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MARCH, 1949

A Bahá’í in Switzerland

Anna Kunz

O Thou Abiding One, Poem Stan Blakeslee

The Dot and the Circle Mark Tobey

To Do the Impossible, Editorial

Garrela Busey

A Prayer, Poem John \Vilfred Greenwood

The Last Best Hope for Freedom

} Gertrude Robinson

W’hat Modern Man Must Know About Religion

A Compilation

With Our Readers

Ind ex

[Page 396]WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, 111., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Editor: Garreta Busey. Managing Editor: Eleanor S. Hutchens. Associate Editors: Victor de Araujo,

Elsa Blakely, Robert Durr, Pearle Easterbrook, Gertrude Henning, Flora Emily Hottes, Mabel H. Paine.

Publication Office 110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILME'I‘TE, ILL. C. R. Wood, Business Manager Printed in U.SSA. Editorial Office

Mrs. Eleanor S. Hutchens,

307 SOUTH PRAIRIE, CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS

MARCH, 1949, VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 12

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 Magi;zine, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Entered as second ‘class matter April 1, 1940, at the post office at Wilmette, 11". under the Act of March 3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1949 by

Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title Registered at U.S. Patent Office.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE

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S A NATION, Switzerland has always seemed to be a

spokesman for the ideal of international unity. This small central country of Europe has shown how men are able to transcend the diversity of background and language, and live peaCefully with each other. The French, German and Italian speaking people of Switzerland are not French, German or Italians, but Swiss. They are a perfect illustration of the truth that a greater allegiance will necessarily dwarf to unimportance any smaller allegiances that may be the cause of disunity.

In this way the Swiss people could not help but be internationally minded. Having avoided participation in two world wars, they have made their beautiful and prosperous country the perfecfsetting for all attempts towards world-wide understanding. As seat of the former League of Nations and now as headquarters for many of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, Switzerland shows unmistakably the receptivity ‘given to the ideal of world unity by a peace-loving people.

It is easy to understand then why Switzerland has become the radiating center for the teachings of the

Bahá’í World Faith in Europe and why Geneva should have been chosen as center for the first Bahá’í European Teaching Conference in May of last year.

On the preceding page we present views of Zurv ich and Bern. Like Geneva7 both cities have growing Bahá’í communities. As for the Jungfrau, the words of Anna Kunz serve as an expressive caption: “The J ungfrau showed itself -in all its glory—she stood pink or even deeper in color—AIpine-glow in its most perfect shading. Yes, Switzerland is a little jewel.”

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[Page 399]WOBLD 0BDEB

The Bahá’í Magazine

VOLUME XIV

MARCH, 1949

NUMBER 12

A Bahá’í in Switzerland

Excerpts from Letters to Her Daughters ANNA KUNZ

Aboard the S. S. Stavangerfjord, July 26, 1947

OR the first time in my life I can truly say I feel the exhilaration of a sea voyage . . . my well-being is due to a great extent to an inner happiness and joy over the mission I have been allowed to work towards. That farewell evening given us by the New York Community was most helpful. The gathering of the friends radiated warmth, understanding, and the assurance that their prayers would go with us. And I feel the assistance given us by the friends in many communities. Aboard the S. S. Stavangerfjord, August 2, 1947 We are by now in the North Sea. Tonight we are to dock in Bergen. . . . The trip has been a splendid one with an ocean more favorable than this ship had encountered in five years. We indeed feel that we have been and still are under special protection.

Aboard the S. S. Stavangerfjord, August 3, 1947

Words of mine can never picture the thrill we had yesterday . . . To enter the fjord towards Bergen is a great experience. One fjord opens into the other; first, as we approached from the open sea, two light houses, one on each side of an almost forbidding, rocky, high coast, guarded the entrance to these “inner seas.” The Cliffs are high—a few fishers’ huts here and there, nothing but rocks, hardly any vegetation. Slowly the sides of the mountains began to be green, first a little grass only, and7 as we proceeded from one fjord to the other some wooded slopes began to appear. Everywhere, hidden among cliffs or high on a mountain top, are the summer homes of the Norwegian people. Often they are only huts. . . All kinds of boats began to appear, and, after about two hours through these fascinating waters

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—an island here and there—we made a sharp turn, and there, along the water front and up the mountain side, lay the city of Bergen. Words fail me—the bay of Naples is wonderful, but this unique location of Bergen is like a fantastic dream come true. . . . what a paradise for a painter! . . . The crowd at the docks was a joy to behold. Our ship musicians played the Norwegian National Anthem . . . On the high bridge our Captain stood at attention, and finally the masses below began to sing some of the verses. First, the passengers who disembarked were taken care of in the social hall . . . Finally, we who wanted to see the sights began to file through the line, past the officials and I do not know how many guards. Suddenly people turned their eyes on the Americans. Quietly but penetratingly, they examined us. It was a strange experience. I would have loved to cry out, “We are all brothers and sisters in the sight of one God.” We proceeded along the water front, over cobble streets and cobble sidewalks. . . . Soon we came to a bombedout section. A friendly Norwegian came and explained in English that this had once been a fortification. . . Seven thousand and some more died here . . . eight thousand went to hospitals. . . We

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reached the ship and continued our journey at eleven o’clock. The lights began to appear in the city, and twilight descended On the whole countryside . . . it was like fairyland. A clear sky above, a glass-like sea surrounding us. Slowly, and soon swiftly, our ship made its way back to sea. Suddenly from behind a mountain there emerged the moonfull and golden, casting a hand of gold across the water. Well, we were spellbound, speechless. “Eternal perfection over all!” [She disembarked at Oslo, met with Bahá’ís, and then continued her way to Switzerland, where she was to spread the Bahá’í Faith] Switzerland, August 12, 1947.

All of Switzerland, so I felt at once in Basel, looks well and prosperous. The contrast with Germany is very marked. The trip through that country was depressing, to say the least. What destruction everywhere! No railroad station is intact! Whole sections of cities are heaps of rubble. Trains destroyed! Poorly dressed people beside the tracks! The stations are crowded with week-end travellers, even though they need permits to travel. Many baskets are carried to the country

to be filled with whatever the farmers can give the city people.

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At Hamburg a tall German approached me as I was standing at the window, begging me to accept his letter. He said “Our situation is very bad and our family has no one in a country from which we could expect help.” The letter says . . . “Wir sind am verhungern!” [We are at the point of starvation.] Mitliidi, Switzerland, August 20, 1947.

Every day I say to myself, “How is it possible for the Creator to have put so much beauty in one small country.” It’s unbelievably glorious during these days of sunshine.

I am eager to start on my work in Switzerland—the formation of a Spiritual Assembly of Bahá’ís in Bern.

. . . People here, too, speak of the next war as if it were inevitable. . . . Such a beautiful world, but because of man so much sufferlng! Bern, Switzerland, September 2, 1947.

For the moment I have but vague ideas about procedureexcept that I know we need to pray for guidance without stopping—pray we must as we walk, stand, work, and see people. It is truly wonderful that we have the short prayers of the Báb and that the Greatest Name was given us —-to be on our lips always, if we choose to have it so.

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Bern, September 4, 1947 The two women from America who preceded me as pioneers to Bern have really made a good start, and slowly we will build further, God willing! How to meet people in Bern. That is at present my question. Pray, pray! Bern, September 11, 1947. I am beginning to get adjusted to my new surroundings and to this new way of life. The happiest days are naturally those when I am able to tell someone about the purpose of my stay in Bern. To the few to whom I have been able to speak about it, here in the pension, it may never mean more than a name. But even that, we are told, is valuable. The name “Bahá’í” must be brought to all the peoples’ attention.

Bern, September 19, 194-7.

. . . I go nowhere without stating the purpose of my stay in Bern. When I am told that the third world war is inevitable, and it happens often, I take the opportunity to say the Bahá’ís are working to prevent this. “Utopia,” they say, until one is able to show how we hope to influence human hearts. But it is true that the materialism here in Switzerland is as dangerously developed as in the United States . . . we continue to work and we shall repel every thought of war with a thought of peace. The work at its

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best will be slow, but with Bahá’u’lláh guiding and leading His army, we cannot doubt victory. Eventual success will be achieved in His name!

Bern, SeptemberBO, 1947. [Speaking of her travel and work with a travelling teacher] . . . many seeds have been planted through prayers and talking to people, giving them literature and by simply being kind to hungry hearts, hearts hungry for a little understanding, even a little love.

Through publicity and through the Esperanto group, they [Fritzi Shaver and Elsa Steinmetz, the first two pioneers from America to Bern] have made friends who are willing to study the Faith. One advertisement brought ten inquiries for literature and further information. Together we are leading the studv class once a week.

It’s only seed planting, and the road, we all know, is long and slow, because mushroom growth is usually short-lived.

Last night I returned from the Swiss Summer Session . . . We were a truly happy group and the good spirit of friendship and true inner understanding kept mounting as our hour of departure neared. . . . an Austrian refugee was there. . . . When she arrived, she was sad and depressed.

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She called herself sick. On Sunday afternoon she was beaming, the light in her eyes had kept coming on, more and more. You could see it. That afternoon she told me, “I am not sick any more, I am well and happy.” . . . Yes, there is a power in this Cause. It is mysterious, but a proof of Bahá’u’lláh’s station.

Bern, October 22, 1947

On Friday night we hope to start a class here in my room or in the parlor, if my room is not fully arranged by that time. The study class at the girls’ home is going beautifully. New people keep coming, which makes instruction a little difficult. As in America, one must continually repeat.

Bern, October 25, 1947

Electric stoves could not be used and we certainly were pleased when finally today our furnace was set in operation. For three weeks we were cold‘ sitting around in coats, having warm water bottles on our laps, and going to bed after dinner in order to keep warm. Now there is at least a little heat . . .

We always serve after each meeting in order to have a good social hour with our students. I think the young people on Friday enjoyed it greatly. Fritzi and Elsa are very nice hostesses and I feel that the Swiss people love

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it and are amazed by it. Balancing a cup on the lap is, however, still not very much appreciated here. They still prefer gathering around the table.

Last night, while talking with some of the guests after dinner, one of the men mentioned that the Gazette de Lausanne had an article by a Swiss general which was most depressing . . . This is nothing but an armistice, it said, and thus people feel. It is apparent that on the whole they are trying to enjoy the little time left before the new tragedy hits. No wonder we Bahá’ís are urged to work hard. A superhuman task is ours and we must pray for greater opportunities to teach. And we must oppose every thought of war with a thought of peace. It is a tremendous task.

Bern, November 4, 1947. I wished on Sunday as I went by train to W that you could have been with me. The Alps showed themselves in all their glory. They do it very seldom. Above the multicolored forests the snow and ice! Bern, November 12, 1947. On the whole last night’s meeting was probably good, but somehow I feel again deeply how little we are able to make others feel the significance of this unusually important time in which we are

living. It is as Shoghi Effendi

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said, we are almost too close to the events that ushered in the Great Day.

Bern, November 25, 1947 . . . . we should be channels for the flow of that which Bahá’u’lláh has given to this generation and to generations to come. To become efficient in prayer means to practice it. It is an art and no art can be learned except through exertion. But prayer can become as natural as breathing itself; and on days when it seems hard to concentrate, we can at least cry out, “Oh God, show us how to pray, help us in this endeavor!” But God’s mercy in this day has decreed that service to humanity is prayer. Only, (10 we not all have the experience that we serve better, without the feeling of exhaustion, if we serve in a prayerful attitude? Bern, December 1, 1947 Yesterday the men in the canton Zurich voted on whether or not to finally give the women the right to vote, either in part or in full. Once again it was rejected. They will not permit them to vote at all, not for schools, religious education, etc. . . . The Bahá’í Faith is certainly needed to bring dignity to humankind. And it is needed in so many other ways. . . . Nothing but a divine remedy can bring healing where so much misery has been.

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Geneva, December 11, 1947.

I was called to Geneva by phone. One of the Bahá’ís in Geneva has invited Dr. 5., . . the Iranian delegate to the Conference for Human Rights (Mrs. Roosevelt presiding) to the Bahá’í Center. The Persian students in Geneva (nine of them, all Bahá’ís) vere very anxious to have Dr. S. . . . see our International Center there. He had been at the San F rancisco Conference and had met American Bahá’ís and of course knows the Faith well established in Iran. So they wanted E., the Belgian Bahá’í, and me, a Swiss Bahá’í, to entertain him at tea. He came with another Persian and stayed quite a long while discussing his proposition to the commission concerning minority groups (ethnical, racial, and religious). He is pleading for freedom of the press, for freedom to meet in groups, etc., for these minorities. We thanked him for his noble effort and told him that we were happy to see all. this come out of Bahá’u’lláh’s country—the country to which the Bahá’ís and all the world owe so much gratitude.

Bern, December 17, 1947.

All the interesting lectures you are attending prove to me that you are trying to stay flexible and broadminded and thus you will continue to be valuable mem WORLD ORDER

bers of 3 Faith which demands our moving forward with the times in all that is good, true, and progressive in the noblest sense of the word. There should be no room for narrowness in so sublime a Faith, which stresses that religious truth is not absolute but relative. I questioned this statement for a long time, but now I see that it must be relative to the time and age in which We live.

Bern, January I, 1948. As the bells tolled, ringing out the old year . . . . and as the new year was ushered in by all the bells in the many churches in Bern, I was in thought with all of you. I gave thanks for God’s goodness to all of us in the past and I asked Him for His help in this new year. It is a year one might well begin with a trembling heart were it not for the assurance in our hearts (assurance derived through faith )that God has a plan for the world, which we poor humans can hold up temporarily but not permanently. God is patient, but He will always be victorious. Every human father, if he is wise, will let his children make their own experiences in order that they may learn through those experiences, but he makes sure that the damage done is not of a permanent nature.

. . . . being a Bahá’í means not

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only to enjoy the Bahá’í message and spirit, but to work for it and to bring it to others in order that the world may not perish. I hope you received the pamphlet by Albert Einstein, as told to Raymond Swing . . . Speaking about the fact that world government is certain to come in time, but that man has the power to determine at what cost it is to come, he ends his article thus: “Unless the cause of peace based on law gathers behind it the forces and zeal of religion, it can hardly hope to succeed. Those to whom the moral teaching of the human race is entrusted surely have a great duty and opportunity. The atomic scientists, I think, have become convinced that they cannot arouse the American people to the truth of the atomic era by logic alone. There must be added that deep power of emotion which is the basic ingredient of religion. It is to be hoped that not only the churches but the schools, the colleges, and the leading organs of opinion will acquit themselves well of their responsibility in this regard.” Thus speaks a scientist! The old religious road is closed, a new road has been opened. If our generation fails, God will entrust another with this sacred task!

Bern, January 14, 1948.

It . . . cheered me quite a bit when yesterday, during class, an old school friend of mine suddenly said that she had to confess life had taken on a new meaning—many difficult situations were changing, invisible doors were opening—since she has been studying the Teachings.

Bern, January 22, 1948. A wonderful letter from a former pioneer to South America was quite a consolation. As an experienced pioneer, she realizes the patience it takes in this work. She says, “And when the moment comes, you plant the seed of the divine wisdom in the fertile ground of the heart! There is a time for words, but there is always the time for love and spiritual fellowship, which is full of understanding and listening and appreciation for what the other one is and feels . . . Although this method may at times seem slow, be assured that Bahá’u’lláh loves His servant with that ‘kindly tongue which clotheth the words with meaning.’ ”

Bern, January 28, 1948. Within the next two weeks we hope to start a meeting downtown in a rented room (we’ll take it for one evening a week) . . . We all have our limitations as to strength and time and unless we find time to dwell daily on the

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creative Word, read and meditate, we cut ourselves off from that life-giving spirit which alone can attract others to that Faith which we represent and love. In this material age of ours it is hard enough to find the balance, and I know how hard it is to battle and how difficult it is to feel God’s nearness.

Bern, February 3, 1948. I have just returned from a three quarters of an hour walk in the pleasant spring-like air. It was pleasant along the Bremgarten Wald . . . Somehow I felt close to the Source of all that is beautiful and true; meditation in the evening light and the beauty of nature is strengthening and uplifting. February 25, 1948. A full but glorious week helongs to the past, but I feel it will leave signs of its beauty and blessedness for ages to come . . . It all started . . . that afternoon when D. 3., our American lecturer, arrived. . . . The evening lecture at the Bern Koservatorium fiir Musik, in their beautiful small hall, was a huge success. We had told the janitor that we did not know whether there would be twenty or seventy people. People kept coming and they had to carry in more and more

chairs . . . there were more than one hundred. . . . We had an WORLD ORDER

nounced the subject, “Ein CottEine Menschheit” [One Godone Humanity].

F riday night about thirty-five people gathered in one of the parlors of the hotel and it was a very eager group . . . Some did not understand English; therefore We had to translate, and this time I was to do it. Her talk opened new doors to the listeners; and while it was a pity her beautiful presentations of history, of a new nearness to God, prayer, and illustrations through some lovely stories could not be given without translation, yet she seemed to hold her audience. Questions were asked, and at ten thirty only did she stop, and then people lingered. It was a most precious evening. I never would have believed that, with my limited experience, I should be able to translate for about two hours. But this I did, through that strength bestowed upon us poor humans if we trust that God can help us. It is a glorious experience to feel that He uses us as instruments and that we can relax in Him.

Bern, March 13, 1948.

Just now my school friend left my room. She wanted to come and see me and she actually came to ask whether I thought her worthy of becoming a Bahá’í. God alone knows whether any of

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us have a right to call ourselves Bahá’ís, but I made her feel how great a blessing it must be to become the first Bahá’í in a city. Of course, we hope that others may be able to take the final step at the same time.

Fritzi just now . . . phoned the happy news that another inquirer, one who came to the leetures, has spent the afternoon with her and Elsa and wanted to sign as a Bahá’í.

The world outlook is gloomy and how people can live as they do when there is nothing but misunderstanding, hatred, and fear on the political horizon is a puzzle, to say the least. The world is absorbed in material pursuits and spiritual things are wanted by a few only.

. . . . your prayers are needed in this undertaking in order that perhaps an assembly may arise on April twenty-first. Miracles can still happen, it seems to me. Effort is needed—and faith. Bahá’u’lláh will be victorious.

Bern, April 2, 1948.

On Easter Monday . . . we drove, on the invitation of one of the new Bahá’ís, to the Oberland. It was a gorgeous trip and Kanderstegr was beautiful and Blausee true to its name, blue as ink . . . hidden among lovely forests.

From there we went to Aeshi, which is located high above Lake

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Thun, with a view which is charming. There we enjoyed afternoon coffee and then drove to dear, beloved Interlaken. Words cannot express the preciousness of the evening. The Jungfrau showed itself in all its gloryshe stood pink or even deeper in color—Alpine-glow in its most perfect shading! . . . Yes, Switzerland is a little jewel.

As for the new believers, I am grateful that they were able to see the Light, and slowly, as did we ourselves, they will more and more understand the glory of it all. It is a slow growth, but within the Faith progress is faster than without. They all are in God’s hands and they will grow in the sunshine of His love.

The world situation is worse‘ than at any time before the wars of 1914 and 1939 ..... but, as Bahá’u’lláh savsa “Armed with the power of Thy name nothing can ever hurt me and with Thv love in my heart all the world’s afflictions can in no wise alarm me”: therefore we must look to the Light anrl not dwell on the forces of darkness.

Bern, April 10, 1948.

We hear that many Americans are cancelling; their reservations for Europe because of the seriousness of the world situation. As Bahá’ís, we must help people to overcome fear and not allow

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them to dwell on the thought that another war is inevitable. Bern, April 17, 1948. Work with our various study classes continues. On Tuesday night we will meet to form our assembly. Naturally there will be no election of an assembly [there were only nine of them]; we shall simply organize. We have great hopes that soon we may have more members to enroll. Of course we are more than ready to weather disappointments because, . . .as in America and in other places, men and women are afraid of the new, and, in religion especially, they do not like to disturb the status quo. It is more comfortable to leave things as they have been for centuries. Take no chances or risks! And in doing this they forget that eternity, too, should be taken into consideration, or we may miss there the greatest opportunity ever given to mortals. But we are on the road of a stirring adventure, and, God willing, the night will soon make way for the bright daylight, when all, even those with poor sight, will suddenly see the glory of the age in which we are living. Meanwhile, let us be in readiness to help in the work when once the masses will clamor for the Message ..... it takes courage to turn to the new!

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Bern, April 23, 1948. We pioneers are naturally happy that on the twenty-first we were able to organize our Assembly. We made quite a little occasion of it. . . . In Geneva, too, they have organized. Bern, April 30. Work continues to move forward. Our study evening has all along been well attended, so that we have asked for the larger room, where we met yesterday for the first time. Bern, May 8, 1948. The world has become small indeed, but, in spite of it, people are unwilling to recognize it as one country, where there would be enough space, food, and op portunity for all to live in peace and happiness. Yes, men’s mind: and hearts are very limited and narrow and nothing short of God’s great and limitless love and power can eventually free us from our narrow attitude. Bern, May 29, 1948 Our Geneva Conference belongs to the past and, when we have recovered from our physical fatigue, the blessing of the days spent together will so fill our souls with thanksgiving that it will stand in our memories as a shining occasion in our Bahá’í lives . . . Three sessions a day! . . . It was wonderful to see the European pioneers at the sessions

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. . . Many of the new believers came from various countries and seemed so very happy. . . . The anniversary of the Báb’s Declaration was beautifully celebrated. A banquet was prepared in a beautiful setting at the Hotel de la Paix. The program, entrusted . . . to the Luxemburg Bahá’ís, was treated in a very inspiring manner. They took the story from Nabil [The Dawn Breakers] and worked it out for three persons to read. One read the words of Mullá Ḥusayn, another those of the Báb, a third read the story which accompanied it. Soft music was used to fill in and at times to accompany the readings. The spirit of the

meeting was very powerful.

The trip from Geneva to Bern by bus (we had three, one behind the other), was very lovely even though we were not favored with the best of weather. In Spite of rain in the evening, there must have been about one hundred friends of the Bahá’ís out for the meeting. There were talks in German and English. . . . How we long for the international language to he developed in order that such conferences may take place without so much waste of time through the necessity of translating into French and German.

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Bern, June 16, 1948. I had two inquirers for afternoon tea, and one of them spoke beautifully of how much she felt the mighty power of the Bahá’í prayers. If only we can help her to see that she will not lose Christ as she accepts Bahá’u’lláh—but will win Him only as she obeys His spirit returned to earth once more. Again it’s evening and the bells toll to say good-night. Bern, June 20, 1948. People in Switzerland are indeed living as in a paradise, but underneath all the good living there continues to be much fear. Most people believe that a new war must come, and we Bahá’ís try hard to counteract every thought of war with a thought of peace. It is possible to create a mass psychology for war and that is dangerous stuff. More and more I can see that it is essential that we Bahá’ís dwell on constructive thoughts. Where everyone else tends to believe in the “Untergang des Abendlandes” [Decline of the West], we

have to admit there are disrup ‘tive forces, but, instead of dwell ing on these, we are building new little communities. As the old order disappears, whether we like it or not, the new in embryo is already with us. It is this point, I think, that makes people even

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here in Bern stop and listen. “Utopia,” they often say, and we admit that it would be just that, if it were not for Bahá’u’lláh’s creative power. It is for this reason, I feel, that our teaching methods for Europe bring us, almost in the first session with new inquirers, to the point that indeed a great God-sent messenger, “ein neuer Oflenbarer,” has come. We used to reveal the full truth only slowly, but it will not work under present conditions. Only a Superman can save us from the “Untergang.” Meanwhile we teach quietly the great plan for a new world order and it is re. markable how many people are anxious to hear about it. That does not mean that all will become Bahá’ís, but some will, and on Wednesday, during the Feast, we hope to enroll three more Bernese. A school teacher and his fiancée are to be married in July. Inspired by the beautiful wedding of an American girl and the first new Bahá’í in Portugal . . . they have asked for a Bahá’í wedding. Even though the bridegroom understands English very poorly, he was especially carried away by the spirit of the simple ceremony. Naturally we are translating the service into German—it is available only in part in that language. Our main meet WORLD ORDER

ing . . . continues to be well at tended. Bern, June 24, 1948. . at last night’s Feast we

accepted three Bernese into the

Faith. Bern, July 12, 1948.

This past week two women said that they wanted to become Bahá’ís. . . . A few new people were again out last Thursday. At first I was a little fearful that our subject was not appropriate for beginners. However, it was amazing how help from on High was given. I was most happy at the close of the meeting, and my heart overflowed with gratitude when two interested ones told me afterwards how much just that evening meant to them. Oh, that We of little faith could always trust and relax and in sitting at His feet open our mouths and speak! Why is it so hard to get into that attitude of severance? It is a unique experience when we are allowed to serve in such a way.

Bern, July 18, 1948.

Not two, but three have this week taken with us the last instructions before becoming Bahá’ís. . . . I have come to see more and more that the old, indirect method teaching, in which we talked for the longest time about our principles without giving full credit to the Originator

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by mentioning Bahá’u’lláh’s station in the new world order, is no longer effective, and only seldom will it bring results. The people are aware that only a God-given remedy can save us from the agonies of the aftermath of two world wars.

Bern, July 23, 1948.

People seem impressed by the wording of our weekly advertisement in the newspaper: World

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Religionflfor World Peace. . . . the Teachings may not be accepted in full by all those coming in contact with them, but wherever a seed falls it may do something unusual for a needy one. Some of those who have accepted the Faith fully have become different human beings. One lady is radiant while formerly she looked sad. . . . The healing

power of the Great Physician!

O Thou Abiding One

STAN BLAKESLEE

Into the hills that God has built

I walk, with humble feet.

I see the glory of His works;

The mightiness of Him I cannot guess.

I see His mountains, valleys and His skies, His sun, His clouds, His far stars in the night. And while I stand within this Majesty

I feel His glorious Beauty, and find joy

That I am one with it.

Each perfect flower is a gift from God;

Each drop of water from His gracious Hand.

The good things are all His. Each breathless vision Of sunsets far across the mighty seas;

Each glory of the morning sings His praise.

The day’s sweet winging and the peace of dark All things are God’s. Men, too, belong to Him.

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The Dot and the Circle

MARK TOBEY

UST when the individual en ters the universal is a little difficult to know. I’m going to go back quite a way in my life tonight; I would go into any other life here if I knew it the way I know my own—but I don’t.

It isn’t so terribly long ago, in Wisconsinswhere I lived as a boy, that people had never seen an automobile. No one talked of diets. If people got ill they took Peruna. They always said they felt much better after it. Later on we found that its alcohol content was rather high.

We had two trains a day. The Milwaukee came in in the morning and the Burlington came in at night and the two stations were a full mile apart. Then we had the river boats. One time a storm wrecked a sidewheeler and I was very happy; it was a big event in my life.

There were three churches. There were no societies like Anthroposophy or New Thought. I was baptized in the Methodist Church and went regularly to the Congregational. Occasionally on summer days I’d go up and peek in the Catholic Church. It was very verboten but I wanted to see those colored pictures on the

wall. I’d take a look and run down the road.

There was a shelf of books in the high school. I remember one title: Sentimental Journey. We paid $4 a month for an eleven room house. Of course my father complained of the rising cost of living.

Nobody ever heard of lipstick and cigarettes for women and when a woman walked you only saw the tip of her shoe. You never saw her foot. A red silk petticoat was—well, you can imagine what it was.

Then I went to Chicago and saw the tall buildings, only they Weren’t so tall as I expected. I could go to the Chicago library and take out a book by George Barr McCutcheon every day. Once I took two. But the librarian said no, you can’t read two books in one day; you can only read one book.

There were Billiken gods and everybody had a den in their house; there were singing societies. In school I made my first contact with Latin and German.

I saw an ostrich egg and a Zulu; they were decorations along my path, which came with the Chicago Exposition. Later on in Chicago there was free lunch

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[Page 413]DOT AN D CIRCLE

and a glass of beer. Everyone hummed the Merry Widow; and every little Movement had a Meaning of its own. Everyone was happy.

I began to be really interested in art. I read the Russians, especially Crime and Punishment. I was so impressed with it I had to hide the butcher knife from myself.

Then came New York, my Mecca in a way. There was much talk about poetry. People spent hours discussing who would write the Great American Novel. It was the beginning of the superlatives which the movies took up and expanded as you know. There was ioie de vivre. There was Irene Castle. Everybody was dancing. There were thés dtmsants. We went to Mouquin’s or the St. Regis. The men were drinking out of silver slippers. If you had a mandarin coat, that was fine, even if you didn’t know anything about a mandarin.

People would come to my studio on 16th Street and have tea and listen to a singer singing classical Italian songs. But then the war broke out; the traffic changed its tune; it got so heavy they couldn’t get home in time to dress for dinner if they came down for tea. Then tea was not enough; only a cocktail would relax them. The French tradition began to disappear; people

413

talked a great deal about being American. All my crowd went to Childs’. It wasn’t Viennese; it wasn’t Russian or French; it was all white tiles and American. Mr. Childs’ became an American salon.

Then we had the rise of advertising. I felt a terrible revulsion to the sudden plaster of advertisements. I wrote this poem:

Pegasus may carry you into

the starry skies,

But Babbitt tells you how to

clean from cellar to attic. I’ve often thought that perhaps those lines were prophetic.

Everyone voted for Wilson because he kept us out of war and everyone was saying, I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier, I brought him up to be my pride and joy. Then we made the world safe for democracy. Not many cities were ruined. Big Bertha hit Paris a few times. Then the Armistice came and World Peace at last. It happened about eleven o’clock one morning; at two A.M. the next morning I found myself dancing in the streets; it was the one time I was completely integrated with the mass spirit.

Many strange things took place. Greenwich Village had been a closed section of New York, where only artists really were. There were no stores to Speak of. I remember making a_.

[Page 414]414 WORLD ORDER

sign for “The Village Store.” I never should have done it. Pretty soon we had all the materialists of Broadway coming down and opening up “Purple Puppies” and “Green Ostriches.” Then there were a hundred Village Balls instead of just one, that people formerly used to prepare for over a period of months. The days of the Village were over.

People were intermingling. Societies were breaking up. There was a great migration of intellectuals to France. There came the rise of the Babbitt type. I saw my first social satire: The Hairy Ape.

Meanwhile there were many things which had not entered my orbit. At the Chicago Fair in 1893 a man mentioned a new religion which was to unite all peoples. I knew nothing of this; I was around four at the time and I saw a horse made entirely of oats which impressed me much more. I was also taken to see a representation of the Johnstown Flood; I caught my feet in the iron fretwork of the chair and that frightened me more than the Flood because I had been conditioned for a calamity.

In 1912 the papers were mentioning a Man, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This I knew nothing about. The consciousness of such a Person entering the West did not come into my orbit.

By 1918 I was suddenly confronted by what can happen to anything that lives or grows—a sort of climax in my life. I suddenly tried to find out if there was any truth in life.

I was asked to a dinner; there sat a woman who was a portrait painter, a woman named Juliet Thompson. She had, some way in her life, met this Persian philosopher and He had lighted her mind to the unity of all religions. I escorted her home; I hoped she wouldn’t want the bus as I didn’t have a dime. She said, “Let’s walk.” We talked of Socialism, because in those days everyone was talking of Socialism. That grew into her idea of painting my portrait and later we talked of the Faith.

It was a strange and flaming beauty which entered into me and of which I could speak. You saw it in the faces of the people who had caught this light. The Holy Spirit can illumine countless minds upon the earth, just as many lights can be lit from one taper. That which I had passed by caught up with me.

This is only a feeble statement of the expanding of individual life toward the universal. Many things are changed in such a process: we have new concepts, relationships, above all new values. The beginning of any new time perhaps is a very simple

[Page 415]DOT AND CIRCLE

time in a way; probably like childhood. It was a great new happiness; We could have said: “This is the renewal of happiness; this is a very beautiful religion and it makes people happy-”

I was still living in this world. I was moving in this world. A sort of atmosphere was dying out. The idea that the poem was important, that art was a great adventure. The “restaurant personality” was missing: the man or woman who made the restaurant their life, instead of getting money out of their restaurant to make a life elsewhere.

It wasn’t long before there were strange happenings in Europe. The clash of ideologies; as you know, another war; before that, a strange sign: a world depression. There were new instruments, even more terrifyingr than Big Bertha. No longer any safety for women and children; no more sparing of monuments. Anything that lived was wiped out.

There were no strange far away places any more; everything became involved in the world conflict. This all meant lhat the new religion would have to offer a reconsideration of former teachings. Religion was being challenged as never beforeto come out of an edifice into the light; and that light would have

415“?

to filter through all the classes,’ races, colors—through everything, to clear away these divi-f sive, destructive ideas in the: world. I

There was a very interesting line in the Chronicle this afternoon: that Berlin has made an appeal to the entire world. I don’t think we have ever read anything before in which people cried out to the entire world.

More and more, I had to struggle. Much was given me through other Bahá’ís to help me understand this universal message. I don’t think it’s a teaching which we can get without effort.

As an artist, I’m used mostly to other artists; to shop-talk, and the long consideration of techniques. But something seems to have died out of the art worldthe spirit. I believe it has died out of every world. I would wager it doesn’t exist even in the plumber’s world.

This universal Cause of Bahá’u’lláh which brings the fruition of man’s development, challenges him and attracts him to see the light of this day as the unity of all life; dislodges him from a great deal of automatic and environmental inheritance; seeks to create in him a Vision which is absolutely necessary for his existence. The teachings of Bahá’u’lláh are themselves the light with which we can see how

[Page 416]416 WORLD ORDER

to move forward on the road of evolution.

It is not possible to comprehend their scope; a man can know them only through his life, and the way he moves and tries to classify the fact that God has called today for the great as a very challenging and disruptive concept to most religious minds today—we accept the idea of the advance of science, we won’t go back to the pump on the back porch, but when it comes to religion we want it to stop.

We must come to understand

semblage of all mankind.

This “all mankind” does not rellglon because today we mnst come to understand the entire

world. All things far have been

acy—ona Muslim or JeWISh brought near and they will he or BuddhlSt Baha 1 supremacy— brought nearer. This is a very

it means seeing by that one light challengingr time and we need a

that we are 0P9, religions are very great Teacher to show us one, all that eXIStS in the world is how to move in these days, It is

one. It implies that religion is the belief of the Bahá’ís that this progressive and not final; this is Teacher has come.

mean a Christian Bahá’í suprem

AN ALL-INCLUSIVE PROGRAM

The Bahá’í Faith, numbering many millions of followers throughout the world, has for its immediate objective the fostering of love and good-will among mankind. Representatives of every religion, every race, every nationality, every social class. every degree of humanity from the lowest unto the highest are daily swelling our numbers and enhancing the prestige of peace and of brotherhood in the world.

Hereditary animosities, age-Old enmities, apparently insurmountable barriers are being abrogated and forgotten under the compelling influence of these mighty teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. T0 Bahá’ís, this practice of world friendship is not a mere wistful idea; it is the common basis of everyday life.

The world is full of societies and movements, some working for peace, some for the advancement of women, some for the solution of the economic problems, some for education, some for a universal language, some for racial amity, some for brotherhood and understanding; but the Bahá’í Cause is the only one that combines all of these objectives, under the guidance of Bahá’u’lláh, Who first compiled the all-inclusive program from which each in turn has sprung.

KEITH RANSOM—KEHLER,

“Religion and Social Progress,” The Bahá’í World, Vol. V.

[Page 417]To Do the Impossible

—(CL/ztorza/

VERY conscientious man today is faced with a terrible

need to do the impossible. With conflict on every hand, with animosities mounting to implacable hatred, we are becoming aware that there is a time-limit, a deadline, before which we have almost to remake the world. We have created problems which we cannot solve, and we seem to be rushing from one remedy to another, like rats in a trap, or to have sunk into apathy born of despair.

Bahá’ís, who at least believe that they know where they are going, are also, to some extent, affected by the illness of the world. No one today can help feeling the frantic haste, alternating With slack hopelessness which makes so erratic the pulse of the times. We, like all others, are sometimes oppressed by our limitations—time, space, the physical body, economics, patterns of past thinking and behavior. We, like other peace-loving people, sometimes see our selves only as weak, imperfectly equipped individuals with very limited resources. The voices about us advocating human unity

seem to be crying out to stones. Sometimes we look at our limitations and forget our religion.

For religion is the conjunction of the limited with the Illimitahle. Timeless, spaceless, the dynamic Source of life, manifesting Himself from age to age, manifest again in Bahá’u’lláh, God exists, and to approach Him is to become instinct with creative power itself.

This Bahá’ís know. In one way or another, each of us has become assured, not only that Bahá’u’lláh is the key to more life, but also that He has indicated the course of man’s destiny, past and future. We have an advantage, for we have been given a plan of action. We know what we are to do and where we can derive the power to do it. But we, like the believers of all religions from time immemorial, must learn over and over, day in, day out, the relation of our weakness to transcendent Might.

Work, prayer, sacrificethese are the means, but they are not enough, if we forget that in performing them we touch the Illimitable. How easy to live in terms of our restricted lives, to

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[Page 418]

418

reckon only so much time, so much strength, so much money! How easy to relapse into running frantically about within those limitations, frustrating all we do by the very barriers we set up inside us! How difficult to have faith!

Not even physical skills can be achieved without a measure of faith. No one can swim without first learning to relax. To ride, to drive, to walk, even to learn, all these require relaxation combined with power, which is the basis of tranquillity. Tranquillity of soul implies the relaxation of our selves and of our selfimposed limitations so that the divine force may invade us. It is the giving up of our selves, with their virtues and their imperfections, to be instruments in the hands of God. When that is accomplished—and prayer is the means to it—our limitations become the means by which we transcend them. For, as every poet knows, every painter, sculp WORLD ORDER

tor, musician, the very restrictions imposed upon us become, if we have creative power, our best aids to accomplishment.

Time, which hems us in, because of its urgency, becomes the spur to action. An hour is very short, but its duration is meaningless if it is used to engender a chain of consequences which will instrument the divine will, for then it partakes of eternity. A word, winged with the Illimitable, can fly to the far corners of the earth and re-echo centuries hence. Even money, that most limited and calculable thing—even a dollar can feed multitudes and buy for future man incalculable wealth.

The effects of our causes cannot be reckoned. They are not limited by our knowledge. Weakness may be the source of strength, and wars may yet bring about peace. Man can do the impossible. He has only to learn how.

G. B.

The purpose underlying the revelation of every heavenly Book, nay of every divinely revealed verse, is to endue all men with righteousness and understanding, so that peace and tranquility may be firmly established amongst them. Whatsoever instilleth assurance into the hearts of men, whatsoever exalteth their station or promoteth their contentment, is acceptable in

the sight of God.

-Bahá’u’lláh

[Page 419]A Prayer

JOHN WILFRED GREENWOOD

God of my soul,

Give Thou to me

Discerning insight,

That I may see Thee

As my Lord and Sovereign;

Great in Love’s majesty,

And Visioning Thy great omnipotence!

No winds that blow,

No hurricanes of hate

Can hinder those

Who know Thee as their own,

Whose faces turn toward Love’s vast horizon! Nor all the lures of this vain lustful world, Can ever frustrate those who do Thy will, And know the glory of Thy gracious courts!

I see the lamps of love

Burning within their hearts;

And tenderness divine deep hidden in their breasts. No evil power can woo them from Thy Cause,

And no ill-fortune lead them from Thy ways!

Keep Thou Thy children from all enemies;

And feed their souls with Thine own bread of Life; So shall they know no terrifying fear,

And tear-drenched grief shall ever pass them by!

419

[Page 420]The Last Best Hope For Fteedom

GERTRUDE ROBINSON

OUR country has always been known as the Land of the

Free. Until a very short time ago, we were content to keep that freedom to ourselves, unmindful apparently of the idealistic principles of the rest of the world. But not today. The forces of progress are unifying the world to such an extent that we are now asking of life a larger freedom than we have ever known; and We ask it, not for America alone, but for the entire world.

We seek this freedom along three general lines: political, educational, and spiritual. The struggle between ideologies of East and West typifies the political realm; UNESCO, with its world aims in intellectual endeavor, typifies the educational. But what shall we say typifies the third line of search for freedom, the spiritual?

The religions of the world are many and varied. In the main, each religion is content within itself, not caring to understand the basic beliefs of others. Their lack of knowledge of each other puzzles the student of world thought. Why do the religions not realize how very much they have in common? Why are differences stressed, instead of likenesses?

There is great need today for a clearing-house of religious beliefs. We need to find our common principles, our common denominator. We need to develop a common concept of right, of justice, of virtue. In other words, we need a unified conscience to guide us in the great new task of accomplishing world undertakings.

But where can a unified conscience be found? All of the older religions claim the answer, but not one is unified within itself. All are bound up in the strangleholds of imitation and imagination. Not one realizes its common ground with other heliefs enough to say, “We are one; let us walk this highway together.”

And yet——something now is growing up today through the ruins of the civilization we have known. It is a new growth which has already made its appearance in more than ninety countries of the world. This new growth operates under identical laws wherever it appears. It has a common standard of virtue and principle. It has a common measuring—rod.

This new thing is the Bahá’í World Faith. It has sprung up out

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[Page 421]HOPE FOR FREEDOM

of the desolation of the past and is putting forth its sturdy growth all over the world.

The Bahá’í Faith does not discard the past; it accepts it all as a Revelation of God’s Plan for humanity down through all ages. It teaches that man has developed from childhood, through adolescence, and is now approaching maturity, a time when he will choose to do the Will of his Creator; a time when, of his own free will, he will choose the measuring-rod which will be of standard acceptance all over the world.

Strange, is it not, that the majority of men ignore the power of religion in the life of the world. From the Spirit, all things have developed. Neglect of this basic cause of all life can lead only to world disorder.

This new, all-inclusive world religion, the Bahá’í Faith, has unity as its keynote. It gives due credit to all religions. It bars no person because of class, creed, race or nationality. It satisfies the hunger of the world for a constructive plan for civilization. Its plan is so mighty and farreaching that we who know of it can only catch its first radiations; the final glory is beyond our imagination.

And, perhaps most important

of all, this Bahá’í Faith furnishes a measuring-rod for the moral

421

conduct of the human race. It can create unity of conscience.

What is this measuring-rod, this standard-creator for our world of today? This measuringrod is the Law of Bahá’u’lláh, Prophet of God for this day and age. Bahá’u’lláh, whose title means “Glory of God,” appeared in Persia about a century ago, proclaiming the unity of all religions, the unity of God, the unity of all His Prophets, past and present, and the unity of mankind.

Bahá’u’lláh revealed exact plans for the establishing of God’s Kingdom on earth, making it possible for all religions to meet on common ground without giving up their beloved faith in a Prophet of the past. The seeker after spiritual truth will find that in the Bahá’í Faith, subtraction does not take place, but addition.

Bahá’u’lláh is the great, inspired Leader of universal peace. Throth Him, power has been released making its accomplishment possible. He has made unity of conscience, not a dream of wild imagination, but a thrilling actual realitv, already operating in groups all over the world. He has freed these followers from the fetters of an outworn civilization and is creating through them a new race of men.

Under the Plan of Bahá’u’lláh,

[Page 422]422

world law will be established. Al ready we are able to see this being accomplished. Not yet does the world give credit to the operation of this Plan. Development is always gradual. Nevertheless, like a ferment in the heart of man, it is stirring and working, and it will continue until the entire mass of humanity is leavened.

This Law, working through the unified conscience of the world, will bring about the unity of mankind.

The attitude of men toward law is largely a matter of personal reaction. There are those who fear to break the law because the result is punishment. There are those who would break all laws, who resent their very existence, because they curtail what some consider personal freedom. There are still others—~and I believe these are manywho honor and love law because of the decency it entails, the protection of the innocent, the upholding of virtue, the reward of right-living, the harmonious “togetherness” of men and women in an ever-changing universe. Man’s attitude depends largely upon whether he regards law as a positive or a negative force.

Of the Ten Commandments of Moses, seven were negative and three positive. The people of that

WORLD ORDER

day were in sad need of the “Thou shalt nots.” When Jesus came, His teachings Were positive: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34, 35)

Of necessity, the law of Moses was largely made up of the negativeness of fear; that of Jesus, of the positiveness of love.

Two thousand years have passed by. Still men struggle between that fear and that love. Another crisis in the developing history of mankind is with us. We breathe the air of crisis, our minds are stirred by its close proximity, our souls are startled into awareness by its immensity. Has Cod ever left His children without leadership in times of severe crisis? History reveals the answer: No! Always great leaders have arisen to lead the people out of the Egypt of despair into the Canaan of hope and light. We dare not limit God: a Leader claiming divine authority has hrought an inspiring Message to the world of today.

This is the day to which all great Prophets of the past have looked forward; and the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith are in

[Page 423]HOPE FOR FREEDOM

full accord with all their hopes. Its laws are very positive. The revealed plan for a spiritual world order is given in clear detail. To ignore its claims does not lessen its decrees.

We have turned a page in history. The laws on the new page are distinctly appropriate for our times. All can understand them. All are based on unity. They are Laws of God for a new Dispensation, given by Bahá’u’lláh, who is the culmination of a long, prophetic cycle. These are the Laws which will lead us from the nega 423

tiveness of restraint into the positiveness of freedom. .

Man is gradually evolving toward this new freedom: freedom under Divine Law. In the past, man has been slave to tradition, inheritance, surroundings, old methods and concepts. Today he is cutting loose from the past, freeing himself from ancient hindrances. There is no other way for man to attain the purpose of creation, except by submission to Divine Law.

This is humanity’s last, best hope for freedom.

THE SEED-BED OF FUTURE CIVILIZATION

In the central eastern part of this country there is an area which has in recent years been set aside as a national park. It is a very distinctive area from the point of view of geology and natural history. I refer to the Smokies.

A government scientist, speaking in the lobby of a hotel a few years ago told a group of us who happened to be there that evening that during the Ice Age the Smokies were raised above the level of the ice and thus preserved the grasses, the herbs, the shrubs and the trees which later, with the recession of the ice, were spread across the continent. The Smokies, accordi

ing to this conception, were the seed-bed of our humanly inhabited North America.

Now, today, we have another Ice Age. It is an Ice Age of the spirit. That is to say, humanity, in its condition of unbelief, lies under the oppression of this freezing cold; its hopes are inert; it is unable to live in the spiritual

realm; and the Bahá’í community is the seed-bed of the great continent of the new mankind.

Now, if this is our function, if it has been given to us to be alive above the level of the desolation that lies so heavy on mankind, if we are the seed-bed of the future because we stand in the sunlight of the Holy Spirit, we have a responsibility to the world which exceeds our capacity to express ......

—HORACE HOLLEY

[Page 424]

What Modern Man Must Know About Religion

A C 0m pilation

(Continued)

30. The divine Prophets are conjoined in the perfect state of love. Each one has given the glad-tidings of His successor’s coming and each successor has sanctioned the One who preceded Him. They were in the utmost unity hut Their followers are in strife. For instance, Moses gave the message of the glad-tidings of Christ and Christ confirmed the prophethood of Moses. Therefore between Moses and Jesus there is no variation or conflict. They are in perfect unity but between the Jew and the Christian there is conflict. Now therefore if the Christian and Jewish peoples investigate the reality underlying their Prophets’ teachings they will become kind in their attitude toward each other and associate in the utmost love, for reality is one and not dual or multiple. If this investigation of the reality becomes universal the divergent nations will ratify all the divine Prophets and confirm all the Holy Books. No strife 0r rancor will then remain and the world will become united.

31. Each of the divine religions embodies two kinds of or dinances. The first are those which concern spiritual susceptibilities, the development of moral principles and the quickening of the conscience of man. These are essential or fundamental, one and the same in all religions, changeless and eternal, reality not subject to transformation. His Holiness Abraham heralded this reality, His Holiness Moses promulgated it and His Holiness Jesus Christ established it in the world of mankind. All the divine prophets and messengers were the instruments and channels of this same eternal, essential truth.

The second kind of ordinances in the divine religions are those which relate to the material affairs of humankind. These are the material or accidental laws which are subject to change in each Day of Manifestation, according to exigencies of the time, conditions and differing capacities of humanity.

32. Just as the solar cycle has its four seasons the cycle of the Sun of Reality has its distinct and successive periods. Each brings its vernal season or springtime. When the Sun of Reality returns to quicken the

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[Page 425]MODERN MAN

world of mankind a divine bounty descends from the heaven of generosity. The realm of thoughts and ideals is set in motion and blessed with new life. Minds are developed, hopes brighten, aspirations become spiritual, the virtues of the human world appear with freshened power of growth and the image and likeness of God become visible in man. It is the springtime of the inner world.

After the spring, summer comes with its fullness and fruitage spiritual; autumn follows with its withering winds which chill the soul; the Sun seems to be going away until at last the mantle of winter overspreads and only faint traces of the effuigence of that divine Sun remain. Just as the surface of the material world becomes dark and dreary, the soil dormant, the trees naked and bare and no beauty or freshness remain to cheer the darkness and desolation, so the winter of the spiritual cycle witnesses the death and disappearance of divine growth and extinction of the light and love of God. But again the cycle begins and a now springtime appears. In it the former springtime has returned, the world is resuscitated, illumined and attains spirituality; religion is renewed and reorgan 425

ized, hearts are turned to God, the summons of God is heard and life is again bestowed upon man.

33. Consider the time of His Holiness Christ. Peoples, races and governments were many, religions, sects and denominations were various but when His Holiness appeared, the Messianic reality proved to be the collective center which unified them beneath the same tabernacle of agreement. Reflect upon this. Could His Holiness Jesus Christ have united these divergent factors 0r brought about such results through political power? Was this unity and agreement possible through material forces? It is evident that it was not; nay, rather, these various peoples were brought together through a divine power, through the breaths of the Holy Spirit. They were blended and quickened by the infusion of a new life. The spirituality of Christ overcame their difficulties so that their disagreements passed away completely. In this way these divergent peoples were unified and became welded in a bond of love which alone can unite hearts.

Therefore it is shown that the divine Manifestations, the holy mouth-pieces of God, are the collective Centers of God. These heavenly Messengers are the real shepherds of humanity, for when [Page 426]426

ever they appear in the world they unite the scattered sheep. The collective Center has always appeared in the Orient. His Holiness Abraham, His Holiness Moses, His Holiness Jesus Christ, His Holiness Muhammad, were collective Centers of their day and time, and all arose in the East. Today His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh is the Collective Center of unity for all mankind and the splendor of his light has likewise dawned from the East. He founded the oneness of humanity in Persia. He established harmony and agreement among the various peoples of religious beliefs, denominations, sects and cults by freeing them from the fetters of past imitations and superstitions; leading them to the very foundation of the divine religions.

From this foundation shines

forth the radiance of spirituality

WORLD ORDER

which is unity, the Love of God, the knowledge of God, praiseworthy morals and the virtues of the human world. Bahá’u’lláh renewed these principles, just as the coming of spring refreshes the earth and confers new life upon all phenomenal beings.

34. Every soul who lives according to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is free from the ailments and indispositions which prevail throughout the world of humanity; otherwise selfish disorders, intellectual maladies, spiritual sicknesses, imperfections and vices will surround him and he will not receive the life-giving

bounties of God.

References :

30. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgatian of Universal Peace, p 217.

31. Ibid, p 102. 32. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í World Faith, p 255.

33. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Umversal Peace, p 159. 34. Ibid, p 199.

THE NEED FOR PRAYER

There can be no substitute for prayer; it stands singly as a great spiritual force; and this force must be continuous. It cannot be dispensed with during one generation nor held in subordination for the advance of any great movement. We cannot conduct our spiritual work on the prayers of a past generation. A small number of people have anything but a vague conception of the power of prayer; fewer still have any real experience with that power. Prayer is our most powerful weapon, but one in the use of which we are the least trained, the one we are the most unwilling to use. The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.

—ETTA D. STECKLER, from “Why Pray?” WORLD ORDER, August, 1942.

[Page 427]

WITH OUR READERS

N PLACE of our usual lead article,

we are pleased to print this month a series of excerpts from letters written by Anna Kunz, a Bahá’í pioneer teacher in Switzerland, to her two daughters in America, Annamarie Kunz Honnold and Margaret Kunz Ruhe. Her daughters edited the letters and made up the compilation. Mrs. Honnold wrote us that when her mother was asked permission to print these letters, one of her requests was that the pronoun “I” be omitted. “She wanted it understood that where Bahá’í work is concerned it always means ‘we’. For rather obvious reasons the pronouns were not Changed. But let it be understood that she is working in Bern with three other pioneers from America,

Fritzi Shaver, Elsa Steinmetz and Mildred Elmer.”

When Mrs. Kunz went back to Switzerland as a Bahá’í pioneer teacher, she was really returning to her country of birth. She was the daughter of Dr. Adolph Bolliger, at one time professor of Theology at the University of Basel and later minister of the Neumunster, in Zurich. Mrs. Kunz became a teacher, and later married Dr. Jacob Kunz, with whom she came to America, settling in Urbana, Illinois. Dr. Kunz was professor of Physics at the University of Illinois where he served for 29 years so prominently in his field.

Soon the Kunzes became American citizens, and in these first years in

America, Mrs. Kunz embraced the Bahá’í World Faith, for which she

has worked zealously ever since. Professor Kunz’s three leaves of absence gave the family, including their two daughters, trips to Europe. During one of these, in 1921, Anna Kunz and her husbad went to the Holy Land where they visited with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Tiberias and Haifa.

For many years Mrs. Kunz was very active teaching the Bahá’í Faith in Urbana. After the death of her husband in 1939, she threw herself even more into Bahá’í work. At the present time, she is still in Switzerland, where she is serving as chairman of the first local assembly in Bern.

With “The Dot and The Circle” we are pleased to welcome to World Order a noted modern artist whose work has won international acclaim. For Mark Tobey is represented nationally in permanent art collections at the Metropolitan Museum of An and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; in the Detroit Museum, the Duncan Phillips Memorial Gallery of Washington, D.C., the A]bright Museum in Buffalo, and in private collections on the west coast. He has had one-man shows in London, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and Detroit.

After spending some time in Paris, Mr. Tobey was for seven years Resident Painter at the famous experimental estate, Dartington Hall, Devonshire, England. Described as a modernist, and as a painter whose art is recorded but not yet classified in art history, Mr. Tobey studied

427

[Page 428]

428

and traveled in China and Japan and is the originator of the “white writing” technique.

Mr. Tobey became a Baha” 1 in 1918 and has paid two visits to the Guardian of the Faith in Haifa. He was a member of the National Bah”i Assembly of Great Britain and helped establish the first English Bahá’í Summer School, at Mattlock Bath. His permanent home is on the west coast.

In F ourteen Americans, edited by Dorothy C. Miller and published by the Museum of Modern Art, Mr. Tobey states his philosophic concept as an artist in the following terms:

“Our ground today is not so much the national or the regional ground as it is the understanding of this single earth. The earth has been round for some time now, but not in man’s relations to man nor in the understanding of the arts of each as a part of that roundness. As usual we have occupied ourselves too much with the outer, the objective, at the expense of the inner world wherein the true roundness lies.

“Naturally, there has been some consciousness of this for a very long time, but only now does the challenge to make the earth one place become so necessarily apparent. Ours is a universal time and the significance of such a time all point to the need for the universalizing of the consciousness and the conscience of

9 man . . .

We asked Gertrude Robinson how she came to write her article “The Last Best Hope for Freedom.” “I wrote it,” she said, “as a talk for a public meeting of the Bahá’ís in Columbus, but my original intent faded

WORLD ORDER

out as I worked, and the importance of a unified conscience in solving world problems became impressed upon my mind more and more deeply. I saw it as the only solution for the tangled affairs of our world of today; and I realized that a unified conscience could come only through a world faith.

Mrs. Robinson, who is a frequent contributor to World Order, grew up and taught in the public schools of Mansfield, Ohio. She now lives on a farm just north of Circleville, Ohio. She is the author of a volume of poetry entitled “Rounded Hours” and has written and published poetry and articles in several magazines.

Mrs. Robinson’ 5 activity in Bahá’í work includes reading papers on the Bahá’í Faith for near-by communities, taking part in panels, and teaching “whenever the opportunity is given me”.

Garreta Busey considers in this month’s editorial the problem of a humanity faced with a time limit to remake the world, and terribly beset with limitations. Miss Busey points out how when man turns once more to religion and forgets his limitations by gazing upon the Illimitable, then time will become the spur of action, not the great deterrent.

For lack of space we were unable to print last month the entire second section of “Unity of the Prophets”, part III of the compilation “What Modern Man Must Know About Relig ion” The concluding selections are published in this issue. Next month we begin part IV, which deals with one of the most important and

[Page 429]WITH OUR READERS

also one of the most disregarded questions of our day, that of a “Spiritual Civilization”.

With the poem “O Thou Abiding One” we welcome Stan Blakeslee to our pages. Mr. Blakeslee is a resident of Arcadia, California, who has seen his belief in the lift and inspiration of poetry work out well in terms of publication. He has contributed poetry to various national magazines. One of his poems, that came out in Good Housekeeping, was read over the radio several times.

Besides poetry, Mr. Blakeslee writes short stories and plays. A oneact play of his took first place in the local Theater Guild contest and was later staged. He is doing another one for the Guild to put on this spring. Still he confesses: “as for writing, I am just getting started, after long and sincere preparation.”

This is the first time we print a poem by Dr. John Wilfred Greenwood, minister of' the Calvary Meth‘ odist Church, in Detroit, Michigan, where he is serving his seventh year in the pastorate. But Mr. Greenwood was one of our readers before he became one of our writers, and in our issue of last October, we referred to a letter he sent us acknowledging his indebtedness to the Bahá’í Faith. The series of sermons on the “Seven Valleys” of Bahá’u’lláh, delivered by Dr. Greenwood last summer, have been recorded. Dr. Greenwood will gladly share these wire recordings with any group.

The author tells us that his poem was inspired by a prayer (1) revealed by Bahá’u’lláh in his book of

“Prayers and Meditations.” We ex 429

tend our heartiest welcome to Dr. Greenwood.

We would like to apologize for misspelling the name of one of our contributors in our January issue. We refer to Mr. Mario Rodriguez C. who unfortunately had his name written “Roderiguez”. Somehow we slipped.

And while we mention “slipping”, one of our editors entered 1949 by gliding out of New York’s harbor to a sunnier climate. We were sorry to lose an editor whose frequent contributions to the magazine and hard work in helping bring it out every month were sincerely appreciated. Flora Hottes has Once more gone down to Montevideo, Uruguay, to teach English and the Bahá’í Faith. We wish her the best of luck. We told her we would make a bargain: we would trade an editor for a correspondent. So we hope to have news soon from Uruguay.

At the time Richard Nolen wrote the article “Business and Human Relations,” published in our January issue, he had only recently heard of the Bahá’í Faith. Last November, however, before the article had come

out, both Mr. Nolen and his wife he came members of the Bahal community.

Once again we have seen evidence that World Order crosses continents and oceans and reaches far away from its editorial center. One of our readers in Egypt who has been receiving the magazine regularly since June, 1947, tells us that his one copy is read by at least forty persons, Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís.

[Page 430]INDEX

WORLD ORDER Volume Fourteen. April 1948 through March 1949

TITLES

Acre: City of War and Peace, Editorial, by Garreta Busey, 126

Age in Which We Live, The New, by Ina M. Trimble, 208

Babe“: Gifts for the Children, by Amy Brady Dwelly, 11; Beauty and Art in the, World, by Stanwood Cobb, 39; The Work of Bahá’ís in the Promotion of Human Rights, 53; A, School, by Margaret Kunz Rube, 102; The, Faith, by Emily M. Axford, 173; Letter to a New, by Marzieh Gail, 235; How “Practical” Is the, Faith? by Arthur Dahl, 310; The First, European Conference, by Mary Keene Sprague, 363; A World Faith, by Mary Jane Daniell Langrall, 384; A, in Switzerland, by Anna Kunz, 399

Book Reviews: Peace of Mind, by Mabel Hyde Paine, 65; Civilization on Trial, by Robert W. McLaughlin, 194; Human Destiny, by Olga Finke, 232; Breaking Ground for Unity, by Charles F. Hottes, 241

Business and Human Relations, by Richard Howell Nolen, 327

Carnegie, Tablet from Andrew, 333

Challenge: The Real, of Today, by Mabel Hyde Paine, 111; The, by Karl Schueck, 346

Children of the Sun, by Mario Rodriguez C., 337

Crisis and Creation, Editorial, by Elsa Blakely, 306

Christ: Do You Believe in?, by Eleanor S. Hutchens, 302; The Station of, Compi. lation, 318; and Bahá’u’lláh, words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 380

Design for Living, by Marguerite True, 341

Do, the Impossible, Editorial, by Garreta Busey, 417

Dot, The, and the Circle, by Mark Tobey, 412

Education, Religious, for a Peaceful Society, by Horace Holley, 219, 258

‘Abdu’l-Bahá to

End of the Storm, T0 the, by Duart Vinson Brown, 370

Eternity, At Home in, by Katharine P. Cole, 19

Faith, This Is Our, by Floyd H. Munson, 298

Fingers of One Hand, by Robert Culick, 189

Freedom: from Fear, by Gertrude Schurgast, 50; from Self, by Gene W. Crist, 211; The Last Best Hope for, by Gertrude Robinson, 42

Friends, Why Can’t We Be? by Stanwood Cobb, 183

God: as Revealed in Nature, by Eleanor S. Hutcbens, 3; The Changeless Faith of, Words of Bahá’u’lláh, 168

Gospel Times Today, by Annemarie K. Honnold, 291

Happiness, The Source of, Editorial, by Eleanor S. Hutchens, 382

Individual, The, in Society, by T. Lane Skelton, 228

Italy: News from, by Ugo R. Giachery. 163, 374 Latin America and the Principle of Unity, by Artemus Lamb, 123

Law, The Highest, by Helen T. Inderlied, 334

Literature of Tomorrow, The, by Duart Vinson Brown, 128

Lords of Creation, by Floyd H. Munson, 131

Meditation and Prayer, Editorial, by Pearle Easterbrook, 200

Meditations: 105, 141

Modern Vikings, by Amelia Bowman, 315

Mullá Husayn: First Letter of the Living, by Arthur Dahl, 89

Newer Testament, High Lights of the, Compilation, by Marian Crist Lippitt, 33

Pegler, Open Letter to Westbrook, from National Spiritual Assembly, 377

Perspective, A Change of, Editorial, by Victor de Araujo, 278

430

[Page 431]INDEX

Pioneer: Spirit, by Etty Graefle, 23; Kaleidoscope, by Alice Dudley, 84

Poems: A Prayer for Unity, by Ellen Sims, 10; Newer Gardens, by Jean Comstock White, 17; Quatrains, by Gertrude W. Robinson, 22; Mystic Ode of Héfiz, translated by Sir William Jones, 57; Glimpsing Oneness, by Maye Harvey Gift, 64; Vision, by Alice Josephine Wyatt, 70; The Undernourished, by Garreta Busey, 86; Leaves, by Stanton A. Coblenz, 100: The Bahá’í Trail, by Duart Vinson Brown, 101; What Did I Care? by Ida Elaine James, 104; Where Nature Builds, by Alice Josephine Wyatt, 119; Spiritual Pioneers, by Olga Finke, 140; Builders, by Stanton A. Coblenz, 199; Green Acre, by Louis C. Gregory, 242; Spirit—Winged, by Maye Harvey Gift, 267; The Dream, by Gertrude W. Robinson, 392; Compensation, by Stanton A. Coblenz, 394; 0 Thou Abiding One, by Stan Blakeslee,

411; A Prayer, by John W. Greenwood, 419

Poverty or Wealth? by Olivia Kelsey, 202 Power, The Motive, by Gladys Kline, 59 Pray, Why? by N. M. Firoozi, 120

Prayer for the United States, by ‘Abdu’lBahzi, 34

Proofs of the Manifestations of God, by Eolah and Paul Bartley, 153

Quddús: Companion of the Báb, by Harriet Pettibone, 135

“Rehearsal, The Great,” Editoria1, by Eleanor S. Hutchens, 55

Religion: Elements of World, by Horace Holley, 147; What .Modern Man Must Know About Religion, Compilation, 244, 280. 356, 393, 424; for Adults, by David S. Ruhe, 253: The, of God Is Renewed, b-y Gertrude K. Henning, 344

Responsibility. Our Basic Social, Editorial, by Robert Durr, 166

Science: Replaced Religion? Has, by G. A. Shook. 25; and World Order, by Edris Rice-Wray, 75

Sidewalk Cafe, by HascIe M. Combletb, 389

Song of Songs, The, by Duart Vinson Brown, 169

Sri Krishna, His Message and His Return, by Pritam Singh, 273

Test by Fire, Editorial, by Flora Emily Hottes, 87

431

Tribute, A, by Sir A. Ramaswami Mudaliar, 268

Unifying Forces and Moral Standards, Editorial, by Mabel Hyde Paine, 230

Universal Question, A, by W. T. Boyd, 177

United Nations, Non-Governmental Organizations in the, 367

What Now? Editorial, by Garreta Busey. 18

Where? If Not in Our Churches, by Gertrude K. Henning, 381

With Our Readers: 35, 71, 107, 143, 179, 215, 251, 287, 323, 359, 395, 427

AUTHORS

‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Tablet to Andrew Carnegie, 333; Christ and Bahá’u’lláh, 380; Prayer for the United States, 34; Deeds, Not Words, 165; Suffering, 172; The Remedy Is at Our Doors, 176; The Search for Truth, 193; Detachment, 201; Like Beasts That Perish, 301; Judge Not, 309: Religious Warfare, 343; Christ and Bahá’u’lláh, 380

Araujo, Victor de: A Change of Perspective, Editorial, 278

Axford, Emily M.: The Bahái’l' Faith, 173

Bahá’u’lláh: The Changeless Faith of God, 168 ‘

Bartley, Eolah and Paul: Proofs of the Manifestations of God, 153

Blakeley, Elsa: Crisis and Creation, Editorial, 306 '

Blakeslee, Stan: O Thou Abiding One, Poem, 411

Bowman, Amelia: Modem Vikings, 315 Boyd, W. T.: A Universal Question, 177

Brown, Duart Vinson: The Bahá’í Trail, Poem, 101; The Literature of Tomorrow, 128; The Song of Songs, 169; To the End of the Storm, 370 ‘

Busey, Garreta' What Now? Editorial, ’18; The Undernourished, Poem, 86; Acref City of War and Peace, Editorial, 126; To Do the Impossible, Editorial, 417

Cobb, Stanwood: Beauty and Art in. the Bahá’í World, 39; Why Can’t We Be

' Friends? 183

Coblenz, Stanton A.: Leaves, Poem, 100; Builders, Poem, 199; Compensation, Poem, 394

Cole, Katharine P.: At Home in Eternity, 19

[Page 432]

432

Combleth, Hascle M.: Sidewalk Cafe, 389 Crist, Gene W.: Freedom from Self, 211

Dahl, Arthur: Mullá Husayn: First Letter of the Living, 89; How “Practical" Is the Bahá’í Faith? 310

Dudley, Alice: Pioneer Kaleidosuope, 84

Durr, Robert: Our Basic Social Responsibility, Editorial, 166

Dwelly, Amy Brady: Bahá’í Gifts for the Children, 11

Easterhrook, Pearle: Meditations and Prayer, Editorial, 200

Finke, Olga: Spiritual Pioneers, Poem, 140; Human Destiny, Book Review, 232

Firoozi, N. M.: Why Pray? 120

Gail, Manieh: Letter to a New Bahá’í, 235

Giachery, Ugo R.: News from Italy, I, 163, News from Italy, II, 374

Gift, Maye Harvey: SpiribW'inged, Poem, 267

Graefle, Etty: Pioneer Spirit, 23

Greenwood, John Wilfred: A Prayer, Poem, 419

Gregory, Louis 0.: T0 Green Acre, Poem, 242

Gulick, Robert: Fingers of U'he Hand. 189 Henning, Gertrude K.: The Religion of

God Is Renewed, Editorial, 344; If Not in Our Churches, Where? 381

Holley, Horace: Elements of Werid Relh ginn, 147; Religious Education far a Peaceful Society, 219; continued, 258: The Seed~Bed of Future Uivilizaiinn, 423

Honnold. Annamarie K.: Today, 291

Hones, Charles F.: Breaking Ground for Unity, 241

Hottes, Flora Emily: Test by Fire, Editorial, 87

Hutchens, Eleanor 3.: God as Revealed in Nature, 3; “The Great, Rehearsal.” Friitorial, 55: Do You Beiivve in Christ? 302; The Source of Happiness, Editorial. 382

Inderlied, Helen T.: The Highest Law, 334

James, Ida Elaine: What Did I Care? Poem, 104

Jones, Sir William: Mystic Ode to Héfiz, Translatidn Of Poem, 57

Kelsey, Olivia: Poverty 01' Wealth? 202

Kline, Gladys: The Motive Power, 59

Gospel Times,

WOR Ll) ORDER

Kunz, Anna: A Bahá’í in Switzerland, 399

Lamb, Arlemus: Latin America and the Principle of Unity, 123

Langxall, Mary Jane Daniell: Bahá’í: A World Faith, 384

Lippitt, Marian Crist: High Lights of the Newer Testament, Compilation, 33

McLaughlin, Robert W.: Civilization on Trial. Book Review, 194- ‘

Mudaliar, Sir A. Ramaswami: A Tribule, 268 , Munson, Floyd H.: Lords of Creation, 131;

This Is Our Faith, 298

Nolen, Richard Howell: Business and HI:man Relations, 327

Paine, Mabel Hyde: Peace of Mind, Book Review. 65; The Real Challenge of Today, 11.1: Unifying Forces and Moral Svrmdards. Editorial, 230

Pettibone, Harriet: Quddfis: Of the Béh, 135

Rice-Wray, Edris: Order. 75

Robinson, Gertrude: The Last Best Hope for Freedom, 420

Robinson, Gertrude W.: Quatrains, Poems, 22; The Dream, Poem, 392

Rodriguez C., Mario: Children of the Sun, 337

Rube. David 8.: Religion for Adults, 253

Ruhe, Margaret Kunz: A Bahá’í School. 102

Schueck, Karl: The Challenge, 346

Schlirgast. Gertrude: Freedom from Feat 50

Shook, G. Ac: Has Science Replaced Religion? 25

Sims, Ellen: A Prayer for Unity, Poem, 10

Singh, Pritam: Sri Krishna, His Message and His Return, 273

312?]me T, Lane: The Individual in Society. <28

Sprague, Mary Keene: The First Bahá’í European Cenference, 363

Tobey, Mark; The Dot and the Circle, 412

Trimble, Ina M.: The New Age in Which We Live. 208

True, Marguerite: Design for Living, 341

White, Jean Comstock: Newer Gardens Poems, 17

Wyatt, Alice Josephine: Vision, Poem, 70; Where Nature Builds, Poem, 119

Companion

Science and World

[Page 433]Bahá’í Literature

Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois

THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL THE PROMISE OF ALL AGES

Dr. George Townahc 11d of the (hurch of England has betome known as one of the most 5C'holz111y 3nd apperfli1;;a111hors working on Bahai material. These books have particular intereat for seekers with Christian background. The Promise of All Ages develops the theme of Bahá’u’lláh as the “King of Glory” foretold by all the‘ Prophets

THIS EARTH O'NE COUNTRY

The author Emeric Sala of Montreal is: a business man with international experience. He approaches religion in terms of its newer functions as a source of justice and a guide Far dailf lixin; He r11 scribe: forcefully and clearly the unique contiihntmn 1.113111; made by the Bahai Faith to ' the solution of existing world p11ili'1hmz-s.

SECURITY FOR A FAILING WORLD

Professor Stanwood Cobb“. American educator, proves to‘ an intelligent reader that, without a spiritual renaissance. the present soaial order is doomed. The book features the role at uiigian in the formation of civilization.

THE RENEWAL OF CIVILIZATMH

A new and useful introductory work of less than one hundred pages. The author, David Huiman of I andnn. Higlandg is concerned with the questions oppiessing 11"11111 1031117. “Lat tiit futuxc holds, what purpose there IS in life, what value in sawing; what good 111 civilization. His book of nine chapters will interest any {191, 011 wt 1 is seeking the true answers to the issues of 0111 tin'w.

Bahá’u’lláh AND THE NEW KR 51

This work by the late J“ F hssic'mmat 1.11 Ahtrdeen, Scotland, has for twenty years been tht must he} 31m 11;:1y l'nluh’. (111 the Baha 1 Revelation. Many translations have 11111621121 111 1411011314119 other than English

[Page 434]WORLD ORDER is the organ of the Bahá’ís of the United States. It prints each month articles of interest to all who are looking for a new and better world.

The Bahá’í Faith is a world religion. It originated in Persia in 1844. Its Founder is Bahá’u’lláh; its Forerunner the Báb; its Interpreter and Exemplar ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh; its present Guardian is Shoghi Effendi.

Its world headquarters are in Haifa, Palestine. It has now spread to ninety-one countries of the world. Its fundamental principles are the oneness of all revealed religions and the unity of mankind. Its goal is world peace and a new and divine civilization.