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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
AUGUST, 1948
Elements of World Religion
Horace Holley
Proofs of the Manifestations of God
Eolah and Paul Bartley
News from Italy
Ugo R. Giachery
Our Basic Social Responsibility,
Editorial
Robert Durr
The Changeless Faith of God
Bahá’u’lláh
The Song of Songs
Duart Vinson Brown
The Bahá’í Faith
Emily M. Axford
A Universal Question
W. T. Boyd
With Our Readers
20¢
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. Editor: Garreta Busey. Managing Editor: Eleanor S. Hutchens. Associate Editors: Victor de Araujo, Elsa Blakely, Robert Durr, Pearl Easterbrook, Gertrude Henning, Flora Emily Hottes, Mabel H. Paine.
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under the Act of March 3, 1879. Content copyrighted 1948 by
Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent
Office.
ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
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.
OPENING session of the United Nations Conference
of Non-Governmental Organizations. Next to
last row, left to right: Dr. Ugo R. Giachery and Mildred
R. Mottahedeh, Bahá’í International Community
delegates. Dr. Giachery is the author of “News from
Italy” on p. 163. He is the Bahá’í pioneer to that country.
WORLD ORDER
The Bahá’í Magazine
VOLUME XIV AUGUST, 1948 NUMBER 5
Elements of World Religion
HORACE HOLLEY
AN IMPORTANT cause of the
confusion so prevalent in
our thinking today has been the
breakdown of the conditions
under which throughout a long
historical period the various
types of human society gradually
developed. Most of us continue
to think and feel in accordance
with certain assumptions
which were sound and true for
our ancestors but which now no
longer apply. Our strength as
individuals and families has in
the past derived from the assumption
that our own society,
whether race or nation, possessed
the integrity of an independent
body of human beings
able to determine their own
scale of values and principles
of conduct without interference
from any other social body. In
other words, each society has in
the past been sufficiently isolated
from other societies to develop
its own special character.
What has happened to our time is the termination of this isolation so swiftly and unexpectedly that we still act as though we were independent, whereas the truth is that the peoples of the world in all important matters have become mutually involved and interdependent.
What this means to each of us is something too new and apparently too complicated to define in any simple, convenient formula. We can, however, begin to grasp at least part of its meaning if we consider a few examples and use them to measure how vast has been the change.
First, look at the question of
language. Every human society
has employed its own particular
kind of speech. A common language
has been the very life-blood
infusing vitality into the
social group. By it the group,
large or small, has developed
capacity to act together as a
community. By language each
people has preserved its special
traditions, developed a special
[Page 148]
culture, and provided the individual
mind and feeling with a
natural arena in which it could
find useful and satisfying expression.
Language has been a
sign of the kinship relating men
to their fellows. The outer boundary
of any language in the past
marked the extent to which kinship
had been evolved. Foreignness
of language, in the same
way, indicated foreignness of
outlook, culture, government
and physical type.
As long as societies could continue to develop in some degree of isolation from each other, human speech could remain a one-language experience. With the breakdown of that isolation in our time, we have an interdependent, interpenetrating mass of traditional societies whose members are for the most part unable to communicate across the frontiers of the vast number of languages they have brought from the past.
Telephone, telegraph and radio have developed in a multi-language world. They have created the means of universal communication, but there is no language of mankind. Our languages are the organs of race or nation alone. Can we even use the concept “mankind” for human beings who can not participate in the common experience of mental communication?
What is the solution of this basic problem of our age? Shall we seek to prove that one of the great living languages is so much superior to all others that it should be made the official “world language”? Or would it be preferable to employ some artificial language, and have it adopted as a universal auxiliary tongue and taught in schools throughout the world? These questions are raised, not to be answered here, but to provide a concrete illustration of the unprecedented kind of problem faced by people today. We cannot retreat into that simpler past where one’s racial tongue served every purpose of social communication; we cannot control the vast pressures which have destroyed the old patterns; and we have no power to bring about a solution of the language problem soon enough to help the people solve other pressing problems of our time.
The question of a world language is at least simple enough for a child to grasp. We can define it, even if we do not hold its solution in our hands today.
Not in the least simple, however,
is the question of race.
What we term “race” is the outcome
of the operation of a long
[Page 149]
historical process. It is one of
the most powerful forms of kinship
that has existed in the life
of man. Around the central and
sacred institution of family, the
social unity of race gradually
evolved. A race suggests a larger
family. It has a physical homogeneity,
reinforcing all other
bonds which have brought
people together in one common
community. It was through race
that language evolved; through
race the feeling of loyalty gradually
enlarged the individual’s
ethical sense; through race the
supreme experiences of poetry
and art were unfolded. By race,
also, the foundations of economic
method were laid. Under no
other conditions could humanity
have even survived, let alone developed,
than by the social
grouping we call race. So profound
has been its kinship that
loyalty to one’s race became instinctive,
as if race were the final
and unchanging meaning of
mankind to the individual.
But race is not an eternal arrangement. The development of races resulted from the state of isolation. On an island, or between rivers or mountains, or along the shore, groups of people found means for survival. Their environment was like a box enclosing them within some one area and submitting them to a process of mutualization the end-term of which, if it continued long enough, was a race. Taking the world as a whole there were hundreds and thousands of boxes, of different shapes and sizes, which served as race-making agencies in the past. Differences of climate, food, economic activity and other factors made the races physically, culturally and morally unlike. Their unlikeness meant little as long as they developed separately, but now the boxes are broken and the human contents have spilled out and humanity today is the mixture and intermingling of countless little peoples who seem to have nothing in common—neither language, nor government, nor economic standards, nor ethics, nor worship—nothing in common except the crucial and inescapable problem of survival through unity or destruction through struggle.
Exactly as in the case of the
languages, the races have been
brought together in the one
great social arena which the
world has become. The question
is, do we recognize a “superior”
race, one to which all other
peoples must yield priority and
from which they must receive
rule and direction; or are all
the races equally valid and
[Page 150]
equally required to recognize
all other races as branches of
the same great human family?
If equal, what are the ethical
and economic and political
terms they must agree upon as
the very minimum condition of
harmony?
For the first time, actually, we are concerned with mankind and not merely with those provincial and temporary human groupings we call races or nations, and there is not much time left, if any, to decide whether mankind is an explosive chemical combination of diverse, antagonistic peoples, or whether each of these diverse peoples must become subject to the higher needs of mankind.
As a matter of fact, the conditions favorable to race-development came to an end with the rise of modern nationalism. The nation is a multi-racial society, and the first step toward the adjustment of races to mankind has been the adjustment of races to each other within the nation. The kinship of political union has displaced the kinship of racial union in our modern world. Kinship has enlarged to citizenship —one of the most vital changes ever made by mankind. It represents the step from instinct to reason in the socialization of human beings.
Our third example, therefore, is the nation. Nation-building has also been a process dependent on isolation, but the isolation has been less a matter of mountains and other natural barriers than of the fortified frontier defended by an armed state. Within its frontiers the modern nation has undergone two different stages of evolution; first, the establishment of a political structure able to unify or dominate the participating racial stocks hitherto competitive, able likewise to work out a national culture and economy better fitted than the previous racial cultures to provide the individual with a satisfactory life; and second, the establishment of some type of working arrangement with other nations—a stage which has come to a climax in our days.
The physical settlement of
the earth in modern times
brought the race-making phase
of social evolution to an end.
Now the scientific exploitation
of nature has similarly ended
the nation-building phase because
it has abolished the armed
frontier. The larger and stronger
box we call “nationalism” no
longer contains within one self-centered
society all the means
to satisfy the requirements of its
body of citizens. To attain security
[Page 151]
of person and property
and to attain the means of his
full development, modern man
requires a world economy and a
world order.
Thus, for the third time, we have briefly traced the change which has overtaken human life in our day. Language, race, nation —these three examples alike reveal that what was done in the past under conditions of isolation must be redone today under the pressure of proximity and intermingling and interdependence. It comes down to this: that man to meet certain situations produces a tool in the form of a social group. This tool gradually becomes efficient. It enables man to solve problems otherwise impossible. But life itself is God-directed and not man-controlled and hence the stream runs on, the situations change, and the tool no longer serves. Does this mean that the new problems are insuperable, or that the tool must be discarded and a new and more effective instrument fashioned? What is sacred, the tool of social instrument, or man’s capacity to solve problems and develop the latent powers which his Creator has endowed him with?
Now, when races were combined within the same nation, the race was not destroyed; it was fulfilled. It served as steppingstone to a new and greater human unity. The paramount needs of world order today do not mean the destruction of nations, but their fulfillment as partners in the creation of the agencies of brotherhood and peace. Not world order but lack of it is the canker gnawing the flesh of every nation today.
Are there a few legitimate conclusions acceptable to all men of good will? The members of the Bahá’í Faith have conviction and assurance that agreement can exist on certain ethical principles.
1. The eternal path of true religion leads to the attainment of the brotherhood of all mankind.
2. Brotherhood is only a theory and a hope unless it is given foundation in a constitutional society.
3. History has recorded the successive development of the principle of brotherhood in terms of larger communities and more equitable societies.
4. World unity has become the goal of moral and political effort today and the only hope of human survival on ethical terms.
5. The value of a race, nation,
class or creed in our desperate
crisis is determined by the degree
it seeks to contribute to
[Page 152]
world brotherhood and world
order.
6. Loyalty to mankind has become the sign of devotion to God.
Two years before the first World War the Bahá’í leader, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, spoke these words at a public gathering in America:—
“Today the world of humanity is walking in darkness because it is out of touch with the world of God. That is why we do not see the signs of God in the hearts of men. The power of the Holy Spirit has no influence. When a divine spiritual illumination becomes manifest in the world of humanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment follows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends and a new life is given. It is like the birth from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of man. When man acquires these virtues the oneness of the world of humanity will be revealed, the banner of international peace will be upraised, equality between all mankind will be realized and the Orient and Occident will become one. Then will the justice of God become manifest, all humanity will appear as the members of one family and every member of that family will be consecrated to cooperation and mutual assistance.”
In humility, not in pride, through cooperation and not through struggle for victory, man has in all ages acquired capacity to understand the social and spiritual conditions in which the great epochs and cycles have evolved. Today we stand in the early stages of the greatest epoch of all—the era of humanity, peace and enlightenment.
O Son of Man!
Neglect not My commandments if thou lovest My beauty, and
forget not My counsels if thou wouldst attain My good pleasure.
Proofs of the Manifestations of God
EOLAH AND PAUL BARTLEY
GOD never sends a Divine
Messenger to the world
without giving that Messenger
proofs which enable Him to undertake
and accomplish His Mission.
Study of the lives and activities of God’s Messengers show clearly that these proofs serve two necessary ends. They enable the Messenger to accept and carry forward His Mission with firm assurance, and they convince the world to which the Messenger is sent that He does, in fact, come from God, and is not an impostor, self-deluded or otherwise.
Another fact disclosed by such study is that while proofs of the Manifestations of God are always based on eternal and changeless reality and are valid for all times and in all places, in every instance these proofs are so presented as to be most convincing to each particular Messenger and to the existing state of the world to which He is sent.
At first sight it might seem that a true Messenger of God would need no proof of His Divine Mission, but this has not been the fact and only a little pondering makes it clearer why this is so. It is a truly awesome thing to be chosen by God to be one of His Messengers. None are capable of such a Mission but Beings of transcendent sincerity and integrity, together with a humble modesty which makes Them ask Themselves in all honesty, “Who am I that I should be chosen to do this thing?”
The charlatan is not troubled by such doubts and misgivings; to the true Messenger it is a tremendous question which must be met and answered beyond all doubt. For to such a One come temptations beyond ordinary comprehension and except He be anchored immovably by proofs beyond doubt, He cannot work unerringly the will of Him Who sent Him.
So, too, it requires proofs of
tremendous and compelling force
to convince a doubting world
that it has indeed been blessed
with another Divine Manifestation.
For men are never eager to
accept God’s Messengers when
they appear. Were it otherwise
Messengers from God would not
be necessary, for ready acceptance
of the Word of God indicates
nearness to God and only
when man strays far afield, only
when the words and lives of the
earlier Messengers have lost
[Page 154]
meaning and adequacy for the
contemporary world does divinity
call man back through a new
Manifestation. It is the Mission
of God’s Messenger to challenge
and destroy the false preconceptions
of the strayed world to
which He has been sent and to
recall it to the old realities which,
because they are realities, seem,
and indeed are, ever new.
It is, therefore, man’s highest duty to study closely the lives and works of the Manifestations of God Who have come in the past so that he may identify with sureness any Messenger who may appear in his own time. Such study must be humble and free from bias, for all too often man searches the acts of God and the lives and words of His Messengers with the unconscious purpose of finding in them Divine proofs of his own preconceived notions and Divine justification for his human prejudices, rather than of discovering the will and purpose of God.
But those who do humbly study the proofs of the Manifestations of God in the past find in them a sure guide in identifying the present Manifestation and a clear demonstration of His reality and validity.
Finally, proofs of the Messengers of God vary in their outer form from age to age, so that they may have the utmost understandable meaning for those to whom they are addressed. This applies both to those proofs which convince the Messenger of His Mission and those proofs which convince the world of the reality of the Manifestation. For the ultimate demonstration of a Manifestation of God, is that the world is never the same after such an appearance. The threefold mission of each Messenger is to redeem from present sin, to renew ancient truths and, most important, to set man’s feet on new paths of progress toward the ultimate of human perfection.
Each Messenger faces a different and unique world, a world which, however imperfectly, has learned certain great lessons from previous Manifestations and is ready for new concepts, or, rather, the same eternal precepts in new garb and in larger measure. Each Messenger must, therefore, speak to the world to which He is sent in a language, both of words and deeds, different from those of His predecessors, a language which fits man’s present and growing understanding.
Let us now apply these general
observations to a survey of
the proofs that accompanied the
three great Manifestations of
God which have most directly
[Page 155]
and powerfully affected the lives
and thoughts of Western man—
Moses, Jesus, and now Bahá’u’lláh.
Child of a servile race miraculously saved from death as an infant, according to the account in the Book of Exodus, Moses grew to manhood in the household of the oppressor of His people, as the son of the daughter of the Pharaoh. His education was undoubtedly that of the Egyptian ruling class, making him familiar with the ideas dominating His age. He nevertheless maintained contact with His own people, had full sympathy with their deplorable condition, and accepted the basic facts of their traditional faith.
What mental and emotional suffering He underwent because of the condition of His people we do not know, but there came a day when He slew an Egyptian whom He saw struggling with a Hebrew, and, to save His own life, fled to Midian, where He kept the flocks of His father-in-law.
What thoughts He had during these years we can only conjecture, but turning aside one day to see why a bush which seemed to be ablaze was not consumed, He accepted readily the Voice which came to Him from the bush, saying “I am the God of Thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, as undoubtedly the Voice of God. And God told Moses He would deliver the Children of Israel from their bondage and lead them to a good land, and laid upon Moses the mission of going to Pharaoh and obtaining the release of His people.
But Moses was not eager to accept this mission. “Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh?” He said. “They shall say unto me ‘What is His name?’ They will not believe me—‘The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.’ I am not eloquent, neither before nor since Thou hast spoken to Thy servant, but I am of slow speech and of a slow tongue.”
However, God had chosen Moses for this mission, and Moses finally accepted it.
God gave Moses His brother Aaron as a helper and said “he shall be to thee as a mouth and thou shalt be to him instead of God”. And as signs to His people was the seeming changing of Moses’ rod into a serpent and back to a rod, and the making of His hand white as leprosy and then normal again. And Moses and Aaron gathered the Children of Israel together and did the signs, and the people believed.
The account of the dealings
[Page 156]
with Pharaoh and the journey in
the wilderness are too well
known to need detailed retelling.
The “wonders” done to impress
Egyptians and Hebrews alike
were from the material world,
as was necessary in that age. The
turning of the water of the river
into blood so that the people had
to dig in the ground near the
river, the plague of frogs,
swarms of flies, the plague of
lice, the murrain of beasts which
killed the cattle of the Egyptians,
boils on man and beast, hail and
locusts destroying crops, darkness
so grievous that no one
could stir about for three days,
and, lastly, the killing of the
first born in each Egyptian family.
Pharaoh then permitted the
Israelites to leave, but followed
after and became engulfed with
his hosts in the waters of the Red
Sea.
Having accomplished the first part of His Mission, the release of the Hebrews from physical bondage, Moses turned to disciplining and teaching them.
Many were the wonders wrought through Him as they journeyed through the wilderness, but greater still was the moral and spiritual regeneration of a people which had strayed far from God, which had become servile in its thoughts as well as in its outer condition. The old verities of the relations between man and Deity and man and man were handed down anew, engraved as the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. These commandments, so old in reality, appeared new, visionary, impossible, to the people of Moses and there was much murmuring, much longing for the “good old days”, much “sensible” talk of turning back from the splendid future, which seemed so dim and distant and unreal. But by the time Moses had laid aside His leadership in favor of Joshua, He had formed the foundation for the greatness of His people, which was recognized throughout the ancient world.
Ages passed and again the world had wandered far from God. During the intervening years there had been only partial acceptance of God’s Word as uttered through Moses, and many times man’s purpose had dominated. Nevertheless the Message delivered by Moses had been the guiding light, adequate to its time and place. But times and conditions had changed and man was, all unconsciously, ready for and in need of a new and clearer light.
Although not literally a servile
people, the Jews and all
their contemporaries, had fallen
completely under the material
[Page 157]
yoke of Rome. They had become
all too ready to render unto
Caesar not only those things
which were Caesar’s, but also
those things which were God’s.
As in Egypt their forefathers had lost all but the vaguest recollection of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so in Jerusalem rigid ritual, subtile quibbling, mechanical observance of the outer letter of the Law had displaced the vital spiritual realities which underlay Moses’ teachings. These teachings had been the cause of great changes in the world, which now stood ready for a restatement of the eternal realities, a broader and deeper restatement.
So again a Messenger of God appeared, a Messenger Whose Mission it was to redeem, correct, and regenerate.
Like that of Moses, Jesus’ childhood was exceptional and set apart. Like Moses, Jesus was reared in a thorough knowledge of the ideas generally accepted by His age. And, like Moses, Jesus never lost touch with His own people, the humble common folk, nor did he forget the eternal realities that lay behind the artificial facade of Temple observances.
He, too, was given supernatural proofs of His Mission, not by a flaming bush which did not burn, staffs that seemingly turned into serpents or apparently leprous hands that became whole, but by subtler proofs, more intangible, but none the less real and powerful: a dove descending from Heaven, a Voice saying “This is My Beloved Son.” Long weeks of solitude in the wilderness gave Him complete ascendency over all personal ambitions and the ability to exemplify spiritual living to the individual.
As in Egypt, so too in Jerusalem, the people were in the grip of materialism—in the one case a grinding physical slavery enforced by the lash and chains, in the other a deadening mental slavery fastened upon themselves by shrewd ideas of safe policy and a desire for easy and safe living, both physical and mental.
In Egypt the proofs of the Divine Manifestation were fear-inspiring acts centering around the world of nature, but in Jerusalem these proofs, while garbed outwardly in the setting aside of natural processes were aimed to persuade and exemplify; they were constructive and beneficial —healing, restoring, sustaining.
Like Moses, Jesus’ Mission
was not only to free from slavery
but to regenerate morally and
physically, to restate the old verities
in new and vital form, and
[Page 158]
to set man’s feet once more on
the path that leads toward the utmost
of human perfection.
The old verities of the relations between man and Deity and man and man were restated in the Sermon on the Mount, but the precepts there uttered—no longer indelibly engraved on rigid stone—appeared new, visionary, impossible, and there was much scoffing and ridicule by the smart and knowing people of the day—and for many long years after.
But just as Moses, as a Manifestation of God, left an indelible and ineradicable impress on the world to which He was sent —narrow and circumscribed as it was racially and geographically —so, too, Jesus as a Manifestation of God changed the world to which He was sent, a world which gradually became globe-embracing and included all tribes and races.
Once more ages have passed and today the world we have inherited from our fathers has again wandered far from God. During the intervening years there has been only partial acceptance of the Words of God uttered through Moses and Jesus and man’s purposes have often dominated. Still these Messages have been bright and shining lights, adequate to their times and places. But as before, so again, conditions have changed and man has become, all unconsciously, ready for and in need of a new and clearer light.
Just as beneath the glittering surface of the Jerusalem to which Jesus was sent as a Messenger there lurked a haunting recollection of the essence of Moses’ message which would not be denied and made material well-being a mockery, so today, beneath the pomp and majesty of great states, great science, great business, there is a haunting recollection of Jesus’ message with which we cannot reconcile the splendor of our material achievements and which leaves them meaningless. It is this fact that makes a new Manifestation necessary, and possible.
In Egypt the people to whom Moses was sent had accepted physical slavery to gain material subsistence. In the Roman world of Jesus’ day man had ceased to cry out against the grossest forms of inhuman cruelty lest he incur the vengeance of Rome. Today the world to which the present Manifestation has been sent has abdicated its moral responsibility to the State and achieves its human purposes through the impersonal sins of politics and war.
Moses’ immediate task was to
restore human dignity; Jesus’
[Page 159]
great message was personal
kindness—the brotherhood of
man; Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission is to
re-assert the moral obligations
of man collectively and to enunciate
anew the great truth of Divine
Justice operating at the international
level of human affairs
—the Most Great Peace.
Just as the proofs of Jesus’ Mission differed in kind from those of Moses so the proofs of the reality and validity of the present Manifestation differ, but are nonetheless decisive. For just as in Jerusalem an Angel of Death or a plague would have been only one more affliction in a world calloused to all suffering, healing the sick, restoring sight, raising the dead were new and arresting phenomena, so today, in an age that has seen the harnessing of steam, the instant spanning of space by speech, the development of atomic energy, miracles of any sort would be just one more proof to arrogant man of his command over nature. Only by Divine Ideas can a phenomena-sated world be shocked into attention.
In His own voluminous Writings, the Writings of His son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Nabíl’s stirring narrative, “The Dawn-Breakers”, and other Eastern sources we have more authoritative information about Bahá’u’lláh and his teachings than about any other Manifestation of God.
In addition there are the writings of officials, travellers and scholars from Europe, such as Lord Curzon, who has given us valuable material concerning the Persia of that time. Prof. E. G. Browne of Cambridge was the only European to talk with Bahá’u’lláh. He, in addition to his comments on the five days spent as Bahá’u’lláh’s guest, gives us the following word picture: “The face of Him upon Whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one’s very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow. —No need to ask in Whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before One Who is the object of an adoration and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain.”
Born in 1817 the son of a
Persian nobleman, His early
training and environment gave
Him a thorough knowledge of
political affairs and it was
thought that upon reaching manhood
Bahá’u’lláh would follow
His father in government service,
but this He would not do. Instead,
he became an ardent follower
of the Báb, who declared
Himself to be the Forerunner of
“Him Whom God shall manifest”,
[Page 160]
One Who would bring laws
and teachings of utmost potency.
During the persecutions of the
Bábís after the Báb’s martyrdom,
Bahá’u’lláh was thrown into a
dungeon in Țihrán and it was
while confined in this loathsome
prison, chained to His fellow
prisoners, that the Mandate of
God came to Bahá’u’lláh to proclaim
His Cause. During His fitful
slumber the vision of a Maiden
appeared to Him. Pointing to
His head she “addressed all who
are in Heaven and earth, saying
—‘This is the Beauty of God
amongst you, and the power of
His sovereignty within you,
could ye but understand—’”.
Not in the form of a bush which did not burn, from the world of nature, did the announcement come, nor as a dove of the animate world, but as an immaterial vision.
Of this time Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “And these exalted words were heard on every side, ‘Verily We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy pen’,” and “In those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain.” Not a symbolic baptism of water, as in the case of Jesus, but a spiritual outpouring.
“This thing is not from Me,” wrote Bahá’u’lláh, “but from One Who is Almighty and All-knowing. Not by My Own volition have I revealed Myself, but God of His Own choosing hath manifested Me.”
But the time for him to announce His Mission was not immediate. After several months in the dungeon He was released and He set to work again to help the followers of the Báb. Knowing that the time would be short between His death and the Announcement of the New Dispensation, the Báb had not appointed anyone to take His place, but had designated an interim leader. But the appointee became so arrogant and disputes grew so acrimonious that Bahá’u’lláh left Baghdád, to which He had been exiled, and spent two years in the mountains of Kurdistán. It was this stay in the caves of the mountains among shepherds, and finally in a theological school nearby, (where he was made a welcome and deeply revered guest, although He could not tell them Who He was) that He regarded as the greatest testimony to Himself of the reality of His Mission.
He had been able to dissolve
His hosts’ perplexities concerning
[Page 161]
abstruse verses in the Qur’án
and to write for them dissertations
in the most perfect verse
on the questions they propounded.
From this they knew that He
was some Great One, for He had
done the things which to them
were the most astonishing, the
most miraculous things that were
possible; miracles entirely mental
and spiritual in nature.
The miracles of by-gone ages were not to be stressed in this New Dispensation, for the world to which it came could no longer be impressed or swayed by them. When the Persian ‘Ulamá (college of priests) demanded a miracle of the traditional type Bahá’u’lláh sent word that if they would agree upon some one miracle He would perform it and would then expect them to recognize His Divine Mission. But they could not agree upon any merely physical or material miracle which would convince them. The world had outgrown that state of mind.
As was pointed out above, the greatest, the imperative need of the age to which Bahá’u’lláh came is the spirit of unity and moral responsibility among people collectively, as nations. Therefore it was that during the time of His exile, which lasted until His death in 1892, He addressed letters to all the heads of governments in Europe and the Near East, calling upon them to recognize Him as the Messenger of God for this age and to reform their dealings with their peoples and with each other according to the ways of justice and mercy, ways for which He gave explicit directions, and so bring about “the Most Great Peace” for all peoples.
Not miracles to heal individuals of their personal sins and diseases were important to Bahá’u’lláh, although these, too, He wrought, but the spiritual and mental miracle of giving to mankind “a new heart”, so that racial, religious and national divisions and prejudices would dissolve and the whole earth become one homeland—its people truly one—this is the miracle Bahá’u’lláh was sent to perform, a miracle which involves the complete dissolution of the old order in all its aspects and the unfolding of a new and more perfect order, against which the world will long strive, as it strove against the Missions of Moses and Jesus. But the world is being prepared for this new order and will, of necessity, accept it.
His letters to the rulers of the
nations, the fulfillments of His
prophecies, the spread of this
Faith into ninety-one countries
since His first announcement of
[Page 162]
Himself, although He was in
confinement during all the years
of His public ministry, the acceptance
of His teachings by
thousands of people who do not
know where the ideas originated
but recognize them as inevitable
—all these are proofs of the
Power behind His Mission.
Again the assertion of human dignity, the call to human brotherhood, but this time chiefly to man collectively, as nations, sects, races; again the command to mankind to put its trust not in itself as individuals or as earthly organizations, but in God alone; again the warning that unless man accepts and applies the age-old verities in the way demanded by the age ahead there can be no salvation, no release from our present bondage of fear—these are the God-ordained Missions of Bahá’u’lláh.
With hindsight the secular student of history can see clearly why Moses and Jesus had to come into the world and why They were able to accomplish Their Divine Missions. So today the followers of Bahá’u’lláh can see with equal clarity just why He has come and why He, too, will accomplish His Divine Mission. They see in the crumbling of the old orders all around them proof that the germ of the new order is putting forth is roots and they know that in the fulness of time the fairest civilization of earth, of which poets have sung and for which prophets have longed, is even now being established by the will of and through the power of God, manifested in Bahá’u’lláh.
O Son of Love!
Thou art but one step away from the glorious heights above and
from the celestial tree of love. Take thou one pace and with the
next advance into the immortal realm and enter the pavilion of eternity.
Give ear then to that which hath been revealed by the Pen of
Glory.
News from Italy
UGO R. GIACHERY
IT SEEMS appropriate to remember
a great Italian who
died a few years ago almost forgotten
by everyone. Prince Leo
Caetani, Duke of Sermoneta,
member of the Italian Parliament,
a descendant of one of the
most ancient Roman families
which gave to the world popes,
cardinals, statesmen, and soldiers,
spent the greatest part of
his life in the study of Islamic
culture. The collection of books
on Islám and of Persian and Arabian
manuscript, which he gathered
during many years of accurate
search, is one of the finest
in Europe. His life work is monumental,
and it is represented by
his classic, “Annals of Islám” in
ten volumes, “History of Islám”
in forty volumes, a life of Muḥammad,
and many minor works.
The entire collection is now part of the library of Italy’s highest institution of learning, the “Academy of the Lincei.” The Academy is located in the huge Palazzo Corsini, a historical building, not far from Vatican City, where many notables lived, among them the great Michelangelo; the library which contains 300,000 volumes, occupies forty rooms of this Palazzo.
The Director is the well known
Professor Giovanni Dionigi Frediani.
Through the courtesy of
the Academy’s official publisher,
Doctor Giovanni Bardi, who recently
printed the Italian version
of Esslemont’s Bahá’u’lláh
and the New Era, this correspondent
met Professor Frediani
and spent some time in the wing
of the library which contains the
“Caetani Collection.” The Curator
of the Persian books is the
young Roman, but Oriental-looking,
Professor Alessandro Bausani;
it was indeed a great joy
to admire the fruit of the labors
of Prince Caetani, under the
guidance of erudite Professor
Bausani. One of the most remarkable
things which the prince
did, was to have a photograph
taken of every manuscript he
could not purchase, thus gathering
200 volumes of reproductions
of ancient and authentic
manuscripts. He also donated a
large sum of money for the establishment
of the “Caetani
Foundation”, to promote the
knowledge of the Islamic World.
It was through this foundation
that a purchase of Bahá’í books
in Persian and Arabic, was made
many years ago. In the year
1926, the professor of Arabic of
the University of Rome, Giuseppe
[Page 164]
Gabrielli, wrote the “History
and Aims of the Caetani Foundation.”
On page 73 of this
book, under the sub-title of “Valuable
Oriental Lithographs,” is
written as follows: “285 Bis—;
A collection of particular value
and merit, gathered together in
Cairo by Prof. Carlo A. Nallino,
member of the Academy of Italy,
(who has written a list of it) is
that of the lithographed Bahá’í
Books in Arabic and Persian
containing the Doctrine, Biography,
Polemics, Writings, Travels
and Conversations around the
celebrated Founder of Bábism,
(the door or intermediary of the
Divine Truth) Ali Muḥammad,
1821-1850, and his follower and
successor Bahá’u’lláh, from
which the name Bahá’ism, and
his son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. There are
22 works in Persian and 8 in
Arabic, published in Egypt and
India by the care of various followers
and which are a strange
compromise between Islam and
Christianity.”
And there were these precious books, in a glass case in a large hall, on a shelf all by themselves, beautifully bound in parchment, with the new Latin word “Bahaita” printed on the covers, purposely coined to denote this valued collection. Professor Bausani, who also teaches Persian at the University of Rome, hopes that more Bahá’í books in Persian and Arabic will complete the “Bahaita” collection, and it would be really wonderful to know that in Rome, the cradle of western civilization, all the writings of the Forerunner, the Founder and the Exemplar of the Bahá’í Faith, will be jealously guarded and available to all Oriental scholars for ever.
* * *
The morning after the arrival
of Marion Little, the Rome Daily
American published her picture
with a brief account of her activity
in Europe as a Bahá’í teacher.
That morning Marion received
several telephone calls,
among them one from a gentleman
who requested an interview.
This correspondent was present
at their meeting . . . “I am an
Iranian general,” the distinguished
gentleman said, “and as
soon as I read the newspaper I
wanted to pay my respects to the
American lady who leaves the
security of her own country for
many months to bring to this
chaotic Europe, the teachings of
the Prophet of my native land.
And here I am, to tell you how
much I admire you, and those
like you, who teach the Bahá’í
religion. I do know many Bahá’ís
and many of them are my dearest
friends; I have been the governor
of several Iranian provinces
[Page 165]
and, although I am still a
Muslim, I may sincerely say that
the Bahá’ís have always been
the best citizens in my trust, and
their morality should be of example
to all the other people of
the world . . . Morality, Morality,
Morality, this is what the world
needs badly.” All the time he
spoke, the soldierly severe face
became softer, almost luminous;
one could feel that he had the
inner conviction that the Word
of Bahá’u’lláh is going to redeem
the world.
Deeds, not Words
What profit is there in agreeing that universal friendship is good, and
talking of the solidarity of the human race as a grand idea? Unless these
thoughts are translated into the world of action, they are useless.
The wrong of the world continues to exist just because people talk only of their ideals, and do not strive to put them into practice. If actions took the place of words, the world’s misery would very soon be changed into comfort.
A man who does great good and talks not of it is on the way to perfection.
If I love you, I need not continually speak of my love—you will know without any words. On the other hand, if I love you not, that also will you know—and you would not believe me were I to tell you in a thousand words that I loved you.
People make much profession of goodness, multiplying fine words because they wish to be thought greater and better than their fellows, seeking fame in the eyes of the world. Those who do most good use fewest words concerning their actions.
Our Basic Social Responsibility
Editorial
THOSE of us who have sought
diligently to know truth
have been rewarded with the
knowledge that differences in location,
topography, and climate,
in connection with prolonged isolation
and man’s creativity,
served to differentiate peoples.
This process of differentiation
has gone on over a long period
of time and to an amazing extent.
In Africa may be found
eight hundred languages. China’s
early republic officially recognized
five racial stocks—Chinese,
Manchus, Mongols, Muslims,
and Tibetans. Soviet Russia
is a multi-national state and
its people are as varied as its climate
—upwards of 175 nationalities
speaking 150 languages
and dialects. Europe’s cultural
groups exceed forty in number,
and are organized into twenty or
more political divisions, speaking
fifty languages and dialects.
The sub-continent of India is as
varied as Europe. These enriching
differentiations in culture,
language, physique and way of
living have been going on for
thousands of years. A wide variety
of progress, and diverse
standards of judgment have been
the result.
Mankind is ready, physically and spiritually, to enter into the privileges and responsibilities of a new world community, because many different races, peoples, and schools of thought have with infinite patience made their contributions century after century. The impact of these ideals and inventions has been as determinative as decisive battles in changing or enriching the source of civilization. Psychological and spiritual maturity demands an expanded consciousness which includes a divinely ordained plan for enlarging circles of relationships.
The religion of God is the
only power that can create in
the individual a true consciousness
of the Oneness of Mankind.
It acts as a cohesive power, a
unifying force, a solvent of individual
and social differences.
By transforming and ennobling
our inner emotions and feelings,
through a genuine and constructive
belief in God, it releases
such spiritual forces as can kill
lower instincts, and bridge the
[Page 167]
differences that separate us from
each other.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “The source of perfect unity and love in the world of human existence is the bond and oneness of reality. When the divine fundamental reality enters human hearts and lives, it conserves and protects all states and conditions of mankind, establishing that intrinsic oneness of the world of humanity which can only come into being through the efficacy of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is like unto the life in the human body, which blends all differences of parts and members in unity and agreement. . . . That is to say, the bond or oneness of humanity can not be effectively established save through the power of the Holy Spirit, for the world of humanity is a composite body and the Holy Spirit is the animating principle of its life . . .”
In the Bahá’í teachings are found the formula and leaven which works in creating a worldwide fellowship in which its members are bound together in unity and mutual love under God for the service of the world. Only such a global community, whose members are drawn from all people, can best bridge the gulfs between races and nations. Some leaders realize, and the lay constituency is beginning to see, that the near future holds possibilities without parallel in history for a world wide family of God. In the growth of this fellowship, and in the deepening realization and use by its members of the inexhaustible resources, and the creative energies available to those committed to God’s will, lies the greatest promise of a new order and of a better world. May we help others to catch such a vision of all peoples, races, and nations forming one cooperative family characterized by mutual service and respect under the providence of God that we shall be thrilled to the center of our beings! Then may we not only commit ourselves to the progressive realization of that vision, but humbly seek that inward renewal through worship which can alone make our efforts truly and most fully fruitful!
“O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention amongst you.” These are the words of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith which is the sovereign remedy of the age in which we live.
THE CHANGELESS FAITH OF GOD
IMMERSE yourselves in the ocean of
My words, that ye may unravel its secrets, and discover
all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its
depths. Take heed that ye do not vacillate in your
determination to embrace the truth of this Cause—
a Cause through which the potentialities of the
might of God have been revealed, and His sovereignty
established. With faces beaming with joy,
hasten ye unto Him. This is the changeless Faith
of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.
Let him that seeketh attain it; and as to him that
hath refused to seek it—verily, God is Self-Sufficient,
above any need of His creatures.
Say: This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth. Say: Through it the poor have been enriched, the learned enlightened, and the seekers enabled to ascend unto the presence of God. Beware, lest ye make it a cause of dissension amongst you. Be ye as firmly settled as the immovable mountain in the Cause of your Lord, the Mighty, the Loving.
The Song of Songs
DUART VINSON BROWN
TAILLEFER, the greatest of
the troubadours, sang the
“Chanson de Roland,” before
the battle of Hastings. A mandolin
and a voice were his mightiest
weapons. After the song, he
spun his sword like a silver
flame in the sunlight and led the
charge of the Normans up Senlac
Hill against the Saxons of
King Harold. He died under the
first spear, but men who had
heard him sing had caught his
fire. Thousands fought for the
chance to perish that day
with Taillefer’s song in their hearts
and ears.
There is a song greater than the song of Taillefer. It is greater than the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. It is written with the blood of Prophets, and sung louder than the roar of atomic bombs. It is sung over the furthest mountains. The pulse of it echoes in the lost valleys of Tibet. It is a rumble greater than Indian drums on the brown waters of the Amazon. It is everywhere and yet it is nowhere, for it is a sound not for physical ears, but a song for the soul of man and the ears of the soul are hard to open.
The voice of God calls to men through all ages and His voice is music. To men like little children at the time of Abraham His voice came singing. There was the play of many instruments in that voice. The trumpets roared from the heart of the whirlwind. The throb of great drums marched with Moses across the cleft waters of the Red Sea. In the Sermon on the Mount, a sound like violins tore the hearts of men, then lifted their souls through sunbeams dancing.
Shadow woven is the music of God, shadowed and somber where warnings are given and the dark words fall like notes of bronze. Yet there is an opal’s fire in the crescendo, a sparkling of sun’s glory in the shifting movements. Here is a symphony growing up with the growth of man, a Song of Songs to move through his innermost being and make from the clay of him a creature of heroism.
Who shall gage the Song of
Songs? Who shall draw and
measure it? Who shall cage it
within an image? Who shall
mark its beginning and its ending?
Who shall circle it with
wise words? It is infinite, more
than the sky is infinite, more
than the sands of the sea, or the
[Page 170]
leaves of plants. It is growing,
more than the seed that makes
the redwood, more than the egg
that makes the whale, more even
than the expanding universe.
It is the judges of the Song who have closed the inner ears of men. It is they who would keep the Song in neat little boxes, who would dole it out to the people in drops and driblets. It is they who would kill it with their small minds: the Pharisees who quibbled with the words of Jesus; the priests who tried to close the mouth of Muḥammad, the small men who always everywhere are afraid of great music.
There are singers of the Song to men. Judge them by their singing; judge them by their suffering. Judge them not as do the makers of rules and dogmas, nor the keepers of narrow creeds who have but one light, not realizing that all light comes from God.
The Song of Songs is for the open hearted, for the seekers and the thinkers. It is for the people who have grown up in mind as well as in body. It comes to fill the soul with longing, not to satisfy it and close it. It comes to make a man fierce with himself, to awaken him, to create new horizons, to end complacency. He has a task to do; he has been lazy and forgetful. The Song kindles a fire under him; it pricks him with sharp spears; it drives him forth from easy living. It takes away from him the soft myths and the day dreams. It makes him dig in the bed rock of truth and action. No wonder men shrink from the fire of such music. They who cannot see the glory and the beauty are frightened. Like the Song of Taillefer at the Battle of Hastings, the Song of Songs is not for cowards but for men.
Today the Song comes with a new power and a new urgency. In the old days there was not the dreadful need. Soft muted flutes play to us in the calm, clear parables of Buddha. The message of love from Jesus flows like the soughing of woodwinds into the tired hearts of men. Even Muḥammad, who woke the desert to fire, sang with the notes of the lesser trumpets.
Now it is as if the great bronze
gongs have unleashed their full
fury. Now the largest of drums
have started their booming. The
bass viols are tuning across the
world and the mutter of their
voices is deeper than thunder.
The music has taken on a wild
and somber tone, yet there is still
within it the glory of sunlight.
The shafts of fire are red as the
sunset, for men gather to the
[Page 171]
last drumming. The issue before
the world is “Unity?” stark
and staring as the black words
“MENE-MENE-TEKEL-UPHARSIN”
written by the fingers
of God on the walls of Babylon.
“Unity?” Ponder well, oh people
of earth, the meaning of that
question mark. It is punctuated
by the atom bomb.
Who would argue with a hand stretched out to save him in a stormy sea? Who, poised on the razor’s edge of death, would worry about the Doctor who brought the life blood flowing back into his veins? The Song of Songs comes to us this day out of Persia. It comes with a strange name from a strange land. It comes with strange words and strange faces. Bahá’u’lláh is the singer of the Song, as Muḥammad was before him, and Jesus and Buddha and Moses among the earliest.
Bahá’u’lláh was born a nobleman and the son of a nobleman. He could have lived a life of luxury and power. Instead he chose, for the sake of man, to be bastinadoed in the prison of Țihrán, to have the skin stripped from his tender feet. He was chained to the wall for months with condemned murderers, down in black dungeons. He was driven as an exile with few clothes over icy mountains, driven from his homeland. He was again imprisoned for all the remaining years of his life. Kings and priesthoods brought all their might against him. He was forced to live in a cold stone cell without comforts, without being able to see friends. He was struck by the arrows of venomous words even as was Jesus. Men did not nail him on a Cross only because they feared the power of His martyrdom. Yet they could not stop Him from singing the Song of Songs for this Day.
It is because He sang this Song that they wished to destroy Him, all the little minds, all the keepers of thoughts and the chainers of ideas. Yet his words were like birds. They burst from the bonds of His prison. They flew around the world and in all nations men listened to their singing.
He sang first of Unity, for
unity is the greatest need of men
in this Day. He sang of the end
of prejudice, of the meaning of
justice, of love, of purity, of
the advancement of science as a
servant of man. His words were
pearls dropping in the yards of
men. At first the pearls were not
seen, but in time the pressure of
history made some men pick up
these gems and claim them as
their own. So Wilson spoke at
Versailles of the League of Nations,
and Roosevelt at Casablanca
[Page 172]
of the United Nations. So
Churchill battles for one language
for the world, 80 years
after Bahá’u’lláh spoke for that
one language.
The Song of Songs is growing and swelling; urgent it is and full of warning. Let us help It break down the walls of injustice and prejudice. Our hearts shall be the soldiers who march to its music. Buddhist and Christian and Muḥammadan; Mongol and Negro and Caucasian, what is the difference between these men before God? The world in its heart is waiting, waiting. It is waiting for great music. It is waiting for the catalyst of song that shall bring an end to war.
The world does not know that already the chords are swelling over the distant hills. Beyond the blue mountains the horns are playing. By the lake at twilight the violins laugh through the shadows. And above all else, the voices of thousands of the new world people, the Bahá’ís, lift in the song of unity. The peoples of the nations are chanting of a new nation, the World. The many flags are waving in the sunlight, but one flag waves above all, the flag of mankind. The Song of Songs is here, a song greater than Solomon’s, greater than Beethoven’s, the Song of God for a New Age.
Suffering
While man is happy he may forget his God; but when grief comes and sorrows overwhelm him, then will he remember his Father who is in Heaven, and who is able to deliver him from his humiliations.
Men who suffer not, attain no perfection. The plant most pruned by the gardeners is the one which, when the summer comes, will have the most beautiful blossoms and the most abundant fruit.
The laborer cuts up the earth with his plough, and from that earth comes the rich and plentiful harvest. The more a man is chastened, the greater is the harvest of spiritual virtues shown forth by him. A soldier is no good general until he has been in the front of the fiercest battle and has received the deepest wounds.
The prayer of the Prophets of God has always been, and still is: Oh, God! I long to lay down my life in the Path to Thee! I desire to shed my blood for Thee, and to make the Supreme Sacrifice.
The Bahá’í Faith
EMILY M. AXFORD
I AM very glad to have this opportunity[1]
of speaking about
a movement which is not so well
known in this part of the world
as it deserves to be, a movement
which in less than a hundred
years assumed the status of a
world religion. Its name is derived
from its Founder, whom
Bahá’ís believe to be the Divine
Physician for this new age in
which we are living. His name,
Bahá’u’lláh, means Glory of
God. His coming fulfills many
prophecies in both Christian and
other scriptures. The Faith originated
in Persia, where a radiant
youth known as the Báb, meaning
Door or Gate to the Knowledge
of God, began His mission
among the Persians in the early
part of the 19th century. His
activities were regarded with apprehension
by the religious leaders,
who influenced the government
against Him. As a result,
He was seized and, with one of
His disciples, publicly shot on
July 9, 1850. In the year that
followed, more than 20,000 of
His followers suffered martyrdom
rather than recant. The Báb
declared that One mightier than
He would arise in the fullness of
time, One “Whom God would
make manifest.” In 1863 Bahá’u’lláh
declared Himself that
Promised One and made it His
life’s mission to give out the
Teachings which His followers
believe to be the Word of God
for this New Day. He, too, was
cruelly persecuted, suffering
exile and imprisonment for a
period of forty years. He was
still a prisoner when He passed
from this life in 1892 at ‘Akká,
Palestine. His remains are laid
to rest in the Shrine at Bahjí,
north of ‘Akká. Many of our soldiers
in the Middle East heard of
this Faith for the first time when
they visited this Shrine and the
house where Bahá’u’lláh lived
during the last few years of His
life. The gardens that now surround
this sacred spot are celebrated
for their great beauty.
The history of the Faith is
surely the greatest epic of modern
times. It is a spiritual drama
recalling the early days of the
Christian Faith. It is the outward
and visible evidence that humanity
has been stirred by a new
spirit, the effect of which is to
break the bonds and limitations
of the past, and remold the world
in a universal civilization more
in accordance with spiritual law.
[Page 174]
The discoveries and inventions of
the past hundred years have created
a new world and literally
brought the ends of the earth together.
The task before humanity
today is to match this physical
unity by a spiritual unity
of kinder hearts and purer motives,
sinking forever our prejudices
and hatreds, our man-made
creeds and rituals with their obsolete
traditions and superstitions.
Until we are ready to do
this, chaos and confusion will
continue—only the power of
pure religion is capable of creating
a bond strong enough to
change strife and conflict into
harmony and unity.
The question will be asked—
What is the relation of the
Bahá’í Faith to the Christian and
other great religions of the
world? Is it a new rival sect, another
rival philosophy or a religion
seeking to supersede all
previous religions? Quite definitely
it is none of these. It is not
a sect of any existing religion
unless Christianity can be called
a sect of Judaism. As Christianity
arose in a Jewish community,
so the Bahá’í Faith arose in a
Muḥammadan community. The
Bahá’í Faith bears the same relation
to all previous faiths as
does the fruit to the flower and
bud. It is their development and
fulfillment. All the great religions
are part of one divine plan
for the education and development
of mankind. All the great
prophets have taught one and the
same religion, which consists in
the worship and service of the
one and only God, for there is
only one Religion though religions
are many. But people worship
the Lamps instead of the
Light. Each Prophet, each Founder
of religions, has presented
the Light. He brought it in the
form best adapted to the needs
of the age and the people to
whom He came. There was never
want of harmony between these
Great Ones. It is their blind followers
who have fallen into
quarrels and divisions. Now
man has reached a stage of development
at which he is ready
for a Universal Teaching which
will fit the needs of this universal
age and bring to fruition all previous
revelations, reconciling the
different religions and sects, the
different races and classes. This
wonderful reconciliation has already
been achieved in hundreds
of Bahá’í communities scattered
over the earth, where Jews,
Christians, Muḥammadans, Buddhists,
rich and poor, learned
and illiterate are united in loving
friendship and allegiance to a
common faith. The advent of
every Revealer of God’s will has
always been accompanied by a
[Page 175]
great outpouring of power, both
spiritual and material, giving
rise to a new civilization, for instance
the Jewish, Christian, Muhammadan,
etc. The civilization
of Bahá’u’lláh, which is even
now coming to birth, as the present
one is undoubtedly dying, is
to be built on a foundation of
Justice. The need for competition
and struggle is now a thing of the
past, for modern science has
made it possible to produce far
more than the essential needs for
every person on the face of the
earth. When the world has
learned the full bitterness of
servitude to the principles of
competition and struggle, then
shall we be ready to turn to
God’s Messenger for the guidance
all need. What has been
gained if we have acquired mastery
over the titanic forces of
chemistry and physics, if at the
same time we have become
slaves to our ignorance of the
principles and laws governing
man’s own individual and collective
life. What, indeed!
The writings of Bahá’u’lláh have been translated into more than fifty different languages. Many great scholars and other people of note have written appreciatively of this new direction religion is taking as the result of the Bahá’í Revelation. Professor Jowett, late master of Balliol College, Oxford University, stated, “This Bahá’í Movement brings the greatest Light that has come into the world since the time of Jesus Christ. It is so great and so near to this generation that it cannot comprehend it. The future alone will reveal its import.”
Time permits one more quotation,
this time a royal tribute.
The late Queen Marie of Roumania,
(who had embraced the
Bahá’í Teachings) while on her
tour through the United States in
1926, gave several statements to
the American and Canadian
press which were published as
syndicated articles throughout
the entire country. She wrote,
“The Bahá’í Faith is like a wide
embrace, gathering together all
those who have long searched for
words of hope. It accepts all
great prophets gone before, it destroys
no other creeds and leaves
all doors open. . . . The Bahá’í
teaching brings peace to the soul
and hope to the heart . . . The
words of the Father are as a
fountain in the desert after long
wandering. . . . It is a wondrous
Message that Bahá’u’lláh and
His son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, have
given us. They have not set it up
aggressively, knowing that the
germ of eternal truth which lies
at its core cannot but take root
and spread. . . . If ever the name
[Page 176]
of Bahá’u’lláh or ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
comes to your attention do not
put their writings from you.
Search out their Books, and let
their glorious, peace-bringing,
love-creating words and lessons
sink into your hearts as they
have into mine.”
This testimony can be multiplied by millions who have searched out the Writings and have seen in Bahá’u’lláh the Manifestation of God—God’s mouthpiece for the age and cycle in which we live. As a result their hearts have been changed, their prejudices burned away, their conceptions exalted, their motives ennobled, and their outlook transformed.
- ↑ Radio talk broadcast by the Macquarie Network, Australia.
The Remedy Is at Our Doors
Today, Humanity is bowed down with trouble, sorrow, and grief, no one escapes; the world is wet with tears; but thank God the remedy is at our doors. Let us turn our hearts away from the world of matter and live in the Spiritual World! It alone can give us freedom! If we are hemmed in by difficulties we have only to call upon God, and by His great Mercy we shall be helped.
If sorrow and adversity visit us, let us turn our faces to the Kingdom and heavenly consolation will be outpoured.
If we are sick and in distress let us implore God’s healing, and He will answer our prayer.
When our thoughts are filled with the bitterness of this world, let us turn our eyes to the sweetness of God’s compassion and He will send us Heavenly calm! If we are imprisoned in the material world, our spirit can soar into the Heaven and we shall be free indeed!
When our days are drawing to a close let us think of the eternal worlds, and we shall be full of joy!
A Universal Question
W. T. BOYD
IT IS strange, perhaps, but almost invariably true, that when a group of servicemen or ex-servicemen gather together their discussion wends its way through politics and science, and finally settles on religion. Although this same tendency is noticeable in civilian groups, it is to a lesser degree, possibly because there is not the comradeship between people not sharing the discipline of the Services.
The obvious factor brought to light by this tendency for the subject of faith to arise is that in the minds of the individuals of the group there is just a tiny seed of doubt—doubt brought about through association with good fellows of all faiths. They have come to feel that the heaven they have reserved for themselves should be large enough to accommodate men who are sharing the same rigors of life. Why, they ask, should Joe be denied Paradise only because he has chosen to follow a different faith?
Men the world over seem to carry a deeply seated fear that if they vary a hair’s breadth from their teachings, or question their religious leaders, they will incur the wrath of the Almighty. As deeply as this fear is implanted, there is always the still small voice which speaks to them in odd moments and which causes them to question. All too often this little voice is shouted down, and an attempt is made to quiet it once and for all. But it usually returns, when least expected, to harry the faithful.
During a recent impromptu discussion of faith among a small group of ex-servicemen, it was most interesting to note the various attitudes toward faith in general. One man was a Catholic, and although he was outwardly completely content with his church, perfect contentment would not have permitted the question which he posed to the others. Another was a Jewish boy, and although ready on the instant to defend any slur cast upon his faith, he had a gratifyingly broad outlook, which bespoke a tangent from his father’s belief. A Presbyterian lad summed it up intelligently by expressing his unofficial feeling that if everyone would try to understand the other’s viewpoint, each would broaden his own, and the eventual result would be a coalition.
It is a healthy outlook, this
[Page 178]
tendency to question. “Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you.”
The Book of Proverbs is alive
with King Solomon’s advice to
posterity: “Seek ye knowledge.”
When we are complacent, completely
content, and arrogantly
certain that ours is the One and
Only Faith, we but bar the door
to greater learning.
To a true American, it would be unthinkable to give up the freedom we have gained politically. But too few of us realize that unless we extend this same freedom to encompass the entire world and at the same time relinquish part of our national sovereignty, we stand to lose that for which we have shed much blood. Never, so long as the world exists, may we sit back even a moment to gloat over our accomplishments, for when we do they turn bitter in our mouths. We have no choice but to continue onward, extending the hand of freedom and self-government to all nations, and eventually to deliver into the hands of a United Nations of the World our first allegiance. Thereby we shall gain an even greater measure of freedom.
So it is in religion. Each great religion in the world must bow to the Sovereignty which is God, and unite in one common cause. Each must abandon many of its creeds and dogmas to advance a more universal understanding.
Beset on every side by the cumulative evidences of disintegration of turmoil and of bankruptcy, serious-minded men and women, in almost every walk of life, are beginning to doubt whether society, as it is now organized can through its unaided efforts, extricate itself from the slough into which it is steadily sinking. Every system, short of the unification of the human race, has been tried, repeatedly tried, and found wanting. Wars again and again have been fought, and conferences without number have met and deliberated. Treaties, pacts and covenants have been painstakingly negotiated, concluded and revised. Systems of government have been patiently tested, have been continually recast and superseded. Economic plans of reconstruction have been carefully devised, and meticulously executed. And yet crisis has succeeded crisis, and the rapidity with which a perilously unstable world is declining has been correspondingly accelerated.
WITH OUR READERS
THE World Order editorial staff
will be much strengthened this
coming year with the addition of five
new members to assist those who
worked through the past year. Garreta
Busey continues as the editor.
Mrs. Eleanor Hutchens has become
the managing editor and will help
with the correspondence and manuscripts
which in the future should
be sent to the new address, 307
South Prairie, Champaign, Ill. Mrs.
Mabel Paine and Flora Hottes will
continue their valuable work on the
committee this year. In addition, we
should like to introduce briefly the
new members of the committee.
Mrs. Gertrude Henning of Winnetka, Illinois, should hardly be considered a new member, for she served for several years as secretary of the committee with much of the responsibility of preparing material for publication and all of the voluminous correspondence which is a part of the magazine’s work. She is the wife of a journalist and the mother of two tall sons.
Victor de Araujo is a young vice-consul in the Brazilian consulate in Chicago. He was born in London of an English mother and Brazilian father. He wishes to become an American citizen and is enrolled at Northwestern for journalism courses. Last fall he married Betty Scheffler, Evanston artist. He will be writing the items of this column next year.
Robert Durr is the editor of the Negro newspaper in Birmingham, Alabama, the Weekly Review. Recently Mr. Durr received recognition from the White House for his journalism. His Bahá’í activities have included several lecture trips to New Orleans.
Mrs. Elsa Blakely is the wife of the director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She is a Canadian.
The fifth newcomer to our staff is Pearl Easterbrook who teaches in the elementary schools of Peoria. She has had experience lecturing for the Parent Teachers’ Associations and for Bahá’ís.
* * *
Our lead this month is “Elements of World Religion,” which was given by Horace Holley in Milwaukee for the Sunday morning Inter-Faith radio program. The Bahá’ís had the half hour between the Catholic and Lutheran programs on station WTMJ. A lawyer who heard the broadcast has written Mr. Holley for copies for distribution to his friends.
“Proofs of the Manifestation of
God” is the first contribution by
Eolah and Paul Bartley of Western
Springs, Illinois. Mrs. Bartley writes
of the authors, “Middle-aged grandparents,
we are ‘just folks’ interested
in the problems of our day. Though
friendly to the Cause, Mr. Bartley is
not a Bahá’í, so that I have been
doubly grateful for his assistance. A
history major in college days, his interest
in that large subject as a
hobby, has never flagged. In addition
[Page 180]
to the usual activities of a housekeeper
and as much time as opportunity
permits in working for our
Faith, I am a piano teacher.”
Ugo Giachery, who is one of the Bahá’ís shown in this month’s picture, is a New Yorker. With his wife he left for Italy in February of last year to teach the Bahá’í Faith in that country.
“The Bahá’í Faith” comes to us as a portion of a small pamphlet published in Australia and written by Emily Axford to be used as a radio broadcast introducing the faith to those who may have had no previous knowledge of its principles and tenets.
Duart Vinson Brown, author of “The Song of Songs”, is a biologist living and studying in California. He is a frequent contributor to World Order.
Waldo T. Boyd when sending us his “A Universal Question”, expressed the laudable intention of writing for World Order, quarterly. He is a thirty-year old resident of Venice, California, who became a Bahá’í in 1945, in Sydney, Australia. He is learning Braille in his spare time in order to transcribe Bahá’í literature for the blind.
“Our Basic Social Responsibility” is the first editorial by one of our new editors, Robert Durr of Birmingham, Alabama.
* * *
Mrs. Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, for many years one of the editors of World Order, died on May 20 as the result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident. The following impressions were written by a Bahá’í friend who was with her at the time of her passing.
“I have never doubted the fact of immortality. But the belief has been a belief of profession and the acceptance of the revealed Teachings of the Manifestations of God.
“Now, having stood in the actual presence of the mystery of death this week, I affirm knowledge deeper than words can possibly convey that, whatever the human soul really is, it does triumph over death. It was a special blessing of God to me yesterday, to be present during those awesome moments when the timeless forces of life meet the enduring life . . . To stand at the threshold and see, hear, and feel the door open, receive its own, and close again, is an experience so illuminating and so strength-giving that I shall be forever reassured and grateful . . . One feels bathed and immersed in an ocean of the love of God. Many passages in our wonderful Teachings are now clear to me. Having glimpsed Reality, life will henceforth be very different. And, you know, I feel that others who have gone on come to meet the parting one. I know it, although I cannot say how—and I heard the rejoicing. Earthly music cannot in any way compare with it. One is only vaguely conscious of ecstatically beautiful sound, scent, vision and, for that timeless time, one is actually away and apart from the contingent world . . . I think I understand now what the Teachings about loving one another mean. It is entirely beyond self or any mundane considerations —truly of the spirit. . . .”
Bahá’í Sacred Writings
Works of Bahá’u’lláh
Distributed by Bahá’í Publishing Committee
110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois
KITÁB-I-ÍQÁN (Book of Certitude)
In this work Bahá’u’lláh reveals the oneness of religion, traces its continuity and evolution through the successive Manifestations of God, and correlates revelation with the major movements of history. Translated by Shoghi Effendi.
HIDDEN WORDS
The essence of all revealed truth, expressed in brief meditations impregnated with spiritual power. Translated by Shoghi Effendi.
THE SEVEN VALLEYS, THE FOUR VALLEYS
Treatises on the progress of the soul and the action of spirit on human being, revealed to disclose the difference between religion and philosophy. Translated by ‘Alí-Kulí Khán.
EPISTLE TO THE SON OF THE WOLF
The force and significance of divine Revelation opposed by the ruthless deniers in church and state. One of Bahá’u’lláh’s last works, it cites from and recapitulates the meaning of many other Tablets.
TABLETS OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
The Tablet of Tarázát, Tablet of the World, Words of Paradise, Tablet of Tajallíyát, Glad Tidings and Tablet of Ishráqát, containing social principles and laws, are found in Chapter Four of Bahá’í World Faith. The Tablet of the Branch and Kitáb-i-‘Ahd, setting forth the station of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, are found in Chapter Five of the same work. Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablets to the Kings form part of Chapter One of that work.
GLEANINGS FROM THE WRITINGS OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
These excerpts were selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi, and offer a representative compilation of words of Bahá’u’lláh: the Bahá’í teachings on the nature of religion, the regeneration of the soul and the transformation of human society.
PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS BY BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
In these passages, selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi, the relationship of man to God attained by prayer and meditation has been firmly established above and beyond the influence of superstition and imagination.
TRUTHS FOR A NEW DAY
promulgated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Throughout North America in 1912
These teachings were given by Bahá’u’lláh
over seventy years ago and are to be
found in His published
writings of that time.
The oneness of mankind.
Independent investigation of truth.
The foundation of all religions is one.
Religion must be the cause of unity.
Religion must be in accord with science and reason.
Equality between men and women.
Prejudice of all kinds must be forgotten.
Universal peace.
Universal education.
Spiritual solution of the economic problem.
A universal language.
An international tribunal.