World Order/Volume 3/Issue 2/Text

←Issue 1

World Order Volume 3 - Issue 2

Issue 3→

Return to PDF view Proofread once

[Page -1]

WORLD ORDER

MAY 1937

THE LAND OF FOUR FAITHS • RUHÍYYIH KHANUM

LANGUAGE AND WORLD UNITY • R. F. PIPER

MANKIND THE PRODIGAL • ALFRED E. LUNT

MORAL EDUCATION OF WORLD INTEREST • H. L. LATHAM

[Page 0]

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

MAY 1937 VOLUME 3 • NUMBER 2

A MOST EXCITING ERA • EDITIORIAL .................... 41

THE LAND OF FOUR FAITHS • RUHÍYYIH KHANUM ........... 43

MORAL EDUCTION • H. L. LATHAM ....................... 50

LANGUAGE AND WORLD UNITY • RAYMOND F. PIPER ......... 53

A STUDY OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION, III • G. A. SHOOK ... 62

ACQUIESCENCE, POEM • GARRETA BUSEY .................. 67

WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, IV • MARY COLLISON ...... 68

MANKIND THE PRODIGAL • ALFRED E. LUNT ............... 71

SIGNS OF THE TIMES • BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK ........ 78

Change of address should be reported one month in advance.

WORLD ORDER is published monthly in New York, N. Y., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Stanwood Cobb and Horace Holley. BUSINESS MANAGER: C. R. Wood. PUBLICATION OFFICE: 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. EDITORIAL OFFICE: 119 Waverly Place, New York. N. Y.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, $1.75 to Public Libraries. Rate to addresses outside the United States, $2.25, foreign Library rate, $2.00, Single copies, 20 cents. Checks and money orders should be made payable to World Order Magazine, 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. Entered as second class matter, May 1, 1935, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Contents copyrighted 1937 by BAHA'I PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.

May 1937, Volume 3, Number 2.

[Page 41]

WORLD ORDER

MAY, 1937, VOLUME THREE, NUMBER TWO.

A MOST EXCITING ERA

EDITORIAL

“TODAY is beyond comparison the most exciting time in the history of mankind,” says Gilbert Seldes. “For the first time in recorded history, all the nations of the world are passing through a crisis at the same moment. Today, this month, this year, all civilization takes another step through one of those notably rare periods of transition which form the character of generations to come.”

Undoubtedly this is an exciting time to be living in. But it is for that very reason not a felicitous period. There is only one thing that can give us a calm and tranquil psychology in the midst of the present world crisis. What we need individually and collectively is a definite concept of goals towards which we should work, goals which stand for progress and a new world order that is so based upon equity and reason that a civilization built according to its pattern will again achieve normalcy in the way of stability, security, and ordered progress.

If we face life today with some such actively motivating interest as this, following intelligently the events and trends of the hour and interpreting these kaleidoscopic changes in the light of permanent goals which we have invisioned, we shall find this period of transition more thrilling than disconcerting, more inspiring than it is alarming. “They (the future generations) will think of our age as the golden age, the glorious morning of the world. And I for one do not regret that fate has cast my lot in [Page 42] it,” says Sir James Jeans.

MILLIONS of people today are finding in the new world order of Bahá’u’lláh a definite pattern for universal civilization which is both convincing and inspiring. This pattern solves the problems of uncertainty, points a definite way toward reform, and gives tangible evidence of a perfection and a potency which are divine in origin. It is this spiritual faith of Bahá’ís which gives to the reforms they are preaching a dynamic power. Also this faith bestows upon both the ideology and activity of Bahá’ís a unity transcendently efficacious.

The difficulty with the practicability of other reform movements lies both in the uncertainty of their perfection and in their lack of unity in practice. It is the latter obstacle which is the most insuperable in the world’s need of reform and progress. For if a thousand people hold a thousand different ideas as to what should be done, even though each one of these ideas has something of good in it, practical action on a large scale will be very difficult if not actually impossible, owing to the lack of unity and coherence in these ideas and to the obstinacy with which individualism is prone to back its pet theories and projects.

On the other hand, we find in the world organization of the Bahá’í movement under the inspired leadership of Shoghi Effendi, comprising followers from every important country of the world and from every great race and religion, the potentiality of a spearhead thrust upon the confused army of chaos through which the forces of true progress must penetrate if they are to come out victorious.

Many leaders in the world of thought or of affairs, not themselves Bahá’ís, are today finding notably worthy of their attention and respect the great world principles of reform which Bahá’u’lláh promulgated over 70 years ago. They are struck with the fact that all the world trends since that time of Bahá’u’lláh’s mission have been steadily and consistently in the direction of the social, economic and political patterns which comprise His new World Order. This fact lends credence to the stupendous claims of the Bahá’ís, that the goals for which they are working will lead ultimately to a universal civilization of greater perfection that humanity has ever known, a civilization firmly based upon universal peace and universal progress, world brotherhood and unity. “It is toward this goal of a new world order, divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, that a harassed humanity must strive.”

S.C.

[Page 43]

THE LAND OF FOUR FAITHS

RUHÍYYIH KHANUM

IT is Saturday; we stand before the remaining wall of the Temple of Solomon and contemplate the plight of the Jews. Plight indeed it seems, their temple destroyed, their race dispersed, their people humiliated and persecuted. Here are Polish Jews, Jews from Hamadán, from Germany, from Palestine. Here the ancient crone touches each stone and kisses her fingertips; the women weep; the mens’ foreheads bow against the great, rough wall and the Rabbis wring their hands in the fervor of prayer, inclining left and right as they chant. Their glory is remembered. Here a face unchanged, as though day before yesterday Babylon were; all the wanderings, the rise to civilization and power, the brilliancy of the Mosaic Dispensation, the past that was theirs, lingers richly, tragically by the wailing wall. And then, as one weighs this seeming strange, unreasoned suffering of a shattered nation, one asks: how many Faiths have risen and shed their light upon the path of men since Jewry lost its splendor? Christ, their Messiah, promised to them again and again for generations by the Prophets of the Old Testament, the King of the Jews; He came and two thousand years ago, not very far from this spot, another group of Rabbis cried out: “His blood be upon us and on our children.”

Let us feel no hate nor cry condemnation to them, to judge is not our right, we can only study the clear scroll of history. Muhammad came, six hundred years later. He addressed the cousins of the Jews, the Arabs, He brought a message from God to men, and the Jews were no more moved by His coming, indeed far less, than by the Christ. Again a Divine Messenger appeared; in 1844 the Báb, the Promised One of the Muhammadan Faith, came; again the silence, of the Jews in acclaiming Him, and, nineteen years later Bahá’u’lláh revealed Himself and the Jews are still weeping for their vanished fame, still praying for the coming of their King. A chill passes over one. These people are living in the past of four thousand years ago; life —the essence of life which is religion —has been renewed in four great spiritual springtides and they are still, as a people, unaware; still crying, “O Day” to the one of four thousand years ago and ignoring the Divine Days, foretold unto them in their sacred books, that have come in between. We see the look of fanaticism writ deep in the priests’ eyes as [Page 44] they caution us to stand aside lest they defile their skirts on the way to prayer by brushing against a Gentile. We are impressed that they would stand passionately against any change, whether it be the right or wrong one, that might threaten their hold on their people’s minds, and their love of this hold they possess. Away from this stagnant pool, this is the Holy Jerusalem, let us to the sepulchre of the New Born King!

NOT far off, amidst the winding, tawdry, dirty, bargaining streets of the bazaars, till we come to the church of the Holy Sepulchre. We enter the dark, sweet-smelling interior: here is the slab Christ was laid upon and His body washed by Joseph of Arimathaea, over it hang eight lighted lamps: four of these, we are told, belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, two to the Catholics, one to the Armenians and one to the Copts. We are ushered up onto the Mount of Calvary; here we gaze, somewhat stupified when we remember the sufferings of the Christ, at the gold-encrusted paintings, the statue of the Virgin, bedecked with jewels amounting to millions of pounds, the authentic hole in which the cross stood. We pass on, a priest sells us three tapers, driving his price home forcefully. We go to the Greek Orthodox chapel; we go to the Catholic chapel; we see the small chapel of the Copts, and we enter that inner shrine which marks the spot where Jesus was entombed for three days. Confused we try to remember how many of the lamps hanging above the spot of entombment belong to the Greeks, the Catholics, the Armenians or the Copts. Through these two holes in the chapel wall the holy fire is thrown to the multitudes at Easter, many are killed in the competition to be close enough to catch it. All over in this barren, divided building, are paintings, gold, jewels. A priest comes waving a censor, the dull clank of its chains echoes softly away into the chambers; a Catholic monk walks by, Greek priests go laughing about their work. They watch us with either suspicion, indifference or contempt. But down in the earliest part of the church, built by Constantine’s mother, the stones are covered with crusaders’ crosses, carved by the hands of the sincere in the days when Christianity blossomed in the hearts of men. These shall go with us in memory. We cast one last look around: It is here that “The Terrible Meek” agonized for His fellow-men He loved so dearly. Here He passed away. Here that the government must regulate and arbitrate between the sects of Christianity lest any more blood flow in this place already washed with it by the feuds of the faithful down through the ages.

WE pant for air and sunlight, let us go on the mosque of Umar, to the Faith of Muḥammad. Two thousand years have dealt harshly with that teaching given to mankind by Jesus of Nazareth; sects bicker over inches of the church erected on the site of His crucifixion. An outcast once by His people who still weep and wail for Him to come, down by the wall of Solomon’s temple, He seems outcast too from this dark [Page 45] abode of religious schism, hatred and fanaticism. Three Divine Revelations have come to the world since Christ departed: Muḥammad, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, yet jealously they guard the church of the Holy Sepulchre, looking upon their fellows as heathen, intruders, and unsaved.

We approach the mosque of Umar; a policeman stops us and inquires what we are, do we believe in Muḥammad? Yes, we reply of course we believe in Muḥammad, we are Bahá’ís. And so, without having to forfeit one dollar apiece for being unbelievers, we are guided into the great Dome of the Rock. Here in the semi-twilight is a peace and stillness, the aroma of spirituality still faintly lingers. With a convinced fidelity one feels the true Moslem still receives spiritual sustenance from his great and noble Faith—but not far away the Jews are kissing the shattered fragments of their temple wall; why do they weep, a sad and outcast people? Have they not fulfilled the prophecy that they should be wanderers until: “He shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Are they not punished for what they did to their Messiah in crucifying Him? Here we feel a faint echo of this in the mosque of Umar. These devout Muḥammadans, what have they done? In the early dawn of that Day Muḥammad wrote so profusely about, they have martyred their Promised One, even as the Jews, they have taken the life of Him whom they awaited; He who proclaimed to them: “I am, I am, I am, the Promised One! I am the one whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten.” Whereupon they martyred Him, Siyyid ‘Alí-Muḥammad, the Báb. They have exiled and banished four times, left to while away His life in a penal colony, Him who was the Promise of all ages, Bahá’u’lláh. No wonder it is twilight in the mosque; the night of their denial and persecution is beginning to close in upon them.

AND so we leave the Holy City, filled with wonder. Wonder at the great discrepancy between the inner and the outer. These jewel-encrusted images, these money-soliciting priests, these bewailing rabbis. Where in their midst shall we find the strength and simplicity of Moses who received His Ten Commandments upon a lonely and barren hill-top from His God? Where is the barefooted Jesus who brought love and hope to His fellow-men and lived and died untainted, unreachable by all earthly consideration? Where is the tolerance, the justice of that Holy Camel Driver to whom God revealed the sacred Qur’án, who led mankind further on the way of human progress? We turn our backs on a spiritually empty and desolate city from whose depths arises the clamor of the tongues of fanaticism and materialism, and turn our faces longingly towards the coast, towards the center of the Bahá’í world. [Page 46]

THE terraces on the side of Mount Carmel ascend to a simple, low-lying building, surrounded by plain gardens of an orderly and beautiful design. We pause before this tomb, this Shrine of the Báb’s resting place, and look out over the peaceful bay of Haifa to where the painted hills are shadowing themselves with purple. The friendly smile of the Persian gardener greets us. We Bahá’ís, like any other human being of any race, creed or color, are welcome to the Shrine. We enter a carpeted room, bow our heads to a flower-strewn threshold, and contemplate the exquisite, dignified and simple inner chamber of the Shrine beneath which the Báb’s remains have found their last earthly resting-place. Here are no pictures, no statues, no priests, no formulae; the soul is free to feel what it may in this sanctuary: a Prophet’s tomb. The stillness here must surely cast its pall upon the most restless spirit. The peace and assurance of a world-embracing greatness, unshut in, unsecularized by priest or cult, untainted by worldly pomp and power, resting amidst the gardens, close to the wild stone and brush of the mountain side.

Here we find the inner that in Jerusalem has long since been slain by the outer. Here the words of Bahá’u’lláh are a tangible reality: “It is clear and evident to thee that all the Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in diverse attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt behold them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same heaven, seated upon the same throne, and proclaiming the same Faith. Such is the unity of those Essences of Being, those Luminaries of infinite and immeasurable splendor.”

Let no one misunderstand. These reactions to the Holy City of Jerusalem are no condemnation of the believers in her Faiths, no criticism of the greatness of their teachings, no belittling of the sacred right of the individual to his belief, a right greatly prized and respected by every Bahá’í; they are the natural and logical reactions of one who has contacted the revivifying breath of a new and living Revelation; who has dispassionately studied human history, and plumbed the inner recesses of his own soul. To believe in God presupposes associating Him with His creation. To study that creation reveals to us the magnitude of His power, the unbounded nature of His cosmos. His generosity and love which He has breathed into all things. Everywhere we see the signs of these attributes which we call godly. The lavishness, multiplicity and splendor of the forms of matter; dust, crystals, stars, nebulae; the abundance of life’s forms, from the shimmering insect’s wings to the microscopic amoebae; from the instrument of man’s body, with the perfectly coordinated systems of brain function, heart and lung action, metabolism, to his inner subjective life of thought, feeling, creative capacity.

WOULD it be in keeping with such a universe for God to withhold His mercies spiritually; is it possible to believe at the same time that our Creator, loving us, His creatures, gave in all of human history only once, in [Page 47] this process of the unfoldment of our lives as a race of men, a Revelation, a Saviour, a Prophet to us? Such a paradox is untenable. Each single day the sun dawns; each single year the earth draws near the sun and all her life is renewed in the fire of spring. How then can we narrow down the very Creator of this natural order into having only once sent a spiritual Educator to us, His people? And this once not at the beginning of our long period of unfoldment on this planet, but somewhere in the middle of it, after billions of souls had passed away with no spiritual contact with their Maker to guide them. Where in any Holy Book does the Prophet state that the spring of divine Revelation was opened only once, by Himself, and then closed again forever? On the contrary each Manifestation has testified to the ones gone before and the ones to come after Him. The dogmatic limitations are man-made, have partaken of the smallness of the concepts of human beings who have dared to put the stamp of personal egotism on their Faith by claiming it to be either a unique historic phenomenon or a final Revelation.

The Bahá’í sees history as a great and moving drama of the striving of the human soul towards God, towards increased perfection; the longing inherent in man to transcend and overcome all earthly bounds and attain to a knowledge of the secrets that lie within nature, within himself. The Bahá’í sees the human specie, differentiated through natural causes into races and nations, as one great group of beings continually led on towards higher and nobler achievements under the loving and watchful protection and guidance of their Creator Who has covenanted ever to send them a Prophet, a Divine Being in Whose soul the Light of God is mirrored to them, to educate them, to give them laws, and, according to their degree of maturity, to unfold to them the purpose of their creation and reveal the next steps that they must take in order to realize that purpose.

THE Bahá’í has learned through Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to see that within the course of all history has lain a definite and perfect Plan. A Plan as complete, as normal to human development, as those laws which in operation we name evolution; as a seed is planted, grows up, becomes a tree, blossoms and reaches fruition, so he sees that men have evolved in their social life together from one stage to another with the same inexorable forward march that has characterized any growing organism’s development: from the primitive man’s family to village life, from clan to city-state, from principality to nation, from nation and empire to federated world unity, this is the last and culminating step in that process of social organization that has characterized the evolution of society. And even as a Divine Revealer has guided peoples and nations in the past, has released the forces of a spiritual Springtide which alone could fecundate the cultural, social and inner life of a people and carry them forward to ever higher standards of human conduct and expression, so now, when the world has become [Page 48] through science a factual unit, it requires, by all the axioms of our historic experience, a new and fuller statement of religious truth to lay the foundation, give the necessary laws needed to bind the units into a whole and release the spiritual rejuvenating powers required to impel man forward towards this high and glorious goal: the Most Great Peace, a new World Order.

When a thing has lived its allotted span, the forces of disintegration set in and nothing can prevent them. Religious schism, intolerance, the worship of ritual, and dogmatism; the belief that only their Faith is right, all these are signs which mark the end of a religion’s external life and rule; but that which is associated with perfection can never be destroyed: the Prophets of God were always and will always be; the religion of God is one and eternal. But the institutions made to be the repository of this religion, because they must be intimately associated with men, carried forward by men, slowly become corrupted by them, partake of their imperfections and eventually become obsolete. This is why every Prophet has brought new laws suitable to the time of His Dispensation and abrogated the old and no longer practicable and no longer necessary ones given in a former Dispensation.

The Bahá’í sees mankind very much as a human patient and the Prophet as a Divine Physician: at one time one ailment afflicts him, at another time another. The sole criterion of the authority and excellence of a physician is if he produces a cure and enables the body of the patient to function with increased vigor, giving him the instructions necessary to accomplish this result. Man is fallible; Divine Revelation is infallible. Man is finite; Divine Revelation infinite. We receive the life-giving revelation of the Prophet, gradually it pervades society, becomes accepted, rises to ascendancy, produces new arts, new sciences, a new culture, a new civilization. Like the spring equinox which releases a sufficient energy to vitalize the vegetation of the entire planet for three hundred and sixty five days, so that measure of Divine Revelation given by Moses, by Christ, by Muhammad or any Divine Revealer, carried the people it was destined to reach, forward into achievement, culture, fruition. But the blindness of men, the fanaticism of their priests and religious leaders, has ever repeated itself in history. The Rabbis crucified Jesus, the Mullás signed the Báb’s death-warrant.

IT is only natural that a soul who has sought truth and become freed from bigotry, should turn his face from Jerusalem to the twin cities of Haifa and ‘Akká, with the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá ringing in his ears: “This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed as a garden and a paradise. It is the hour of the unity of the sons of men and the drawing together of all races and classes . . . for universality is of God and all limitations are earthly.” It is no wonder that he leaves the shadow of superstition and ritual for the substance of truth, [Page 49] knowing that when at last he stands within the tomb of Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí, and the dynamic force of that Shrine encompasses him, and he testifies within his soul that this is He Who has called all mankind to unity and laid the plan for the Golden Age of the human race; it is only natural that here he feels the Oneness of God and of His Prophets. With what love the soul remembers Moses, Christ, Muhammad, here. With what gratitude he cherishes Their holy reality and he feels that They too, are acclaiming from the invisible world, these words of Bahá’u’lláh:

“Tell the priests to ring the bells no longer. By God! The most glorious Bell has appeared in the Temple of the Most Great Name, and the fingers of the will of your Lord, the Great, the Supreme, are ringing it in the kingdom of eternity, to His name the All-Glorious! Thus again have the verses of the Lord, the Powerful, been revealed unto you, in order that you may arise and praise God, the Creator of heaven and earth; . . . the Unconstrained is come in the shadow of lights to reanimate the beings by the breezes of His Name, and to unify the people, so that they may assemble at this Table which has descended from heaven. Beware of denying the favor of God after its descent! His gifts are preferable to your possessions; for that which is yours will soon disappear, while that which is His shall be eternal. . . . If you turn toward creation with a spiritual ear, you will hear: ‘the Eternal has arrived in supreme Glory!’ All things praise God in gratitude.”

[Page 50]

MORAL EDUCATION OF WORLD INTEREST

H. L. LATHAM

THE racial impulse to act for self-preservation has always induced the recognition of rules of conduct. Morality summarizes achievements that are essential to group harmony and survival. The schools of a nation are set up as insurance against disharmony and decay. Consequently, formal education has always embodied at least a nucleus of character building material. Schools in ancient China, Greece and Rome as truly as any modern school sought to create men of character. In our times, debates and publications of such organizations as the National Educational Association and its departments are charged with moral fervor and aims. The classroom itself is an impossible institution unless it has good manners, discipline, and cooperation. Educators who view all of these facts often voice a passion for moral results in education, and then rely chiefly upon spontaneous moral influences that arise in all school experiences. Indeed, such influences do persist despite neglect, mal-administration, educational folly and temporary distractions.

Another group of educational leaders refuses to trust in the implications of school experience as sufficient guidance in character development. Such persons declare that morality never matures without conscious cultivation. They rely on the known psychological fact that specific skills, above the animal level, develop only by purposeful cultivation. Such skills include penmanship, music, good manners, careful speech, and equable temper.

During periods of educational preoccupation, the moral values of education survive by chance. Later they are held up to view, critically evaluated, and set up as goals. Hence arose the well-known character education courses, bulletins, debates, discussions, now recorded in books, articles and other publications. We in the United States are witnessing an efflorescence of such products. Here probably more than anywhere else in the world, the refinements of educational technic have been employed in the hope of educating school children in character. Narrow specialists have doted on mottoes, maxims, injunctions and even punishments as efficient generators of character.

Wiser men have fortunately discovered that social environment has actually determined character more than all of the schoolman’s devices. The child of the Australian bushman acts in a pattern set by tribesmen of [Page 51] very ancient days, and the child of West Madison Street, Chicago, is born into a career of debauchery and debasement. Henceforth, as long as the public requires the schools to turn out good citizens, educators must shoulder a heavy task in remodeling the social environment of children. Otherwise the labor of school hours will be nullified by leisure-time associations.

EDUCATORS have become social-minded as never before in the history of education. They have discovered that the moral ideals of the schoolman grew up in the environing community, and that the school can succeed in training citizens only as the worthy citizens support educational leaders. Educators have also learned that moral education is best accomplished with pupils in groups, often in organizations patterned after the numerous active groups in town, state and nation.

Character education has been placed under heavy responsibilities. Every advocate of social and political reform wants to capture the schools as instruments of nation-wide propaganda in behalf of health, travel, fascism, democracy, peace, military training, communism, trade unionism, capitalism, public utilities, public ownership, prohibition, temperance, internationalism and antisemitism. In addition, the complete upheaval of all social forces has driven numberless crucial issues into public view. The moral aspects of most of these matters cannot be excluded from public discussion in schools, or young people will be deprived of their rights in the study of community problems. And yet if the discussion is permitted in classrooms, the prejudices of partisan advocates are often offended.

Yet more obviously, all governments must fight for their existence, and so come to demand the cooperation of the nation’s schools. At the very least they claim the right to propagate the ethical code of militarism. This is taking place in every strong nation on earth, and in several instances children are in training in reserve ranks. Governments will always insist on active support from schools dependent on state funds. This is civic education based on a code proposed by a central authority. Such training is animated with moral principles whether high or low, or it is worthless. Moral education, then, is going on wherever loyalty to the government is inculcated.

The schools are able also to contribute indirectly to the promotion of religion and the church, by stressing character objectives. In American public schools the church has slight opportunity for organized activity. Nevertheless, when educators act on the highest level, they promote a morality that coincides with the morality so urgently stressed by the church. Non-sectarian schools should be credited with this contribution, and the situation should be accepted by churchmen, who may well cooperate in emphasizing the most worthy ideals.

THERE are also numerous international links that unite advocates of character education in all [Page 52] nations. For one thing, the civic molds in which moral education must take form are largely the same the world over—the family, integrity of contract, brotherhood, loyalty to government, fairness in international dealings and the like. Every nation wants children trained to obey civil law. But the laws of all lands are mostly based on universal principles of justice. Thus the moral goals of education in all lands become almost identical.

SEVERAL outcomes of this situation must not be overlooked. Common interest, for example, has led to the six quadrennial sessions of the International Moral Education Congress, the last one being held in 1934. Here hundreds of educators from many lands discuss their respective problems from varying viewpoints. Thus repeated conferences on identical interests vital to social existence unite workers who disregard national and sectarian lines while working their way through the most vital issues faced by mankind.

A second important outcome is the intercommunication between pupils of many lands. Children of France, Poland, Germany, Rumania, Japan, Mexico, and the United States are writing fraternal letters and sending radio messages under the inspiration of high-minded educators. In one semester 890 letters were exchanged by school children of Poland. Along with this the interchange between pupils of different countries has developed to an amazing extent. Student hostels provide domiciles for visiting pupils during several weeks of vacation. In this way the growth of international fraternalism is immensely facilitated, and widely approved sanctions of character education gain public attention. Then all the more gladly the national public sanctions outright social relief furnished by the children and young people of one land for those of their own age who are suffering destitution in a foreign land.

[Page 53]

LANGUAGE AND WORLD UNITY

RAYMOND FRANK PIPER

SEVEN CANDLES OF UNITY • A SYMPOSIUM VIII

FROM slow-paced sound to unpassed light has modern scientific genius speeded the transmission of human speech. Ear-shot distance has expanded to world-wide audition. Marvelous creations (telephone, radio, camera, printing press, locomotive, steamship, airplane) swiftly dispatch any words to the rims of all continents, to ships in every sea and sky. These mechanisms are impersonal, international, supranational; they can convey any language to any country. Radio rays are indifferent to dialects, races, and geographical boundaries.

LANGUAGE LAGS BEHIND MACHINES

But there is no accepted world speech for these refined instruments to transmit. There is no language which is understood by all peoples. In the face of this tragic lack, our imagination is seized by the stupendous conception of a coming era of enlightenment when all educated men may know, in addition to their mother-tongue, a perfected universal language, and be able to converse with men of any nation.

At present mankind is confined in many hundreds of linguistic inclosures. A free exchange of ideas is prevented by the costly customs duties of slow and difficult translation. Many valuable notions never get beyond the frontiers of national tongues. These barriers restrain trade, intimidate travelers, keep alive provincial prejudices, and inhibit international concourses. The peoples of the world, in short, continue to suffer immeasurable losses in cultural-exchange values because they remain isolated behind a multitude of exclusive national speech-ways.

Thus while standardized physical inventions have largely obliterated in communication the limitations of space and time, no universal language has delivered the minds of men from their ancient captivity to local tongues. The curse of Babel still stultifies human intercourse. Through ingenious machines like radio and airplane, science brings face to face peoples from near and far; but when they meet, they are silent and helpless, or else wildly gesticulate, for science has not given them a common medium for conversation. The supranational instruments of communication cannot realize their full possible values for world-wide welfare until they are given for transmission an efficient [Page 54] language which is universally intelligible.

In consequence there is before contemporary science and social engineering no more alluring and significant task than to put in operation an effective language for free intercourse among the peoples of the earth. To lead mankind from its captivity to Babel is an incomparable challenge alike to daring idealists and discerning men of affairs. Science has improved vehicles, telephones, surgical instruments, animals, fruits, and a host of other utilities. By deliberate endeavor science can likewise immensely improve the tool of language. And since speech is man’s most important social and intellectual instrument, its perfecting deserves and demands the finest methods and ardor in research, and the finest tact and ingenuity in organization, that modern intelligence can produce.

THE NEED OF A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

The needs for a universal auxiliary language are many, urgent, and evident. The basic need is an effective medium for international understanding and cooperation. For many reasons there is, as a distinguished sociologist points out, “a growing appreciation of the interlocking of human interests and the continuities of human experience.” But this growing world-consciousness lacks an adequate vehicle of expression and expansion. Trying to know and enjoy people without free and full interchange of ideas in a common tongue is difficult, disconcerting, and discouraging.

As soon as men of international understanding have a proper language medium, the universal phases of life will rapidly become more articulate, and increase in strength and range. Satisfying intercourse with new personalities of diverse nationalities will awaken new interests, values and sympathies, and produce loyalties which may be as wide as mankind. Professor Sapir declares, “A common allegiance to a form of expression that is identified with no single national unit is likely to prove one of the most potent symbols of the freedom of the human spirit that the world has yet known.” A fundamental condition for the realization of a great and free commonwealth of nations is a fine universal language. Professor Shenton, a prominent sociologist, asserts that “the growth of international concourse seems inevitable, and some adequate language procedure is a social imperative.”

The most extensively used of all constructed languages, Esperanto (the one who hopes), was deliberately designed as a step towards a religion of universal brotherhood. Its author, Dr. L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), lived as a boy in Russian Poland amid bitterly clashing races, languages, and religions. Here Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, and Jews misunderstood, feared, and jostled one another. The people of Europe in fact speak no less than one hundred and twenty languages, all mutually unintelligible; thirty-eight of these are used by more than a million persons. Then the brilliant idea occurred to young Zamenhof that the hostilities and hatreds among peoples [Page 55] might be relieved through intercourse in a common neutral language —neutral in the sense of being free from racial, national, religious, and other prejudices. Impelled by this stirring vision of peaceful concourse and eventual universal brotherhood he proceeded to create a great synthetic language. Such a vehicle is painfully needed especially in the Polands and Alsace-Lorraines of the world. It is an indispensable condition of international understanding and harmony.

The chief services of an auxiliary language are suggested in the following sentence: “It will, in particular, be used by men of science and scholarship to express and discuss truths, by business men and manufacturers to give and get information and come to agreements, by diplomats and other public agencies to conduct international affairs, by telephone, telegraph, and radio operators in the transmission of messages,” (by producers of talking motion pictures for international distribution), “by travelers in supplying their wants in foreign lands, by policemen, guides, railway officers and the like in dealings with foreigners, by broadcasters, by missionaries and educators in certain aspects of their work, by men of all sorts who make world peace and world welfare an active ideal, and in other cases where individuals need to communicate with people of several different native tongues.” The preceding summary indicates the chief situations in which present language practices are proving more and more inadequate. Two problems call for special emphasis: the dissemination of scientific truth, and the conduct of international conferences.

SCIENCE NEEDS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Scientific discoveries, especially in the fields of medicine, agriculture, domestic life, and industrial arts, are frequently of immense and immediate value to many or to all nations. Knowledge which promises to increase human happiness ought to be made quickly accessible to all peoples. At present important discoveries sometimes are not available in translations for years.

The need for a more efficient dissemination of scientific knowledge is intensified by the increasing publication of scientific materials in a growing number of mother-tongues. The Engineering Index covers fourteen periodicals in sixteen languages; yet when the burdensome task of condensation is completed, the results are available only to those who know one language, English.

In a few fields there now exist universal symbolisms for scientific knowledge, notably in naming diseases, drugs, and anatomical parts, as also in mathematical and musical notation, and chemical formulas. These fields, however, include a relatively small fraction of the rich total of man’s life. Many peoples, for want of a facile method of international communication, live in unhappy ignorance of large masses of accumulated wisdom in science, art, and philosophy. Yet truth, ethically, belongs to all men. It is ludicrous to speak of American physics, French medicine, [Page 56] or Chinese mathematics. Science by nature is universal, and properly deserves a universal medium of publication.

LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

Professor Shenton is convinced that “the language problem is one of the most basic, universal, and vital problems of international conferences.” His book on Cosmopolitan Conversation summarizes a comprehensive research into this problem. He demonstrates the remarkable recent growth of international conferences: almost as many (2018) were held after the World War through 1931 as the number (2699) held in the preceding seventy-nine years. In the first decade of international conferences, 1840-49, the average was one a year; at the present time about three hundred a year are convened.

The significance of the subjects of international conferences is indicated by the fourteen interest groups into which Professor Shenton classifies the 607 existing international organizations which he lists. The four largest groups (55 per cent) are: Art and Science, 112; Welfare (Humanitarianism, Religion, Morals), 99; Labor, 65; Medicine, 57. (Peace organizations number 195.) His data prove the striking historical fact that few international organizations dissolve; “old interests continue and new ones are constantly added.”

The number and make-up of international labor conferences indicate a notable awakening of international consciousness on the part of the man in the street. He shows a rapidly-growing desire to gain definite information about, and first-hand contacts with, his fellows who live in other countries. Labor conferences have shown a very real interest in Esperanto. One way in which the Labor Office of the League of Nations meets its language problem is to publish a bimonthly bulletin in Esperanto. “The year 1932 completed the fifty-second issue of this bulletin.”

Every international conference presents a serious language problem. The difficulties grow worse each year because increasing attendance brings together greater variety of languages, interests, and classes of people. The average number of nationalities present is eighteen. These conferences commonly recognize three official languages, but there is wide variation in practice, and the present tendency is to increase the number. The invariable result is confusion, misunderstandings, disappointments, and frustrations, which undermine the morale, spontaneity, and enjoyment of the meetings. The trend of opinion in international conferences is toward belief in the practicability of an auxiliary language as soon as one can be agreed upon.

The existing multi-lingual methods of communication burden society with enormous costs in money and energy. The numerous groups listed above spend large sums for the labor of translation and interpretation. The Second World Power Conference in Berlin in 1930 estimated that its translation services cost $12,000. The existence of two official languages in the League of Nations costs conservatively one-third of the total cost of [Page 57] the meetings. The expenditures for modern foreign-language education are enormous, and even after a student by hard study has mastered one foreign language, he has access to only one people. After the material costs of Babel have been paid for, there remain inaccuracies and misunderstandings, emotional strains and disappointments, and the isolation of lesser nations. The economic advantages of a universal language are evident.

The conclusion is safe and sure that the world direly needs an interlingua, a language that is international, auxiliary, synthetic or constructed, neutral, democratic, and easy to learn. Engineers are fast making the earth one country. Modern men who speak different languages cannot help having business with one another. Why not a common language? It is needful, practicable, indeed inevitable; inevitable because basically economical and reasonable, of the essence of cosmic reason; therefore, the inference of philosophers, the intuition of prophets, the discerners of coming realities.

One of the great teachers of modern times, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, specifically included unity of language among the seven candles the light of which he believed constitutes the pure spectrum of universal human brotherhood. The Jewish prophet Zephaniah beheld a kindred vision when he wrote (3:9): “For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language that they may call upon the name of Jehovah to serve Him with one consent.” Among the Bibles of the world the Bahá’í scriptures are unique in explicitly emphasizing a universal language as one of twelve fundamental teachings. This religious backing of the great ideal should hasten its practical realization.

WHAT SHALL THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE BE?

A successful universal language would supplement but never displace one’s mother-tongue. It would remain a secondary or auxiliary language, primarily and deliberately designed as an efficient tool for communicating ideas among peoples of different native tongues. It cannot have, in the beginning at least, “the witchery of indefinable suggestion, the elusive charm of reminiscence, echoes within echoes,” which characterize national languages with rich histories. It would be unsuitable for love letters, sectarian hymns, and national songs. One’s mother-tongue would continue to perform the aesthetic functions of language; namely, to conserve intimate overtones of meaning and emotion, poetic nuances, patriotic fervor, and the like. All who seek an appreciation of such intimate and unique qualities in the life of any nation must become familiar with the language of that nation. In an auxiliary language, however, clearness and precision must take precedence over tradition, forcefulness, and beauty.

Many students rule out the possibility of adopting or adapting as a universal language any living or natural tongue, however widely diffused. For this decision there are three cogent reasons. [Page 58]

(1) Until all national and racial antagonisms have become relics of barbarism, any endeavor to universalize an existing national language would be hindered, if not thwarted, by jealousies in other peoples, and thus the paramount purpose of unity and cooperation would be defeated. Other peoples would rightly fear political or religious imperialism on the part of the favored nation. Under present conditions, for example, how could the Soviet Republics agree to use Japanese as a universal medium, or the Italians, German? Could French pride of language yield to the English without a fight? Can one imagine the Congress of the United States approving Spanish, French, or any other national language? Could Muhammadans adopt Latin, or Jesuits accept Arabic? Only a constructed language can maintain relative neutrality. Further, the favored nation might suffer from pride, ignorance, and one-sidedness, and lose many of the benefits of a universal medium.

(2) The adoption of any living language whatever would entail an unequal and unfair psychological advantage to all who spoke that language as their native tongue. Thus any one who learned Japanese after his childhood tongue would feel embarrassed and inferior in talking with a native Japanese. A full and free sense of equality and justice could prevail in conversation only between parties who knew neither was using his native tongue. Indeed, the mutual appreciation of common difficulties would help to increase the sympathies between them.

(3) Finally, every existing natural language is heavily encumbered with a multitude of grammatical and other exceptions, with needless and often irrational rules, and with various stiff conventions. None has a facile and regular code for systematically qualifying root forms. These and other defects result in an enormous waste of effort for everyone concerned.

A constructed language, on the other hand, is absolutely regular, clear, and economical, flexible, rich, and creative. Its grammar is minimal, simple, and logical. By the use of suffixes and systematic modifications of root words, a multitude of new words are readily formed to suit one’s need or fancy. Word-building becomes a fascinating game, an education in exact thinking, and a stimulus to new associations of ideas.

Another characteristic of a well made synthetic language is that its vocabulary will possess the greatest practicable internationality; that is, its roots should be the most widely used among the languages of literate peoples. Experts in comparative philology have shown that there exists one large family of languages which has had wider spread and influence among civilized peoples than any other group; namely the Indo-European languages. In this family the most used roots prove to be Italic and Hellenic. In other words, the vocabulary of the universal language must consist mainly of Latin and Greek derivatives. The average West-European would know the approximate meaning of about three-fourths of its words without previous study. [Page 59] Any Indian who speaks a language of Sanskrit origin would find many affinities with his own. Evidently it would be impractical to utilize many words from other languages (such as Chinese, Japanese, Semitic, or Dravidian) the vocabularies of which are utterly different from the Indo-European group as well as among themselves. Outside of vocabulary, however, in problems of structure (such as inflection and syntax), the builders of the final language will gladly utilize every profitable suggestion which can be found in any known tongue.

The principle of greatest internationality involves a significant fact; namely, that European languages already contain much that is international. These common elements needed only to be discovered, extracted, and organized. They have been definitely ascertained by several painstaking studies, notably by Rosenberger and Peano. Peano in 1909 found 1,715 words in all of the following seven languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. (Their sources are: Latin, 733; Greek, 713; Greco-Latin hybrids, 65; French, 54; Italian, 43; Arabic, 35; English, 15; Spanish, 7; others, 50.)

The two fundamental characteristics of an excellent synthetic language are logical structure and international vocabulary. These qualities produce a large amount of intelligibility and of naturalness. In consequence such a language is many times (five to fifteen) easier to learn than any natural one. If reason and order are natural to man, then a synthetic language is the most natural of all. It could best transmit the concepts which all men share in common. By comparing the first thousand words most frequently used in English, French, German, and Spanish, Helen S. Eaton found 739 ideas common to all four. The capacity of men to share concepts is one of the chief mysteries of psychic life, a divine wonder at the heart of man. This fact demonstrates a mental unity among men. From it the Stoics inferred that every man’s soul contains a spark of one Cosmic Reason.

This element of common rationality attracted the philosophers of the seventeenth century who initiated the movement for a universal language. They dreamed of reducing all wisdom to a few golden nuggets, logically connected. To symbolize these ultimates they proposed the deliberate creation of an algebra-like language for international use. Descartes in 1629 suggested the scheme, although Leibniz, who devoted years of thought to the problem, deserves the greatest credit for its early development. He inspired the valuable contributions in recent years of Couturat and Peano.

No one, however, has discovered a way of deriving, from a few root ideas, all the multifarious riches of human thought. This proposal is probably an idle dream. Hence, the French philosopher, Renouvier, wisely argued that while the grammar of an artificial language should be based on logic alone, its vocabulary must be a posteriori or empirical; that is, built out of word sounds that men have used and out of ideas that actually occur.

There are in fact a multitude of [Page 60] concepts, attitudes, and emotions which all men may readily share and which are necessary for an abundant life. Upon the prophets and philosophers falls the duty of determining these basic techniques of creative living, and upon the philologists and social engineers the duty of inaugurating an adequate language for their world-wide dissemination.

Every technique of happy living is the rightful heritage of the children of every race, clime, and tongue. Professor Shenton asks, “Why should it not be possible some day to realize the ideal that every school child be provided with the opportunity to reach maturity with the social equipment of a simple medium for direct communication with his fellowmen anywhere in the world?” May the day speedily come when the youth of the world may be able readily to appropriate the best of the world’s accumulated experience in living. May they discover what they share with all as soon as they discover what is distinctive of their own people.

IS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE PRACTICAL?

In recent years the discussion of an auxiliary language has passed from the ideal to the practical phases of the problem. That the ideal is good, is clear and evident; any informed person would admit its desirability. But is it practicable? What is its present status? Are any constructive programs operating for its realization?

Sufficient knowledge and experience has been accumulated to prove that the enterprise of a universal auxiliary language is eminently feasible. A. L. Guérard, author of A Short History of the International Language Movement, asserts that, “Whoever denies the possibility, the practicability, the facility of the international medium is either hopelessly biased or woefully misinformed.”

In 1929 P. E. Stojan published a bibliography of 6,333 entries concerning international languages. The number of constructed languages included in this list is astonishing; namely, three hundred twenty-three. This remarkable total proves that the interest in artificial languages is widespread. Some of the best have been created since the Great War. Only six, however, have gained more than a handful of followers; they are: Esperanto, 1887; Latino sine flexione (“Rational Latin”), 1903; Ido, 1907; Occidental, 1922; Nov-Esperanto, 1928 and Novial, 1929.

Of these six, Esperanto has been the most extensively employed. Several millions of people in dozens of countries are now able to converse in it (estimates vary from 100,000 to 3,000,000). It has withstood the trials of nearly half a century. It is “a linguistic experiment on an unexampled scale.” Esperanto writings now run into several thousand volumes, and include a full translation of the Bible, much from Shakespeare and Goethe, and multitudinous works in literature, science, and philosophy, some published only in Esperanto. More than seventy-five magazines appear regularly in Esperanto. In 1927, 140 radio stations in 31 countries reported using it in their broadcasts. According to a report in September [Page 61] 1934, it has been taught in 1,094 schools in 40 countries. It has been much used by travelers and international conferences. In short, Esperanto has proved the practicability of a constructed language. Its history provides an exceedingly valuable mine of materials for the scientific study of the working of an artificial language.

The wonderful precision attainable in a constructed language has been demonstrated by the translation of highly technical documents from French into Esperanto or Ido, and back into French by different persons. The results show a high degree of exactness.

The following significant conclusion is derived from some recent comparative researches in psychology: “Any one of the reputable ‘synthetic’ languages is very much easier to learn than any natural language. . . . On the whole, with expenditures of from ten to a hundred hours, the achievement in the synthetic language will probably be from five to fifteen times that in a natural language, according to the difficulty of the latter.”

High-school Students who have studied a synthetic language develop a language-consciousnes and a sense of useful possession. They greatly increase their vocabularies both in English and Romance languages, and gain a lively and intelligent interest in language study. In a subsequent study of a national language they make much more rapid progress than others because of their knowledge of basic linguistic principles and of vocabulary. If one group of students studied an artificial language one-half year and French one and a half years; and if a similar group studied French for two years, the first group would know more French (and more English too) than the second, and could more quickly acquire another national language.

Sufficient evidence has been cited to indicate the workability of an artificial language.

(To be concluded)

[Page 62]

A STUDY OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION

G. A. SHOOK

III. THE EXPANDING CHURCH

SINCE the Reformation there has been an endless controversy over the problem of church order. Is the authority of the church vested in the episcopate? Did the monarchical bishop get control merely by being president of a college of presbyters or was be inherently different from the beginning? Finally did the bishop get his authority from the apostolic office?

The Reformers, of course, maintained that the authority of the church could not be derived from the apostolic office; they proclaimed an universal priesthood. Now it is only natural that the attitude of the primitive church should change markedly as it expanded. In the early days of any religious movement there will be more freedom and more latitude than in any subsequent period. Moreover the inspired class will invariably have more authority in the beginning. Administration has a small place in an apostolic age, discipline is relatively simple, the bond is still spiritual, but as the movement expands and the proportion of eye witnesses becomes less and less, enthusiasm and ecstasy must be supplemented by calm deliberation. In a sense this is the greatest period in the history of any prophetic religion and we regret its passing but it is inevitable if the religion is to expand.

There is no doubt that both dogma and organization evolved like a living organism, reacting to a changing environment, but we must not be misled by the analogy. No theory of evolution has ever accounted for life and similarly no mere record of the changing policies of the early church order, however complete, can throw much light upon the basic principles underlying the validity of such an order.

We observed in Paul’s letters that intense individualism brought about a condition which necessitated a change in church order from a spiritual brotherhood with apostles, prophets, and teachers, to a more or less standardized administration with presbyters and bishops. A generation later the same thing is amplified in the Didache, the letters of Clement, and the letters of Ignatius. Although the various views upheld are not always in harmony, they are valuable for our study for we see that in each case there was some justification for the position that was upheld. We [Page 63] may not be able to say which type of order (if any) was the right one but it would be unfair to maintain that the facts were invented.

By the time of the writing of the Didache, c. A.D. 90, impostors were numerous enough to demand the protection of a strong organization. While the prophet is recognized, his position is no longer unique for we read, “Appoint for yourselves, therefore, bishops and deacons. . . despise them not, for they are your honorable men along with the prophets and teachers.” (xv. 1). The main purpose of the Didache, which was written at Antioch, is to encourage the less advanced Churches in Syria to develop an organization and, where it exists, to give it more prominence. This would not apply to Jerusalem for it had a strong organization by this time but its position was unique as we have seen.

NOW Streeter calls attention to a point that historians have overlooked, namely that the Didache encourages a true prophet to “settle permanently in a local church” and he points out that such a prophet would hold a position of authority. He could be a celebrant of the eucharist and “secondly, the faithful are exhorted to give first-fruits of wine, corn, and cattle to the prophets, ‘For these are your chief priests’.” That is, such a resident prophet would be substantially a monarchical bishop. He also calls attention to the analogy between the monarchical bishop with prophetic gifts and the Jewish chief priest. This may be the basis of the claims that were made by subsequent bishops. Then he shows that in any provincial capital the “approved” prophet would necessarily command the same recognition, and adds, “Suppose, then, that in the Church of Antioch a time came when there was only one such resident prophet, and he a man of ambition and possessed of administrative ability—in a single generation the Church Order which the Didache implied would, ipso facto, and as it were automatically, harden into a threefold ministry of bishops, presbyters, and deacons.” Ignatius held such a position for he was both a prophet and a bishop.

The Epistle of Clement written from the Church at Rome A.D. 96, to the Church at Corinth is of interest for it also had considerable influence upon the development of church order in Syria. It makes a plea for the regular ministry and its derivation of authority from the apostolic succession, for the preservation of unity in the local Church. At Corinth there was some controversy over the authority of the regular ministry and Clement wishes to strengthen the position of the church officers. Although both the Didache and Clement urge the adoption of a regular ministry, according to the Didache the presbyters are elected by the congregation, while Clement maintains that they were originally appointed by apostles, that is, he stresses the apostolic succession but it is not an “episcopal” succession (monarchical-bishopric).

“The apostles received the Gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ was sent forth from God. So then Christ is from God and [Page 64] the apostles are from Christ. . . . They appointed their first-fruits, when they had proved them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons,” etc. (Clem. xlii. 1-4). Clement was at least clear in his own mind regarding the Apostolic Succession. We should note here that the democratic element is not entirely absent; the community apparently had something to say about the appointment. “For this cause, therefore, having received complete foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons, and afterwards they provided a continuance, that if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their ministration. Those, therefore, who were appointed by them, or afterward by other men of repute with the consent of the whole Church. . .” (Clem. xliv. 2-3).

On the other hand Ignatius the bishop of Antioch c. A.D. 115, stresses the value of the monarchical episcopate as the real bond for church unity, but says nothing about the apostles providing for a regular succession. In the second century both of these principles were united. That is, thence forth the church favored a monarchical bishop whose authority could be traced to the apostolate.

NOW while Clement did not urge the monarchical episcopate as the true system initiated by the apostles, his letter nevertheless became a powerful weapon in the hands of Ignatius for promoting what he seriously believed was indispensable for the welfare of the church; the authority of the bishop. The reason for the extraordinary influence of Clement’s letter is significant because it illustrates just how a system might be established upon a misconceived principle.

Streeter shows that Clement’s analogy between the Jewish high priest and Christ was probably misinterpreted “For unto the high priest his proper services have been assigned, and to the priests their proper office is appointed, and upon the Levites their proper ministrations are laid. The layman is bound by the layman’s ordinances.” (1 Clem. xi. 5).

Now in Syria the readers of this passage would be familiar with the statement in the Didache, “They are your chief-priests” which refers to the prophet who has a permanent residence in a local church. It would be only natural, as Streeter affirms, for these Syrian Churches to assume that the analogy applied to the high priest, priest, and Levite, of the Old Testament, and the corresponding Christian offices of bishop, presbyter, and deacon. And then he adds that Clement’s word implies, “. . . that he, Clement, occupied at Rome a position analogous to that of the Jewish high priest—that is, belonged to an order hierarchically distinct from the other presbyters.” In other words Clement’s letter was interpreted to mean that the monarchical episcopate was the true system intended by the apostles.

We miss the point should we examine these documents with the eye of a modern critic, rather we should try to get the viewpoint of the Apostolic Age. The question is not, how are we impressed with the evidence? but rather how were they impressed? [Page 65] Clement’s letter was addressed to a church, Corinth, which had deposed unjustly some of its officers, presbyters. He assumes that they held their office by right of succession and consequently it was a serious offense. When the disconcerting news of this disturbance came to the church at Rome it sent some of its oldest members, men who had probably known the apostles, to Corinth with a letter from Clement. In this letter Clement reproves the church for its discord and strife and then emphasizes the desirability of obedience and order, using the example of the Roman army and the sacerdotal hierarchy of the Jewish church. When we remember that Clement was inspired, at least claimed to be, and that inspiration in that age was comparable to revelation, we see that his opinion would command unusual respect; indeed it probably produced as much effect as the word of an apostle. Commenting on this letter Duchesne says, “Seventy years later, in the days of Bishop Dionysius, the letter of Clement was amongst the books read by the Corinthians side by side with the Holy Scriptures, in their Sunday assemblies. And, moreover, it was in one of the most ancient manuscripts of the Greek Bible, that Clement’s letter first became known to us. Only a few years after it was written St. Polycarp possessed it, and treated it as an apostolical letter.”

WE may be inclined to differentiate between the authority of the apostles, who were with Christ, and the authority of those leaders like Clement who were not in possession of first hand information but the early church manifestly did not make this sharp distinction.

This practice of governing a local church by a bishop and presbyters was uniform in the empire by c. A.D. 150. So far, however, the bishop is merely the leader of a local Church and while he should be obeyed, he is not autocratic. That is, up to this time there is no diocesan bishop.

Although Ignatius insisted upon the rule of the bishop, to him Christ is the invisible bishop over the “katholik” or universal Church. Moreover to him this “katholik” Church is more spiritual than temporal. The church is still a community of believers; the real bond is still spiritual, one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

But such an ideal condition could not continue indefinitely. If the Churches were to remain in one Faith, they had to be one in doctrine and this called for some kind of organic unity or federation. That is, something more objective than an invisible bishop or a common faith was necessary.

As the individual churches advanced and as communications between the churches increased, many questions relating to the individual church and to the relation between the churches arose. Such questions would be settled by conference and the members of such conferences would undoubtedly be the bishops of the local congregations. In time the bishops would attain more and more prominence in the universal church and this would tend to increase their prestige in the individual churches.

Another important factor in the [Page 66] development of a strong organization with episcopal authority was heresy. We should not think of a church uniting to overcome an external foe for, to some extent, heretical doctrine existed within the church and was not always and everywhere considered alien to Christian doctrine. We must remember that in this early church there was neither creed, ecclesiastical authority nor canonical writings to which it could appeal.

The most perilous of the heresies were Gnosticism and Montanism. Gnosticism stood for higher enlightenment and was not therefore, wholly undesirable. Montanism, on the other hand, upheld high ethical standards and greater freedom in the matter of inspiration. Both were invaluable in that they stimulated careful thinking about the essentials of Christianity.

TO distinguish a heretic from an orthodox believer the church could not appeal to inspiration for both could claim divine guidance; consequently the church turned its attention to doctrine and administration. The power of the bishops was enhanced, a creed formulated which was supposed to embody the apostolic teachings, and a canon of scriptures (substantially our New Testament books) was developed. But as Falconer points out, neither creed nor scripture was equal to the problem of heresy since the heretic could appeal to apostolic tradition and also could produce his own canon. What was really needed was a higher court to decide such questions. “Irenaeus discovers this in the leading churches of Christendom. Historic congregations have had a continuity in the line of bishops from apostolic times, and this line of descent will furnish a sufficient guarantee for the determination of authenticity. If apostolic formulae and canon will not avail, then there is apostolic succession. . . . Thus it is that the representatives of genuine apostolic tradition for Irenaeus are the bishops of these churches governed by the successors of the apostles. In the episcopate, as the continuation of the apostolic office, he finds the sure pledge of church doctrine.”

From monarchism in the individual church it was only a step to monarchism in the church general; that is, the papacy. The tendency of the times toward a more or less absolute rule may have had some influence but it is more probable that the forces of disintegration both within and without demanded a strong central organization.

In the third century, largely through the influence of Cyprian, a third factor of church order, sacerdotalism, was added and it was destined to produce a profound, though baneful, effect upon the church. In the time of Irenaeus the prophetic gift was still encouraged, a universal priesthood was still recognized, but now we pass into a period where the external church becomes necessary to salvation. The bishop becomes the essence of the church, Divine Grace comes through the sacraments and the sacraments must be dispensed by the priest.

At this period, apparently, the church believed that it was as necessary [Page 67] to have a recognized source of divine guidance in the matter of salvation as in the matter of doctrine or organization. Three things led to this position. The mystery religions were very definite regarding the means by which the initiate must attain his spiritual development and the church could not be less objective. Again there were those who had fallen away from the Faith and in order to reinstate them it was necessary to devise something more fundamental than intellectual assent. Finally the churches were not uniform in the practice of ritual, especially the Easter festival. While these differences seem trivial to us, at that period they were momentous enough to cause the isolation of some of the strongest Asian churches.

On the Other hand we can not censor these dissenting churches since there was nothing in the Words of Christ that would justify sacerdotalism.

In the light of modern thinking it seems extremely unlikely that the religion of the future will lay any stress on ritual as a means of obtaining Divine Grace. That is, sacerdotalism belongs to the past.

---

ACQUIESCENCE

GARRETA BUSEY

She stared out on her landscape—ashen snow

And trees like briars in her mind.

Rigid she stood and watched her world

Freeze to its ultimate calamity.

Let it be so, she said. And the quick sun

Caught earth to heaven in a storm of light

Till thorns were incandescent and the snow

Intolerably bright.

Surely illumination in the skull

Can find no vent

Through thin interstices of bone!

Light cannot flow along the blood

And out through muscle drawn.

But when she bent

Now over common tasks she had performed before,

There was a radiance on her like the sun

In April slanting through an open door.

[Page 68]

THE UNFOLDMENT OF WORLD CIVILIZATION

MARY COLLISON

THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH • IV

IT seems to me that the Bahá’ís are the only people in the world who have any right to be intelligently optimistic about the future of society. Most other optimists are either completely ignorant of world conditions or indulging in wishful thinking based on the assumption that mankind always has blundered through and therefore will again.

Bahá’ís are not intellectual ostriches burying their heads to shut out “the sad and pitiful spectacle of a vast, an enfeebled, and moribund organism which is being torn politically and strangulated economically by forces it has ceased to either control or comprehend.”

Neither are they “deluded by the ephemeral manifestations of returning prosperity.”

The immediate future is even darker to Bahá’ís than to most other people. Shoghi Effendi is not encouraging when he says, “. . . . the darkest hour that must precede the dawn of the Golden Age of our Faith has not yet struck. Deep as is the gloom that already encircles the world, the afflictive ordeals which that world is to suffer are still in preparation, nor can their blackness be as yet imagined.”

Yet we have no right to paralyze ourselves with fear by allowing our minds to speculate on the details of this approaching ordeal. For although we may bear our share of the general turmoil and the widespread suffering, we have “been assigned a task whose high privilege we can never sufficiently appreciate and the arduousness of which we can as yet but dimly recognize.”

As we observe the evidences of universal fermentation, “a two-fold process can be distinguished, each tending in its own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet. The first is essentially an integrating process, while the second is fundamentally disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds a system which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which a strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the latter, as its disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down, with increasing violence, the antiquated barriers that seek to block humanity’s progress towards its destined goal. . . . A titanic, a spiritual struggle, unparalleled in its magnitude [Page 69] yet unspeakably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is being waged as the result of these opposing tendencies, in this age of transition through which the organized community of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh and mankind as a whole are passing.”

The results of the disruptive process are startlingly apparent in the “calamities that have rained down upon Islam, the foremost oppressor of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh;” in the disintegrating forces that are assailing powerful Christian institutions; in the signs of moral downfall throughout the world; in the great depression following the World War; in the “recrudescence of militarism in its most menacing aspects;” in the seeming inevitability of another European war; in the threatened collapse of the League of Nations; in these and other “violent happenings that have, in recent years, strained to almost the point of complete breakdown the political and economic structure of society.”

But, it is with the constructive process associated with the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh that we are privileged to work. “The long ages of infancy and childhood, through which the human race had to pass, have receded into the background. Humanity is now experiencing the commotions invariably associated with the most turbulent stage of its evolution, the stage of adolescence, when the impetuosity of youth and its vehemence reach their climax, and must gradually be superseded by the calmness, the wisdom and the maturity that characterize the stage of manhood.”

“The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose supreme mission is none other but the achievement of the organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of nations, should . . . . be regarded as signalizing through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race. It should be viewed . . . . as marking the last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man’s collective life on this planet. The emergence of a world community, the consciousness of world citizenship, the founding of a world civilization and culture . . . . should by their very nature, be regarded . . . . as the furthermost limits in the organization of human society. . . .”

“Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is new approaching. . . . World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.”

ABDU’L-BAHÁ pointed out when He was in this country that the principle of federalism underlying the government of the United States would eventually be applied to the nations of the world. With this guiding principle in mind the history of the birth of this country gains incredibly in significance and fascination. The parallel between our first loose Confederation of the original thirteen [Page 70] independent states and the present status of the League of Nations is most striking. If Bahá’ís believing in a federated world wish convincing arguments that have become history, they can read the “Federalist” in which Alexander Hamilton so valiantly upheld the principles of federation. The emergence from the confusion of the Revolutionary War and the period immediately following it, of a unified community of federated states—the United States of America— is to us prophetic of the coming establishment of a world commonwealth as foreshadowed in the early Bahá’í writings and so vividly portrayed by Shoghi Effendi.

THIS world commonwealth which we believe is not only necessary but inevitable and whose realization is fast approaching, is the outer expression of the unity of the human race. Its form will in general follow the familiar American system with the nations of the world as the federating units. The members of the world legislature will, however, be trustees of the whole of mankind and as such will be responsible for the welfare of all races and peoples. “A world executive, backed by an international force . . . . will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth. A world tribunal will adjudicate and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes that may arise between the various elements constituting this universal system.” A mechanism of world intercommunication freed from national restrictions, a world language and script, a world literature and culture, a universal system of currency and of weights and measures will further bind together an already interdependent world.

Shoghi Effendi says, “National rivalries, hatreds, and intrigues will cease and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity, understanding and cooperation. The causes of religious strife will be permanently removed, economic barriers and restrictions will be completely abolished and the inordinate distinction between classes will be obliterated. Destitution on the one hand and gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear. The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political, will be consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and technical development, to the increase of the productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpening and refinement of the human brain, to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected resources of the planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral and spiritual life of the entire human race.”

WOULD you like to live in such a world “whose life is sustained by a universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation?” “Such is the goal,” Shoghi Effendi promises, “toward which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving.”

[Page 71]

MANKIND THE PRODIGAL

ALFRED E. LUNT

THE haunting memories of the story of the prodigal son, so beautifully related by the Christ, have imprinted an indelible portrait in countless hearts, of a divine masterpiece. Its lights and shadows project and mirror forth the imperishable colors of the supreme artist. Its shadow is that wandering son, in his reckless plunge into the miry depths of the world of unsatisfying experience, his desertion of his father’s loving protection and provision, his utter surrender to the fiery impelling urge of the natural world. And, then, satiated but still hungry, miserable and forlorn, despoiled and reduced to the husks into which cruel Nature ever finally flings her devotees, this shadow, which was this Everyman, is blasted and now irradiated with the light of repentance, with longing for the loving presence of his father, the fruit of his suffering. He has found his soul.

Swiftly, though with infinite pain, he returns from his exile to that real home. Now the shadow is wholly swept away. In the bosom of his father, his entire being is exhilarated by the elixir of a pure love he has never known; to his newly awakened soul it is light upon light. Yet, the supreme light of this immortal portrait shines in the rejoicing of the father, himself. Great is the celebration of the return of the soul to reality. The most precious possessions of the father are poured out upon him. “This, my son was lost and is found.”

This sweet story is, of course, a living symbol of the return of man to the True One from remoteness and ignorance; through the illumination of his soul by the Light of Reality, to the communion and presence of the Supreme Friend, in the kingdom of the heart.

Witness, however, the astonishing prototype, one might say, the flowering of this process in this, our age, uncovered in the supreme Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. Here, is revealed to our still dim vision, the astounding fact of the return of God to His creation, in manifest form. The very Revelation, Itself, is the arising of the “Self of God,” the first and mightiest Resurrection. While the prodigal son returned to his father, which is a necessary and inescapable journey for all who would attain their divine destiny, today the Father Himself has sought out the prodigal, entered the world of man, dwelt in the very midst of the confusion and corruption of the husks of human wreckage, and even suffered His Holy Manifestation to submit to the chains and cruelties of a prison worthy only of the dregs [Page 72] of the most abandoned among men. “Whereas,” He says,—“in days past every lover besought and searched after his Beloved, it is the Beloved Himself Who now is calling His lover and is inviting them to attain His presence. Take heed lest ye forfeit so precious a favor; beware lest ye belittle so remarkable a token of His grace.”

Human consciousness, even that of the true believer, is all too unchastened, too unrefined as yet to comprehend but a trace of the unmeasured, ineffable Love of God. This Love, fulfilling His desire to be known by human hearts, those divine receptacles which among all the riches of His Creation He has reserved for Himself, —did not rest, nor will ever rest, till in the mystery of Its Manifestation It shone forth in the murky gloom of human habitations, wherein lay buried the latent gems of the supreme talisman, man. This Love accepted every humiliation, shackles and incarceration, and above all, the bitter malice and injury of furious opponents over the long years, that the truth of the saying,—“He is the Most Victorious” might be fulfilled. No words can fittingly describe the Divine patience, submission (to the cruel behests of the misguided), and lowliness, that emanated from Him, as from a lotus flower blossoming in the dark, opaque waters of a noisome pool. To this degree, which only Divinity can manifest, has the Father, the heavenly Shepherd of the wandering human flock, attested the greatness of His love for the prodigal.

Small wonder it is that Bahá’u’lláh, the visible embodiment of that Love, following implicitly the Command of the Hidden Tablet regardless of human consequences to Himself, should have uttered the words,—“I have patiently endured until the fame of the Cause of God was spread abroad on the earth.” And,—“Our wish is to seize and possess the hearts of men. Upon them the eyes of Bahá are fastened.” And, finally,—“If it be your wish, O people, to know God and to discover the greatness of His Might, look, then, upon Me with Mine own eyes, and not with the eyes of anyone beside Me. Ye will otherwise be never capable of recognizing Me, though ye ponder My Cause as long as My Kingdom endureth.”

In these words He identifies Himself with the unchanging Divine purpose, and, as the Most Pure Mirror of the Divine Essence, demonstrates completely that ineffable Love that has marked this age as a day of mutual return,—the resurrection of Divinity Itself in Its search for the hearts of men, and, this time, the universal quest of the prodigal (all men) for the Father. Thus, the story of the Christ is illumined today with the holy, mutual seeking of both the Divine and the human. God has drawn near unto man, while man’s tortuous journey, through repentance, to his Father, has been mercifully shortened by the Divine outreaching. Divinity has chosen to suffer with man, in that mutual pathway, and this is the Divine Balance, or equilibrium, which has overflown from the fountain of His exceeding Love.

This demonstration of the Divine Will, however, is as yet unknown to the vast masses of humanity. Quite [Page 73] unaware of the cyclic processes and periods of Manifestation which the Divine Wisdom has decreed, the people have, in general, despaired of heavenly assistance for the solution of their perplexing problems. More and more, with the disquieting effects of the modern age, coincident with the gradual shattering of the old, dogmatic faith of the centuries preceding 1844, have the masses of the people and many of their religious leaders as well, lost faith in the power, even the existence, of divine intervention in human affairs.

THEY could not, or did not know that the multiplication of hard problems in the individual life and in the collective, economic and social fields of human activity, were attributable, almost solely, to their own long failure to obey the laws of God which the Manifestation of Christ had made obligatory. Because of differing forms of interpretation of the hundreds of denominations and sects, because of the weakening of the dogmatic foundation, the doubts cast by science, and that coldness and blindness that manifests itself in the winter-time of a spiritual cycle, the ebbing tide of faith and guidance found the people unable to provide a suitable substitute for what they had relinquished.

The successive, unified Revelations of the Báb and of Bahá’u’lláh and the pure Reality revealed by Them, were strong medicine, indeed, for a people who knew not reality. Millions have, as yet, to hear that divine message. Its powerful call to humanity to detach itself from the things in which it has delighted, is, as is recorded in the Holy Books, a “woe” to mankind. Men shrink from new and higher standards of life. The ears that are still “stopped” and the eyes that remain “unseeing” continue to encase in the sepulchres of spiritual impotence the vast majority of the human race. Notwithstanding the truth of this sweeping statement, we must, nevertheless, recognize the existence throughout the nations, of unnumbered men and women whose lives bear witness to the inner spiritual fire, whose hearts are tender, and whose deeds are often in accord with the true foundation of the Prophet in whose service they are enlisted. Such are lovers of humanity. That these souls are still unaware of the Great Event is far less significant than is the case with the countless host of those who doubt the very existence of God.

To the degree that men are enslaved in the toils of the natural law, the vision of God flees away. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has declared that this enslavement is comparable to the life of the embryo in the prenatal stage, and that such souls cannot even imagine God, much less believe in Him; any more than the embryonic, potential infant can imagine or believe in the world without. While even belief is only the first step in the knowledge of God.

Therefore, it is with these unnumbered millions who, in making common cause with the world of nature have set up false idols in the place of the True One, that the theme of the great parable of prodigality is mainly concerned.

[Page 74] With what deep penetration Bahá’u’lláh signifies His complete awareness of the magnitude of this redemptive work among this great multitude is strikingly illustrated by these words,— “Is it within human power, O Ḥakim, to effect in the constituent elements of any of the minute and indivisible particles of matter so complete a transformation as to transmute it into purest gold? Perplexing and difficult as this may appear, the still greater task of converting satanic strength into heavenly power is one that We have been empowered to accomplish.”

This deeply mysterious passage of the Word of God has to do with the innermost depths of the human soul. Not only does it definitely locate the present status of this unnumbered throng of humanity within the recesses and dark caverns of nature, that place of unawareness of God where the soul is both deaf and blind, but it, also, defines this state of remoteness as identical with the satanic quality. This passage, one feels, is one of the most vitally significant to be found in the whole, vast sweep of the Bahá’í Scriptures. In these few compelling words, He unfolds the solemn, really appalling circumstances of the unregenerate elements of human society and, notwithstanding this seemingly insuperable fact, confidently declares His possession of a power amply sufficient to transform these embodiments of unregeneracy into vessels of faith and divine enlightenment. For this task, inconceivable from the merely human standpoint, His instrumentality, He avers, is the irresistible Word of God. No greater efficacy could be attributed to the peerless Word than the achievement of so supreme a triumph in the arena of the human mind and soul. Modern science has advanced far toward conferring immunity upon our physical bodies from the ravages of unsanitary conditions. Sadly contrasted is the feeble progress thus far made in that spiritual hygiene which concerns the vital domain of human consciousness itself. The graphic delineations of Dante and Swedenborg, bringing into acute correspondence the reality of the states of the spiritually and physically corrupt, were assuredly more than mere idle dreams. The “satanic strength” defined by Bahá’u’lláh is clearly analogous to the infestations and infections, the contagions and plagues, of mental confusions, superstitions, prejudices, cruelties and egotistic madnesses that characterize the, as yet, uncleansed citadel of human consciousness.

THE condition of the world, today, attests only too strongly the truth of this divine analysis. Its helpless drifting toward a new war of unexampled destruction, its contempt for the loving appeal of reality, its submergence in economic loss and despair, its increasing strangulation of human liberty, its pronounced trend toward the self-contained or totaiitarian national government, the complete opposite of the Bahá’í teachings of interdependence and unity among nations,—are unerring signs of its spiritual impotence. We have to accept the fact that those who thus lead and those who follow, are of the embryonic human consciousness, as yet [Page 75] unborn from the narrow confines of the natural matrix.

Only quite recently, a distinguished figure in the field of religion ventured the positive statement that we may as well abandon any thought that God would intervene in human affairs, that it was evident He had chosen for Himself the role of an “absentee Divinity,” and that humanity may as well realize, once for all, that it is left to itself to find solutions for its crushing problems. This statement, if correctly reported, represents, we fear, an ever-growing consciousness of futility and despair, by no means confined to the layman.

Thus, the problem of regeneration, of salvation, is put squarely in the keeping of the Manifestation of God, Who has, with dauntless courage and certainty, declared His Power to achieve it. Upon His followers, likewise, this holy service to the race rests as a sublime gift. No mere fancy is intended by His assurance to those who arise to attack the battlements of human hearts with the weapons of Reality. This very Power which He has claimed for Himself is poured out upon and through every sincere, detached Teacher of His Faith. Certainly not for aeons to come will so glorious a destiny be opened to the early followers of a Manifestation of God as is today presented to those pioneer believers who have recognized and obeyed. Not only this, but the Divine Arm is not weakened by this sharing of power with His loved ones; rather does It contain unrevealed and unsuspected reinforcements which, from time to time, will be unloosed upon the nations. That “mysterious power,” we are assured, has in store a perfect galaxy of Divine deeds which will permeate the fabric of humanity as the rain into the parched soil, or the lightning into the dark abyss,—until the souls come forth from their sepulchres.

The appearance of Bahá’u’lláh acquaints mankind, in this age of doubt, with irrefutable proof that the King of Kings has intervened, according to His Ancient Promise, in the life of this planet. Never before has His all encompassing Power been revealed to men to this supreme degree. His upright, waving Standard rests securely on the highest battlement. His trumpet blast calls all mankind to turn their faces to His Face, to overthrow the idols of natural attachment that have stolen the altar of true worship from the hearts, and to love Him who alone is worthy of the heart’s deepest devotion. To love Him “above all that is,”—without which these idols that are imaginary “partners” with God are thick veils before His Face,—is an assertion of divine sovereignty. To ascribe “partners” to God is only another way of saying that His Sovereignty is a divided one. If a man permits himself to love gold, fame, the superiority of his rank, house, or physical enjoyment as a ruling passion, he has exalted a mere earthly prize to a superior position over the Lord of Lords, and, in that sense, ignorantly attempted to divide the Heavenly Sovereignty. In this way, his heart’s desire has wrongfully fashioned a god or gods whom he enthrones as peers with God, consequently “partners” in the Divine [Page 76] Court. This is a type of pantheism that is infinitely worse than the mere abstract conceptions of pantheistic philosophy commonly met with. Only absolute ignorance of the Reality underlying the creation can account for this self-oppression of man by himself. Yet because of it, and it alone, the human race has, as a whole, languished in the embryonic condition. Thirsty, and an exile, our race has continued to drink of this bitter water, flouting the cup of truth and reality that has alWays been within its grasp.

THE establishment of a world order that has its origin and its end in the Divine Sovereignty marks the fading of that day of infantile humanity. No adequate estimate can be made of the real significance of this fact to human destiny. Without this divine intervention, this assertion of compelling sovereignty over the doings of men, the world has careened madly, like a skidding automobile, on the very brink of destruction. As mankind has failed to believe in God or to recognize His signs, and is, to this extent, idolatrous, it has tended to rely wholly upon its leaders, religious and secular, for guidance. It has leaned upon the fallible, doubting the existence of the infallible. Its handiwork stands out, today, as a glittering, brittle structure which we call civilization; in reality a crumbling mass of vain inconsistency, dominated, in the main, by fear-ridden, unstable guides, schooled in opportunism. Of one of such countries, Bahá’u’lláh made mention in these words,—“Allow not the abject to rule over and dominate them who are noble and worthy of honor, and suffer not the high-minded to be at the mercy of the contemptible and worthless, for this is what We observed upon Our arrival in the city, and to it We bear witness.”

To those comparatively few in the world today who are concentrating on the Word of God with utter earnestness, the import of this revolutionary change effected through the appearance of Bahá’u’lláh, by which true civilization is to be substituted for one that is essentially false and unbalanced on the material side,—is a living reality. Great suffering and astonishment evidently awaits the world as the sole means of this regeneration. Its birth-pangs are to be severe, perhaps beyond the realms of imagination. But the crashing of the idols was ever attended with great noise and dust,—while stupefaction marked their worshippers.

The superstition of an “absentee Divinity” describes in the briefest terms the spiritual disease of the world. Because men have fancied Him to be unmindful of His creation, even regressing to a point where they had grave doubts of His existence, or to open denial of it, we have dwelt in an unbelieving world. Certain scientists attribute the cause of the submergence and cataclysms that accompanied the destruction of the mythical Atlantis to a sudden, cosmic slipping or readjustment of the earth’s axis. With this came about an abrupt change in the physical structure of the earth. Today, the spiritual axis of humanity is being violently rocked. And the profound changes in our civilization [Page 77] that impend can be summarized in a few brief sentences: The reassertion and establishment of the Divine Sovereignty over the children of men; the fixing of the eyes upon Him Who, alone, is worthy of adoration; the assimilation of that Reality of universal knowledge He has revealed. This is the divine, forcing process that is powerfully accelerating the evolutionary process of spiritual maturity, compelled by the existing human inertia.

Is not this consummate result, the emergence of the King and the Kingdom into the consciousness of humanity, clearly set forth in the Holy Books of all nations? We quote from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures: “And the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called the Word of God. . . . . . . And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. . . . . . . . And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,—King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

[Page 78]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Edited by BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

All men have» been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. —BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

I cannot understand how any traveler can stand unmoved at the graveside of the civilization from which our own world springs, or can see a Corinthian capital lying in the mud without feeling that such things hold a lesson and a warning and, perhaps, a prophecy.—H. V. MORTON in “In the Steps of St. Paul.”

O ye peoples of the World! Know verily that an unforeseen calamity is following you and that grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not the deeds you have committed have been blotted from My sight.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH in “Hidden Words.”

The world is in the greatest period of transition it has ever known. There are more changes going on in more fields of human belief and interest than ever happened at the same time in any earlier epoch. If our idea of a good time is to get back to the conditions of yesterday we shall be disappointed. There is never again going to be an era of prosperity just like that, for the whole underlying conditions of world business have changed. . . . It seems to me perfectly obvious . . . that a new world, a united and organized world, is already overdue—MARQUIS OF LOTHIAN, British Under-Secretary of India.

When I say that humanity is in need of a new religion I am aware of the fact that there are a few hundred of millions of people scattered throughout the world who do not agree with me. There are plenty of Christians who are satisfied. . . . The same supreme satisfaction is to be found in many of the adherents of the other ten living religions of the world. . . . Religions, like other things in this world, have a way of coming into being, serving a purpose, and then passing out. . . . That time passes and that it inevitably works changes in all things is written large on every page of history. This is something overlooked by those who hold to their particular form of faith as final and unalterable. But man’s ignorance of God’s ways and his defiance of His laws have so far caused God neither to alter His ways nor change His laws.—DR. SAMUEL S. MARQUIS in “The Detroit News.”

From every standpoint the world of humanity is undergoing a reformation. . . . [Page 79] This is the cycle of maturity and reformation in religion as well. Dogmatic imitations of ancestral beliefs are passing. . . . Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age.—‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ.

He Will come;

I know not when, or how;

But he will walk breast high with

God, stepping among the stars.

Clothed in light and crowned with

glory he will stride down the

Milky Way,

Creating with a thought, building

with a word.

—ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE, in “The Superman.”

Behold, how the divers peoples and kindreds of the earth have been waiting for the coming of the Promised One. No sooner had He, Who is the Sun of Truth, been made manifest, than, lo, all turned away from Him, except them whom God was pleased to guide.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

If we would know what are the consequences of this frenzied intolerance, this idealizing of violence, this belittling of the value of human rights and human life, we need only to look at the state of the world. It is a mad world, my fellows. This few of us will deny. And only the incurable optimist will dispute that we are facing toward destruction. Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad. It follows that if we are to be saved from destruction we must first be saved from madness. Would that the world had another Isaiah to cry for all men to hear: “Come let us reason together. . . .”—Chronicle of World Affairs.

Though the world is encompassed with misery and distress, yet no man hath paused to reflect what the cause or source of that may be. Whenever the true Counselor uttered a word in admonition, lo, they all denounced Him as a mover of mischief and rejected His claim.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

Our desperately sick world can no longer be aroused by the old shibboleths. The question really is whether religion is to go on and assume authority in the lives of men, or whether it is to be put aside as something not worth while. . . .

It must be able to change and to live in a world of intellectual inquiry —answering the tests of science.

It must recreate the shattered lives of individuals, producing human regeneranon.

It must help to create a better economic and social order.

Lastly it must be a religion universal for all lands and people, and for the individual and society.—DR. E. STANLEY JONES.

That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

[Page 80]

SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM

The twelve successive issues of World Order, from April, 1936 to March, 1937, constituting Volume Two, can be obtained in attractive and enduring green fabrikoid binding stamped in gold.

The cost to subscribers who supply the twelve issues is $1.25, postage additional. The price for the bound volume complete is $2.50, postage additional.

Before mailing any copies for binding, communicate with the Business Manager to learn proper address for shipping the copies.

Volume Two contains 480 pages of reading matter, with Index and Title page. It will be invaluable as a permanent source of reference. It makes an excellent gift for presentation to Public and University Libraries.

Volume One, containing the issues from April, 1935 to March, 1936, may also be obtained at the same cost as Volume Two. Those who prefer to make their own arrangements for binding, can obtain a copy of Title Page free on request.

---

WORLD ORDER

135 EAST 50TH STREET,

NEW YORK, N. Y.

I enclose $ for which please fill my order as checked.

[ ] Copy of current issue, .20c

[ ] Introductory subscription, seven months, $1.00.

[ ] Annual subscription, $2.00 (Public or University Library rate, $1.75.)

[ ] Gift subscriptions, five or more annual subscriptions on one order, $1.50 each.

[ ] Extra copies—ten copies of any issue sent to one or more addresses, $1.50.

(Add 25c for additional postage on foreign subscriptions).

Name___________________________________

Address__________________________________

_________________________________________