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[Page 41]

WORLD ORDER

MAY 1936

NUMBER 2 VOLUME 2

RELIGION AND LIFE

EDITORIAL

THE purpose of religion is to refine the ego; to harmonize and ameliorate human relations; to bring kindness, patience, sympathy and integrity into all our dealings with our fellowmen. Religion at its best accomplishes this, and in a perfectly wholesome and normal way. Such fruits of the spirit may be taken as evidence of true religion, and their lack as evidence of the lack of religion.

Religion in this sense is consonant with virility. In fact, it takes a real man to face the faults of his personality, the weaknesses of his character, and set to work, through prayer and aspiration, to remedy these defects.

It is a pity that religion should be in disfavor with the male sex, who in this materialistic and practical age conceive it to be an effeminate fancy, and pious performance suitable only to children, women and old men.

This is unfortunate, for the sake both of religion and of the men themselves. It is doubly unfortunate because so untrue. The history of religion will show that the noblest lives have owed their inspiration and support to the voice of Heaven; and that men of the utmost masculinity and valorous virtue have, under the inspiration of religion, achieved incredibly heroic deeds and forged new ways to progress.

Those are wrong who conceive religion to be merely a consolation in misfortune, a way of escape from life, or a magic means of attaining one’s desires. Religion is many sided. It has these values, indeed. But such values, in proportion to the constructive values of character building, are in weight as the values of the Salvation Army and the Red Cross are to the average daily life of man.

It is true, religion is a great comfort in misfortune. And it has a power, seemingly magical at times, of helping us to meet our legitimate and crying needs. But if religion has power, what folly to neglect that power until unusual occurrences of catastrophe or dire need force us to [Page 42] seek it. Were it not a more sensible plan to put religion to constructive use in our daily lives?

IT is no aspersion on religion to state that it can give comfort in dire crises; and that the average human, no matter how materialistic at other times, will instinctively and despairingly turn to religion when all else fails.

Hauptman, emotionally bruised and broken by the terrific torture of death approaching and receding, only to approach again, grasped eagerly at the help of prayer suggested to him by the prison chaplain. But now that he most needed to use prayers he knew none to say; nor could he bring himself to supplicate in terms of familiar entreaty that Power whom he had neglected all these years. So the chaplain with true spiritual psychology started him off with the A, B, C of prayer. “If you can’t say anything else, keep repeating ‘God, God, God . . .’” This Hauptman did, and mechanical as such prayer seems, it proved to be an exercise which strengthened the condemned man’s spiritual powers. For later, when the actual execution was at hand, Hauptman begged time for prayer, knelt by his bed, and prayed earnestly and effectively for ten minutes, then quietly faced his doom.

The use of religion in such times of desolation is legitimate and commendable. But were it not wiser to use religion daily as a means of moral and spiritual growth? And if religion were so used, might not many of the catastrophes of life individually and collectively be avoided?

WE face today immense problems in this country. Can we hope to meet them successfully without the aid of religion? Let us not wait until great catastrophes impend. Nor let us expect any magic or prayer to rearrange the concatenation of affairs, miraculously lightening gloomy horizons. It is we ourselves who must push the clouds away, by means of unselfish vision, altruistic endeavors and zeal for integrity, and humaneness in all private and public affairs.

It is no easy matter to practice integrity in all the affairs of life—to act justly toward all men—to hold loyally to ideals that seem difficult, almost impossible of achievement.

In times of national and world confusion like these, it is short sighted, to say the least, to leave prayer and faith to women. For much as women need religion, men today who would in generous service to humanity live lives of true manhood need religion even more. For the temptations and the tasks of the mart are great. And colossal is the task of achieving a new order out of economic chaos and of building better and more prosperous ways for a sorely troubled humanity. Therefore, as men, let us not be ashamed to be religious in the truer, deeper meaning of the word. Let us resort to prayer daily—prayer for ourselves, prayer for our nation, and prayer for the whole world.

Whatever we find the vision to achieve for our own country will inevitably become an example and incentive to all humanity. The world unconsciously waits for America to lead the way.

S. C.

[Page 43]

BIOGRAPHY AND THE INTERNATIONAL MIND

By CAROLINE B. RICHARDSON

OUR problem—one of them —internationally speaking, is to look on all human achievement unbiased. We can be communistic about the past without any trouble. We have share and share alike in the bequests of history. Imagine appreciating Raphael or Galileo any less because he was not an American. We are certainly not guilty of regret over Florence Nightingale’s being born in some other country. But we have a little more difficulty in divorcing living persons from their nationalities in our estimates; and that is a problem for us to settle definitely and intelligently if we are to have an international outlook.

When Emerson said “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man”, he stated such a profound truth that one trembles before human responsibility. The dark side of the picture is before us in every newspaper. With Will Rogers, we don’t know whom we hate until we look at the morning papers. There is the distrust between nations, distrust between churches, distrust between races. And it is more often than not traceable to individuals. Germany has for so long been to France but the lengthened shadow of Bismarck. The unworthiness of Henry VIII’s motive still colors the Catholic view of Protestantism, and Protestantism has not entirely outdistanced the reddened shadow of Mary Tudor. Always the individual. And yet in this very profound truth we find our greatest hope.

It is strangeness that produces fear. Actually can one think of a nation in the abstract? Very few of us can feel reality in the masses of the world’s population whom we cannot know. And so internationalism is delayed by the Thomases among us who have to see and feel the wounds of the world. We touch these wounds and feel these throbbing hearts in the pages of biography, or in the living pages not yet printed.

It is apparently natural that we credit this personal element. We are asked, if we love not our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen,—inferring that it is natural not to love the [Page 44] unknown as well as the known. We make the inference also that Christ was estimating our spiritual capacity for the next life by our ability to live this life well, and our ability to live this life well by our personal knowledge. So that I believe we have hold of one of the right threads to unravel this tangle of international distrust when we study the lives of individual men and women.

The subject suggests some interesting lines of development,—first, the intimate biographies which have already been written of internationally famous people; then the study of men and women of recent times whose high motive has been to include all humanity in a greater harmony; and also a mention of noted personalities who strongly affect the world’s attitude toward their countries right now. And to consider these lines in reverse order, there are so many one could speak of, not yet made fully familiar by complete written lives, who color and sway public opinion and stand out from the crowd when their countries are under discussion,—as the late Sir Thomas Lipton, whose fine sportsmanship has linked itself in the world’s mind with the English basic love of fair play. Edward VIII, boyish and democratic, hasn’t needed brilliant statesmanship to win himself a place in the hearts of other nations, as in his own. Could one conceive of a rebellion against such a king? One could more easily feature him at the head of any movement for a change of government, sympathetically moving with his people. Is not one more impulsively friendly toward the idea of English aristocracy after a glimpse into the vivid life of Lady Astor? Gandhi’s voluntary sacrifice has come too close to the essence of Christianity for the western nations to look upon him unmoved.

THEN—to mention one of the internationally minded of our own country. It was about 1870 when a little girl in an Illinois town went down with her father into the poorer districts one day. She was appalled at the crowded small houses of the desperately poor. She said then that when she was grown she would build a beautiful home down among the “horrid little houses”, and invite the poor to enjoy her home with her. Read “Twenty Years at Hull House” —and then read “Twenty More Years at Hull House”,—for the moving story of a woman’s not merely giving her home but sharing herself with the poor and particularly the foreign poor. Jane Addams’s Hull House now covers a city block, and there are over fifty men and women, many of them college graduates, who helped her in her home. Her neighbors —thirty nationalities of them— come and go, bring their problems, enjoy the refinements of her lovely furnishings, have the advantage of her reading rooms, her nursery, her gymnasium, and learn many handicrafts. In a large-spiritedness, she was living American ideals. Her full biography has not been written. But before the forty years of it appeared in print, they had already been written indelibly on the upturned faces of little Chicago foreigners and in the hearts of those children’s parents.

And how the unwritten as well as [Page 45] the written biographies can draw nations together is seen again, in an eastern setting. In Columbia University a few years ago, in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Miss Kate Miller taught classes of educated foreigners. And she had a definite purpose in her mind when she opened her home to them with an informal tea the first Sunday evening of each month. Eventually, her students organized the Miller Columbia Circle, membership in which was automatic with registration in her classes. She kept in touch with foreign consuls in the city, with centers of art and culture, with educational institutions, and brought many of these influences to her students through prominent lecturers. Members of the M.C.C. included twenty-five nationalities, and among these a former mayor of Berlin, two officers of the Imperial navy of Japan, a son of a famous Japanese philosopher, a wealthy Greek merchant, a Mexican consul, and others of many professions. In the first ten years of its existance before her death, Miss Miller’s Circle had hundreds of members, and as plans were being made to perpetuate the M.C C. after she was gone, a faculty friend said, “Her classroom and her home became centers not only of an ideal process of Americanization, but of a controlling vision of the International Mind.”

But to come to the biographies which you may find in thousands on public library shelves—you are overwhelmed. You do not know where to begin. After you have read of the patience and sacrifice of Louis Pasteur and what he did for human lives universally, and have turned to follow little Madame Curie in her hours of stolid discouraging research to the marvel of her discovery—not for France but for the world; when you have seen Edward Bok bring to this country his latent foreign talent and have seen America help to expand him into a success and in turn be herself glorified by the spirit of fairness and beauty which he embodied; when you have lived through the brain of England’s Gladstone and felt a rebirth of the long-smothered pride in your mother-country, you know that along with your family pride and state pride and national pride you have experienced an exultant pride in human achievement, surpassing—but perhaps necessarily founded on— these other prides.

But I want to speak particularly of three, briefly. Not because they are the greatest, but because of a peculiar appeal of each.

IN Knickeberg’s “Heinrich Von Stephan”, I was carried away by the executive grasp of a German because his activities were not primarily German or for Germany. What he set in motion in the International Postal System has lasted until today, has needed only slight revision. It has met all the complexities of present- day communication with such fairness that one sees it was not a German, not a French, not even a European conception, but an idea washed clean of all boundary lines. And yet I stumbled quite by accident on the knowledge of his contribution to the world, a contribution I’ve profited by personally.

[Page 46] Von Stephan was born In Pomerania, in North Prussia. His youthful rise was rapid. He was a linguist, and early an authority on postal matters. He was an invited guest at the opening of the Suez Canal. At thirty-nine he was made postmaster general of North Prussia, and at forty, of the Empire. He handled admirably the immense postal service of the Franco- Prussian War. He introduced postal cards, and the parcel post system. So well did he manage the latter that in 1883 the German Post Office handled 79 million parcels through the post, while all other nations handled only 52 millions. But to us, his greatest achievement followed the international conference at Bern, which he called in order to establish a system he had worked out. The conference adopted practically without change the twenty-odd points of his plan, establishing the International Postal Union. Previous to this, international rates on letters had been unstable and exorbitant. A letter to a foreign country might cost fifty cents or two dollars, and quick service depended too often on the sender’s prominence. Vun Stephan’s plan gave us the five- cent letter rate, and made service prompt, uniform and impartial. While he was extremely patriotic, he never lost sight of the human being in the state; and the calibre of his mind was clearly above narrow nationalism. If we could produce a financier who could devise an international banking system as balanced and impartial, he would be the economic savior of our day.

THEN I followed as far as it has been given to the public, the autobiography of Marie of Rumania. Now I have an indelible picture of both her England and her Rumania —but especially Rumania—as a land of impulsive, semi-Latin people whose medieval worship of royalty, whose dark intrigue and diplomacy, ogre-like, shut up the young English princess in her castle and all but crushed out of her the spontaneity of her youth. All but—for her buoyant girlhood and healthy English outlook triumphed over her bitter experiences. Motherhood tempered her. And then by her daring combination of femininity and intellect, she has kept a finger on the pulse and a hand on the wheel of European affairs for two generations, often from a strategic back seat. Yet she hasn’t been able to save her own from tragedy, for she’s the mother-in-law of the murdered Alexander of Jugo-Slavia. She is a gifted writer of realism. No other woman can give you as free access to the complicated society of Europe’s royalty, with an intimacy and penetration that’s astounding. If there is a tinge of egotism throughout the pages, it is a very winsome and forgivable egotism—for which, in justice, one has to acknowledge she had reason, being young, very beautiful, and royalty. How she makes you see and understand those monarchs and their families! You share her admiration of her strong-minded Russian mother, who, although an ardent Greek Catholic, went, as the bride of a son of Victoria, to England to bring up an English Protestant family; and because of her deep sense of loyalty to a tradition, carried out her program [Page 47] unflinchingly, and in turn saw her young Protestant daughter Marie go to Rumania to rear a family of young Rumanian Roman Catholics. You have life-like pictures of her uncles and aunts. You have non- official glimpses of the Kaiser and Crown Prince of Germany, and you see Marie with the young people of her generation. How clearly, between the lines, you catch the tragedies of their lives—a young prince, through idleness and wealth, a victim to his own dissipation; and again a young girl sold, practically, to a foreign prince, a sacrifice on the altar of an age-old diplomacy! I have rarely read a story more absorbing in detail, more revealing, yet more democratic in spite of itself. And I have fixed in my mind a deep impression of a devotion to time-honored practices, and the deliberate self-immolation of the best of royalty. And now I can no more picture Rumania without picturing Marie than I could visualize Victorian England minus Victoria.

But to come back home. Our familiarity with our own great prompted me to study foreign material largely. But in speaking of Lord Charnwood’s “Lincoln”, I’m stressing an American whose appeal has been sufficient to produce biographical works by two great English writers at least. Of all the works written about Lincoln, the Englishman’s can draw the truest picture, for the writer was unclouded by prejudice one way or the other. He could temper our ideal picture with the telescopic adjustment of distance and foreign view, and he saw Lincoln’s place in the scheme of human progress. Lord

Charnwood finds the reverence for Lincoln “blended with a peculiar affection seldom bestowed upon the memory of a statesman. For he was a citizen of that far country where there is neither aristocrat nor democrat. No political theory stands out from his words or actions, but they show a most unusual sense of the possible dignity of common men and things. If he had a theory of democracy, it was contained in a brief note which he wrote a year or so before his presidency: ‘As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.’”

The lengthened shadow of Lincoln touched this Englishman with a sense of his immense protective tenderness and wisdom, his humility and sadness, his wit and his lovableness, his almost divine comprehension. Other Englishmen—for whom Lord Charnwood was perhaps a Voice—have felt the memories we love—his clemency to the soldier who slept at his post; his capacity for strength and his all- inclusive sympathy—and his pathetic alone-ness! They, too, have felt the same throat-tightening, because of that letter to a mother bereft of five sons in war; his patient tolerance of ridicule and misunderstanding; his fine perception of our obligation to the dead of Gettysburg; his “with malice toward none, with charity toward all.”

So to his people Charnwood has given Lincoln in an unforgetable way,—and for this we owe him a debt of gratitude.

After all, blessed is that man whose worth lends a kindlier attraction to his whole nation!

[Page 48]

H. R. H. PRINCESS OLGA OF JUGOSLAVIA

AN INTERVIEW By MARTHA L. ROOT

H R. H. Princess Olga, wife of H. R. H. Prince Regent Paul of Jugoslavia, daughter of Prince and Princess Nicholas of Greece and cousin of H. M. King George II of Greece, is deeply interested in religion and in education. Her spirit of kindness to all has been appreciatively remarked in several English books and magazines and in the Balkan press.

“I like the Bahá’í Teachings for universal education and universal peace”, this gracious Princess said to me, in an interview which she gave at her villa on the Hill of Topcider, near Belgrade, on January 16, 1936. (During the past eight years she has read a number of works by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá). “I like the Bahá’í movement and the Young Men’s Christian Association—both are programs to unite religions, and without unity no man can live in happiness.”

[Page 49]

A WORLD FAITH

Studies in the Teaching of Bahá’u’lláh

IX. A WORLD COMMUNITY

By GEORGE O. LATIMER

A COMMUNITY is a group of individuals bound together by common interests, privileges and subject to the same laws. It is a series of voluntary relationships of peoples and races having different customs, tastes, temperaments, varied thoughts and opinions, who, having been forced to face the same problems of human experience, have come to a “like-mindedness” in working out these difficulties. The fundamental urge or impulse to bring about this unity of divergent personalities is spiritual in character and results in a common faith. From this grouping of interests the ideals of government, of philosophy, of economic and social systems and primarily morals and religion are developed.

In past ages. owing to their isolation and lack of communication facilities, different environments and diversity of language, these groups have developed slowly and independently their systems of social order and spiritual outlook. Gradually the community has expanded, uniting with other groups to form a nation. When a nation has become sufficiently powerful it then seeks to widen its sphere of influence through aggression, colonization and eventually warfare upon weaker groups and communities. Then the world’s equilibrium becomes upset, the culture of the people wanes and the social order is destroyed. The body politic may be likened to the human body as an organism which needs harmonious coopetation of all its members for perfect health. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá points out, “As long as the members and parts of the human organism are at peace, coordinate, and cooperate together peacefully and harmoniously, we have as a result the expression of life in its fullest form; where they differ we have the reverse, which in the human organism is warfare; and when dissension continues and discord waxes grave in the human organism, the result is dissension and dissolution and untimely death.”

Amity, peace and unity are therefore essentially the saving factors of society; amity among races, peace between nations and unity of conscience [Page 50] in the individual members of the body politic.

IN our present era conditions have altered greatly. The ever increasing facilities of modern transportation, the wireless and radio, the interchange of literature, art and music, the complex international structure of finance, world-wide trade and commerce have broken down the former barriers of isolation, This change has been enhanced by the rapid development of our industrial civilization. The chrysalis has broken. As John Herman Randall points out in his timely book, “A World Community:” “from a position of practical independence and self-sufficiency, all nations have been forced into a relation of the closest mutual interdependence where each needs the other, must have the help of the other, or else must perish. There is not a man or woman in America, or any other civilized land, whose daily life, both in the necessities we must have and in the luxuries we all crave, is not in constant touch with the life of people across the seas whose customs are strange to us, whose languages are unknown, of whom we may never have heard, but without whose daily toil our existence would be impossible. No one of us lives through a day without in some way getting help from all lands and all peoples.” These interchanges demand a new outlook by our business leaders. This leadership requires an “international mind” to focus on the strides that science, invention and trade have made in promoting the intercourse which affects the lives of people in every clime. “We cannot think clearly and sanely about these reactions, except as we learn to value civilizations, habits of thought and action, and spiritual outlooks on life which diverge widely from our own.” The mechanical technique for the future progress of society is fully developed but the present state of man’s social intelligence for the creating of a new world order has not shown the same advancement.

Our present impotence in world affairs has been vividly portrayed by Shoghi Effendi in his word picture of the social, economic, political and religious spheres of human activity. In “The Goal of a New World Order,” he writes: “The disquieting influence of over thirty million souls living under minority conditions throughout the continent of Europe; the vast and ever-swelling army of the unemployed with its crushing burden and demoralizing influence on governments and peoples; the wicked, unbridled race of armaments swallowing an ever-increasing share of the substance of already impoverished nations; the utter demoralization from which the international financial markets are now increasingly suffering; the onslaught of secularism invading what has hitherto been regarded as the impregnable strongholds of Christian and Muslim orthodoxy—these stand out as the gravest symptoms that bode ill for the future stability of the structure of modern civilization.” “Humanity,” he continues, “whether viewed in the light of man’s individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas, [Page 51] strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen— however disinterested their motives, however concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; no doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the future of a distracted world can be built.”

The picture of our present plight is further magnified by the growing spirit of fear and suspicion, race hatreds and vindictiveness—remnants of the last war—the faithlessness to sacred obligations and the violation of covenants between nations. To this may be added the new trends in government such as communism, fascism and naziism—that are vying with democracy for the socio-political control of peoples. These modern doctrines of government have arisen from a condition of desperation in the social order and seek to impose the will of a dictator upon the binding voluntary relationships between individuals of the social group. By the very nature of their origin and the current working of their doctrines they are anti-social and do not create a structure that builds, molds and perpetuates a human community that satisfies both the practical and spiritual needs of man.

THEREFORE the primary task before us at this period of our evolution is to create and establish a social system that will embody in its scope, institutions that will encompass, not only the physical, economic and social needs of man, but also provide for a rekindling of his religious faith. It is becoming increasingly evident, concludes Shoghi Effendi, “that nothing short of the fire of a severe ordeal, unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld the discordant entities that constitute the elements of present- day civilization, into the integral components of the world commonwealth of the future.”

In the formation of the future commonwealth, a form of Super-State must he evolved. The process will consist in the establishing of certain institutions that can and must maintain internal order within each local state and also have the power to enforce its authority in matters of dispute or conflict between member nations.

The first of these institutions is a World Parliament, composed of members elected by the people in their respective countries. Another institution will be a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will be final. It will enact a single code of international law to control the relationships of the member nations. This body, which is titled the Universal House of Justice by Bahá’u’lláh, will define the rights to impose taxes, levy tariffs, limit armaments, settle disputes between capital and labor, and stabilize the financial structure of the world. It will have an International Executive [Page 52] powerful enough to arbitrate and to carry out its decisions, even though some member states may not voluntarily submit their problems and disputes for consideration. The sanction and authority of these institutions will rest upon the foundation of a world community, a combination of the federated units,—a community, freed from the narrow national outlook, that will develop a final and lasting consciousness of world citizenship. The life of humanity will be on a broader basis to meet the changing conditions of evolving society. A fresh impetus to the cultural pursuits of life, renewed inspiration in the realm of art and science, security in the economic relationships, a return of confidence and peace of mind and soul will be the ultimate result.

The Bahá’í plan does not seek to destroy existing institutions, but to remold the social order. “It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties”, Shoghi Effendi declares, for “its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men’s hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language, and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. it repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. . . . It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world.”

SO far we have considered the need for the creation of a new social organism from the practical point of view. Many statesmen and scholars have outlined their plans for international stability along some of these lines. However if all the leaders of thought should unite upon one ideal program with the necessary agencies to make it effective, without including the spiritual factor as the motivating influence in the life of humanity, this highly desirable goal would not be attained, for “in the final analysis” according to Horace Holley “the existing world struggle is between faith and unfaith, between man as rational animal and man as spiritual intelligence. The historic movement as a whole includes the Prophet, and every philosophy dealing with less than the whole movement of history can not deal adequately with man.” Man owes his capacity for change, adaptation, invention and creation to the spiritual impulse. A confident heart overcomes all obstacles. “As your faith is” says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “so shall your powers and blessings be.”

The late Italian patriot, Joseph Mazzini, clearly saw the need for a common faith when he wrote that “the first real, earnest religious faith that shall arise upon the ruins of the [Page 53] old wornout creeds, will transform the whole of our actual social organization, because every strong and earnest faith tends to apply itself to every branch of human activity; because in every epoch of its existence the earth has ever tended to conform itself to the heaven in which it then believed; and because the whole history of humanity is but the repetition—in form and degree varying according to the diversity of the times—of the words of the Dominical Christian prayer: Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Today the heaven of humanity is a universal canopy covering all peoples, all sovereign nations and all religions. The final evolution of the spirit of faith under its sheltering dominion leads man to a recognition of the Unity of all the Divine Prophets and the acceptance of the basic principle upon which a world community must rest—namely the Oneness of Mankind.

This principle of the Oneness of Humanity is the cornerstone teaching of Bahá’u’lláh for the reformation of society. It is divine in origin, ideal in its majestic sweep and practical in attainment. It can accomplish the federation of mankind because it is initiated by the Word of God. Religion is established through the potency of the Logos (Word) and it is therefore the one power capable of directing the feelings and sentiments oi mankind toward unity, peace and reconciliation. Stanwood Cobb in his recent hook, “Security for a Failing World,” makes the convincing argument that the world-wide catastrophes are not due so much to the fault of man’s intellect, but rather to the fault of his emotions. The only force that can rule the emotions is a master emotion, and “the greatest of all master emotions is religion. This is the force which normally governs and directs the emotions of human beings, harnessing them into spiritual and cultural unities.” Hence religion in the new day must become increasingly ethical and social, rather than remain theological and individualistic. It must furnish a new ethical vision that will create a morality for group action that can destroy the idol of self-interest; abolish sectarianism and dogmatic theological disputes, for as Professor Hayden of the University of Chicago states “truly religious men and women are no longer interested in the theoretical differences of theology; they seek rather to make all knowledge and power serve in the building of a social order, including races, nations and religions, and offering justice and opportunity to every human being.”

THE rapid growth of the Bahá’í Faith is due to the irrefutable fact that it has the power to rule man’s emotions, change his outlook, overcome his antagonisms, inculcate the spirit of self-sacrifice for the common weal, remove the tensions caused by the diversity of temperaments and create a real desire for union and fellowship in a social and spiritual brotherhood. In short it unites individuals of various walks of life, different religious beliefs, opposing political theories into voluntary association. These groups of like-minded friends, called Bahá’í communities, are to be found throughout the world. [Page 54] Though their start has been small and inconspicuous, they have the advantage of mutual protection and unity of aim by identifying all their group activity with the life and teachings of their prophet. In referring to the Bahá’í Faith in her book, “The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today,” Evelyn Underhill says that our hope for the future depends upon the formation of such groups which she aptly terms “hives of the spirit.” She writes: “Such a group would never permit the intrusion of the controversial element, but would be based on mutual trust; and the fact that all the members shared substantially the same view of human life, strove though in differing ways for the same ideals, were filled by the same enthusiasms, would allow the problems and experiences of the Spirit to be accepted as real, and discussed with frankness and simplicity. Thus oases of prayer and clear thinking might be created in our social wilderness, gradually developing such power and group-consciousness as we see in really living religious bodies.”

A study of the operation and administration of a Bahá’í community discloses a striking contrast with the outworn institutions of today. It is not wholly democratic in character for the Will of the people is tempered by the Sovereign Authority of the divine Prophet. The entire local community elects its own administrative body of nine members, called a Spiritual Assembly. This body acts as a trusteeship, a consultative group for the solution of problems and difficulties, both secular and spiritual. It cannot be confused with any system of autocracy or of dictatorship for its elected representatives have the right of legislating on matters not revealed in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of their Faith, nor can it be classed as an aristocratic order or an ecclesiastical theocracy. It has no professional clergy, each member serves to the best of his ability. The elected representatives are chosen for their combined qualities of unquestioned loyalty, of selfless devotion, of a well-trained mind, of recognized ability and mature experience. These Assemblies combine an executive, judicial and legislative function limited only by the scope of their respective jurisdictions, and their guiding principles are prayerful consultation and practical cooperation.

The communities of each nation annually elect delegates, who in turn meet in convention and elect a national Spiritual Assembly, likewise composed of nine members, and this body administers the collective affairs of all the local communities. The next step is the formation of an international Assembly, the Universal House of Justice. This institution is created by the electoral body of national Assemblies through universal suffrage and thus becomes an international tribunal which represents the fusion of numerous groups into a worldwide community. The prime requisites of these counselors, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are “purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His divine fragrance, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and long-suffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted [Page 55] Threshold.” Their prestige and power are enhanced by their self- sacrifice and devotion to the common good, not by any display of arbitrary authority. They stand for an ideal of morality that is worldwide in scope—an inclusive fellowship, and they maintain their contact with the source of spiritual inspiration and guidance by having as their permanent head, the present and future Guardians of the Faith.

“The Bahá’í World”, Volume V, gives a graphic survey of the manifold activities of approximately eight hundred Bahá’í communities established throughout the five continents and in many islands of the seas. It is a vivid portrayal of the progress of a working, well-ordered society that cannot be ignored by a disillusioned, shaken humanity. The varied evidences of an unfolding community, recorded therein, comprise, according to Shoghi Effendi, “The vitality which the organic institutions of this great, this ever-expanding Order so strongly exhibit; the obstacles which the high courage, the undaunted resolution of its administrators have already surmounted; the fire of an unquenchable enthusiasm that glows with undiminished fervor in the hearts of its itinerant teachers; the heights of self- sacrifice which its champion-builders are now attaining; the breadth of vision, the confident hope, the creative joy, the inward peace, the uncompromising integrity, the exemplary discipline, the unyielding unity and solidarity which its stalwart defenders manifest; the degree to which its moving Spirit has shown itself capable of assimilating the diversified elements within its pale, of cleansing them of all forms of prejudice and fusing them with its own structure.”

THE Bahá’í group is a community freed from the complexities of federal management, neutral in political controversies, but obedient therewithal, to the recognized authority of a just government; it has lost the sense of “locality” in the broader feeling of world citizenship. In America, in Europe or in the Orient the association of its members,—whether of the red, black, brown or white race; whether of Jewish, Muhammadan, Christian or other religious faith, cast or creed; whether artist, merchant, scientist, statesman or artisan,—is based upon acceptance of the spiritual equality of all mankind and the oneness of God. The natural inequality and difference in capacity and intelligence of men is recognized, but the right of equal opportunity is vouchsafed to all. There is a difference in the social and economic status of men and the degrees of society are preserved, but in their spiritual relationship there is a parity of station.

The chosen members of an Assembly must acquaint themselves with the conditions and problems of their community, weigh dispassionately the merits of any case brought to them and in a prayerful attitude render an unfettered and just decision. They act under divine inspiration and are therefore primarily responsible to God for their actions and not governed by their feeling of loyalty to those who elect them. The provision for annual elections guarantees a [Page 56] method whereby the quality of membership can be continually elevated and improved, but the personal qualifications of the individual members do not establish the perfection or imperfection of the body, nor do they make the elected representatives inherently superior to their fellow citizens. It is the institution that is perfect because of its divine endowment.

The present national upheavals, the political turmoils, the ever-increasing disparity in the social-economic life of man and the embittered racial clashes and religious conflicts indicate the urgent necessity tor the immediate establishment of a sovereign world state for the preservation of our civilization. The social program given by Bahá’u’lláh offers, in its entirety, a workable solution for the reconstruction of the economic, political and religious life of humanity, and provides for the institutions of a World Commonwealth. Scientific invention and modern industrialism have laid the material foundations for international cooperation. Bahá’u’lláh has evolved the plans for the moral and spiritual superstructure. It is now man’s privilege to erect upon the foundations, an edifice that will shelter all mankind,—a temple for a world community. The underlying aim of the Bahá’í plan, according to Shoghi Effendi, is “the establishment of the New World Order as adumbrated by Bahá’u’lláh. The method it employs, the standard it inculcates, incline it to neither East nor West, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither rich nor poor, neither white nor colored. Its watchword is the unification of the human race; its standard the ‘Most Great Peace’; its consummation the advent of that golden millenium—the Day when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the Kingdom of God Himself.”

[Page 57]

SEVERANCE AND SACRIFICE

By MAMIE L. SETO

SEVERANCE! Severance! Severance!

This weighty and significant word holds a wealth of meaning for a Bahá’í and for the entire world. It is a word met with constantly throughout the writings of the Bahá’í Faith. It should receive much reflection, as its implications are many and deep- rooted. for they carry with them a new way of life which brings freedom and astonishing independence.

Severance is the key to spiritual progress. “No one save a severed soul or a sincere heart finds response from God,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

After humanity has passed through its primitive and barbaric periods in its evolution and has reached a stage where it is called civilized, this state consists of two periods: one known as its material civilization, and the other as its divine civilization. Both periods mark progress for the race. The former state is still an expression of the immaturity of the race, advanced though it may be over its former primitive stages; the latter an expression of its maturity, includes the time when it will live in a high state of spiritual illumination.

As humanity nears its maturity the great change takes place and it goes from its material civilization into its divine civilization, when the entire order of its life changes. In its material civilization the race lived in a limited and dependent way and sought security and happiness in material things. The individual sought security in wealth and possessions, the nations in vast armaments, huge naval powers and in landed possessions; all of which have proved inadequate and insecure.

When humanity comes into its divine civilization it will put its dependence in God and His commandments, wherein there is abiding security and tranquility. “Each one of the revealed commands,” wrote Bahá’u’lláh over eighty years ago, “is a strong fortress for the protection of the world.”

The following comparative statement of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes clear the relation of the two civilizations:

“Material civilization is like a globe of glass. Divine civilization is the [Page 58] light itself, and the glass without the light is dark. Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and beautiful it may be, it is dead. Divine civilization is like the spirit, and the body gets its life from the spirit, otherwise it becomes a corpse. It has thus been made evident that the world of mankind is in need of the breaths of the Holy Spirit.”

We are now living in that very interesting and bewildering transitional period between the old material civilization, which has tottered and collapsed in our very midst, and the new divine civilization, which we can dimly outline as we see it slowly rising phoenix-like out of the ruins and wreckage of the old. This divine civilization gives promise of the realization of all those happy conditions dreamed of and hoped for, yet ever denied in the past.

RELIANCE upon God, which will be the order of the divine civilization, is what is called “severance” in the Bahá’í terminology. It means rising above dependence upon material things. This does not mean, however, that man should withdraw from an active and useful life in the world. “By being severed from the world,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “I do not mean holding in contempt the things of the world, for civilization and education are the means of progress. I mean that one must not attach his heart to the world.”

“Detachment does not consist in setting fire to one’s house, or becoming bankrupt or throwing one’s fortune out of the window, or even in giving away all one’s possessions. Detachment consists in refraining from letting our possessions possess us. A prosperous merchant who is not absorbed in his business knows severance. A banker whose occupation does not prevent him from serving humanity is severed. A poor man can be attached to a small thing. . . .There are many rich people who are severed, and many poor who are not.”

The matter of becoming severed from the world and reliant upon God is something not easily nor readily accomplished. It means breaking away from all those pillars and supports upon which the race has depended for ages and cycles. It would be impossible for humanity to make this great and phenomenal change without help. So the Creator, who is ever mindful of the needs of His creatures, sent forth His Messenger Bahá’u’lláh, over eighty years ago, with the power of the Holy Spirit and with new principles and teachings, to aid humanity at this crucial period to go forward as it should in its evolution.

All ties which hold humanity to its former limited condition must be completely severed. This means men must be severed on all planes—the material, mental and spiritual.

On the material plane Bahá’u’lláh has enjoined work upon all, and when executed in the right spirit raises it to the rank of worship, as He wrote in Words of Wisdom:

“True reliance is for the servant to pursue his profession and calling in this world, to hold fast unto the Lord, to seek naught but His Grace inasmuch as in His hands is the destiny of all His servants.”

[Page 59]

The key to mental freedom has likewise been given by Bahá’u’lláh. It is now time for the minds of men to be freed from all fetters and soar in the stratosphere of truth. There will be mental bondage as long as people seek to have their ideas conform to the standard of any one person however learned or wise, or to any ancient or modern philosophy, or particular school of thought, unless their standards conform to truth as given by the Prophets of God and as renewed today by Bahá’u’lláh. He has cleared the path of Truth of the debris of misunderstandings and superstitions to such an extent that the penetrating rays of the searchlight of science shining upon it shall reveal no stones of contradiction which can cause the seeker to falter, stumble and fall.

The mental attitude must be one of justice, and the just mind thinks independently, analyzes thoroughly, and views all sides of every matter presented to it before arriving at a decision.

“Of all things Justice is the best beloved in My sight: turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide My trust to thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not with the eyes of others, and shalt know by thy own understanding and not by the understanding of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart: how it behooveth thee to be. In truth Justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving kindness unto thee. Set it then before thine eyes”

Then lastly man must be spiritually free. This freedom is attained by having the knowledge of God, and this is impossible save through the teachings of the Manifestation of God for the age in which He comes, and then diligently obeying His commandments.

THE severed man has at last arrived at the one and only way God ever intended him to live. Man, however, was not ready for this true way of life until this cycle of the maturity of the race. The severed man has simply aligned himself consciously with the order of his creation. Man is dependent upon God at all times, under all conditions, for all things, but has not realized this so as to make it the basis of his thoughts and actions.

Trust and reliance upon God being the right and only way for man to function has been taught by all the Prophets of God and their followers from the earliest of times. We find many references to it in the Holy Books. David, the immortal psalmist, wrote:

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.”

“Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”

In I. Timothy, 6:17: “Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”

In the Qur’án, sura of The Bee: “They who persevere patiently, and put their trust in their Lord, shall not fail of happiness in this life and in [Page 60] that which is to come.”

Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “The source of all good is trust in God and contentment with His holy will and pleasure.”

“The essence of love is for man to turn his heart to the Beloved One and sever himself from all else but God, and desire naught save that which is the desire of his Lord.”

Lack of trust in God has been the cause of all our troubles. “The source of error is to disbelieve in the one true God, rely upon aught else but Him, and flee from His decree.”

The first great step in the path of severance is for man to realize the meaning of the “oneness of God” as given by Bahá’u’lláh. “Oneness in its true significance means that God alone should be realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things, which are but manifestations of its energy.”

When humanity comprehends this great truth it will turn to God for all things, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote:

“Blessed are those who receive the light of the divine bounties from the enlightened Dawning-Points!

“We hope that the Friends of God, like an attractive force, will draw these bounties from the source itself, and that they will arise with such illumination and signs that they will be evident proofs of the Sun of Reality.”

By turning to the Dawning-Points is meant turning to the Manifestations of God.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” spoke the Christ.

No one has access to the Invisible Essence. The way has always been, and always will be, through the Manifestations of God. This is the great basic truth of all religions and is more fully explained in the Bahá’í Faith than in any of the preceding Revelations.

SINCE reliance upon God is to be the order of the divine civilization, we ask what shall be our attitude and relationship toward our fellowmen?

We shall have a new attitude toward our fellow-men and shall not make the mistake of looking to any person or group of people as the source of supply. Neither shall we place undue dependence upon any institution or corporation no matter how wealthy and powerful. At most, people are merely stewards of wealth and not possessors. God alone is the source of supply. The place men hold in their relation to God is that of channels from Him, as all things arise through and are manifest in them. However, we shall retain the right relationship with our fellow-men through the practice of justice and cooperation and the extension of goodwill and service.

When men view their fellow-men as channels from God and not as their source, a great change will come into their lives. The new attitude will bring a new freedom. They will no longer be fettered by the limitations of men, nor will they conform to their imperfect standards. Men will then turn to God, Who is unlimited in all things, and conform to and uphold His perfect standard.

“Human attitudes must not be [Page 61] limited, for God is unlimited and whosoever is the servant of the threshold of God must likewise be free from limitatioins.”

“When man is associated with that transcendent power emanating from the Word of God, the tree of his being becomes so well rooted in the soil of assurance that it laughs at the hurricanes of skepticism violently attempting its destruction. For this association of the part with the Whole endows it with the Whole, and this unison in the particular with the Universal makes him all in all.”

Does this also mean that we are to turn to God for all material things as well as spiritual help?

God verily is the possessor and giver of all things. He is Lord of the Throne and the dust, the heavens and the earth, the spiritual and the material. “Verily, Thou art the supplier of all necessities, and Thou art mighty in all things.”

In Haggai, 2:8, we find: “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts.”

In the Bahá’í Faith we are permitted to pray for material things, and prayers have been revealed for such purposes.

FOR the severed man a new way of life has opened before him and he will not place his dependence in ephemeral and material power, uncertain wealth, nor in shifting and shallow political influence. He will realize true security is to be gained and retained through the development of his own talents, gifts and powers; therein will lie his true worth, real independence and inviolable wealth.

“I have created thee rich,” Bahá’u’lláh assures us. “Why dost thou impoverish thyself? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I manifested thee, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Of the clay of love I molded thee, why dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me abiding in thee, mighty, powerful and self- subsisting.”

The severed person realizes, too, his life must fully conform to the teachings and commandments of the Manifestations of God, if he is to keep in touch with the Giver of all gifts and bounties. He will also put forth every effort to progress and be of service to the end of his life.

“HE is a true Bahá’í,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “who strives by day and by night to progress and advance along the path of human endeavor, whose cherished desire is so to live and act as to enrich and illumine the world; whose source of inspiration is the Essence of Divine Perfection; whose aim in life is to conduct himself so as to be the cause of infinite progress. Only when he attains unto such perfect gifts can it be said of him that he is a Bahá’í.”

The change in the inner attitude of man is followed by a corresponding change in his outer affairs, and his life will gradually become adjusted to the law of harmony. Bahá’u’lláh wrote:

“God does not change that which a people have, until they change [Page 62] what is within themselves.” “And when they forgot God, He made them forget themselves.”

Poverty and spiritual life have long been associated. This has been largely due to the fact that the saints of the early Christian era lived a life of poverty, forsaking all earthly possessions. The new conception of the severed life for this era as given by Bahá’u’lláh does not, however, carry with it poverty, deprivation or want.

In the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá we have: “I wish for the happiness and prosperity of the believers even in this material world, but they must not be attracted by it or attached to it. Extreme wealth or utter poverty should be equal to them.”

“Medieval conceptions of true religion might have justified the act of St. Francis of Assisi in giving away all his possessions and living in a state of absolute poverty. It might have been right for the early Franciscans to secure their means of livelihood by begging, but this is contrary to the teaching of Bahá’u’lláh who has brought to the world new standards of detachment and a new conception of what constitutes the true spiritual life. In the Book of Aqdas He definitely states that ‘it is forbidden to ask, and should a person be asked it is forbidden unto him to give. It is incumbent upon every person to possess an occupation’ and should a person be incapable of work it is the duty of the state to maintain him and his family. He permits us to be clothed in the best attire and to use silver and gold implements if we can possibly afford to have them. Even the desire of possessing wealth is not an evil if that does not hinder us from knowing the Prophets and obeying their commands.”

“Know ye that by ‘the world’ is meant your unawareness of Him Who is your Maker, and your absorption in aught else but Him. The ‘life to come,’ on the other hand, signifieth the things that give you a safe approach to God, the All-Glorious, the Incomparable. Whatsoever deterreth you, in this Day, from loving God is nothing but the world. Flee it, that ye may be numbered with the blest. Should a man wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him. Eat ye, O people, of the good things which God hath allowed you, and deprive not yourselves from His wondrous bounties. Render thanks and praise unto Him, and be of them that are truly thankful.”

IT is impossible to write of severance without mentioning its twin—sacrifice. These two proceed hand in hand. To become severed from an earthly condition means to sacrifice all that goes with it.

“The mystery of sacrifice is that man should sacrifice all his conditions for the divine station of God. The station of God is mercy, kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice, favor, grace and giving life to the spirits and lighting the fire of His love in the hearts.”

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THE ORIGIN OF MAN

By ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ

KNOW that it is one of the most abstruse spiritual truths that the world of existence, that is to say this endless universe, has no beginning.

We have already explained that the names and attributes of the Divinity themselves require the existence of beings. Although this subject has been explained in detail, we will speak of it again briefly. Know that an educator without pupils cannot be imagined, a monarch without subjects could not exist, a master without scholars cannot be appointed, a creator without a creature is impossible, a provider without those provided for cannot be conceived; for all the divine names and attributes demand the existence of beings. If we could imagine a time when no beings existed, this imagination would be the denial of the Divinity of God. Moreover, absolute non-existence cannot become existence. If the beings were absolutely non-existent, existence would not have come into being. Therefore, as the Essence of Unity, that is the existence of God, is everlasting and eternal—that is to say, it has neither beginning nor end—it is certain that this world of existence, this endless universe, has neither beginning nor end. Yes, it may be that one of the parts of the universe, one of the globes, for example, may come into existence, or may be disintegrated, but the other endless globes are still existing; the universe would not be disordered nor destroyed; on the contrary, existence is eternal and perpetual. As each globe has a beginning, necessarily it has an end, because every composition, collective or particular, must of necessity be decomposed; the only difference is that some are quickly decomposed, and others more slowly, but it is impossible that a composed thing should not eventually be decomposed.

It is necessary, therefore, that we should know what each of the important existences was in the beginning —for there is no doubt that in the beginning the origin was one: the origin of all numbers is one and not two. Then it is evident that in the beginning matter was one, and that one matter appeared in different [Page 64] aspects in each element; thus various forms were produced, and these various aspects as they were produced became permanent, and each element was specialized. But this permanence was not definite, and did not attain realization and perfect existence until after a very long time. Then these elements became composed, and organized and combined in infinite forms; or rather from the composition and combination of these elements innumerable beings appeared.

This composition and arrangement through the wisdom of God and His pre-existent might, were produced from one natural organization, which was composed and combined with the greatest strength, conformably to wisdom, and according to a universal law. From this it is evident that it is the creation of God, and is not a fortuitous composition and arrangement. This why from every natural composition a being can come into existence, but from an accidental composition no being can come into existence. For example, if a man of his own mind and intelligence collects some elements and combines them, a living being will not be brought into existence, since the system is unnatural. This is the answer to the implied question, that, since beings are made by the composition and the combination of elements, why is it not possible for us to gather elements and mingle them together, and so create a living being. This is a false supposition, for the origin of this composition is from God; it is God who makes the combination, and as it is done according to the natural system, from each composition one being is produced, and an existence is realized. A composition made by man produces nothing, because man cannot create.

Briefly, we have said that from the composition and combination of elements, from their decomposition, from their measure, and from the effect of other beings upon them, resulted forms, endless realities, and innumerable beings. But it is clear that this terrestrial globe in its present form did not come into existence all at once; but that this universal existence gradually passed through different phases until it became adorned with its present perfection. Universal beings resemble and can be compared to particular beings, for both are subjected to one natural system, one universal law and divine organization. So you will find the smallest atoms in the universal system are similar to the greatest beings of the universe. It is clear that they come into existence from one laboratory of might under one natural system, and one universal law; therefore they may be compared to one another. Thus the embryo of man in the womb of the mother gradually grows and develops, and appears in different forms and conditions, until in the degree of perfect beauty it reaches maturity, and appears in a perfect form with the utmost grace. And in the same way, the seed of this flower which you see was in the beginning an insignificant thing, and very small; and it grew and developed in the womb of the earth and after appearing in various forms, came forth in this condition with perfect freshness [Page 65] and grace. In the same manner it is evident that this terrestrial globe having once found existence, grew and developed in the matrix of the universe, and came forth in different forms and conditions, until gradually it attained this present perfection, and became adorned with innumerable beings, and appeared as a finished organization.

Then it is clear that original matter, which is in the embryonic state, and the mingled and composed elements which were its earliest forms, gradually grew and developed during many ages and cycles, passing from one shape and form to another, until they appeared in this perfection, this system, this organization and this establishment, through the supreme wisdom of God.

LET us return to our subject that man, in the beginning of his existence and in the womb of the earth, like the embryo in the womb of the mother, gradually grew and developed, and passed from one form to another, from one shape to another, until he appeared with this beauty and perfection, this force and this power. It is certain that in the beginning he had not this loveliness and grace and elegance, and that he only by degrees attained this shape, this form, this beauty, and this grace. There is no doubt that the human embryo did not at once appear in this form, neither did it then become the manifestation of the words “Praise be unto God, the best of Creators.” Gradually it passed through various conditions and different shapes, until it attained this form and beauty, this perfection, grace, and loveliness. Thus it is evident and confirmed that the development and growth of man on this earth, until he reached his present perfection, resembled the growth and development of the embryo in the womb of the mother: by degrees it passed from condition to condition, from form to form, from one shape to another, for this is according to the requirement of the universal system and Divine Law.

That is to say, the embryo passes through different states and traverses numerous degrees, until it reaches the form in which it manifests the words “Praise be to God, the best of Creators,” and until the signs of reason and maturity appear. And in the same way, man’s existence on this earth, from the beginning until it reaches this state, form, and condition, necessarily lasts a long time, and goes through many degrees until it reaches this condition. But from the beginning of man’s existence he is a distinct species. In the same way, the embryo of man in the womb of the mother was at first in a strange form; then this body passes from shape to shape, from state to state, from form to form, until it appears in utmost beauty and perfection. But even when in the womb of the mother and in this strange form, entirely different from his present form and figure, he is the embryo of the superior species, and not of the animal; his species and essence undergo no change. Now, admitting that the traces of organs which have disappeared actually exist, this is not a proof of the impermanence and the non-originality of the species.

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APOSTROPHE

By LEGARDE S. DOUGHTY

The child looked up and said “tick tock tick tock,”

For so, “tick tock,” the restless rhythm ran.

But in a little while the constant clock

Looked down and spoke the same thing to the man.

“Tick tock”; and Time is shade and light and shade;

And Life’s a flash of letters through the sheaves.

Or good or ill, once made the lines are made;

And Death’s a smudge of dust between the leaves.

What shall I say to you or you to me

Of forming words to make our little Age?...

How write that we may covet utterly

To hold the book long open on this page?

Good priest, your arms are bridged beneath the host;

And sweet the thimble bells’ cool silver sound.

But come! God needs your ministrations most

Outside the temple, on the common ground.

O statesman, brew your piping pot of tea;

But think before you put the dead leaves by:

The antipode who plucked them from a tree,

Like you, must live—and laugh or weep—and die.

Field marshal, woman gave you life; and true,

It’s all you have. And Why did woman give

This precious one totality to you?

To die?—ah, foolish riddle—or to live?

Inventive sage, it’s shameful irony

Your wheels to lift the drudge have come to this:

Perfidious, they crush him until he

Spits at their steel: “Sic semper tyrannis!”

Philosopher, of all the thoughts you think

There is no skyey abstraction more sublime

Than simple concept of a cordial link—

Man to man against all tide and time.

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MAN AS AN ORGANIC UNIT

By G. A. SHOOK

IN the early days of any religion its adherents are filled with a superhuman love for their leader and for each other, and it is this love that makes them sacrifice gladly security, fortune, comforts of life, and if necessary life itself. The apostolic age of the Bahá’í Faith is no exception, in fact its deeds of sacrifice and heroism are unparalleled in history.

To the casual observer such a movement, at least in the beginning, may seem weak and inefficient because its followers are concerned with the things that will promote spiritual joy and not with theological and philosophical questions or problems of organization and administration. However, when we consider world conditions at the time of the Prophet’s appearance we realize that necessarily He must appeal first to the heart.

Speculation brings no satisfaction to the masses and to the intelligentsia it has no stable permanent foundation. Serious-minded people desiring some way to a higher life turn their thoughts inward and as a result spirituality is too often reduced to mere feeling. The will, which functions in the realm of faith, is useless unless the world is illumined with the spirit of a prophet.

Outside of the pale of religion thoughtful people are weary of philosophy and discouraged with the futility of their own efforts. Those who manifest in their lives the true spirit of religion by the alleviation of suffering are often the most pessimistic.

Consequently the majority of the religiously minded, observing the failure of philosophy and science, that is the intellect, to discover the way to God, fall back upon the age-old illusion that through the heart and the heart alone man may find the spiritual life, life eternal. And so it happens that in a dark period of the world humanity comes to believe that true religion must be expressed by the emotions and feelings unimpaired by the intellect. Many go so far as to believe that the purest religion will be found where the emotions are the least restrained, that is, in primitive [Page 68] types.

In reality, of course, the heart never functions without the mind. Nevertheless there are types that do very little rationalizing about religious faith or experience.

Any religious movement, therefore, which stirs deeply the feelings will make a direct appeal, although its philosophical basis may be incompatible with intellectual standards.

Consequently in the beginning the prophet appeals to the heart because the heart, so to speak, is ready for His Message. It is for this reason that the Bahá’í Faith appeared first as a leaven, destined to spiritualize the whole human race, irrespective of color or creed.

That this revivifying spirit must ultimately find some outward expression did not occur to most of the early believers.

The focal point of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh is unity—unity within the individual and unity within society. The inner conflict must be removed as well as the outer. Unless man becomes an organic unit the outer conflict will never be removed.

To this end Bahá’u’lláh laid down certain principles compatible with the maturity of this age, and among them were:

Prejudices of all kinds must be eliminated.

Unfettered investigation of truth.

Science and religion must agree.

Although both science and religion have been the cause of man’s progress, in the past they have opposed each other. Now they must be considered the two wings by which man advances. While religion has acknowledged the supremacy of science in the physical world, including man, it has not realized until quite recently that science may throw some light upon the heart or emotions.

Now it is important to note that all these principles, like the laws brought to humanity by any great prophet, are necessary but no one is sufficient standing alone. That is, they are all interdependent. Experience shows that we cannot eliminate prejudice with the mind alone, that is by merely investigating the truth, nor with the heart unaided by the intellect. It is from the heart that prejudice originated. It is the heart and not the mind that causes man to love his own race or nation, to the exclusion of all others. Simple-minded people who live by their emotions, that is those who are governed entirely by the promptings of the heart, are not free from animosity and hostility. The capacity for personal love, love without understanding or enlightenment, may be the cause of strife.

Reversely, without love and altruism, conflict and misunderstanding will never cease. Through the intellect man may discover that a particular religion is not inferior to his own but this fact does not, in itself, change indifference into appreciation. It is highly probable that religion will always be associated with emotion for emotion is the drive of life but the heart and mind must work together and when they do these disintegrating forces will gradually disappear.

THE assumption that God [Page 69] controls the heart, that He guides man through feeling and feeling alone is certainly not valid. It is an illusion we have inherited from an ancient dualistic philosophy which maintains that in the soul, or heart, there is a Divine spark, or that man is to a degree Divine. But this philosophy is contrary both to religion and science. If God’s creation is one and man is an organic unit, surely the intellect is not in conflict with his higher spiritual nature. Whereas the former prophets revealed the world of the heart, Bahá’u’lláh revealed the world of the heart and the mind.

When the heart and mind work together man will be able to think for himself he will not be forced to fall back upon dogma created by imperfect beings like himself.

God does reveal himself through the heart as the race has realized but no less through the mind, for the greatest gift to man, says ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is his intellect.

In the past a certain mystical type felt that he could approach God directly by suppressing all natural impulses and closing the heart, so to speak, to the suggestions of the mind. Today, however, man has been freed from this inner conflict, not through his own effort but through the enlightenment brought to the world by Bahá’u’lláh, and he should assume the rights and responsibilities of a mature nature spiritually free.

THE new law for this day, the law that recognizes man’s greatest gift, is sharply contrasted with this old attitude. Today we realize that to apprehend the knowledge of God man should free his mind from the promptings of the heart. Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the heart must be cleansed both from misguided love and hatred, "“...lest that love may cause him to incline toward a direction, without guide, or that hatred prevent him from turning in another direction....”

The heart is therefore not an infallible guide to spiritual truth. It is necessary but not sufficient. So long as the mind was in conflict with the heart a professional clergy was inevitable and its word was both necessary and sufficient. That is, for thousands of years, in the childhood of the race, there has been an unbroken line of some kind of priesthood, men like ourselves set apart to teach us the revealed Word. Today, however, the world resents this kind of instruction.

Let us turn back and consider the religious background of the race and its effect upon this inner conflict.

To primitive man and to man’s primitive nature, the most potent factor in religion is emotion. The function of all ritual is to reproduce some kind of emotion which is thought to be effective. But his real concern is with emotion, for to him every abnormal psychic experience is a message from the gods. As he develops he begins to rationalize and then the ritual, as a thing in itself, may lose its significance because it is external to him but his psychic experiences which are an integral part of his real self, still have value for him.

He may lose faith in religious systems, philosophy and even humanity but not in what he experiences emotionally. He needs no profound ratiocination [Page 70] to convince him that he has experienced rapture and ecstasy or fear and torment. And because these things are more real to him than external objects or logical deductions, he places them above everything in life.

If the ecstasy he knows is not associated in some way with the Highest Good, the God of religions, what is its origin? If logic dims this vision does it not, he may ask, rob him of his God? Nevertheless in external matters he continues to use his mind and so a dualism is inevitable. The hard facts of life do not remove the dilemma, for we observe that man succeeds when he frees his intellect from feelings as in science and engineering but he fails miserably when he allows his feelings to govern his reason as in his social relations.

When, however, he turns his mind inward, when he applies reason to his emotional life he begins to discover that what he had considered naively as fundamental fact may be merely inference. That is, the heart is about as infallible in dealing with faith as is the mind in dealing with external objects. The mystic has claimed always that when you are in the presence of God you will be cognizant of it and no one can dissuade you. But we cannot escape logic so readily. What the mystic really knows is that he has had an extraordinary experience, nothing more. Clearly he has not been in the presence of the Omnipotent God, nor has he become One with the Divine Essence.

Through the intellect, and not his awareness, he discovers that he must distinguish between a psychic experience and the interpretation of the experience. That is, he must differentiate between sensations, emotions, and feelings and that which causes them. If we are depressed no one can convince us that we are not, but the cause to which we assign the depression may not be valid. For example, if we are depressed we may assume that God is displeased with us. We may infer that a calamity is about to descend upon us. This thought in itself depresses us further. Finally we behold our agitated state and then we are completely convinced of God’s avenging hand. But in reality the depression may have been caused by a number of things, quite irrelevant to religion.

Every emotional experience which raises us above the level of daily routine is desirable; but every such experience which requires us to lay aside the mind, or which involves an inner conflict, is disintegrating.

On the other hand there is a normal religious joy, a majestic calm and not a psychic storm, which has its origin in the will rather than in the feelings. This kind is accessible, not to a few gifted individuals, but to everyone who humbly follows the prophets, abides by their laws and strives to reflect their attributes.

[Page 71]

SOURCES OF COMMUNITY LIFE

By MARION HOLLEY

IT is one of the curious paradoxes of our times that, while social action has increased in militancy and social groupings move with deadlier accuracy toward their predetermined goals, the activity we idealize as truly democratic has steadily diminished in vigor. Men and nations act with more unity and intent, but with less judgment and responsibility. Individual lives are more closely intertwined, but mutual confidence vanishes. The sheer weight of mass insistence determines many issues: mass rule is oppressive, demanding, arbitrary, and seldom vitalized by freedom of vision and spontaneity of the collective will.

This paradox may easily be demonstrated by reference to contemporary national life. Scarcely does there exist, among the powerful nations of Europe, in the Orient, or here in the United States, a real democracy. The seizure of power by self-elected individuals and parties has punctuated the riot of post-war years. These parties have entrenched themselves at the center of national activity, claiming for their leaders near deification, for themselves a right to omnipotence born from the belief that in them the State is personified. “L’Etat, c’est moi,” is the cry of each official partisan. Now this self-righteous seizure of every power and privilege has won for the State infallibility. But it has not caused it to represent the people.

The problem in the United States is of different complexion. In this large country no superficial unity has yet been imposed upon the citizenry, either by force or by the excitability of mob reaction. The sentiment surrounding the New Deal is already being dissipated, and it is now apparent that an appeal more powerful or an intention more ruthless will be needed to center the ambitions and energies of diverse America. Either these, or a more desperate necessity.

Meanwhile, the techniques of democracy have fallen into disuse, their functions usurped by demagoguery, the pressure of interest groups, the unseen propaganda of money, an irrational espousal of “cure-alls” by certain types of persons who hotly pursue one nostrum only until another [Page 72] appears, and a general listlessness on the part of the real body politic.

DESPITE this sterility of the contemporary pattern of government, it is an obvious and hopeful fact that the democratic ideal does exist. It is because we have reference to it, because in critical moments we are measuring the actual against it and finding an incompatibility; it is because in our own minds we are truly pledged to this vision of government by democratic process, that we view with fretfulness and perplexity the operations of our own social machine.

Our dissatisfaction, however, will be spent and lost in ineffective modes of speech unless we convert it to the uses of vigorous study of the problem and a subsequent frontal attack. We are under an immediate constraint to understand, not so much what we dislike about society, as what we desire it to be. In this approach the seed of action is concealed; only through such a positive direction of attention will the life of action be discovered. Constantly should we ask ourselves: What do we intend by “democracy?” What is a technique of democratic action? Quite apart from dictionaries, What is the American governmental ideal?

At this point it becomes very difficult to proceed with any soberness, for straight questions elicit swift replies, which whirl through the mind in enthusiastic disarray. There are a hundred considerations, a hundred phrases which spring up from subconscious slumber. Here is the idea of equality; everyone must vote. But election means selection, and immediately we have the idea of representative government. Who, then, is qualified to govern, or is everyone? How shall the general interest be maintained? Can any goal be said to shape the process?

“. . . That government of the people, for the people, and by the people shall not perish from the earth. . . .” Of, for, and by are the three prepositions which embody our political faith. Yet the theory behind that faith is not clearly defined by them, nor does it rest upon an assumption which, because of its confidence in the rightness of natural human opinion, is wholly defensible. The people, in themselves, are no guarantee of democratic process.

However, it is with the people that we must start, with that whole undifferentiated mass which lies at the base of society. In one respect society is nothing but the accumulation of its innumerable individual members. In another, society does not even begin to exist until these units are welded into the body we call a community.

Woodrow Wilson defined a community as “a body of men who have things in common, who are conscious that they have things in common. A community is unthinkable, unless you have a vital inter-relationship of parts. There must be such a contact as will constitute union itself before you will have the true course of the wholesome blood through the body.”

This conception of a community is almost necessarily an a priori assumption to the consideration of forms of government. But while we can assume ideas, we cannot assume their [Page 73] practical demonstration. The problem of actualizing upon the societal level “a body of men who have things in common, who are conscious that they have things in common,” is the critical task with which we today are struggling. The boundaries of community life, of that normal interplay of function and benefit which unites men by natural ties, have so far extended their reach as to coincide almost with the world’s boundaries. Common interest has levelized us all, merged us all, undermined us all, if you will, since individual security and safety no longer exist apart from a universal sanity.

Yet despite this real extension of the body politic to its furthest limits, beyond which lies nothing human, within which is encompassed the whole innumerable breed of men, it is a fact that no legitimate group life has yet been born because no consciousness stirs the human parts to a sense of mutual destiny. This is not only true for the great unit, the international body; it is equally true of all lesser units, of nations, cities, families, true even of the individual life itself. A vast unconsciousness hangs over mun, shrouding his least and best activities with a pall of inertia and uncreativeness.

Our first challege, then, is to awake; to quicken our lives; to capture a sound comprehension of individual purpose and function (Webster defines “individual” as a “complexity in unity characteristic of organized things . . .”) and through appreciation of “things in common,” to nourish that core of consciousness upon which community life may depend, from which the process of democratic action, like “the true course of the wholesome blood,” may issue to penetrate and activate the social organism.

This is the ideal. It does not exist, except in the imaginations of a few. It has no scope nor influence upon the institutions of large human groupings. The political activities of American citizens are little permeated by a virile confidence in the democratic process. The masses of men at the root of our government no longer possess that solidarity which once enabled them to say, with magnificent assurance, “We, the people of the United States . . .”

I do not suppose there is any document more stirring than this Constitution, as it marches, in the first phrases of the preamble, to its daring statement of intention. Curiously enough, the unity which it assumed did not exist either, except germinally in the minds of a few. In 1789 the American nation had yet to be welded, out of the substance of a great ideal, through the pressure of vicissitude and tenacious leadership. As we examine the sources of our national life, we know this to be so: and it lends hopefulness to our present dilemma.

For if, once before, (or many times, as could easily be proven), an ideal having no existence settled upon the minds of men, intrigued them, possessed them gradually, moved and united them, and finally created through them a nation, a living tangible community of action and hope, then surely the miracle could again be performed.

It could and it can. Through the ideal newly released by Bahá’u’lláh, [Page 74] it is being performed. His goal of a New World Order, inconspicuous and feeble as it may seem to the majority, is yet the germ of a new hope and of a new society. Examined closely, it will be seen to possess a potentiality as vital, a destiny as fine as any of the ideas ever yet generated among us.

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, who was born in Persia in 1817, lived in the East and died in Syria in 1892 without meeting any westerner except one, seems to us removed by time and place from the tradition and substance of our culture. We cannot imagine an idea of His affecting our political systems, nor does it seem likely that His philosophy, shaped on alien soil more than fifty years ago, could assist, except in a loose way, in the development of contemporary thought and habit. Yet the reverse is true. In His conceptions of the nature of society, in the techniques of government which He indicated, in the vision of world order which He painted, the essence of the modern spirit is confined and delineated. If one is avid for a sense of new horizons, let him study Bahá’u’lláh. There is to be found in the writings of this unique Person not only the modern community ideal, but the very mechanics of that kind of social action which is possible and most worthy of our times.

The core of the Bahá’í ideal is the concept of world order, which must be bred into the secret reactions of men’s minds and hearts before it can be built tangibly and formally. It is time we recognized that no community can flourish, either locally, nationally or internationally, until this basic step is achieved. The oneness of mankind is a social fact; not even a city government can neglect it, inasmuch as every city, and especially the American city, is comprised of diverse racial and national elements which, unless merged in common activity, are perforce in a perpetual struggle for control. Now the victory of one element over another—of one racial grouping, one economic class, one social set, or a political party—is a symptom of sickness in community life. Struggle is essential, but it is the equal struggle of all of these natural parts towards an achievement in government which shall represent, not victory upon one hand and loss on another, but a superior integration of the needs and actions of the parts into a single whole solution.

It is clear, therefore, that Bahá’u’lláh’s denunciation of prejudices of all descriptions was a preliminary to the ideal of world order, since the sense of human solidarity is the basis for social action upon any of its levels. By extirpating prejudice, intolerance, hatred, and all such violent reactions of narrow and confused minds, Bahá’u’lláh created the possibility of a world community. He then injected the fertile germ of the ideal itself.

Ortega y Gasset has written that “the State . . . is pure dynamism—the will to do something in common.” It begins “when groups naturally divided find themselves obliged to live in common.” New vitality is always generated by the vision of a new task; communities live again when they impose upon themselves the extension of their bounds and influence. The [Page 75] goal of world order is the modern dynamism, a new horizon, assuring life to the state in the very presence of its decay and chaos.

It is no mistake to say that Bahá’u’lláh injected this dynamic into His followers. With them it is not mere theory, not idle aspiration, a political creed which can be forfeited to personal benefit. A Bahá’í is one converted; with him world order is a religion; he stakes his talents and possessions upon his faith. It is only by such fundamental persistence and dedication of purpose that the new community can be realized, and thus Bahá’u’lláh has underwritten its success.

Horizons are never reached, however, by mere excess of enthusiasm. Ideals, to be great, must be rooted in cooler soil, and the feet of idealists must hold to firm ground, following along paths which are well defined, logical and accessible. The goal of world order, as described by Bahá’u’lláh, is attainable because already the road to be traveled is plain and there are those who are journeying upon it. In a nationalistic and sectarian age there are already persons who, as acting citizens of a world community, are practising the methods and perfecting the instruments of universal society.

These are the Bahá’ís who, having accepted the message of Bahá’u’lláh (“The world is but one country and mankind its citizens. . . let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind . . .”) not as felicitous prophecy, but as a demonstrable fact, are at this moment sharing the satisfactions and responsibilities of a creative task; working as members of the Bahá’í Administrative Order, they are fast harnessing His proclamation of human unity to institutional forms. Of this Administrative Order its Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, has written: “It will, as its component parts, its organic institutions, begin to function with efficiency and vigor, assert its claim and demonstrate its capacity to be regarded not only as the nucleus but the very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of time the whole of mankind.”

Needless to say, such a system cannot be measured and evaluated in a single essay, nor is it my purpose so to do. Rather, starting from the obvious thesis that democratic action, understood in its most liberal sense, has in our day declined, we observed this decline to be but a symptom of loss in the energy of our community life. Now a community, being “a body of men . . . who are conscious that they have things in common,” loses its life either when its members do not have things in common or are unconscious of them if they do. Men today have things in common; they are united externally by economic and political interdependence, and by world-wide bonds of communication; they are united more profoundly by their common humanity. Yet these factors in themselves are no guarantee of vitality. They form the framework merely of a potential society—a society which extends around the world, only to be throttled at its source by provincialisms. As one student has phrased it, “A new world has just been created, [Page 76] but most of the people in it are not yet aware of the fact.”

At the point of general awakening, then, will we find the spark to set our social body into motion. Not methods so much as a new ideal, to challenge and arouse us, will bring into play once more all of the powers and resources of the masses of men.

The sign of life is motion, wrote ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It was his Father, Bahá’u’lláh, who imparted to the body politic the modern secret of motion. Surely it is not in any way curious that the world community He touched to life should encompass, happily and uniquely, the virtues of an elevated idealism, spontaneous social action, a universal participation, and liberal, yet authoritative forms of government.

“Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth, and is the Knower of things unseen.”

[Page 77]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Edited by BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

Despite the establishment of the League of Nations, it may seem strange to say that comparatively speaking, there is less World Spirit today than at the time of the Renaissance. There is a difference, however, between the international spirit and the World Spirit. The League of Nations is a federation of national states whose avowed purpose is to preserve international peace, but whose governments are motivated almost exclusively by national interests. And this, of course, is equally true of nations outside the League. Within or without the League there is no attempt to consider humanity as a whole. There is no World Spirit guiding the solutions of the problems that affect the whole of humanity, affect the world as a whole. There are world problems of enormous importance. Who is considering the problem of the export of capital from a world standpoint with its tremendous influence upon labor, prices, and the transplantation of industries? Practically no one. Who is devoting himself to an investigation as a world problem of the movement and intermingling of races, of emigration and immigration? Practically no one. Who is trying to solve the world question of the fair distribution of raw materials? Practically no one. There are numerous attempts at the solution of all these problems but always with a nationalistic basis. There does not exist a World Spirit.

DR. STEPHEN DUGGAN

In News Bulletin, Institute of International Education

SCHOOLS AND THE NEW DAY

Obviously then, if the attempt is to be made to bring about among the sons of men a new day of justice, love and peace, some procedures must be employed which differ from those of the past. These procedures must make it possible for growing life to be brought into contact with understanding, appreciation and good will to the end that the life which is good to live may be made possible for every person everywhere. There are in the United States approximately one million teachers in the public schools and approximately the same number of [Page 78] teachers in church schools. Here is a potential assurance of that new day. Suppose, for instance, that history and literature, politics and religion, should for a single generation be presented on the basis of intellectual honesty and a defensible religious ethic! Suppose that all the information presented for the consideration of growing youth should be pertinent, verifiable and ungarbled! Suppose we actually believed in the function of the individual intelligence! Suppose we should begin to accept the validity of the individual’s intelligent facing of his own problem of getting on in his own situation and should offer our help to him to achieve the spiritual insight and dynamic therein! Imagine what a host of half-truths, threats, superstitions, and undesirable prejudices would be cast out of the everyday dealing with the everyday person in the home, on the street, in the classroom, in the church.

JAMES V. THOMPSON

In Christian Century

January 22, 1936.

ONE, ONENESS

The differences dividing the man most civilized from the man most barbarous are as zero compared to the differences dividing the man barbarous from the highest animal. Man, men, human, humanity are the significant words. And these words are summed up in the single word—one, oneness.

CHARLES F. THWING

In Detroit News, January 19,1936

HERITAGE AND ASSIMILATION

For nearly two hundred years in Europe and in White America there has been going forward a disintegration of institutions and of heritages. It has gone to that point where millions of men, even majorities in whole nations, have become sundered from the traditions of religion, of liberty, of chivalry, of justice, of neighborliness, and from ruling ideas since ancient Greece and ancient Israel have guided the best minds of the White race like stars over a desert. And yet individual personality has not grown more; certainly it has grown less. Because heritage has been neglected, assimilation has failed; and a present Europe, dominated across half its area by the mob mind, and meshed and paralyzed through nearly all its nations by cynicism, is the dreadful fruit of that twofold failure due to the fatal divorce of two goals which in the way of life can only be one goal. “What God has joined, let no man put asunder.”

JOHN COLLIER

Commissioner of Indian Affairs

NATURE OF REALITY

I assert that the nature of all reality is spiritual, not material nor a dualism of matter and spirit. The hypothesis that its nature can be to any degree material does not enter into my reckoning.

SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON

In New Pathways in Science

Oneness, in its true significance, means that God alone should be realized as the one power which animates and dominates all things, which are but manifestations of Its energy.

BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

From Words of Wisdom

[Page 79]

A PATH TO PERMANENT PEACE

BOOK REVIEW

By RAYMOND FRANK PIPER

Wars can be prevented declares John Bates Clark in his book, A Tender of Peace. His simple and lucid proposal is a fascinating blend of realism and idealism. He starts with an emphatic distinction between a robber and his victim, between offensive and defensive warfare. Defense against an invader is an heroic and sacred duty, but aggression by an enlightened nation is criminal and concentrated iniquity. To prevent aggression is to preserve peace.

The author’s plan of prevention rests upon a few principles. In every modern war a distinguishable nation initiates the attack with the hope of gain. The cost of present-day warfare is so stupendous that any unfoolish aggressor would not risk attacking an equal or stronger power. An adequate power of defense for any nation may be provided by a community of nations who agree to contribute their joint forces to an assaulted member, and to boycott the assailant. In the face of probable failure aggression is forestalled. Potential defense prevents offense.

The realization of this proposal requires an international body, like the League of Nations. Such an organization must devise means of identifying and announcing an aggressor with speed, certainty and authority. This organization also would shape and perfect the techniques needed for efficiently pooling the resources of cooperating nations against any marauder, for adjudicating international disputes, and so forth. This plan is essentially an extension to interstate groups of the common practice of local communities; namely, of preserving order through laws and courts backed by armed forces too strong to be challenged.

The ultimate goal of human desire is an unconquerable, democratic, and friendly union of all nations pledged to cooperate in preserving universal peace and in promoting joyful living among men. This glorious culmination presupposes a long training of civilians in the arts of peace. These arts can be perfected by study and effort just as the arts of destruction are steadily being improved.

The proper time to develop the techniques of common defense is the present era of peace, lest the era terminate in a devastating Armageddon. The arts of war prevention are yet in their infancy, and stand in urgent need of improvement. The present opportunity and peril is an unprecedented summons to prophetic statesmen to come forward and inaugurate the means of abiding peace.

Fortunately many peace-favoring institutions already exist, the aid of which may well be enlisted, notably the League of Nations. The author firmly believes that the League is a [Page 80] great improvement over every previous union for defense, although it needs perfecting. Because of the economic interdependence of modern nations, international business groups strongly favor world-wide peace. Organized labor, the community of scientists, and various large groups of peace-loving people in many parts of the earth are ready to assist in organizing defense.

IF one continent of nations could realize an effective defensive union, that achievement would be a crucial step toward world peace. It would serve as a model and inspiration to other continents. Because of the fruitful historical experiences of European nations, they possess today a golden opportunity for uniting in a defensive alliance which no single state, and no limited group of states, would ever venture to assail. Another crucial advance would occur if America would join Europe in a protective union against aggressors.

The author points out that in the past organized warfare has served as a forward step toward international peace because it has substituted intermittent hostilities for the almost continuous and wild melees of unsettled primitive conditions, and thus has prolonged the intervals of peace. In our age there is reasonable hope that a perfected organization for war prevention can extend these intervals into permanent peace.

The only alternative to universal peace by cooperation is a universal empire which has become master of the world by forcible conquest of all wealter states. The first way alone insures peace with liberty. The ancient method of empire-building may indeed bring peace, but peace with bondage and the promise of eventual relapse into dreadful chaos.

In short, the open road to peace consists in realizing three conditions: (a) Aggression must receive strong moral and legal condemnation. (b) An international body must have the power to detect and announce any aggressor. (C) It must be well known in advance that a protective union of nations is prepared and able to offer to any assailant sure, righteous and effectual resistance.

To provide the means of insuring such resistance is the chief task and the solemn duty of our generation. Potential defense is the only effective preventive of offense.