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[Page 441]

WORLD ORDER

Copyright 1937 by BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE

MARCH 1937

NUMBER 12 VOLUME 2

THE NEED OF THE TIMES

EDITORIAL

“THIS generation,” says Walter Lippman, “has an appointment with destiny;” and David Cushman Coyle, famous writer on economics, says in his book “Uncommon Sense,” “Human history sometimes drifts aimlessly along without seeming to be going anywhere, then at other times it rides fast on a flowing tide that cannot be stopped or turned aside.”

We are certainly moving on such a rapid-flowing tide today. If there is any one thing which all people agree upon, it is that we are in a period of rapid, tremendous and far-reaching change. We face inevitable changes in our whole social, economic and political systems. Other departments of human life are also feeling change,—education, religion, the institution of the family. The old landmarks are disappearing. This is a cause of confusion to many. There seems to be an insecurity in all of human life today.

The most pressing problems at present threatening the security of the world and of every individual in it are the economic problem, and the problem of war. In fact, these two problems are in many respects interrelated. Certainly both must find solution if human life is to go on progressing in a stable and secure civilization.

For the solution of the social problem, Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í World Faith, over seventy years ago promulgated three great principles which would revolutionize the social life of our planet. First, a system of income and inheritance taxes designed to assist in the abolishment of the extremes of poverty and wealth. Secondly, an obligatory system of profit-sharing by which, over and above a minimum wage, labor would have a definite share agreed upon beforehand in the net profits of a business or industry. This system of profit-sharing would harmonize the interests of labor and capital and put an end to the economic warfare which at present threatens the stability of industry. The third principle given forth by Bahá’u’lláh is that in a true civilization the state [Page 442] has responsibility for the welfare of all, but on the other hand this responsibility is balanced by the obligation laid on each individual to engage in some useful trade, art or profession.

When Bahá’u’lláh gave out these Teachings seventy years ago, they were not anywhere in practice in the world. Today, so rapid has been the evolutionary progress of human thought and practice under the great exigencies of this century of change that all of these great principles are becoming firmly rooted in world-consciousness. If we study these principles carefully, realizing all their implications, we shall see that they not only offer economic security; they would also bring about a period of universal prosperity, for they would establish and preserve a consuming power in the general public which would at all times equal the productive power of agriculture and industry. Thus would come about that age of abundance which our young economists are dreaming about today.

THE dread problem of war Bahá’u’lláh called upon all the rulers of the world to solve. He envisaged the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds, and classes are closely and permanently united. The economic resources of the world would be organized, its sources of raw materials tapped and fully utilized, its markets coordinated and developed and the distribution of its products equitably regulated. National rivalries, hatreds and intrigues would then cease, and racial animosity and prejudice would be replaced by racial amity, understanding and cooperation.

Such is the New World Order set forth by Bahá’u’lláh. Here is a glorious goal for humanity, something that every one of us can well wish to see succeed. But is it possible that this ideal world state can be achieved? One of two things is going to happen in this world of ours. Either some such world order will eventually be achieved or world civilization will go down to destruction in a welter of chaos and ruin.

Events will speak louder for this new world order than any theory can speak. If we watch the trend of the times we shall perceive how every great event taking place in the world is either in itself in the direction of such progress or by the very threatening nature of its danger commands such progress to be made.

S.C.

[Page 443]

THE RECOVERY OF ETHICAL VALUES

By JOHN W. KITCHING

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfills himself in many ways

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”—Tennyson.

THERE can be no doubt whatever that in every community today there are men who are looking forward with eager anticipation to the dawning of a new world order.

They hope to see this world order ushered in, not by political expediency or by revolutionary violence; but by the recovery of ethical values and the application of moral principles to the solution of the social, economic, political, industrial, and international problems of our age.

The purpose of this article will be achieved if it can indicate more or less clearly, how such ethical values may be recovered.

It is now generally conceded by thinkers that the world-wide disturbance we are witnessing in our times, has back of it a common cause and that it is due to the violation of some basic, cosmic principle.

This universal paralysis which has settled like a blight upon the activities of all men everywhere and from which every man, woman and child in the world is suffering, must have both a diagnosis and a cure.

It seems that the balance regulating human affairs has tilted so badly in these days that nothing but a great moral and spiritual enthusiasm will restore it to its normal position and operation.

To arouse this spirirual enthusiasm is difficult today on account of the moral inertia from which great masses of the population in every country on the face of the globe are suffering.

Looking backward over the past history of the human race, it is obvious that behind every revolutionary movement for the betterment of humanity, the motivating force has been an irresistible enthusiasm for the supremacy of such human rights as Justice, Brotherhood and Liberty.

The new world order which we hope for will have this same passionate [Page 444] enthusiasm for these rights.

I. A RIGHT VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE:

As a starting point for the recovery of ethical values, we must begin with a right view of the universe in which we are living. The universe should be viewed as a living organism, everlastingly unfolding and developing in greater complexity and beauty and of which man as an individual, is an integral unit.

In the words of Sir Oliver Lodge, the British Scientist and Author: “We are no aliens in a stranger universe governed by an outside God, we are parts of a developing whole, all enfolded in an embracing and interpenetrating love of which we too, each to other, sometimes experience joy too deep for words.”

This view establishes the natural unity of the human family in which the well-being of the individual is identified with the well-being of all.

Further, we should view the universe as being in itself, intelligent.

Not, however, in a pantheistic sense; but in that higher and more spiritual sense of an intelligence that is immanent in nature itself and yet at the same time transcending it, just as the human mind is above and transcends the physical body within which it dwells and is actually present.

This will promote growth in Personal Culture, will encourage new quests and new discoveries, and will also foster development in the realms of art, science and literature.

It carries with it the faith that this Mind or spiritual presence within the universe and yet transcendently above it, can offer intelligent cooperation to man in his endeavors to realize himself in thought, feeling and will.

To illustrate this one might recall how the astronomer Kepler, after long and weary labor, had worked out a certain theory as to the movements of the planets. This theory was the product of his own reasoning. Finally he turned to the telescope to see whether the planets actually did move in the times and orbits which he had determined for them; and then he realized that the trigonometry of his own brain was also the trigonometry of the sky. Taking his eyes from the glass he shouted out into the silence of the night: “O God! I am reading thy thoughts after thee.”

Twenty-five centuries ago it was a commonly accepted doctrine among the thinkers and philosophers of ancient Greece that “mind pervades the universe.”

In our own day Professor Michael Pupin declared just prior to his death a year ago: “Wherever science has explored the universe, it has found it to be a manifestation of a coordinating principle, a definite, guiding principle, which leads from chaos to cosmos.” He confesses his own belief in this coordinating principle as a divine intelligence, in which the utmost faith may be placed because of the dependability and continuity he observes everywhere present in the universe.

Singularly appropriate in this connection are the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “In our solar system, the center of illumination is the sun. . . . Likewise in the spiritual realm of intelligence and idealism there must be a center of illumination, and that [Page 445] center is the everlasting, ever-shining Sun, the Word of God. Its lights are the lights of reality which have shone upon humanity, illumining the realm of thought and morals, conferring the bounties of the divine world upon man. These lights are the cause of the education of souls and the source of the enlightenment of hearts, sending forth in effulgent radiance the message of the glad-tidings of the Kingdom of God.”

II. RECOGNITION OF GOD:

This brings us to the second stage of our discussion as to how we may recover ethical values, namely, by recognition of God.

Ethical principles of themselves have always been ineffective in producing lasting results if divorced from religion. “Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. This reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitutes the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world, the manifest effulgence of the Word of God, the divine remedy for all human ailment and the bounty of eternal life for all mankind.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

It is absolutely essential then that God be recognized as the spiritual source and environment of the soul and furthermore as that bond of unity which binds together all spirits in one common society.

Jesus taught, “God is a spirit.” Following him the Apostle Paul declared, “In Him we live and move and have our being.”

Some centuries before the time of either Jesus or Paul an unknown Hebrew nature poet sang, “Whither shall I go from thy spirits or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there: if I make a bed in hell, behold, thou are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: Even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.”

It was the thirteenth century (A.D.) Kabbalist, Isaac Allatif, who taught: “God is in all and everything is in Him,” and again, “The human soul rises to the world soul in earnest Prayer.”

“Bahá’u’lláh has announced that no matter how far the world of humanity may advance in material civilization, it is nevertheless in need of spiritual virtues and the bounties of God. The spirit of man is not illumined and quickened through material sources. It is not resuscitated by investigating phenomena of the world of matter. The spirit of man is in need of the protection of the Holy Spirit. Just as he advances by progressive stages from the mere physical world of being into the intellectual realm, so must he develop upward in moral attributes and spiritual graces. In the process of this attainment he is ever in need of the bestowals of the Holy Spirit.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

III. THE LAW OF HARMONY:

The third stage in our discussion as to how ethical values may be recovered in our day culminates in urging the need of man’s allegiance to the Law of Harmony as his principle of conduct in society. It is only when men shall have learned to do this that right and harmonious relationships [Page 446] will be maintained among men and nations in the world.

As the Law of Harmony in space gives man the science of Mathematics so the Law of Harmony in society carries with it the implication of a “Summum Bonum” or “Supreme Good” for all mankind.

This principle has been enunciated in one form or another by all the great teachers of the past.

Gautama, the Buddha, expressed it when he said, “man is saved by inward culture and active love.”

Confucius stated it in the words, “Do not unto others that which you would not have them do unto you.”

Jesus made it the foundation of his Kingdom when he declared, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

By this law, love would replace hatred, benevolence would take the place of unbridled ambition and egoism, and universal peace would become at last a reality.

Legal requirements imposed by an external authority of force and power win for themselves only an outward compliance, whereas obedience to an ethical principle would spring from the inward and voluntary choice of the individual.

The universal adoption and application of this law to the social and international problems of the world would prove the solution to the present unrest and uncertainty. It would mean the end of greed and selfish exploitation and man would turn his whole energies to the conservation and distribution of the natural resources of the earth in a just and equitable manner so that none would know surfeit and none would know want.

Love that worketh no ill to his neighbor would then prevail among all men everywhere.

Then would dawn the blessed day when universal understanding would replace universal suspicion and intolerance and the poet’s dream would be fulfilled who saw a Kingdom afar off—

“And the strong man there was a

kindly man and aided the one

who was weak,

And for those who were simple and

trusting men their wiser

brother would speak;

And creed, or color, or land, or

birth, caused no man to hate

another,

For the same red blood filled each

man’s veins, and every man

was a brother.”

[Page 447]

SEVEN CANDLES OF UNITY

A Symposium

VI. UNITY OF RACES

By GENEVIEVE L. COY

“The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race.”

IN a world in which racial differences are capitalized in such phrases as “The Yellow Peril,” “The Black Menace,” “The White Man’s Burden,” how could even so far-seeing a soul as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the author of the above quotation, look forward to an age when all the people of the earth shall be “of one race?”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave an answer to this question when He said in Chicago in 1912, “Be it known that color or race is of no importance. He who is the image and likeness of God, who is the manifestation of the bestowals of God, is acceptable at the threshold of God whether his color be white, black or brown; it matters not. Man is not man simply because of bodily attributes. The standard of divine measure and judgment is his intelligence and spirit.”

“Color is of no importance,”—and yet the lives of millions of human beings are today shadowed by the conviction on the part of other millions that color is an adequate basis for judging intelligence, economic value and social acceptability. The unity of mankind cannot be achieved until the majority of men and women the world over think, feel and act in wholehearted acceptance of the truth that “color is of no importance.” This implies a tremendous change in the habits of a large part of the world. In order to change any habit of thought or action, it is important to learn how it began, and what roots it has in the instinctive nature of man. Therefore, when we face the problem of changing men’s attitudes toward race and color, we ask such questions as the following:—How did racial prejudice begin? Are there really innate differences between races in intelligence and special ability? Why do we now find marked cultural differences [Page 448] between large racial groups?

In the following discussion we shall use the word “race” as do those who think that color is of importance,—to indicate large divisions of mankind who differ markedly in color of skin and in certain other physical traits, such as shape of the features and texture of the hair.

HAVE racial prejudices always existed? For an answer to this question we must turn first to the writings of anthropologists. Research in the life of prehistoric man has told us a great deal about his height and weight, the shape of his body, his manner of living—but we do not know at all what was the color of his skin. It seems probable that these early men were all of one color, and that differentiation occurred later as they moved into a variety of climates. Some anthropologists suggest that primitive men were all black; others think that they were all of an olive brown, and that later some grew darker under the tropic sun, while those who traveled into colder regions became bleached. It seems reasonably certain that these early peoples did not differentiate among themselves on the basis of color.

But we cannot assume that the small groups of primitive men who banded together into clans and tribes lived in an idyllic harmony with one another. The basic problem of existence in that early time was to find and hold hunting grounds or fishing waters which would provide food, and groups must have been in constant warfare as one tribe strove to take from another these sources of life. The more powerful groups eventually came to hold certain regions of the earth’s surface for long periods of time, and were able to develop a stable tribal organization. Weaker groups were either starved to death, or existed in a restless misery on the far fringes of the areas held by dominant tribes. Thus, at the dawn of recorded history, we find comparatively well organized states such as the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, who had developed a culture and a government. But these settled units were constantly in danger from nomadic tribes who might at any moment gain power enough to rush in from the mountains, the steppes or the desert and destroy these “civilized” centers. Thus warfare was the habit of life for early mankind. But history gives us no reason to suppose that the conflicts of primitive men or of early civilized men were ever related to the differences in color of skin which had come to exist.

These conflicts were fundamentally economic. But as more groups held as their own for long periods of time larger areas of land, and differentiated “national” cultures developed, group ideals of behavior, of religious observance, of beauty and strength were developed. It was probably only after civilization was thus far advanced that some nations began to look down on other groups which differed in color of skin or hair, in shape of eyes and type of dress. The more powerful the group, the more it held in contempt those who were weaker,—and concomitant with this, came scorn for the outer aspect of the [Page 449] inferior group. Thus a dominant tribe whose skin was red or yellow despised the color of less powerful tribes whose skin was white or black. So color came to be associated with adequate food supply, and a stable group life,—with power, with success. And since the group in power were always in danger of having the good things of life taken from them, there was always a lurking fear and hatred of those who might come in and seize these hardly-won advantages. Thus, slowly through the ages, as nations became more and more powerful, fear of other nations increased, —and some of this mingled fear and hate became attached to the idea of color.

The idea that color of skin is important is based, therefore, on the desire to maintain power exercised by a portion of mankind, and on fear lest this dominant position may be undermined. In order to strengthen this sense of superiority, all races, whatever their color, have at various times made scurrilous criticisms of other races. The less powerful groups have been stigmatized as stupid, superstitious, dishonest, dirty, mean, lazy,— they have been called by whatever names seemed most derogatory to the “superior” race.

IN our present scientific age, to describe an individual as lacking in intelligence is one of the most scathing criticisms that can be made. Therefore much racial prejudice expresses itself by decrying the stupidity of other races.

For ten or fifteen years after the introduction of psychological tests as a means of measuring intelligence, those who believed in the intellectual supremacy of the white race wrongly felt that they could use the results of such tests as a means of proving the lower ability of the darker races. But the scientists who were using the tests were also interested in measuring the varying effects of different environments on men’s accomplishment. They soon suggested that only individuals who had had a similar environment could fairly be compared in intelligence, and that races living under conditions differing as markedly as those, for instance, of the European white man and of the South American Indian, cannot possibly be measured by the same type of tests. Further, they said, even though two races live in the same country, under similar conditions of civilization, there may be such great differences in education and social environment, that a comparison of test results will give little indication of innate intelligence.

In a recent book by Thomas Garth, “Race Psychology,” the results of much testing of race groups are reviewed. Dr. Garth sums up his conclusions as follows, “Much of the difference found in the results of studies of racial differences in mental traits is due to nurtural factors, and the rest is due to racial mobility, so that one race has a temporary advantage over another.”

Those who maintain that there are marked differences in ability between races can no longer turn to scientific evidence to prove their point. But the unprejudiced student of history may fairly raise the question: if we [Page 450] have no certain evidence that races differ in innate ability, why is it that some races are at the present time culturally so far ahead of others?

One answer to this problem is found at the end of the quotation from Garth,—the mobility of races. In earlier centuries cultural groups varied greatly in the degree to which they moved about and mingled with other groups. A tribe or nation surrounded by mountains or jungles or deserts had little opportunity to come in contact with people and ideas from other lands. They developed a conservative culture of their own which tended to become static. Nations living on navigable waterways became travelers, and consciously or unconsciously learned from other groups. Today, with means of communication greatly multiplied, most nations exchange ideas, inventions and discoveries with many other groups. But there are still thousands and thousands of human beings who are completely isolated from such contacts, and do not have this type of stimulation. This is particularly true of large areas of Africa, South America and parts of central Asia.

Another factor which has had a marked influence on the speed of cultural growth is that of climate. Weather which is either very hot or very cold most of the year reduces man’s initiative and his desire to change the cultural patterns which he has inherited. The main business of peoples living within the Arctic Circle is that of keeping warm and finding enough food. If a successful method of doing these two things has been developed by the tribe, there is little incentive to change to something which might be better. If one lives within the torrid zone, getting food is apt to be a comparatively easy matter. Change requires energy which the climate does not provide, and therefore the accepted customs of life do not put any value on change, initiative and “progress.”

A third element in causing cultural differences in races may be described in the words of Herbert A. Miller, in his book, “Races, Nations and Classes,” in which he emphasizes the importance of chance as a factor in determining racial history.

“A modern culture group results from the fortuitous possession of organization, accumulated wealth, momentum, machinery and prestige; each of these as a factor multiplies the significance of both the individual and the group incalculably more than any possible variation in natural endowment could do. Nor must any of these be taken alone. The possession of a machine alone has a very different effectiveness from the possession of a machine along with organization or prestige. Certain ideas and the organization of government gave the white race a start some four hundred years ago that enabled it to expand to the uttermost parts of the earth, but there is not an iota of proof in this expansion that therefore the white race is better endowed than those whom they subjected. . . Since there is slight relation between the originators and possessors of culture, it may often happen that the culture of the dominant race has been secured from the ‘inferior’ race or culture. . . . In the region of the Mediterranean [Page 451] most of European culture was developed. The Nordics after appropriating the contribution repudiate the creators of it.”

WE see, then, that it is very dubious logic to infer that a race is innately interior because its present cultural status is not as high as that of some other race. We find that the results of scientific research tend more and more toward the acceptance of the idea that “color is of no importance”. . . . And yet race prejudice is firmly entrenched in the feelings of millions of men and women, to whom the scientific and historical evidence is of no interest when it opposes “what they have always believed.”

How can this state of affairs be changed, so that mankind will come to feel that there is only one race that matters—the whole human race?

We see that race prejudice is based primarily on the desire for power and on fear, two very fundamental motives to conduct. It is only when a man becomes activated by some stronger motive that he realizes that the will to exercise power over other human beings need not be the basis of group life. Only when man ceases to desire power over others, and so ceases to fear his fellowmen,—only then can we hope to attain to a real unity of the world.

Such a change of motives can come to mankind only through a renewed spiritual vision, such as Bahá’u’lláh brought to the world. The individual who really loves God must perforce love his fellowmen. And those whom we love unselfishly we do not try to rule or control. Fear, hatred, dislike of another race is a certain indication that our faith in the Divine Plan for the world is weak. We are saying, in effect, that the Creator did a pretty bad job on some of His creatures, and that we will have none of the results.

Racial prejudice is a barrier across the road to World Peace and a united humanity. In 1912 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “The accomplishment of unity between the colored and the whites will be an assurance of the world’s peace. . . . When the racial elements of the American nation unite in actual fellowship and accord, the lights of the oneness of humanity will shine. . . . This is the sign of the ‘Most Great Peace’.”

Bahá’u’lláh has given mankind a Divine Plan for world order. But this plan cannot function until men realize that the only power which should control the lives of humanity is spiritual law. When they turn to the great spiritual Educators to learn this law, they will cease to desire personal or national or racial power. Then racial prejudice will gradually disappear, and we shall be ready to enter into the age of the oneness of mankind.

“O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure.”

[Page 452]

THE SEVEN VALLEYS

By ALI-KULI KHAN

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, in answer to the mystics, states that the journey of the soul toward its goal has Seven Stages. These Seven Stages are also called the “Seven Valleys.” According to mystics, man must travel these Seven Valleys in order to reach his goal.

Just as upon this earth a journey was made in olden times by horse, mule or camel, and today is made by rail, steamship or airplane, so the mystic, in every stage of his Journey, makes use of an appropriate steed.

Bahá’u’lláh states that the first of these Seven Valleys or Stages is

THE VALLEY OF SEARCH

The steed upon which one travels in the Valley of Search is patience. Without patience one cannot travel in this valley. Then, as in every journey, men need to carry certain provisions to sustain them on the way, so in this mystic journey certain spiritual provisions are needed to sustain men in the Valley of Search. One is the necessity to become entirely impartial and not to be influenced by the word of this man or the other; the traveler must exercise his own judgment and his own power of decision and comprehension, in order to arrive at his destination. In the Valley of Search, to depend upon others might lead to error.

To illustrate: When Jesus came and claimed to be the Messiah, many went to the Pharisees and the Saducees to inquire concerning Him, and they were told that He was a false prophet. Thus it happened that instead of being led to salvation they were mislead into perdition. Hence it is every individual’s duty to work out his own salvation.

What our fathers believed and what our ancestors believed is one thing, and what we should believe is another. You are not willing to follow them blindly, because those before us who followed their leaders and ancestors or divines, without following the example of the true seekers, were led into error. The Jews condemned Jesus because the Pharisees told them that since the teachings of Moses were good enough for their ancestors they were good enough [Page 453] for them.

Bahá’u’lláh says that a man in the Valley of Search must be endowed with patience and must investigate everything. This does not necessarily mean traveling from one country to another. A story about Layli and Majnún will illustrate our point: Once Majnún, the forlorn lover, was found in the desert solitude sifting the sand through his fingers. Wise counselors asked him: “What art thou doing?” He answered: “I am seeking for Layli.” They said; “Woe to thee! Layli is of pure spirit, and thou art seeking for her in the lowly earth!” He answered, “I am seeking for Layli everywhere, perchance I may find her somewhere.”

This must be the attitude of all true seekers. Travelers in the Valley of Search must exercise patience, must be impartial in investigation. They must not be swayed by what some people say against, or what some say in favor of a thing; but a true seeker must weigh it in the balance of his own reason. Then God will assist him to find the object of his search, and if the wayfarer in the Valley of Search has received a glimpse of the beauty of the Beloved One, as a reward for his search he will immediately enter into the Second Valley, which is

THE VALLEY OF LOVE

The steed upon which he travels in the Valley of Love is pain, suffering, sacrifice. These attributes will lead him from plane to plane, from state to state. Once a wayfarer has entered into the Valley of Love he sees no reason. Insanity to him is like reason, Reason to him is like insanity. Neither does he see darkness nor light, order nor confusion. He is unconscious of all right and wrong. He sees nothing beyond love; being in love with the Beloved One is to him the highest, the greatest bounty. Bahá’u’lláh says that while the lover is traveling in the Valley of Love, he must not reside therein forever; but he must realize that the Valley of Love is the stepping stone from which to progress to a higher Valley. Love is wonderful if it leads us to a higher state, but if it satisfies us individually and holds us in its control it will result in a state of spiritual selfishness. It is not enough that we are happy in the Valley of Love. If we look upon love as an end we become selfish, and that love which is destined to bring us to a lofty state will become the means of holding us down and limiting our capacity for achieving greater things. Hence, it is said: “Love is a veil which veils the Beloved from the lover.”

If the wayfarer has complied with the requirements of the Valley of Love and used love as a stepping stone for reaching a higher plane, by the guidance of God he will be led to the third Valley which is

THE VALLEY OF KNOWLEDGE

The Valley of Love is the Valley of Unconsciousness. There we have no knowledge of good and evil, justice and injustice. But in the Valley of Knowledge, we enter upon a plane where all things appear in a great light. All things become manifest and visible in this Valley. Bahá’u’lláh says that in this Valley the wayfarer will see the end in the beginning, [Page 454] peace in war, justice in injustice. These are some of the experiences of the traveler in the Valley of Knowledge which must be explained. You have often heard that love is the greatest thing, and this is true if it leads our souls to the Valley of Knowledge. What is knowledge?

There is a holy prophetic utterance which states that God, before the creation of all things, was hidden in the mysteries of His own Being, and nothing else was as yet created. He said: “I was a hidden treasure; I loved to become known, hence I created man, thereby to become known.”

There are four stages in this divine utterance. First, the state of the unknowability and invisibility of the Divine Essence. Second, the state of love, “I loved, etc.” Third, the state of knowledge, “I loved to become known.” Fourth, the creation of man, which is the means by which God makes Himself known. So when we hear Jesus say, “I am the door,” it means nothing but this, that through Him alone God made Himself known. God the Spirit, in order to become manifest, chooses a body, the temple of man. Thus, God created man after His own likeness. That is, the human Temple, being made God’s Manifestation, shows forth all the attributes of the Invisible God.

Thus by referring to the Holy Utterance that God, the Invisible, the Unknown, created man in order thereby to become known, we have pointed out the importance of knowledge as above the plane of love.

When we enter the Valley of Knowledge we know why the Beloved is to be loved. We learn the reason why we must love God, the Beloved One. It is that knowledge which enables us to go amongst men and help them in their struggles. Otherwise our claim to love God would be of no benefit, if it did not lead us to the knowledge of God.

In that state we can bring divine knowledge to our fellow men and enable them to partake of the bounties of the love of God.

Bahá’u’lláh states that when man has entered the Valley of Knowledge he will see the end in the beginning, war in peace, justice in injustice, and the mysteries of all things will become manifest to him. Now what is the meaning of seeing the end in the beginning, war in peace, justice in injustice? The answer is as follows: When a child stands in the field beside the farmer who is sowing seeds, he sees the beginning. He also sees that the seeds are being wasted, either because the birds pick them up or they are lost, and he laments, thinking that with them many hungry souls could have been fed. But when the child becomes a man he sees the end in the beginning; that is, he sees the harvest which will feed numerous hungry souls and he realizes that the seed was not wasted.

In this world man sees injustice. A good man of wealth loses his wealth; another man, who has done no good, becomes wealthy, founds a family, and is happy in his work. Then we may ask: “Is this justice?” If this is right, where is the God of Justice? The state of those who see injustice in the world is that of the child to [Page 455] whom I have referred, who is standing beside the farmer sowing seeds, and who thinks that the farmer is wasting grain. When the child grew up, reached maturity, and went into the field and saw another farmer sowing seeds, he did not see the wasting of the seeds, but the glorious and abundant harvest which was to follow. Then that individual who has outgrown the limitations of early childhood, and who sees the harvest to come in the seeds now being squandered, symbolizes the man who has entered the Valley of Knowledge wherein he sees a wisdom in all that is decreed by God. He is then able to say, “There is justice;” he is then able to resign himself to the Will of God.

This very state is illustrated in the two concluding acts of the Divine Drama of the life of Christ. While He was being raised to the Cross He cried, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” and He craved that the cup of martyrdom might be turned away. The approaching death on the Cross caused the agony which is a condition of human nature, before man has entered the Valley of Knowledge. In his human state man finds martyrdom to be against the principles of divine justice and wishes that it might be averted. But the spiritual vision in Christ enabled Him to see the end, as does the wayfarer who has entered the Valley of Knowledge. Thus Jesus saw immediately that in the agony of the Crucifixion there lay the seed which would grow into the tree of human salvation, the fruit of which would bring innumerable blessings upon men. He saw the end in the beginning, the end of glory in the beginning of tribulation; the end of salvation in the agony of Crucifixion; wherefore He uttered, “Thy will be done, not mine.”

That is the meaning of Bahá’u’lláh’s saying that in the Valley of Knowledge the wayfarer sees the end in the beginning, peace in war, justice in injustice. Bahá’u’lláh also gives another illustration in explaining this point. It is as follows:

A lover separated from his beloved had become so grieved that he considered life a continuance of his agony, and in a state of insanity rushed out of the house during the late hours of the night. It is the custom of the East, that when the night watchmen see a man abroad at a late hour they stop and question him, and if he has no plausible pretext for being out they place him under arrest. So the watchmen, seeing this man running into the market place, hailed him. He was frightened and ran on; they followed, and while he was running away from them, he was saying to himself, “Oh God, are these men the very satan who desires to deprive me of my life? I have not done them any wrong. Oh God, bring destruction upon them.” And he continued running, with the guards at his heels, until he found himself face to face with a high wall; with great difficulty he scaled the wall and when he reached the top he threw himself down on the other side, where he found himself in a garden and saw his beloved approaching with a light in her hand. She came to him and solaced him. When he understood that the tribulation [Page 456] caused by the pursuing guards had led him to a happiness of which he had not dared to dream, he fell on his knees and thanked God, and begged forgiveness for the watchmen, saying that those guards were Angels of Life from Heaven who had brought him from the desert of remoteness to the goal of nearness.

The wayfarer who has traversed the Valley of Love and entered the Valley of Knowledge where he finds the God of Mercy, enters

THE VALLEY OF DIVINE UNITY

In this valley he finds all barriers gone, and like a drop, he joins himself with the Sea of Divine Unity. He has been, until then, a drop bound by restrictions; restrictions that threatened his very existence, which had been limited to the consciousness of self. In the Valley of Knowledge he has found the highest wisdom to be in resigning oneself to the Will and Purpose of God. He then joins the sea of Divine Unity. In that state of ecstasy he enters

THE VALLEY OF DIVINE CONTENTMENT

In that state he sees nothing further in the world worthy to be sought. He feels himself in the Presence of God, Who is all in all. Hence that contentment is the greatest state.

The very highest, the very loftiest station, is attainment to the Valley of Divine Unity, one of the fruits of which is entrance into the Valley of Contentment. In that state the wayfarer may feel the need of expressing his appreciation of that lofty station. There is only one language by which to express that state, and that is the language of wonderment and astonishment. Hence, from the Valley of Contentment the wayfarer enters

THE VALLEY OF WONDERMENT

‘Alí, the successor of Muhammád, explains this state thus: “Oh Lord! Increase my astonishment at Thee.” From the Valley of Wonderment the wayfarer enters into

THE VALLEY OF ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS AND POVERTY

What is absolute poverty? It is that state which abnegates all else save God. In that state Muhammád said, “Poverty is my glory.” In that state Jesus said that even the birds of the air have nests and the beasts of the field have dens, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His Head. It is that poverty which is beyond all the wealth that one could imagine; that state of mind wherein man ceases to see anything except God; when all things are shadow, and God alone is reality.

It is related that a faithful follower of the Prophet came into the presence of one of the Holy Imáms and said, “Oh son of the Prophet of God! I am in need, I have no means of livelihood, I am in agony, I do not know how to bear this poverty without help. Wilt thou intercede with God to grant me succor?” The Holy Imám answered: “I do not believe that thou art as poor as thou sayest.” And the man said, “Oh son of the Prophet of God! dost thou jest with me? Dost thou mock me? Dost thou not see how haggard, how destitute, how pitiful I am? Wherefore, instead of helping me, dost thou disbelieve me when I say I am poor?” Then the Imám said, “Well, I shall [Page 457] prove it. Dost thou love God?” “Why, certainly I love God.” “Dost thou love the Prophet of God?” “I certainly love the Prophet of God.” “Dost thou respect the truth of the Word of God? Art thou willing to exchange thy love for God and the Prophet and His truth for all the wealth in the world?” “I shall not exchange them for all the wealth in the world.” Then the Imám said, “How can one be poor who is possessed of a treasure which he is not willing to exchange for all the wealth in the world?”

This is that state of absolute nothingness and absolute poverty in all things save God; it is poverty in material things, which is the greatest wealth on earth. And this is the last of the Seven Stages or Seven Valleys of man’s Journey toward the Divine Goal.

Bahá’u’lláh states in conclusion that a journey of such length was the task of the mystic seeker during the past, which was the nightfall of the world. At that time the light of the stars guided the mystic seekers after truth. The ways of the past are no longer needed in this new day for today the Sun of Truth has risen again, and its rays have illuminated the world, and the Divine Reality is manifest. Today the long journey of the mystics of the past can be achieved in the twinkling of an eye, through belief in the Manifestation of the Glory of God. For, once a clear mirror is turned towards the sun, the reflection of the light is instantaneous; and once a crystal is exposed to the sun’s rays the generation of fire is immediate.

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THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

By GARRETA BUSEY

THESE worms devour us, though we are not dead:

Cold ashes on the hearth, the unwashed cup,

And malice lingering over crumbs of bread

To lick with slanderous tongue our moments up.

Each day we are devoured, each day restored

By Love, who lights the fire and fills the bowl.

Love gives us time, He who is time’s lord,

And, flooding us with sunshine, makes us whole.

[Page 458]

BEYOND THE FOG

By ROSEMARY SALA

“HOW long will humanity persist in its waywardness. How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing.”

This cry uttered by Bahá’u’lláh over seventy years ago, is not yet stilled but echoes with increasing intensity as humanity is drawn into deeper and darker caverns. Especially is it the cry of youth. Born in the twentieth century, heir to the mortgaged ills of the nineteenth, with the quick acceleration of their compound interest added, youth has found the soil in which he has been planted to be a thin deceptive top-soil, too soon eroded, dried up by the growing perversion of human conduct, swept away by the torrential streams of corrupted institutions. There seems only barren rock to which his roots must cling and only the blunted weapons of leaden spirits and dulled minds with which to carve a future stilled against the natural flow of evolution by the unyielding weight of the hates and fears, greeds and prejudices of mankind. These forces are cemented as a dam behind which surges the dangerously rising tide of youth’s unused capacities, frustrated in their natural flow into society.

Beyond the fog of youth’s present bewilderment, the utter harshness of its outlines as yet hidden from him, stands the world here pictured: “The whole world offers us the sad and pitiful spectacle of a vast, an enfeebled, and moribund organism, which is being torn politically and strangulated economically by forces it has ceased to either control or comprehend. The Great Depression, the aftermath of the severest ordeal humanity had ever experienced, the disintegration of the Versailles system, the recrudescence of militarism in its most menacing aspects, the failure of vast experiments and new born institutions to safeguard the peace and tranquillity of peoples, classes, and nations, have bitterly disillusioned [Page 459] humanity and prostrated its spirits. . . . It is hovering, unshepherded and visionless, on the brinks of disaster.” Entombed within, youth finds these dark forces his only heritage. But he is heir to more than these. Within this womb the product of man’s mind, moved through the centuries so tortuously yet inexorably by the eternal spirit of progression against the swollen currents of man’s passions, is slowly ripening. The harvesting and garnering belong to this generation and posterity. Science is on one hand shrinking units of distance, and on the other expanding units of thought. The former is abolishing the conception of exclusiveness maintained and engendered by distance, the latter, embodying the principle of unity, is freeing man’s mind from the localized prejudices of a Lilliputian world and is seeking to develop a mind like the unending infinity of space where universal concepts may be bred and fostered. Caught in the sudden swing of this transition, in its refusal to adjust its social groups to the expansion of this universal consciousness, the world has lost its equilibrium.

In the light of this added knowledge, youth now sees the old conception of national, racial, political and religious bonds as final steps in man’s collective life, as out of focus to this age, anachronisms to its spirit. He is learning through the horror of example, of the insanity of the present world-wide sweep of nationalism and intense racial feeling, boiling over in selfish pride beyond their legitimate boundaries, of the tragic change of character, loss of reason, release of passion induced by the prejudices of a strictly nationalistic, militaristic education. The varying political and religious bonds, like running roots, have contributed in the past to a wider loyalty by linking people of similar thought in different countries. Yet ultimately their existing forms must fail to satisfy youth in his search for world unity. For labor and capital, white and colored, Jew, Christian or Muhammadan can only maintain their individual loyalties by feeding on the poisons secreted in their mutual sense of superiority over and hate or distrust of each other.

IN the reports of Youth Congresses is found a sincere attempt at applying this new understanding in their discussion of common problems, in their eager enthusiasm to cooperate with and contribute to one another’s suggestions, in their realization of the limited horizons of prejudice and their efforts to minimize its effects and in their deep distrust and awareness of the pernicious influence of propaganda. But even in this thinking group lies the danger latent in all groups, no matter how deeply aware of a quickened evolution, which attempt within themselves alone, to effect a change in society. The strange and unfamiliar chemistry of this spirit of universality, when forced into the limited measure of any one group, may settle into the dregs of a rigidly fanatical dictatorship, or explode into the fires of revolution and war. Its mysterious properties are not yet thoroughly analyzed or understood, so its proper application to fit the varying stages of the [Page 460] world’s sickness is impossible and results in retarding or too quickly advancing its evolution.

As a river is molded by, yet imperceptibly molds its course, deepening its bed, widening its banks, so the ageless course of evolution, the “mysterious forces of civilization,” directs yet sets, the tempo of its flow to meet the ever-changing development of man. Revolution, impelled by the pressing weight of restricted capacities, churned to a frenzy by the undertows of retrogression, pours in a terrific stream to tear down and rend apart a civilization its energies are primarily gathered to feed without the simultaneous deepening of human capacities and widening of human horizons, differing political and religious creeds, once safe anchorages in this evolutionary stream, are now conflicting cross-currents, each setting a different tempo in its flow to whirl humanity into their foaming vortex.

AS surely as seeds in the earth respond to sun and rain, so does youth, consciously or unconsciously, respond to the universal spirit of today. Unlike the seeds, he has not yet been planted, but is tossed by the restless winds of his desires seeking the fixed point of that new spirit, the center of gravity, whose magnetism can draw and eternally hold him to itself.

Bahá’í youth, emerging from the doubts and fears, miseries and perplexities enmeshing millions of their fellows, find in the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh the only power which can compass their direction. This Order, sweeping into its mighty orbit all the scattered fragments of man’s highest aspirations through the ages, was envisaged and its fundamental laws governing both the individual and society were delineated over seventy years ago. Its principles spread and elaborated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His travels throughout Europe and the North American continent; its essential and primary verities sustained and protected from conflicting interpretations by an appointed Guardian. It moves on the fulcrum of the oneness of mankind, a conception which begins with the knowledge of our oneness spiritually, then as science advances, biologically, continues to grow in the spreading consciousness of a world community.

The principle of collective security tentatively realized in the League of Nations, the Disarmament and Economic Conferences, the abortive changes of governmental policies, the Esperanto, racial amity and other conventions representing facets of new thought are but isolated efforts faintly shadowing but never obtaining the substance of reality of the future world. No matter how often or how earnestly man strives to graft the framework of this Plan as a growing branch to the rotting tree of civilization, he is doomed to failure. Even though its principles and institutions be combined and assembled by devoted statesmen, its form outwardly a perfect replica, still it would be lifeless. The fusing grace, vested in Bahá’u’lláh, as the Author of a Divine Plan, is lacking. For it is from the secret springs of a new Religious Revelation that this world-embracing [Page 461] plan has been projected. In the light of Bahá’u’lláh’s word Religion is seen, not as warring factors cramped and paralyzed by creeds, but as the highest mountain-peaks attained by man, individually or socially, in the one vast continuous panorama of the ages. In the words of Shoghi Effendi the present Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith: “All other religions are regarded in no other light except as different stages in the eternal history and constant evolution of one religion.” It maintains that religious truth is unfolded as the bud unfolds from the seed, the flower from the bud and the fruit from the flower. At each point in this unfoldment the former identity in fading becomes the matrix for its future form. Existing established religions, through the vast accumulation of man-made creeds, have lost their highest point of perfection to become the womb where its new form was shaped and to which Bahá’u’lláh has already given birth. In His Administrative Order the downward flow of the Divine Will and the upward urge of the highest efforts of humanity meet and blend. The Divine Power flows in an uninterrupted stream from Bahá’u’lláh to His Son and Exemplar, then on through the succeeding Guardians, who insure the purity and flexibility of the teachings, while the upward reach of man rises through the local, national and International Houses of Justice. At the meeting of the Guardianship and the International House of Justice, perfect fusion between the Divine Will and human effect takes place.

Within the unknown heights and depths of this new World Order— bounded yet boundless—Bahá’ís are enclosed. As the scientist seeks to bring the mysteries of the universe within the range and compass of his telescope yet strives to enlarge to his vision the hidden universes of the atom, so Bahá’u’lláh unfolds in man this dual consciousness of the two universes of the individual and society. As his feet bind him by the force of gravity to their resting place, chains made so light and flexible a bondage by modern means of transportation, so a Bahá’í, as a member of society, is attracted, bound and united as the rainbow rays are in light within the magnetic center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Administrative structure. While as an individual, held in perfect balance by obedience to its divinely ordained laws, all his faculties coordinated in service to its purpose, illumined by contact with its source, he can freely send forth his spirit on its unceasing and never-ending search for the undiscovered worlds within and around him.

Bahá’í youth, merged in indivisible unity with all Bahá’ís through the divine and fusive grace of the love of God, see this world of the future already shaping itself in every continent and country on this planet. They strive for its ultimate goal when the individual, the community, the nation and the world—like the proton in the atom, the atoms in the earth, the earth around its axis and then its orbit around the sun—shall revolve with the ordered precision of a planetary system around the sun of Bahá’u’lláh’s Word.

[Page 462]

A STUDY OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION

I. THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH

By G. A. SHOOK

WHEN we turn back to the early church we should remember that the race, as the individual, learns by experience. The early church rejected science and paid a very heavy price but humanity learned a lesson —the world will never accept a faith that cannot reconcile religion without science. It also made an unwarranted distinction between secular and spiritual, but the generality of mankind will never be attracted again to a religion that makes this distinction.

The real educators of the world of humanity, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells us, are the prophets. They regenerate the individual and also revive civilization, through a visible society. These are historical facts which are confirmed by every great religion of the past, like Islam or Christianity. Sometimes the emphasis is on individual development, as in Christianity. Christ’s message was primarily spiritual and the visible society He created built its organization upon administrative principles which it found in the church or state that fostered its growth. The organization in the first church at Jerusalem had elements that were common to any Jewish synagogue, while the church at Rome borrowed liberally from the Roman government. Islam, on the other hand, brought to the world administrative ordinances as well as spiritual principles.

But when we turn to church history in an endeavor to discover some kind of sanction for church government we find a wealth of tradition but few historical facts. Christ left no written record, and the first Gospel, Mark, was not written until the primitive church was established. That is, a board of presbyters existed twenty years before Mark was written. The Acts of the Apostles, which is a record of the early church, appeared about 85 A.D.

Christ’s message to the world, [Page 463] therefore, came to us through the Apostles. We have no record, no Book, aside from the work of the Apostolate. Nevertheless it is apparent from these early records that the primitive church realized several fundamental truths upon which every efficient religious organization must rest. First it realized that in some way the power of the Holy Spirit, the sense of Christ’s presence, had to be transmitted, but through reliable channels. To illustrate, we learn from the Acts that in the primitive church there were apostles, teachers and the so-called “prophets” whose utterances were divinely inspired. But in the second century the gift of prophecy raised more problems than it solved, for there were also “false” prophets, wandering prophets, whose guidance could not be trusted and it was necessary to protect the church from these imposters or misguided neurotics. Consequently we find in the “Didache” or “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” an injunction regarding the false prophet which is really a supplement to Christ’s instruction to the Twelve. In sending out the Twelve upon a teaching tour He said, “and into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide until ye go thence.” (Matt. X. II) In the “Didache” we read, “But concerning the apostles and prophets, so do ye according to the ordinance of the Gospel. Let every apostle when he cometh to you be received as the Lord; but he shall not abide more than a single day, or if there be need a second; but if he abides three days he is a false prophet.” It realized, moreover, that the spiritual principles He taught had to be guarded and protected. The message was spread, not only by the Apostles, but by pilgrims, Jews of the Dispersion who came to Jerusalem from all parts of the world. Naturally they would not all agree in their reports about the fulfillment of the “hope of Israel.” That is, the Apostles soon discovered that as the church progressed there would be many questions for which they could not find an explicit answer in the words of Christ, and they knew that if they were loyal to their responsibilities and obligations, they could not leave the transmission of spiritual gifts and the solution of new problems to any group selected at random. Therefore the early church tried to establish some kind of authority or sanction for its procedure. The Apostolic Church thought in terms of Christ for Christ chose twelve apostles and taught them. In the formative period the church thought in terms of the Apostolic Church. This was inevitable—in fact we cannot go back of the Apostolate, even today, for Christ left no written record.

In the beginning there was probably no uniformity either in organization or doctrine, but it did little harm for as Streeter points out the first Christians looked upon themselves, not as a new society, but as the “remnant of Israel.” As the “Israel of God” they were all united for they and they alone had recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Organization was not important, the only important thing was membership in the Ecclesia, the “congregation of Israel” [Page 464] and when they were baptized in the name of the Lord they became part of this remnant, part of the ancient “People of God.” To some this divine society was identified with the mystical body of Christ and this idea was renewed continuously by the Eucharist. But divisions soon appeared as we shall see.

In the past every religious organization has been more or less concerned with two fundamental factors —ritual and the ministry. If the administration is of divine origin then the sacraments become imperative, as in the case of Catholicism. That is, if there is a ritual and a ministry, (claiming a divine succession) to administer the ritual then it becomes indispensable. If however, as in the case of most evangelical churches, no claim is made to a divine succession then the sacraments (ritual) have very little significance. In time the church at Rome declared that there was no salvation outside the church and that divine grace could come only through the sacraments. The sacraments had to be administered by a priest (or bishop) who was ordained by a bishop whose ordination could be traced back to the Apostolic Church.

Should we eliminate the Apostolic Succession no great claim could be made for the sacraments and the exclusive right of the church in the matter of salvation. Could the church turn to specific and unequivocal utterances of Christ regarding the future administration of His church, or to definite and authoritative statements concerning some kind of succession, its position would be unassailable. In the early centuries it could not point to clear and emphatic injunctions in the Gospels that would justify church Councils in interpreting His word or adding to His Revelation. As a result the church Fathers were not able to preserve any unity in Christendom, against the destructive forces of controversy and dissension. This does not mean that the church had no justification whatever for its authority but it does mean that there was nothing in the Gospel that would protect it against the forces of schism.

On the other hand, should we eliminate the sacraments and retain the doctrine of divine succession we would still have a powerful instrument for unity. While ritual will continue to hold a place in religion it seems unlikely that in the future, it will be considered indispensible to salvation. In the past every religious system has associated a certain type of ritual (like the seven sacraments) with Divine Grace but it is highly probable that we have outgrown this type of ritual and its attending priesthood —they are part of a primitive religion and have no place in a mature world. We are still dependent, however, for our individual and social development upon some superhuman power. In the past this resuscitating force has been brought to humanity by a Prophet, but with His passing humanity has invariably reverted to primitive practices, neglecting the reality of religion. Today the world is more mature—ritual and priesthood can be replaced by some more adequate medium of divine inspiration.

[Page 465] WHEN Protestantism rejected the Apostolic Succession it had nothing to hold the church together for there was no court to whom it could appeal in the matter of legitimacy. It did retain, to be sure, some of the sacraments but they merely served to link the new church with the old. Ritual is not a very effective bond without some divine sanction. The inevitable happened: Protestantism lost its unity for it could not establish anything comparable to the Episcopate and it could not make a fresh start— it had only old wine.

After all, the Reformation merely demonstrated the condition of organized Christianity for we must remember that in addition to the Roman church there was a Greek, a Coptic and a Nestorian Church.

Islam was a little more fortunate for Muhammad did appoint His successor verbally but it was finally dismembered like Christianity.

It is only natural that the Apostolic church should establish some kind of organization for protection and to transmit divine power. Organization is always necessary, to produce unity of thought, to ward off misunderstandings, and to establish a spiritual fellowship.

The early church did not succeed, however, in overcoming diversities. Streeter maintains that, “The history of Catholic Christianity during the first five centuries is the history of a progressive standardization of a diversity which had its origin in the Apostolic age.” But the standardization never answered, for all time, such questions as:—Did Christ establish a visible church? Is the ordination of the ministry divine or human? Is the ministry different in kind? Do the officers of the church have special privileges?

In the past, three views have been held.

1. Christ founded a new religion but He did not establish a church.

2. Christ established a church and a divine administration. The Episcopate has a divine origin. The church was not created by man, it has the authority of Christ.

3. Christ founded a church, a visible society, but no organization. Church administration developed as external conditions demanded. Church officers are representatives—not different in kind.

The first theory, the naturalistic, assumes that a perfect society is merely an aggregation of well behaved individuals. It is the position taken by most mystics, ancient and modern. The second view, the sacerdotal, affirms that divine administration is essential to church validity. There must be some authority and the authority of the church is in the apostolic office which has passed on from bishop to bishop. The High Church in Anglicanism rejects Rome but holds to the Episcopate. It maintains that the bishops belong to an ancient line whose authority goes back to the Apostolate. The great wisdom in this doctrine must not be overlooked. Its significance was overshadowed by the Reformation but it is still a fundamental theory of church organization.

The third position is intermediate. The Apostles were not divinely appointed but since they were with [Page 466] Christ and taught by Him we cannot go back of them; their position is unique. The authority within the church does not rest upon a divine commission transmitted in a material line of descent and confined to a class but is vested in the people who are led by the Spirit.

There is truth in all these views but not the whole truth in any one.

Since we have no authoritative interpretation of Christ’s word they can be and were interpreted to suit each emergency. How else could we have a plurality of sects within Christendom each claiming to represent the true spirit of Christ?

The reformers did not object seriously to the Episcopate as an office exercising supervision over the churches but they did not believe that it had divine support from apostolic lines. They would have accepted it as a product of church development. What they did object to, and in no uncertain terms, was the validity of the Episcopate—the assumptions of the bishops. Melanchthon would have accepted the papacy could it have been regarded as an office created by the people rather than the Apostolate. The Reformers desired to free the church from form and that was commendable but unwittingly they also freed it from any kind of divine sanction.

In all this struggle, back of all the religious warfare and corruption do we not see a sincere desire for some kind of divine authority? Have not the idealists of every age longed for a more direct knowledge of God?

We should not hastily condemn the underlying principle of the Episcopate or the Imamate upon the grounds that we have insufficient evidence for their divine origin. This would be like condemning chemistry because it is the outgrowth of alchemy which had, generally speaking, no scientific basis. It is true that the Episcopate was not a perfect form of church administration and that its validity was seriously questioned but it is equally true that it had some justification and that, although imperfect, it was a powerful instrument for unity.

While there are many causes that determined the kind of administration that actually existed it is highly probable that the church at Rome in the second century invested the bishop with unprecedented power and authority primarily to avoid divisions. But just as autocracy represents a stage in political development may we not regard the Episcopate as a step toward a more perfect form of church organization?

The most singular fact about the early church is the firm belief that its organization rested upon some kind of sanction from Christ or the Apostles. This is not disputable. The exact form the administration took is not so important perhaps, as the administration itself. To be sure it based its authority upon succession but had outward circumstances been more favorable it might have stressed the hereditary principle. An Institution like the Caliphate or Imamate within Christendom seems fanciful, nevertheless the first bishop of Jerusalem, James the Just, was a brother of the Christ and according to [Page 467] the Palestinian tradition James was appointed by Christ Himself. After the first destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) the Jewish church turned to Simeon the nephew of James. This was only natural for as Streeter says, “And to the Jew both monarchy and priesthood were offices essentially hereditary in a sacred house. The Jewish Christians, then, would take it for granted that the most prominent male relation of Jesus was marked out to be His Vicegerent by Divine right, until He came again. Anything else would have seemed in the last degree unnatural.” But the Jewish nation rejected Christ and with the spread of Gentile Christianity apparently the hereditary principle was lost.

IN our endeavor to prove that the solution of any problem may be found implicit in some one of the past religions we may miss the point of progressive revelation. Christ’s message was suited to a world which knew practically nothing of the benefits of modern science. It was not ready to abolish war, to eliminate prejudices of all kinds, nor to reconcile science and religion. In this world, ritual and priesthood were to continue for many centuries. But the rights of the individual, spiritual and social, were recognized in this early church as never before.

Islam was not antagonistic to science. It not only restored the contributions of the Greek philosophers but made many valuable additions thereby laying the foundation for modern science. Indeed it was the rise of Islam, and not some latent revivifying force within Christendom, that produced the awakening in Europe that led ultimately to the Renaissance and the Reformation.

While the Primitive Church seems very remote from our modern world it was nearer to the source of Christianity than we are and undoubtedly it understood its own problems. A little study of its history, therefore, may reveal what it considered essential to Church Order.

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FROM these facts and premises we may conclude that the establishing of the divine religions is for peace, not for war and the shedding of blood. Inasmuch as all are founded upon one reality which is love and unity, the wars and dissensions which have characterized the history of religion have been due to imitations and superstitions which arise afterward. Religion is reality and reality is one. The fundamentals of the religion of God are therefore one in reality. There is neither difference nor change in the fundamentals. Variance is caused by blind imitations, prejudices and adherence to forms which appear later, and inasmuch as these differ, discord and strife result. If the religions of the world would foresake these causes of difficulty and seek the fundamentals, all would agree, and strife and dissension would pass away; for religion and reality are one and not multiple. —‘Abdu’l-Bahá

[Page 468]

THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

By MARY COLLISON

II. THE NATURE OF BAHÁ’Í ADMINISTRATION

“IT should be remembered by every follower of the Cause that the system of Bahá’í administration is not an innovation imposed arbitrarily upon the Bahá’ís of the world since the Master’s passing.” “This Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá’u’lláh has Himself revealed its principles, established its institutions, appointed the person to interpret His Word and conferred the necessary authority on the body designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its strength, its fundamental distinction, and the guarantee against disintegration and schism. Nowhere in the sacred scriptures of any of the world’s religious systems do we find any provisions establishing a covenant or providing for an administrative order that can compare in scope and authority with those that lie at the very basis of the Bahá’í Dispensation.”

Lest, however, we put too much emphasis on the details of organization and forget the underlying purpose, Shoghi Effendi warns: “. . . the administration of the Cause is to be conceived as an instrument and not a substitute for the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, it should be regarded as a channel through which His promised blessings may flow, it should guard against such rigidity as would clog and fetter the liberating forces released by His Revelation. . . It is surely for those to whose hands so priceless a heritage has been committed to prayerfully watch lest the tool should supersede the Faith itself, lest undue concern for the minute details arising from the administration of the Cause obscure the vision of its promoters. . .”

“This instrument of the Bahá’í Faith is a system of government differing fundamentally from current governmental forms as well as from ecclesiastical systems. In the first place, it is divinely conceived; and in [Page 469] the second place, it follows no political pattern, neither democracy, constitutional monarchy nor autocracy.

According to the Guardian, “This new-born Administrative Order incorporates within its structure certain elements which are to be found in each of the three recognized forms of secular government, without being in any sense a mere replica of any one of them, and without introducing within its machinery any of the objectionable features which they inherently possess. It blends and harmonizes, as no government fashioned by mortal hands has as yet accomplished, the salutary truths which each of these systems undoubtedly contains without vitiating the integrity of those God-given verities on which it is ultimately founded.”

Democracy—elected representatives not responsible to their electorate but to their own consciences.

Constitutional Monarchy—Guardian symbolizes hereditary principle but is no mere figurehead since he has authority to interpret the Words of Bahá’u’lláh.

Autocracy (either secular or ecclesiastical)—

1. Exclusive right of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in Bahá’í writings is conferred upon the international elected representatives of followers of Bahá’u’lláh. Not even the Guardian can usurp this right.

2. Election of Houses of Justice by universal suffrage.

3. No professional priesthood with autocratic powers.

4. Total absence of episcopal authority with its resulting “privileges, corruptions and bureaucratic tendencies.”

Aristocratic Government—Although it upholds hereditary principle, its highest legislative organ (Universal House of Justice) is formed through free election from among the entire body of believers.

Another unique feature of Bahá’í Administration is the spirit and method of conducting elections—no nominations, no electioneering, no encouragement to personal ambition. Every effort is made to discourage the personal, partisan attitude and to encourage the searching out of qualities that the voter conscientiously believes to be valuable to the welfare of the Cause. Moreover, in the case of the Assemblies, while it is individuals who are voted for, it is an institution that is elected.

Another distinguishing characteristic of Bahá’í Administration is its dependence on consultation, the technique of the new world order. The characteristics of Bahá’í consultation are:

1. Love and harmony among members of the consulting body.

2. Detached from personal opinions and desires and united in devotion to God and a desire to serve His Cause.

3. Each should express his own ideas even though a majority seems to differ.

4. The sincere desire for a group rather than an individual solution. [Page 470]

5. Complete obedience to and hearty cooperation with the decision of the majority.

In general, consultation is conference raised to a spiritual plane. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “The prime requisites for them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrances, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and long-suffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted Threshold.”

Many are familiar with these words but too often fail to reflect the spirit that is essential to a satisfactory solution. Our greatest difficulty lies in the inability of most to be impersonal in their spiritual relations. One must learn to get completely outside every question and situation. Not only should one divorce it from his own ego but from the personalities of others concerned. Yet this is tremendously difficult, for so long as one individual remains personally sensitive, he prevents all his co-workers from being really impersonal and thinking only of the welfare of the Faith.

In January, 1935, a letter from the American Bahá’í Assembly contains these words: “We have accepted the Teachings which ordain an end to war, to strife, to separation, to ignorance, and prejudice. These Teachings set each believer upon the path which when followed faithfully to the end transmute selfishness into selflessness and endow him with capacity to express the new law of the oneness of mankind. But that path is no longer the path of solitary experience and individual attainment alone. . . . The step of supreme sacrifice is to abandon the old right of private conscience (and, I should add, personal feelings) for the sake of the new reality of oneness and consultation.”

THESE, then, are a few of the unique features of the new Administrative Order: its divine origin, its hitherto unknown form of government, its method of election, and its technique of consultation.

Let us point out in conclusion that arresting as have been the accomplishments of this unique administrative order, its past achievements dwindle to insignificance in comparison with what it is destined to become in the future.

“The principle of the Oneness of Mankind—the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve —is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope. . . . It does not constitute merely the enunciation of an ideal, but stands inseparably associated with an institution adequate to embody its truth, demonstrate its validity, and perpetuate its influence. It implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. . . . It represents the consummation of human evolution.”

“It is toward this goal—the goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features—that a harassed humanity must strive.”

[Page 471]

MODERN TENDENCIES IN WORLD RELIGIONS

By NEVIN C. HARNER

THERE are eleven living religions in the civilized world today. Of these, Christianity and Judaism are so well-known to us that they may be omitted from consideration. Four more are relatively unimportant in point of influence; namely, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Taoism. (Only the word “relatively” preserves the truth of this statement because the last-named numbers 40,000,000 adherents.) This leaves five for our consideration—Hinduism, Buddhism, Muhammdanism, Confucianism, and Shinto.

Within the scope of this paper it will be possible only to indicate the outstanding developments in each of these five religions, and offer several generalizations in conclusion.

I. HINDUISM

Hinduism is an elastic term covering widely diverse religious manifestations in present-day India, ranging all the way from gross polytheism to highly refined philosophical speculation. It has grown through several milleniums, gathering up into itself all the religious ideas and practices that a highly religious people could produce. What is happening in Hinduism today? The easiest answer would be, “Just about what is happening in Christianity today.” There is a fundamentalist movement of a sort. In 1875 a religious movement called the Arya Samaj was founded whose platform is “back to the Vedas.” In these sacred writings which are at least 3,000 years old ingenious exegesis has discovered not only a religion and an ethic sufficient for modern life but also prophetic mention of aeroplanes, automobiles, and radio. From 1911 to 1921 the followers of this movement increased 90 per cent. It numbers about 500,000 adherents at present.

There is also a modernism of a sort. About a century ago a great seer founded a liberal movement called the Brahma Samaj. It has opposed idolatry, been strictly monotheistic, exalted impartially all great religious leaders of the earth, and appealed principally to the educated. Numerically, this movement has gained little headway.

[Page 472] To continue the parallel, there is a social gospel within Hinduism. Social reforms on behalf of the outcasts, the Hindu widows, and similar unprivileged groups are being undertaken right and left. Very frequently this social passion is given a religious ground by the Hindu. In doing so he is clearly reflecting the impact of Christianity, because a social gospel is the direct antithesis of the genius of Hinduism.

However, by far the most significant and most serious trend within Hinduism is a drift toward irreligion. India is the last place in the world where this would be anticipated, and yet evidence is not lacking that it is so. A recent lecturer in Chicago on the Haskell Foundation said, “The people who worship in the temples are not numerous today.” One interesting bit of evidence is that there has been considerable talk in Bombay of an association for abolishing the priest, “the middle man of religion.” And this in a land where the highest caste is the priestly! From 1911 to 1921 the number of Brahmin priests decreased by 50 per cent.

Why this alarming drift toward secularism among a people who have specialized in religion? It is not that modern science has come in conflict with Hinduism. The chief reason is the shift of interest from religion to politics. In India as in Germany, as in so many other places the chief deterrent to religion is the rising tide of nationalism. In India the two come into conflict along a wide front. For centuries one of the key-concepts of Hinduism has been Sannyasa, which implies a renunciation of the world and an ascetic disinterest in the goods of life and all worldly ambitions and schemes. But the modern Hindu has seen the vigorous go-getting West in action, and has had to contend with the same West. Now he is beginning to scorn Sannyasa, saying something more vigorous and realistic is required to cope with the problems of a new age. It will be a sad day for India and the world when she comes to the point where matter and force mean more to her than spirit and self-discipline.

II. BUDDHISM

Buddhism, too, has its fundamentalism and its modernism. For example, in Chinese Buddhism there is a movement led by a monk named Ing Kuang which opposes the social gospel of the Buddhist liberals and maintains stoutly that true Buddhism is concerned not with this world but with the other world to come. Also in Chinese Buddhism there is a Fosdick, T’ai Hsu by name. He is described as being “genteel and scholarly in appearance.” He holds that Buddhism alone is sufficient to cope with economic ills and war, because Buddhism alone brands the striving for things and the striving for self from which these two evils come as pure delusion and Buddhism alone teaches and practices human brotherhood consistently.

By all odds the most significant happening in Buddhism today is a great revival—in Japan chiefly. This revival has been brought about by the stimulus of a new rival in the field (Christianity), and by a wholesale adoption of Christian methods. A Japanese professor at Harvard writes: [Page 473] “The best result that Christian missionary work has had in Japan at least has been to give a new inspiration and stimulation to Buddhism and to revive it.”

Japanese Buddhism has taken over our Christian practice of preaching. The Shinshu sect alone has 2,000 preaching stations apart from its temples. Japanese Buddhism has taken over our Sunday School. Some of its representatives have studied at our best schools of Religious Education in this country. There are Buddhist Sunday School picnics and Teacher Training classes. There is a Buddhist Salvation Army, and Young Men’s and Young Women’s Buddhist Associations, Japanese Buddhism has taken over our evangelistic campaigns, and is making free use of modern inventions for propaganda purposes. We read with interest of radio broadcasts of the life of Buddha for children, and of aeroplanes dropping lotus petals made of paper. Japanese Buddhism is making much of philanthropy and of education. There are in Japan 211 institutions for educating and fostering children sponsored by the Buddhists. Tokyo has a Buddhist settlement house under the management of a Buddhist priest who studied social settlement work in the United States. In a country which already has the highest literacy rate in the world Japanese Buddhists have the beginnings of an educational system of their own ranging from about 100 Buddhist primary schools up to 10 Buddhist colleges, 4 universities, several theological schools and a college of music. Japanese Buddhism is making use of the printing-press. The 1931 yearbook reports 219 monthly and 23 weekly or ten-day Buddhist periodicals issued by 31 Buddhist publishing houses. Buddhism is becoming self-conscious. In 1925 a Far Eastern Buddhist Conference met in Tokyo with 1000 in attendance at its opening session. Considerable attention is given to the possibility of missionary efforts in Christian lands. A recent publication states: “A Buddhist missionary must first adopt and adapt all the good points of Christianity, and then proceed to criticize the errors of the Christian Church.” Figures of a comparatively late date indicate that there are now 36 Buddhist temples on our own Pacific Coast.

III. MUHAMMADANISM

Muhammadanism, or Islám, runs from Central Africa, across North Africa, Arabia, the Near East, Turkey, the Balkans, some of the Soviet States, Persia, India (where the largest Muslim community is), and into distant China. It is one of the great competitors of Christianity for the religious allegiance of the world, especially in Africa.

The Muslim culture is being shaken to its very foundations today by drastic social and political changes. Until the World War the Muslim world lived in semi-isolation, enjoying to the full a false sense of superiority. Then came the rude awakening of the War. Since then things have changed with almost lightning-like rapidity. An outstanding example is Turkey, which was for centuries the stronghold of Islám. Today every [Page 474] corner of her national life is being modernized, Westernized, and secularized. Furthermore, in 1924 the Caliphate (the Muslim equivalent of the Papacy), which had been the visible symbol of Muslim unity, was abolished. Since then the national units have gone their own way, bombarded constantly by Western ideas, Russian communism, and Christian missions. A discriminating writer (Professor Haydon) rightly suggests that these changes are by no means a matter of indifference to us of the West. “At present,” he says, “the Muslim world’s adoption of modern scientific thinking and the absorption of the Muslim world in the world of modern science is in full swing. We of the West will do well to recognize this fact now; else, perhaps, its recognition will be forced upon us later with a shock of surprise that may not be wholly agreeable.”

The resultant effect upon Islám is that it is losing its control over law, education, philanthropy, business, and the family. There are other minor developments or trends within Islam, but all are overshadowed by this basic one. One of the distinctive marks of Muslim culture has been its absolute domination by the Qur’án. But now the culture in Muslim lands is being rapidly secularized. Turkey has abandoned the Shari’a or religious legal code altogether. Because polygamy was not to be found in the Swiss legal code which it adopted, this too has been outlawed. Education is being taken out of the hands of the Mosque. Religious shrines of healing are giving way to hospitals. Modern business methods are prevailing over the ancient Muhammadan prohibition of usury. In short, Islám is rapidly being confined to the narrow realm of the well-being of the individual soul. Can any religion survive under such a delimitation?

IV. CONFUCIANISM

For 2500 years Confucianism has been the major indigenous faith of China, and now numbers some 250,000,000 adherents in China and elsewhere. Nevertheless, Confucianism has now fallen upon evil days. A professor in one of our American theological seminaries dramatically depicts the present status of Confucianism in the cryptic words: “Confucianism is dead. Long live Confucianism.” Hu Shih, the great Chinese leader and himself an atheist, has gone on record as agreeing with these words. The Great Altar of Heaven at Peking, where in days gone by the Emperor of all China used to offer solemn sacrifice, is now a picnic ground. (At the present moment this architectural treasure is being restored with a view of attracting more tourists.) Of 175 temples studied recently in the province of Chengtu only 3 were being used exclusively for worship.

Why this sad decline of an ancient faith? Again, the rising tide of nationalism furnishes at least part of the answer. In fact, in South China a veritable cult of Sun Yat Sen has arisen with pictures of him in the homes and periodic memorial services in schools and government offices. A complete answer would include the fact that the family system and [Page 475] ancestor-worship which are basic to Confucianism are slowly disintegrating, that there is a tremendous intellectual ferment in new China, and that the Chinese have had more than their share of contact with Communism and with western materialistic philosophy. At all events, the net result is a considerable body of opposition not only to Confucianism but to all religion. Until very recently the Ministry of Education observed strictly the policy of denying passports to students about to study abroad unless they promised to include no religious subjects in their curriculum.

V. SHINTO

Space permits us only to note two facts concerning the present status of this ancient faith of Japan. Both of them are of material concern to us of the West. On the one hand there have been recent attempts, some of them official, to revive Shinto. (To get the full significance of this we must recall that Shinto is a state-cult, a combination of patriotism and religion.) For example, an observer of the Coronation of the present Mikado saw in it “the occasion for the most thorough diffusion of State Shinto ideas and practices of recent years. We had hymns to the Emperor, prayers in all the schools of the Empire, facing Ise when the Emperor went into the sacred enclosure, all sorts of ceremonies at the state and local shrines, and tons of literature inspired and sent out by the government.” Alongside this testimony must be put an almost incredible pronouncement of one of the Shinto sects. “The imperial family of Japan is parent not only of her sixty millions but of all mankind on earth. . . . The League of Nations . . . can only attain its real objective by placing the imperial family at its head.” There is, then, in Japan something akin to the situation in Germany—an attempt to use religion as the tool of an all-absorbing nationalism.

The second fact is that in Japan as elsewhere there is widespread irreligion. A poll taken among the students of the University of Tokyo in the early 1920’s discovered 2,989 agnostics, 1,511 atheists, and only 118 Christians, Buddhists, and Shintoists combined.

CONCLUSION

This paper, which has perforce sacrificed both artistry of style and citation of sources in the attempt to keep within reasonable limits, may be concluded with several simply stated but far-reaching generalizations. (1) Change in religion is taking place all over the civilized world today at a tremendous rate of speed. (2) The changes taking place in the several world religions are remarkably alike. (3) The great enemy of any religion is not any other religion but irreligion.

[Page 476]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

By BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

WE have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we now know that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays. We are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from the ideal; and in so doing we are fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the establishment of a morally better world.—PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT.

The fundamentals of the whole economic question are divine in nature and are associated with the world of the heart and spirit.—‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ.

Civilization develops only where considerable numbers of men work together for common ends. Such unity is brought about, not so much by community of bare ideas as by community of the feelings by which ideas are “emotionalized” and become beliefs and motives. . . . The history of civilizations has been written from various points of view— political, geographical and climatic, economic—but while these factors are not to be ignored or underestimated, they are conditions and circumstances, which may explain peculiarities of particular civilizations, or their rise and fall, but do not account for civilization itself. . . . At all stages religion has contributed largely and effectively to this development.— GEORGE FOOT MOORE in Preface to book by J. H. Denison entitled “Emotion as the Basis of Civilization.”

The Great Being saith: O children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men.— BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

Modern Canutes who would hold back the tide of social change fail to realize that the rising tide springs from the fundamental yearnings of men for abundant living. If such persons refuse to be educated by ideas they may be educated by events.— BISHOP G. BROMLEY OXNAM.

In this cycle there will be an evolution in civilization unparalleled in the history of the world. The world of humanity has heretofore been in the stage of infancy; now it is approaching maturity.—‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ (spoken in 1912).

[Page 477]

INDEX

WORLD ORDER

Volume II, April, 1936—March, 1937

Titles

‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, by G. Townshend, 259

ACCEPTING OUR DESTINY, by Kenneth Christian, 302

ADULT EDUCATION AND SCHOLARSHIP, by Hans Kohn, 203

AGE OF ABUNDANCE, AN, EDITORIAL, by Stanwood Cobb, 201

AMERICA, A CALL TO, by Shahnaz Waite, 3

APOSTROPHE, POEM, by LeGarde S. Doughty, 66

ASSURANCE, by Dorothy Baker, 331

ATTITUDES OF SOCIAL GROUPS, INFLUENCES WHICH CHANGE THE, by Vladimir Karapetoff, 363

BÁB, THE, POEM, by Anna McClure Sholl, 128

BAHÁ’Í MOVEMENT, THE, AND MY EXPERIENCES, by Jan Rypka, 151

BAHÁ’Í YOUTH, POEM, by Diantha Crisp, 297

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, POEM, by Alice Simmons Cox, 234

BEYOND THE FOG, by Rosemary Sala, 458

BIOGRAPHY AND THE INTERNATIONAL MIND, by Caroline B. Richardson, 43

BLACK POET SINGS, A, POEM, by Millie B. Herrick, 209

BOOKS RECEIVED, 120

BOOK REVIEW, by Oscar Newfang, 278, 319

CHALICE OF PRAYER, POEM, by Alice Simmons Cox, 268

CHALLENGE, THE, POEM, by Olivia Kelsey, 349

CIVILIZATIONS ALSO DIE, Editorial, by Horace Holley, 401

CIVILIZING ELEMENT, THE, by Alice J. Robertson, 271

CIVIL STRIFE, EDITORIAL, by Horace Holley, 241

CHURCH ORGANIZAION, by G. A. Shook, 462

COMMUNITY LIFE, SOURCES OF, by Marion Holley, 71

DARE WE LEARN HOW TO LIVE? BOOK REVIEW, by William Inglis, 157

DARKNESS BEFORE DAWN: THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT, by Wallace J. Campbell, 131

DEATH, BELOVED, DO NOT FEAR, POEM, by Ruby Dunn MacCurdy, 94

DESIGN OF LIFE, by Ruby Lorraine Radford, 204

DIVINE PLAN, THE,—A CREATION, by G. A. Shook, 147

DIVINE PLAN, ELEMENTS OF THE, by G. A. Shook, 196

Divine Trust, A, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 267

EDUCATION FOR LIFE, by Harry Levi, 323

ETHICAL VALUES, RECOVERY OF, by John W. Kitching, 443

EVOLUTION, POEM, by Rose Noller, 400

FAITH: THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS, by Mamie L. Seto, 235

FATHER OF WATERS, THE, EDITORIAL, by Horace Holley, 81

FULFILMENT, POEM, by E. T. Hall, 170

GOD AND THE CREATURE, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 312

HOW LIKE THE SEA—MY SOUL, POEM, by Ruby Dunn MacCurdy, 143

H.R.H. PRINCESS OLGA OF JUGOSLAVIA, AN INTERVIEW, by Martha L, Root, 48

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 144

ILLUSTTRATIONS: Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, 39; H.R.H. Princess Olga of Jugoslavia, 48; Queen Marie of Rumania, 101; Dr. Jan Rypka, 153; President Eduard Benes, 176; Thomas G. Masaryk, 270; Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh, 292, 293; Paul Ligeti, 398; Eugen Relgis, 439.

INSTITUTIONALISM AND RELIGION, by Ruhi Afnán, 31

JUSTICE, THE BIRTH OF, by Rosa V. Winterburn, 344

LABORER, POEM, by Rose Noller, 110

LABOR, THE DIVINITY OF, POEM, by Howard Colby Ives, 15

LINKS OF AN ETERNAL CHAIN, EDITORIAL, by Stanwood Cobb, 281

LIVING, POEM, by Diantha Crisp, 359

LOOKING BACKWARD, by Marjory H. Stageman, 141

LOVE, THE CREATIVE PRINCIPLE, by Rosa V. Winterburn, 369, 421

MAN AND ANIMAL, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 91

MAN AS AN ORGANIC UNIT, by G. A. Shook, 67.

MAN, THE ORIGIN OF, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 63

MASARYK, T. G., AN INTERVIEW, by Martha L. Root, 269

MASTER CRAFTSMAN, THE, EDITORIAL, by Horace Holley, 1

MECHANISTIC PARADOX, THE, by Stanton A. Coblentz, 83

MIND AND SPIRIT, THE EXISTINCE OF, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 233

[Page 478]

MISSING LINK, THE, by David Hofman, 3l4

MONEY OFFERINGS IN RELIGION, by Mamie L. Seto, 191

MOUNTAINS AND GOD, OF THE, POEM, by Kate Warren Hayden, 320

MUHAMMADAN EMPIRE IN TRANSITION, THE HOLY, by Paul Simpson McElroy, 171, 228

NEED OF THE TIMES, THE, EDITORIAL, by Stanwood Cobb, 441

NEGRO, THE STUDY OF THE, by George Longe, 391

ONENESS OF HUMANITY, THE STEPS LEADING TO, by Ho Chien, 123

ORDER, FROM CHAOS TO, by Wilfrid C. Barton, 9

ORIGIN OF MAN, SPIRITUAL PROOFS OF THE, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 189

PATH TO GOD, THE, by Dorothy Baker, 111

PEACE, CREATE A POSITIVE, by Donald Fay Robinson, 403

PEACE OF GOD, POEM, by Millie B. Herrick, 368

PERMANENT PEACE, A PATH TO, BOOK REVIEW, by Raymond Frank Piper, 79

PHENOMENA OF LIFE, THE, BOOK REVIEW, by Charles Frink, 357

PRAYER, POEM, by Diantha Crisp, 406

PRESIDENT EDUARD BENES, AN INTERVIEW, by Martha L. Root, 177

QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA, AN INTERVIEW, by Martha L. Root, 99

QUICK AND THE DEAD, THE, POEM, by Garreta Busey, 457

RACE ENLIGHTENMENT, A GIFT TO, BOOK REVIEW, by Louis G. Gregory, 36

RELIGION AND LIFE, EDITORIAL, by Stanwood Cobb, 41

RELIGION, THE FULFILMENT OF, by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 25

RIVERS OF SLUMBER, THE, POEM, by Stanton A. Coblentz, 216

SEVEN VALLEYS, THE, by ‘Ali-Kuli Khan, 452

SEVERANCE AND SACRIFICE, by Mamie L. Seto, 57

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, edited by Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, 77, 118, 155, 200, 277, 318, 355, 394, 436, 476

SOCIETY AS AN ORGANIC UNIT, by G. A. Shook, 95

SOUTH AMERICA, A BAHÁ’Í JOURNEY, by L. A. and E. R. Mathews, 184, 221

SPECIES, MODIFICATION OF, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 17

SPIRIT FROM GOD, THE, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 434

SPIRITUAL MATURITY, EDITORIAL, by Horace Holley, 321

STATESMEN, TO THE, by The Committee for War-Prophylaxis, 129

SYNTHESIS, by David Hofman, 217

TEACHER, TO A, POEM, by Rose Noller, 438

TESTS: THEIR SPIRITUAL VALUE, by Mamie L. Seto, 104

TRUE ENTHUSIASMS, by Alfred E. Lunt, 407

UNITY IN FREEDOM, by Hussein Rabbani, 383

UNITY IN THE POLITICAL REALM, by Marion Holley, 339

UNITY IN RELIGION, by Dorothy Baker, 413

UNITY OF RACES, by Genevieve L. Coy, 447

UNITY, SEVEN CANDLES OF, SYMPOSIUM, 259, 305, 339, 384, 413, 447

UNITY OF THOUGHT IN WORLD UNDERTAKINGS, by N. F. Ward, 305

UNIVERSAL LOVE: ITS GOVERNING PRINCIPLE, by Mamie L. Seto, 19

WAY OUT OF CHAOS, THE, B00K REVIEW, by Martha L. Root, 398

WONDER OF IT!, THE, by C. P. L., 163

WORD OF GOD, THE, EDITORIAL, by Stanwood Cobb, 121

WORLD CIVILIAZTION, THE UNFOLDMENT OF, by Shoghi Effendi, 134, 179, 210, 255, 298, 335, 378

WORLD COMMUNITY, A. by George O. Latimer, 49

WORLD CONGRESS OF FAITHS, 1, by Helen Bishop; 11, by Florence E. Pinchon, 247

WORLD DESTINIES, NEW, by Stanwood Cobb, 361

WORLD ERA, ESTABLISHING A NEW, by Rosa V. Winterburn, 310

WORLD FAITH, A, SYMPOSIUM, 25, 49

WORLD FELLOWSHIP, BAHÁ’U’LLÁH’S GROUND PLAN OF, by G. Townshend, 283

WORLD IN MOTION, THE, EDITORIAL, by Horace Holley, 161

WORLD MOVEMENTS, THE CHIEF, BOOK REVIEW, by Martha L. Root, 439

WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, by Mary Collison, 430, 468

WORLD ORDER, THE NEW, POEM, by Howard Colby Ives, 139

WORLD PEACE, PUBLIC OPINION AND, by Hugh M. Woodward, 243

WORLD RELIGIONS, MODERN TENDENCIES IN, by Nevin C. Harner, 471

YOUTH LOOKS AHEAD, by Marguerite L. Reimer, 418

[Page 479]

Authors

‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, A Divine Trust, 267; God and the Creature, 312; Human Development, 144; The Difference Between Man and Animal, 91; The Origin of Man, 63; The Existence of Mind and Spirit, 233; Spiritual Proofs of the Origin of Man, 189; Modification of Species, 17; The Spirit from God, 434

AFNÁN, RUHI, Institutionalism and Religion, 31

BAKER, DOROTHY, Assurance, 331; The Path to God, 111; Unity in Religion, 413

BARTON, WILFRID C., From Chaos to Order, 9

BISHOP, HELEN, World Congress of Faiths, 247

BUSEY, GARRETA, The Quick and the Dead, 457

CAMPBELL, WALLACE J., Darkness Before Dawn, 131

CHIEN, HO, The Steps Leading to Oneness of Humanity, 123

CHRISTIAN, KENNETH, Accepting Our Destiny, 302

COBB, STANWOOD, Age of Abundance, 201; Links of An Eternal Chain, 281; The Need of the Times, 441; Religion and Life, 41; The Word of God, 121; New World Destinies, 361

COBLENTZ, STANTON A., The Mechanistic Paradox, 83; Rivers of Slumber, 216

COLLISON, MARY, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, 430, 468

COX, ALICE SIMMONS, Bahá’u’lláh, 234; Chalice of Prayer, 268

COY, GENEVIEVE L., Unity of Races, 447

CRISP, DIANTHA, Bahá’í Youth, 297; Living, 359; Prayer, 406

DOUGHTY, LEGARDE, S., Apostrophe, 66

FRINK, CHARLES, The Phenomena of Life, 357

GREGORY, LOUIS G., A Gift to Race Enlightenment, 36

HALL, E. T., Fulfilment, 170

HARNER, NEVIN C., Modern Tendencies in World Religions, 471

HAYDEN, KATE WARREN, Of the Mountains and God, 320

HERRICK, MILLIE B., A Black Poet Sings, 209; Peace of God, 368

HOFMAN, DAVID, The Missing Link, 314; Synthesis, 217

HOLLEY, HORACE, Civilizations Also Die, 401, Civil Strife, 241; The Father of Waters. 81; The Master Craftsman, 1; Spiritual Maturity, 321; The World in Motion, 161

HOLLEY, MARION, Sources of Community Life, 71; Unity in the Political Realm, 339

INGLIS, WILLIAM, Dare We Learn How to Live?, 157

IVES, HOWARD COLBY, The Divinity of Labor, 15; The New World Order, 139

KARAPETOFF, VLADIMIR, Influences Which Change the Attitude of Social Groups, 363

KELSEY, OLIVIA, The Challenge, 349

KHAN, ALI-KULI, The Seven Valleys, 452

KIRKPATRICK, BERTHA HYDE, The Fulfilment of Religion, 25; Signs of the Times, 77, 118, 155, 200, 277, 318, 355, 394, 436, 476

KITCHING, JOHN W., Recovery of Ethical Values, 443

KOHN, HANS, Adult Education and Scholarship, 203

LATIMER, GEORGE O., A World Community, 49

LEVI, HARRY, Education for Life, 323

LONGE, GEORGE, The Study of the Negro, 391

LUNT, ALFRED E., True Enthusiasms, 407

MACCURDY, RUBY DUNN, Do Not Fear Death, Beloved, 94; How Like the Sea —My Soul, 143

MCELROY, PAUL SIMPSON, The Holy Muhammadan Empire in Transition, 171, 228

MATHEWS, L. A. and E. R., South America, 184, 221

NEWFANG, OSCAR, Book Review, 278, 319

NOLLER, ROSE, Evolution, 400, Laborer, 110; To a Teacher, 438

PINCHON, FLORENCE E., World Congress of Faiths, 247

PIPER, RAYMOND FRANK, A Path to Permanent Peace, 79

RABBANI, HUSSEIN, Unity in Freedom, 383

RADFORD, RUBY LORRAINE, Design of Life, 294

REIMER, MARGUERITE L., Youth Looks Ahead, 418

RICHARDSON, CAROLINE B., Biography and the International Mind, 43

ROBERTSON, ALICE J., The Civilizing Element, 271

ROBINSON, DONALD FAY, Create a Positive Peace, 403

ROOT, MARTHA L., H.R.H. Princess Olga of Jugoslavia, 48; T. G. Masaryk, 269; President Eduard Benes, 177; Queen Marie of Rumania, 99; The Way Out of Chaos, 398; The Chief World Movements, 439

RYPKA, The Bahá’í Movement and My Experiences, 151

SALA, ROSEMARY, Beyond the Fog, 458

SETO, MAMIE L., Faith: The Impregnable Fortress, 235; Money Offerings in Religion, 191; Severance and Sacrifice, [Page 480] 57; Tests: Their Spiritual Value, 104; Universal Love, 19

SHOGHI EFFENDI, The Unfoldment of World Civilization, 134, 179, 210, 255, 298, 335, 378

SHOLL, ANN MCCLURE, The Báb, 128

SHOOK, G. A., Church Organization, 462; The Divine Plan—A Creation, 147; Elements of the Divine Plan, 196; Man as an Organic Unit, 67; Society as an Organic Unit, 95

STAGEMAN, MARJORY H., Looking Backward, 141

TOWNSHEND, G., ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 259; The Wonder of It!, 163; Bahá’u’lláh’s Ground Plan of World Fellowship, 283

WAITE, SHAHNAZ, A Call to America, 3

WARD, N. F., Unity of Thought in World Undertakings, 305

WINTERBURN, ROSA V., The Birth of Justice, 344; Love, The Creative Principle, 369, 421; Establishing a New World Era, 310

WOODWARD, HUGH M., Public Opinion and World Peace, 243

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