by Gertrude
Schurgast is, she tells us, the true
story of the grandmother of one who
is now active in the Bahá’í Faith.
Mrs. Schurgast has the happy faculty
of putting important truth in narrative
[Page 107]
form and has previously contributed
to World Order magazine,
among other things: “The Rank-and-File
Bahá’í”, “What Is Secure?”, a
book review, “Salvation.” Her home
is in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Instead of the brief selections for meditation we are printing a compilation on “Guidance” from Gleanings and Prayers and Meditations made by Ella L. Rowland. Mrs. Rowland speaks of the joy she found in making this compilation and of the happiness she has in corresponding with those “not yet sufficiently acquainted with the Bahá’í Faith.” Her home is in Corte Madera, California. How many good things come from California!
“Symbols of America” is Canto I of the book by that name by Stanwood Cobb published last December. In the prose prologue Mr. Cobb writes that the purpose of the poem “is to trace the influence and development of the three basic strands that have composed our ideology and practice from the first early days of exploration and colonization down to the fast moving screen of present day events. These three strands or motifs are: the quest for wealth, the quest for religious freedom, and the quest for democracy or equalitarianism.” In the Epode to the poem Mother Earth pleads for peace and calls America the “Great Child of the New Day.”
* * *
Here are some comments on the system of transliteration used by Bahá’ís which came from Marzieh Gail some time ago but which are valuable and help us to understand that we are really misspelling when we leave out the apostrophes, dots and accents in Bahá’í names. Mrs. Gail says: This system is a standardized letter-for-letter equivalent of the Persian and Arabic alphabet. For example if you write “Bahá’í” without the apostrophe, you leave out a whole letter of the original. Unless we have a standard system for writing Persian and Arabic words into Western tongues, each writer makes up his own, according to his own accent. The German writes “Schierien”, the Englishman “Shereen”, the Frenchman “Chirine”, when they all mean the same thing. The result is chaos. Try to look up the name “Muḥammad” in a card catalogue or dictionary and you will see what we mean. And it’s no use going over to the Near East and asking the natives how to pronounce a given word, because ten natives will give you ten pronunciations: Cairo Arabic is different from that of Baghdad—Țihrán Persian doesn’t sound like what they speak in Káshán. An orderly system of transliteration is thus imperative.
Reading any modern Bahá’í book,
the scholar can write the transliterated
words back into the original
with no trouble; he knows at once
which of the two “h’s”—which of the
four “z’s” he must use; whether a
vowel appears in the original or is
only understood, and so on. Remember
that Persian and Arabic write
only the long vowels—the short ones
are omitted; for instance “Muḥammed”
is written “M-H-M-M-D”.
If a Persian is shown a list of a
hundred Persian towns, he is at a
loss how to pronounce them, because
of this omission of short vowels.
Correct transliteration immediately
[Page 108]
identifies and places the word.
* * *
One of our readers sends this incident to illustrate the statement of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that “Knowledge and wisdom, purity and faithfulness and freedom of soul, have not been and are not judged by outward appearance and dress.” She writes: “I was once sitting in a little station in the country when I saw a man in rough clothes and with long black beard coming up the road to the station. His appearance frightened me, but when he came close enough ‘to pass the time of day’ and I could look into his eyes, all the fear left me. We talked about this and that until the train came along and I discovered the man was a right jolly old farmer. Upon inquiring later I found he was well trusted and liked.”
This same reader tells a personal experience which well illustrates ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statement that one of the first things the Bahá’í Faith does for us is to make us understand our own religion better, that is, the religion which we have inherited. Her experience was in a better understanding of the real meanings of love. She says: “I feel that one can read deeper than the surface meanings of St. Paul’s message on love (referring to the 13th chapter of First Corinthians). The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond represented my father’s religion. He was a well balanced man, a scientific man with a heart full of understanding love. But until Bahá’u’lláh’s Message came into our home I did not understand. . . . I found three copies of Drummond’s The Greatest Thing in the World among some left over Christmas cards and small gifts. I read over again his words about love and found it meant so much more to me, that even my temper might be controlled now— that at last I had put all the parts together. Herbert Spencer said: ‘It is a truth perpetually illustrated that accumulated facts lying around in disorder begin to assume some order if an hypothesis is thrown among them.’ . . .
“I do think if some of us knew better what love really is and how the four kinds must work together, that one little thing, backbiting, would disappear. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says wonders could be accomplished if it were stopped.”
[The writer refers to the passage found on pages 97 and 98 of The Divine Art of Living. There ‘Abdu’l-Bahá names and explains the four kinds of love: “(a) The love of God towards the identity of God. Christ said God is love. (b) The love of God for His children (for His servants). (c) The love of man for God and, (d) The love of man for man.”]
Correction. Marian Crist Lippitt tells us that this department incorrectly stated in our March number that she was a pioneer settler in Charleston.
She writes: “I was not one of the settlers who so nobly answered the call to rescue West Virginia from its state of darkness, but rather one of the individuals who was so rescued. My husband and I declared ourselves just before the establishment of the first assembly in 1943 after several months of intensive instruction by Virginia Camelon Foster, Mrs. Bolles and Mrs. Kunz.”
Bahá’í Literature
Writings of Shoghi Effendi
Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith
Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
BAHÁ’Í ADMINISTRATION
This work deals with the development of Bahá’í local and national institutions in North America during the years following the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It is an exposition of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in terms of the experience of the American Bahá’ís and the source of guidance and inspiration to believers entering a new stage in the evolution of the Faith.
THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
Here the Bahá’ís learned, between 1929 and 1936, of the role to be played by the Bahá’í world community and its institutions during the collapse of the old order and the rise of a new civilization. Here also they found for the first time the pattern of future society and an insight into the whole meaning of the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh.
THE ADVENT OF DIVINE JUSTICE
Shoghi Effendi in December, 1938, set in motion the first stages of the world mission conferred by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá upon the North American Bahá’í community—the Bahá’í answer to the destruction which had overtaken society.
THE PROMISED DAY IS COME
The history of the modern world set forth in terms of the Revelation proclaimed by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and its rejection by the civil, religious and educational leaders of the day. War and revolution understood as evidences of a process of Divine chastisement inflicted upon the entire human race to purify it for the blessings of the Kingdom.
GOD PASSES BY
A summary of the first hundred years of Bahá’í history, presenting the expectancy of the Promised One, the mission of the Báb, the mission of Bahá’u’lláh, their work and action, the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the spread of the Faith to sixty-eight countries and the rise of the administrative order. Spiritual history of the World Religion, made possible by unique capacity of its first Guardian, presenting a union of Person with revealed Truth, and of truth with Event.
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 opportunity, 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.