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[Page 79]

WORLD ORDER

VIEWING THE WORLD AS AN ORGANISM

JUNE 1937

CONSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATIONS • CARL A. ROSS

CONSCIOUSNESS • DALE S. COLE

TRUTH AND PROGRESS • HORACE HOLLEY

CHANGING RACE RELATIONS • MAXWELL MILLER

DIVINE ORIGIN OF ART • H. RANZENHOFER

PRICE 20¢

[Page 80]

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

JUNE 1937 VOLUME 3 • NUMBER 3

LOVE IS CREATIVE • EDITORIAL ................................................................... 81

CONSTITUTIONAL AND CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS • CARL A. ROSS .............. 83

CONSCIOUSNESS • DALE S. COLE ............................................................. 87

WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, V • MARY COLLISON ................... 91

LANGUAGE AND WORLD UNITY • RAYMOND F. PIPER ....................... 94

LET ME KNOW LOVE • POEM • NORMAN F. MacGREGOR, JR. ......... 98

TRUTH AND PROGRESS • HORACE HOLLEY ........................................... 99

A STUDY OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION, IV • G. A. SHOOK ............. 103

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY • ESTHER MATSON ................. 109

CHANGING RACE RELATIONS • MAXWELL MILLER ............................. 111

DIVINE ORIGIN OF CREATIVE ART • H. RANZENHOFER ....................... 114

SIGNS OF THE TIMES • BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK ............................. 118

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 BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.

June 1937, Volume 3, Number 3.

[Page 81]

WORLD ORDER

JUNE, 1937, VOLUME THREE, NUMBER THREE

LOVE IS CREATIVE

EDITORIAL

HUMAN existence has been established in this world under conditions which maintain the principle of duality. Every value and attribute pertaining to the life of man has two aspects, outwardly similar but in reality fundamentally opposite. While there is but one science or truth of mathematics or chemistry or biology, all truth referring to human experience compels choice and selection, and the truth of human life is not merely a form of passive knowledge but a function of will.

Spiritual education, therefore, can never be in the form of catechism or creed. Its basis rests upon the quickening of the will, and the knowledge acquired in the process of development supplies the tool and instrumentality by which true progress can be made. The spiritual life is a constant thrust forward into new and higher areas of vital experience, and the acquisition of active qualities, or else it remains nothing but a restless craving for mysterious knowledge and occult power which can never be satisfied.

In the development of the soul, knowledge and love are inseparable. When love excludes firm knowledge it can be betrayed or degraded into mere sentiment. When knowledge excludes love it leads the soul into realms of ego dangerously bordering the abyss of insanity.

The first step into spiritual insight leads to a clear analysis of the twofold nature of love. On the one hand there is self-love, ranging from the obvious demands of the child and the [Page 82] gross manifestations of the darkened soul, throughout a vast compass embracing the subtler expressions of the dramatic personality and the great social tyrants; on the other hand there is love for something greater than self, as evidenced in the parent’s care for the child, the patriot’s devotion to his country, and the believer’s devotion to God.

Human society today represents a fundamental conflict between these dual and irreconcilable values of love. It is love which upholds every community and promotes every social institution; but the quality of love is difficult to determine when projected into the community. Self-love does not become true devotion merely by being projected into some impersonal institution like church or state. On the contrary, such institutions can serve to offer to self-love its supremacy of power and gratification.

There are crucial moments in history, therefore, when civilization is disturbed to its very core by a universal spiritual conflict which, proceeding from stage to stage, possessing now an economic, then a political character, eventually resolves itself into an issue raised by destiny to determine the quality of love. The death-struggles of a religion, a culture and a civilization at such moments completely coincide. Society becomes dominated by powerful institutions which employ the terms of love but are inwardly motivated by its antithesis, self-love. The same issue determines the entire outcome, even though many think the struggle is merely economic, many others think it merely political, and another host realize it as a threat against their traditional religion. For the qualities of love and self-love are the opposite poles of human experience. They cannot be blended or reconciled. Throughout a cycle they develop together in uneasy opposition, until the time of the harvest, when the antithesis becomes final and complete.

Today, the economic world is rent in twain by a conflict which, in essence, under its many forms and conditions, will determine, not the success of one or another “system” but the triumph of the humanitarian spirit over the spirit of self-love existing in capital and labor alike. The political world is likewise rent in twain by a conflict to determine whether any nation can remain separate or whether humanity will develop world unity. The same issue is rending the churches and racial faiths, separating the elements seeking partisan victory from those who can realize truth as progressive and mankind as one.

We can meet this issue blindly, following self-interest until we are slain on the field of Armageddon; or we can pray for a quickening of the spirit of faith, come to know ourselves and thus know the condition of the world, and follow the light of divine love which is creating a new “heaven” of spiritual experience and a new “earth” of peaceful and unified world civilization.

H. H.

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CONSTITUTIONAL AND CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS FOR WORLD ORDER

CARL A. ROSS

WE know little of the culture of the stone age. The culture of primitive peoples has been exhaustively studied by some scholars, while the culture of ancient, mediaeval and modern peoples is the common heritage of our day. At what particular stage in the advance of civilization constitutional practices were differentiated from cultural habits, it is hard to say, but constitutional law could not develop until some doctrines and theories of sovereignty had developed regarding the powers of government and their exercise. In other words, constitutions and constitutional law were not known till people were divided into territorial sovereignties, then their characteristic attainments— a list of all items of their general life —made up their social order and were an index of their culture. However, the result has not been a uniform culture and similar constitutions the world over, rather the opposite. Furthermore, most nationals find some peculiarity of their government and a superiority in some of their cultural habits of which they are proud and they object to any world order that might level them to any world standard of uniformity and so abandon their revered constitutional practices and degrade their culture. They see so many foreigners in any world government that they and their compatriots would be out-voted and would lose their national characteristics.

The many constitutions and cultures of today are all national. Italy seeks to retain the ancient Roman culture and superiority complex, or to revive them, through the establishment of new organs and theories of government. Germany likewise has sought to preserve the culture of the Hohenzollern monarchs by somewhat similar constitutional changes. In Japan the Elder Statesmen are a testimonial that constitutional changes may not readily change and reform the ancient culture of a people. In these instances—and many others could be cited—constitutional changes have been loaded with the duty of preserving national cultures. In Russia, however, it seems to us, the constitutional changes have been inaugurated with the objective of creating a new culture rather than of preserving any ancient Russian [Page 84] culture and this sought-for new culture is widely different from any older culture.

When we switch from these local or national movements to consider a world order and attempt to point out the constitutional and cultural foundations befitting a world order, the task seems hopeless, particularly at this time when the League of Nations confesses failure in an attempt to preserve the ancient Ethiopian culture, when it assumes so little responsibility for solving the Spanish troubles and when small nations like Belgium abandon the collective security of the League for neutrality. The League has endeavored to restrict its aims to the attainment of peace. Ostensibly it has sought neither constitutional reform nor any broad cultural betterment except that which would follow from universal peace. However, in practice, its economic conferences, fiscal conferences, opium conferences, health conferences, labor conferences and many like endeavors have attempted to reform many national practices so as to raise the cultural attainments of the nations of the world. Furthermore, in seeking to impose arms embargoes, credit restrictions, oil sanctions and other like economic measures, the League has learned that indirectly its program would touch the cultural life of all peoples in many ways. These efforts arouse the fears of the general public that any coming world order will suppress national aspirations and impose standardized cultural practices inimical to beloved national institutions.

The general belief seems to be that a world order must await that far off day when some one of our current national movements like fascism or communism attains such success as to command its adoption by all nations, or when some new movement, based on new and refined constitutional doctrines, wins the like attention of the world. Then the constitutional and cultural foundations for a world order will be laid. Then the league will fade away, then Italy abandon fascism, Germany Hitlerism, Russia communism, the United States the New Deal and all join this pragmatic utopian government. But this does not lighten the task of selecting the constitutional and cultural foundations for a world order today. From the inception of the United States government all states have retained the sole power to make inheritance laws, criminal laws, laws of conveyancing, marriage, divorce, and in fact, laws governing all matters except the few delegated to our federal congress. Nevada’s divorce laws are too lax for most states and there seems little chance to get a uniform divorce law in all states. If then Americans refuse to lay the foundations for bringing so many features of our cultural life within national control, how can anyone contemplate investing any world order with control of these features of our cultural life? While our federal constitution has vitally affected the cultural life of the United States, the constitutional foundations of federal control of our culture are very limited; only matters of common interest to all sections of our country, matters of universal interest, are delegated to our [Page 85] federal departments.

THE quest for social security illustrates the current remedy for our mass psychoses. Centralization of power is the cry of people seeking social security. In Europe this is expressed in dictatorships, but centralizing does not stop with national dictators. Every national dictator finds that he needs much from outside his territorial domains and as a result dictatorships are imperialistic without exception. Dictators feel they have a divine commission to rule other nations and peoples in their efforts to bring social security to their own people. Most dictators rise to power by promising and undertaking to make the state guarantee social security to all their people at the expense of “foreign” people. They put the emphasis on what society owes the individual and largely ignore the responsibility the individual owes society in the way of curing its psychoses; its intemperance, its lack of social restraint, its neglect of industry, saving and thrift. Here again the belief in every dictatorship seems to be that if the fundamental obligations of society to the individual can be suitably expressed in the constitution and laws of their country so as to establish social security, their dictatorship may be extended to a world order, and again this world order would be of a unitary pattern.

The principal quarrel we have with these quests is that they all assume that the world order must be unitary in type, that all nations must embrace identical cultural practices and objectives. We believe that a much better world order than we now have can be attained by restricting its initial objectives and responsibilities to those essential issues and problems that are universal or world wide. We do not believe that the new world order needs to guarantee social security of a unitary pattern alike to industrial peoples and Hottentot Bushmen, or to Americans, Europeans and Asiatics. In other words, we believe the foundations for a new world order should be confined to problems universal in character. We would not seek a world order pledged to offer a uniform social security to all peoples in their respective habitats, but merely pledge that its limited activities would always be for the general welfare, leaving responsibility for social security as a local matter with the nation or state.

IT is plain to see that such an objective for a world order greatly limits the constitutional and cultural foundations necessary and some may say that there would be no foundation stones left on which to build a world order, or that without broad foundations any world order would be useless and less effective than the League of Nations. However, there are some objectives sought in common by mankind and pertinent to any world order that can rest on narrow foundations, if we may judge by United States history, constitutional and cultural. Disarmament in a broad sense is both a constitutional and a cultural matter, coinage and currency stabilization, banking and the liquidation of war debts, all these items in the general life of a people [Page 86] have a constitutional phase and all alike have a bearing on the social security of all people. It is becoming evident that none of these objectives can be attained under the League, but these objectives can be attained by a world order which, having solved the vital problems of peace and world trade, could safely entrust to its constituent national units the more local responsibility for personal social security. More peaceful world conditions can be attained by a world order though it fails to guarantee the abolition of warfare. Under our constitution no state guarantees peace by “collective security,” nor will the federal government intervene in any insurrection within a state except “on application of the legislature, or of the executive.” But this limited constitution has virtually attained peace between the forty-eight states inhabited by a sovereign people, it attained for its citizens a higher social security as measured by its standard of living than any other people have enjoyed, and it has attained a broad religious freedom; finally, through the fiscal powers granted, it did effect the stabilization of coinage and currency for all the separate states by inaugurating a unitary coinage and currency.

Whether social security and similar issues have now changed from matters of local interest to matters of universal American interest, is the federal problem facing the United States. Perhaps after acting together for one hundred and fifty years under narrow federal powers we should now broaden the constitutional foundations of our federal government so that our culture may be more distinctly a United States culture and the states may no longer control many items in our daily lives. This, our American problem, vividly illustrates what a unitary or centralized world government would mean since a unitary world order would centralize these and all matters of local interest, not in Washington but in Geneva, the world parliament would be the only government, absorbing both our states and our federal government. When this is realized the need of limiting the foundations of the world order to matters of universal content is apparent and we naturally embrace the federal type of government since the limiting of objectives is of the essence of federalism.

WITHOUT assuming to prescribe the constitutional and cultural foundations for a new world order we have suggested a few among those which our American federal experience has shown to be innocuous. No state has regretted that it surrendered the right of coinage and the right to regulate the currency to our federal government and enabled the federal government to stabilize the currencies of all states by creating a unitary fiscal system.

Why not revise the Covenant of the League in consonance with federal principles? Broader powers than those above suggested might be granted, but we feel few advocate a unitary world government which remains the necessary alternative of those who oppose federally limiting the powers of the League to matters of universal or world content.

[Page 87]

CONSCIOUSNESS

DALE S. COLE

WHEN Christ teaches that the Kingdom of God is within us and when Bahá’u’lláh admonishes us to turn our sight inward that we may see Him standing within “mighty, powerful and self-subsistent,” they are presenting one of the profoundest mysteries of life for our assimilation.

They speak of the abiding companionship of the Power of the Holy Spirit. They try to help us to understand such terms as omniscient, all-pervading, ever-present—those attributes of Divinity which roll so convincingly from the tongue but are so difficult to feel and experience.

They are suggesting that a consciousness of the presence of God in our lives at all times is the object of our yearning, and has been throughout the life of humanity, a consciousness which clarifies, comforts, assuages, inspires, stimulates and induces effectiveness.

Consciousness suggests awareness, yet when one seeks in authorities for synonyms, he is astonished at the poverty of the list.

A long time ago, Brother Lawrence appreciated awareness, for in a prayer he petitioned in words such as these: “O God, since I am in Thy presence (i.e. in act of prayer) and must now according to Thy command devote my mind to outside things, do Thou grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence and to that end do Thou prosper me with Thine assistance, receive all my work, possess all my affection.”

Apparently Brother Lawrence wanted to live in a continual attitude of prayer even while doing the most menial and disagreeable tasks—to live and work in an awareness of the ever-abiding presence of God in his life.

Certainly consciousness bespeaks degrees of knowledge which may come instantly, as an intuitive feeling, or may require tedious stages of acquisition. Knowledge, entering consciousness by the window of the heart or the window of the mind, impinges on individual susceptibility in such manner as to generate varied responses. From such phenomena come the genius of great artists and scientists, the benefits of commerce well directed, and the wholesomeness of a humble life well lived.

Knowledge, advancing a step into the sphere of comprehension, goes beyond the understanding of a single theme and sees the immense whole of creation in relation to its constituent parts. It sees, underlying the pageant of the heavens, the lilliputianism of [Page 88] the microscopic worlds, the play and inter-play of human activity, a fundamental unity of purpose and execution which is proof of the potency of some tremendous response to law— law so extensive as to be definable only in terms of the universal.

Knowledge and comprehension and all of the other designations which suggest themselves as shades of meaning regarding the act of knowing are not sufficient to explain clearly this consciousness which is so elusive an object of our striving, for there is an element of “feeling” in its possession which is not dependent on reason, memory or knowing. One may know a thing is right and just and true without any voluntary mental effort. Nor is this matter of feeling necessarily an emotional one. It brings basic conviction—deep assurance, courage. It is not superficial. Rather is it an indefinable Bounty of the All-Glorious with many joyous nuances.

WE may open the windows of the heart and the mind to the breezes which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá so often spoke of as “breaths of the Holy Spirit” but we cannot force them to enter either of these windows. “The wind bloweth where it listeth.” Yet since these breezes blow from all directions we do not have to be particular as to the window of the house which we open, whether it be to the north, south, east or west; whether it be of the heart or of the mind. But we do have to see that the windows of our perception and susceptibility are open—fully open, whether they be apertures of intellectuality or of intuitional assurance, or simply those of courting fortuitous circumstance—the mercy of God.

When we seek to “turn our sight unto ourselves” we are quite prone to exert considerable pressure, to concentrate, to try to force cognizance, realization, understanding. It is quite natural to close the eyes, thereby rendering ineffective physical sight which is impotent in the unseen realm. How often have we tried sincerely, but perhaps not persistently enough, “to see Him standing within.” Voluntarily or involuntarily we ever seek the technique whereby this mystery may be unveiled and the experience of spiritual consciousness become ours.

Certainly there are techniques; the technique of prayer, of meditation, of living, but the technique which you so faithfully and laboriously have developed to fit your needs may be entirely unworkable for me. And yet there are certain rules governing all techniques to which they must conform, even though technique itself, either in the physical or spiritual worlds, is a matter of individual education, skill and training—a process, however, which is not bounded by the element of time.

THESE general rules which technique must follow have been given us in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh —but they are for us to apply. To no knottier problem can they be applied than the one of acquiring that consciousness of which we are thinking —for that awareness is requisite to the regeneration of the individual and the regeneration of individuals is essential to the unfoldment of the [Page 89] Divine Plan in all the limitless worlds, within and without, now and hereafter.

There is also an element of discipline to be considered. We set ourselves the task of this régime, of trying to attain to this requisite consciousness of the all-pervadingness of the Power of the Holy Spirit, in which we live and which we cannot evade by any contrivance, and which we cannot summon by a simple act of will.

In this tremendous adventure, this exploration of uncharted realms of being, this seeking for the “golden fleece” of spiritual perception and apperception, we are like the scientists in many respects.

It has seemed necessary in the past to postulate the existence of something called the “ether” which is everywhere, all-penetrating. Whether it be necessary now or not does not detract from the value of the analogy. Being steeped in the ether, from which we cannot escape, how can we prove its existence? We cannot shut it out from a space as we can air (a vacuum) and say, in this jar is air and in this jar there is no air. We cannot compress or expand it to prove its characteristics. We cannot escape out of it and stand at some isolated spot and point, saying, “See, over there is ether.” We can contrive no reference point from which to observe or measure it. We have no consciousness of ether except as a conception. Certainly we cannot feel it.

That consciousness influences conduct and behavior is well established. Difficulties and obstacles seem to rise naturally to the surface of the pool of thought. They can be skimmed off, cast aside and in their stead positive, affirmative, helpful thoughts be caused to rise to the surface, accelerating the more significant spiritual consciousness of the presence of the Spirit from God. This preliminary exercise is a matter of desire and will leading up to the climactic experience.

It is possible to be conscious of the Power of the Holy Spirit. There have been innumerable examples of this happy state. We have been endowed with three means for this purpose; the mind, the heart and the spirit. Thinking, feeling and—but how can spiritual consciousness be defined? Like everything in existence, its essence is elusive, but its characteristics, qualities, attributes and effects can be experienced.

So this consciousness for which we reach so ineptly is a matter of experience, however acquired, a treasured gift from God which cannot be forced or induced by the exercise of will power, however strong. Neither can it be transferred from one person to another. Most surely it cannot be purchased. Orators may declaim about it, tears may flow and a warm glow of the rightness of things suffuse our beings. This glow may last a second, a year or ever after, but the fact remains that this consciousness cannot be taught—experiencing it is not a question of a teacher filling an empty cup with knowledge, however fine the phrases. This consciousness is an individual experience, a bounty of God, a receiving into our being and becoming the Power of the Holy Spirit—as a plant drinks in the [Page 90] warmth, light and life-giving rays of the sun, to give them forth again in beauty and fragrance.

These apparent limitations do not mean that there is nothing we can do about it. If we wish to master the mysteries of any subject, any profession, any trade, we must prepare ourselves by going through certain rigors of preparation, of apprenticeship, of laying adequate groundwork. I can lay one brick upon another, but I cannot do it with the skill, dispatch and accuracy of the man who is trained in the art, and even so humble a task as the laying of bricks may erect a shrine.

The benefit of a sincere teacher is not to be discounted, however, for a word or phrase may be the trigger which opens the trapdoor of understanding, leading to this consciousness. But the trapdoor must be openable, its hinges oiled and its latch well adjusted.

Preparation, self-education differs as widely as individuals themselves. What you need may not be what I require at all, and the path you take may be entirely too difficult for me, however successful you have been and are. You may be glowing with that consciousness, and if you are, your being so is much more likely to help me than the method by which you acquired it.

METHODS and techniques, preparation there must be whether of studying, purging of self or of intellectual discipline, but in the end the attainment of this consciousness is an experience, an event in life and a personal one—which comes to the deserving directly through the bounty of God, whatever channels be employed.

Perhaps to those who have not and do not experience it, it is presumptuous to try to understand it before experiencing it, and perhaps after it is experienced it is so regenerating and adequate that comprehension is automatic. Nevertheless it is of profound significance—and the more one thinks and meditates about it, the more alluring it becomes.

Bahá’u’lláh said that knowing one’s true self is akin to knowing God. With this consciousness must come understanding. What tremendous possibilities, leading to a state where we will be “independent of all save God”—that is victory.

The fear of losing consciousness constitutes most of the concern we experience when having to take an anesthetic. Yet we exist, many of us, in a state devoid of the consciousness of the presence of the Holy Spirit— the most precious possession of those who have it.

The need of acquiring this consciousness, or of retaining it constantly if we have been fortunate enough to experience it in flashes, is not only a paramount necessity, but an entrancing opportunity. It is at once the way out and the way in.

There being a multiplicity of possible methods and techniques, three essentials thread them all—prayer, meditation, and the turning to Him (a spiritual orientation)—for ultimately this consciousness is a blessing from God in His mercy; and it behooves those who have it not to supplicate Him who gives.

[Page 91]

WORLD ORDER AND THE INDIVIDUAL

MARY COLLISON

THE WORLD ORDER OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH • V

THE responsibility of the individual to the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh should be nothing less than the surrender of his life to the power of Bahá’u’lláh and the daily realization that the Cause of God should be his first concern. Translated into action this means that each believer would be not only teaching but constantly confirming new believers. This privilege and responsibility belongs to all—those of the least intellectual capacity and the greatest handicaps as well as the outstanding workers.

The responsibilities of the individual, like the teachings of a Manifestation, fall into two general groups which we may roughly call the personal and the social aspects—the inner and the outer expression of Bahá’u’lláh’s Message.

One field for constant effort certainly lies in our own attitudes and conduct toward both God and our fellow men. Volumes could be quoted from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on this subject. But what does Shoghi Effendi, whose special function is the establishment of the administration of the Faith, think of the importance of the inner life?

“Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching—no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character—not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and sceptical age the supreme claim of the Abhá Revelation. One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh.”

“Not until the dynamic love we cherish for Him is sufficiently reflected in its power and purity in all our dealings with our fellow-men . . . can we hope to exalt in the eyes of a self-seeking world the genuineness of the all-conquering love of God. Not until we live ourselves the life of a true Bahá’í can we hope to demonstrate the creative and transforming potency of the Faith we profess. [Page 92] Nothing but the abundance of our actions, nothing but the purity of our lives and the integrity of our characters, can in the last resort establish our claim that the Bahá’í spirit is in this day the sole agency that can translate a long-cherished ideal into an enduring achievement.”

But what of our social responsibility? When we see so much suffering of all kinds in the world, it is a temptation for us to dissipate our energies in too many superficial remedies. We must be like a wise physician who seeing a patient feverish and covered with sores, does not depend upon icebags and salve, but tries to discover and remove the cause of the difficulty. Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have pointed out to us both the cause of the disease and the remedy for a world which is sick unto death.

In the midst of the unhappiness and insecurity of our present-day social order, I feel that our responsibility toward the people of the world is best carried out in two ways. First, we should develop our administrative Institutions and have them functioning harmoniously, efficiently and vigorously, so that in the hour of extreme necessity a despairing society may find in our world-wide system a pattern for a new world order. Second, we should lead people to Bahá’u’lláh so that personally they may find happiness and security, and collectively they may establish the consciousness of the oneness of mankind—the spiritual basis of the new order.

The individual’s responsibility toward Bahá’í administration has often been emphasized by Shoghi Effendi in his letters. Certain definite duties are the special privilege of declared believers. Some of the most important of these are: attendance at the community meetings; the obligation to contribute generously to the Bahá’í Fund; to study the Word constantly and deeply and to make oneself thoroughly familiar with the spirit, the progress and the specific laws and principles of Bahá’í Administration. Shoghi Effendi says, “. . . every declared believer . . ., far from standing aloof and assuming an indifferent and independent attitude, should regard it his sacred duty to take part conscientiously and diligently, in the election, the consolidation and the efficient working of his own local Assembly.” This instruction involves more than might at first appear, for since each Assembly is a unit in an interdependent system, its “consolidation and efficient working” is dependent to a great extent upon the vigor of the whole administration. The individual believer has therefore a responsibility to the National Spiritual Assembly and the whole body of the Cause as well as to local progress.

HOW can we lead people to Bahá’u’lláh?

Bahá’u’lláh has certainly placed great responsibility upon the individual in regard to teaching. “God hath prescribed unto every one the duty of teaching His Cause. Whoever ariseth to discharge this duty, must needs. . . adorn himself with the ornament of an upright and praiseworthy character, so that his words may attract the hearts of such as are receptive to his call. Without it, he can never hope to influence his hearers.”

[Page 93]

“Whoso ariseth to teach Our Cause must needs detach himself from all earthly things and regard the triumph of Our Faith as his supreme objective. . . . If he be kindled with the fire of His love, if he foregoeth all created things, the words he uttereth shall set on fire them that hear him.”

“Let thy soul glow with the flame of this undying Fire that burneth in the midmost heart of the world, in such wise that the waters of the universe shall be powerless to cool down its ardor. Make, then, mention of thy Lord that haply the heedless among Our servants may be admonished through thy words, and the hearts of the righteous be gladdened.”

“Center your energies in the propagation of the Faith of God. Whoso is worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation.”

“Whoso ariseth among you to teach the Cause of his Lord, let him, before all else, teach his own self. . . . Take heed, O people, lest ye be of them that give good counsel to others but forget to follow it themselves.”

The need, the opportunity, the responsibility and the joy of teaching have been stressed from the very inception of our Faith, but have greatly increased as the old order falls into decline.

Thus, Shoghi Effendi has recently written: “This new stage in the gradual unfoldment of the Formative Period of our Faith into which we have just entered—the phase of concentrated teaching activity—synchronizes with a period of deepening gloom, of universal impotence, of ever-increasing destitution and widespread disillusionment in the fortunes of a declining age. This is truly providential and its significance and the opportunities it offers us should be fully apprehended and utilized.”

“I fervently hope and pray that the year into which we have just entered may be signalized by fresh conquests and unprecedented triumphs in the teaching field within the United States and beyond its confines. A systematic, carefully conceived and well-established plan should be devised, rigorously pursued and continuously extended. . . . this plan should receive the whole-hearted, the sustained and ever-increasing support, both moral and financial, of the entire body of His followers in that continent. . . . The field is immense, the task gigantic, the privilege immeasurably precious. Time is short, and the obligation sacred, paramount and urgent. The American community must muster all its force, concentrate its resources, summon to its aid all the faith, the determination and energies of which it is capable, and set out, single-minded and undaunted, to attain still greater heights in its mighty exertions for the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.”

As Shoghi Effendi says in “The Unfoldment,” “To us, the ‘generation of the halflight,’ living at a time which may be designated as the period of the incubation of the Word Commonwealth envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh, has been assigned a task whose high privilege we can never sufficiently appreciate, and the arduousness of which we can as yet but dimly recognize.”

(Concluded)

[Page 94]

LANGUAGE AND WORLD UNITY

RAYMOND FRANK PIPER

PART TWO • CONCLUDED

THE advocates of half a dozen constructed languages are actively seeking public support. Each party has been jealous of its favorite system, and sometimes even narrowly sectarian and fanatical. However, the operation of several universal languages evidently would be inconsistent, impossible, and self-defeating. The benefits of a universal language can be realized only as one synthetic language is somehow established in an authoritative and permanent way. No popular appeal or wide study is practicable until one definitive system has been agreed upon. The need of an impartial scientific comparison of languages, and of conciliation among leaders of special interests, has become increasingly urgent. Until recently no social agency existed to bring together interlinguists for conferences and cooperative endeavors.

AN ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

In 1924 an opportune and valuable coordinating agency was established, the International Auxiliary Language Association? It was founded at the instigation of the Committee on International Auxiliary Language appointed by the International Research Council. For some years before, this Council had been seeking an international medium suitable for the world-wide distribution of scientific knowledge. IALA is “an active alliance of idealists, scientists, and men of affairs who take the position that the language situation ought to be approached dispassionately as a problem in ‘social engineering.’”

The essential and resolute objectives of IALA are (a) to find the best possible constructed language, and (b) to get it into world-wide operation. They believe that this language, as a tool of international intercourse, should be secondary to all national languages and in conflict with none. The Association has proved that it is not partisan to any proposed scheme, but seeks to know the good features of all. It is a neutral-minded research group distinguished by devotion to truth and tactfulness. Its leaders have a clearly conceived long-time program of development. An outline follows of the four chief phases of this program.

(1) The first service of IALA is [Page 95] the discovery and coordination of interested parties. It seeks to lead indifferent or antagonistic groups to sympathetic understanding and effective cooperation. The ardent protagonists of particular language schemes need to be harmonized. Expert linguists, who perhaps have kept aloof, must be induced to contribute their scientific treasures. Psychologists and sociologists, diplomats and philanthropists, are needed to add their special and essential gifts. The Association strives to bring face to face from all parts of the world persons who can make valuable contributions to the great enterprise. The hardest problem is psychological: to awaken people to the importance and the grandeur of the conception, and to persuade them to sacrifice their personal interests for the sake of the total welfare of the cause. All interested groups may be united, however, in the common convictions that a world language is urgently needed now, and that it must he the best language that modern science can create.

IALA’s first significant achievement in coordination was an international meeting of linguistic research held in Geneva in March, 1930. Distinguished linguists and representatives of the six leading synthetic languages conferred for two weeks on common problems. Some of their conclusions are: The six systems of international language represented have so much in common that adherents of one can understand the others without much difficulty. Each system presents certain advantages peculiar to itself, but no one of them can claim to be perfect; therefore, any decision tending to determine definitely the international language of the future is still premature. The cause of international language would greatly benefit by increasing cooperation among linguists and interlinguists. Important results should come from this cooperation, and from the extensive work planned by IALA.

The current work of IALA consists in organizing conferences in Europe (where many linguists and most interlinguists reside) at which linguists and experts in constructed languages may work out together and agree upon the criteria of an adequate international language. Two conferences have already been held. By the end of the Brussels conference in January, 1936, twenty-two criteria had been agreed upon. The Copenhagen conference, held in August, 1936, was the largest of all. Twenty-three linguists from universities in ten countries discussed such specifications for an international language as vocabulary, structure, accent, and ease of learning.

As soon as these criteria are finally defined, and agreement is reached upon the fundamental principles and structure of a universal language, then experts will test the many proposed systems against these criteria. The one which conforms most, or the one which is the most capable of adaptation, will probably be chosen, and modified to fit the criteria. Then an institute of linguists will work out all the details of the language, and bring it to the highest possible degree of perfection. IALA insists that the language must be the finest that the best qualified experts of the [Page 96] world can produce after exhaustive research. They believe that an auxiliary language can neither be universal nor enduring unless it is based upon free, thorough, and sound scholarship.

(2) Another phase of the IALA program is the promotion of scientific research. It has aided and subsidized investigation in three principal directions: (a) Linguistic: a search for the fundamental notions of language; comparison of vocabularies to obtain a working basis for a really international vocabulary; the search for concepts common to the chief languages of Europe; and other enterprises. (b) Educational: experimental studies to determine the relative amount of time consumed in learning artificial as contrasted with natural languages; conditions of learning; and so forth. (c) Sociological: notably Shenton’s investigation of the language problems of international conferences.

(3) A later phase of IALA’s program is the practical inauguration of the universal language. After linguistic experts have created the best possible language, then social engineers must devise the procedure necessary to gain its official and worldwide recognition. Linguistic excellence avails nothing without diplomatic success. The complicated and delicate problems of social adjustment and organization are even more difficult than the linguistic problems, and demand the finest arts of diplomacy. IALA is intensely aware that the whole cause may be endangered or lost by blunders in social strategy.

A satisfactory technique must be devised by which the governments of the world, international organizations of every kind, and all other groups concerned, may justly delegate representatives to constitute an official international commission with power to adopt and introduce one synthetic language. Such a commission might well be sponsored by the League of Nations. Its decisions would be based upon the accumulated results of impartial researches of every kind.

The representation in this convention should be broad and fair enough, and the qualities of its personnel high enough, to command the respect of the world. They would have the solemn duty of commending to all peoples the language adopted, of suggesting ways of establishing it in the schools of the world, and of contriving other practical means for putting it into operation.

(4) The final phase of IALA’s program will be attained when a permanent International Language Academy is established to care for and direct the evolution of the adopted world language. It would continue experimental research, and authorize any modifications which growing experience demanded. It might direct a publishing bureau, in cooperation perhaps with the League of Nations, in which any important writing originating anywhere would quickly be made available to the world in the universal language.

SOME PROSPECTIVE FRUITS OF AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE

As soon as a universal auxiliary language is auspiciously inaugurated, [Page 97] it will advance by the momentum of its own intrinsic values. Many groups like the following may come to its support: international business concerns, (for example, Thomas Cook & Sons), the Socialist Party, international bibliographical institutes, religious missionary boards, and scientific societies. Hugo Schuchardt predicts that if an auxiliary language could be taught in all schools for a generation, its position would be impregnable; it would become practical and natural through constant use, and its novelties would become familiar. Because of its neutrality, simplicity, and economy in learning, Oriental peoples and smaller nations would join in its development. IALA believes that if the West can agree upon one auxiliary language, the East will gladly accept it. Its widespread use would demonstrate its indispensable worth to mankind, and, like clothing, books, telephones, or radios, it would eventually settle into one of the basic necessities of human existence.

Then could be realized more and more the limitless possibilities for human understanding and enrichment contained in a universal language. Treasures of wisdom which are discovered in one nation could easily flow to all peoples. A brisk exchange of cultural riches between Occident and Orient would take place. More intelligent opinions concerning international affairs could be formed. More adequate philosophies of living might be built. The benefits of any communicable human value could quickly travel to the ends of the earth. It would become the medium for every type of international understanding and undertaking. New and significant social values would emerge which are now difficult to imagine.

A universal language will be especially valuable in realizing peace and concord among the peoples of the earth. More and more the great common interests of mankind will be discovered and appreciated. Certain words, like peace, freedom, justice, cooperation, the commonwealth of mankind, will become loaded with associations precious to the hearts of all men. The ideal of human brotherhood will be felt more and more as a concrete and motivating experience, and the destruction of one’s kind in war, more and more repulsive. In the course of time men of cosmopolitan spirit may produce in this language, literature which is great because expressive of universal human longings. Then to its scientific precision and excellence would be added the beauties of poetic and aesthetic feeling.

Dr. Arthur Morgan, Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, has declared, “A world language is certain. Events are pushing resistlessly to compel it. The only question is whether it can be anticipated and given adequate preparation. Whether it is an awkward, hastily devised expedient, . . . or whether it becomes a master contribution of science to the economical and beautiful handling of ideas, may depend on developments of the next generation. . . . Contributions of science to the tools of thought and language may be no less significant than its contributions to the recording and transmission of sound and light.” [Page 98]

WE have seen how the great ideal of promoting world unity through language is a practical possibility. In conclusion let us remind ourselves that the realization of this ideal is now passing through a crucial and precarious stage. Some blunder in social engineering, failure of financial support, the impatience, intolerance, fanaticism, or revolt of some unscientific enthusiast, might postpone or endanger the whole enterprise. The cause of the world language needs now four kinds of support: the propelling vision and ardor of religionists and idealists; the tested knowledge of scientific experts; the practical wisdom of social engineers and diplomats; and the abundant capital of far-seeing philanthropists.

Through their combined endeavors may be realized the glorious new age of “cosmopolitan conversation,” international understanding, and the commonwealth of nations. Then the curse of Babel will be turned to good, and the description of Genesis (11:1, 6) once more apply: “And Jehovah said: The whole earth is of one language and one speech; behold they are one people.”

---

LET ME KNOW LOVE

NORMAN F. MacGREGOR, JR.

Let me know love, O God,

A love that asks not why it gives,

But giving, stronger grows and lives

Even to the end, O God.

Let me take a soul and make it part of mine

And mine a part of it, so that the two entwine

Closer as the years go by; and let us see,

Each in the other, a true light of Thee.

Grant that each may make his life a prayer,

Filled with service and devoid of care

So that, entering the unknowable land,

We may go onward, hand in hand.

Surely love like this, O God,

Cannot help but bring to Thee

On wings of sweetest melody

The souls that love, O God.

[Page 99]

TRUTH AND PROGRESS

HORACE HOLLEY

EVERY man and woman who has reached maturity realizes that human life has undergone more fundamental changes during the past century than it had during the preceding two thousand years. Ever since the rise of science endowed the modern mind with power to manipulate the forces of nature and control them through mechanical invention, mankind has increasingly become subject to the law of change. At first this new power was felt to be identical with progress. The outbreak of the war in 1914, however, and the political and economic revolutions which developed out of that world wide disaster, have compelled us to reexamine the very basis of our social activity and strive to find ways to control the larger human movements lest they overwhelm us with even greater destruction than has already wrought misery and released fear in so many parts of earth.

What is vitally needed, all can agree, is some social philosophy which will fit the facts of human life today with something of the same precision as science fits the facts observed in the lower order of nature —some conception of the true principles underlying civilization which will enable the nations and peoples to find the way out from mutual antagonism and discord to mutual cooperation and peace, from mutual fear and suspicion to general assurance and amity, from the burden of poverty to the freedom and dignity of a well ordered human existence. What has been gained if we have acquired mastery over the titanic forces of chemistry and physics, but have become slaves to our own ignorance of the laws and principles governing the individual and collective life of man?

This need for a new and constructive human outlook was emphasized in the Bahá’í teachings many years ago, even before the war of 1914 shook the world from its false pride and its superficial view of the nature of human destiny: “That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race could neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this period of renewal and consummation. . . . From every standpoint the world of humanity is undergoing a reformation. The laws of former governments and civilizations are in process of revision, scientific ideas and theories are developing and advancing to meet a new range of phenomena. . . . This is the cycle of maturity and reformation in religion [Page 100] as well. . . . Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. This reformation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world . . . the divine remedy for all human ailments.”

The same note is sounded even more assuringly in the following passage: “In this present cycle there will be an evolution in civilization unparalleled in the history of the world. The world of mankind has heretofore been in the stage of infancy; now it is approaching maturity. Just as the individual human organism, having attained the period of maturity, reaches its fullest degree of physical strength and ripened intellectual faculties, so that in one year of this ripened period there is witnessed an unprecedented measure of development, likewise the world of humanity in this cycle of its completeness and consummation will realize an immeasurable upward progress.”

Such an affirmation might appear to be no more than an expression of hope and optimism repudiated by the facts of this changing world, unless we pause to reflect carefully upon the true character of these recent earthshaking events which outwardly seem so incomprehensible and even apalling to the average man.

As we go farther into the Bahá’í teachings, we find that they give a clear and rational explanation of the apparently chaotic condition of this extraordinary age.

With this interpretation we can see how all the many social changes and perturbations form part of one definite historic trend. It is as though the explorers in an unknown country, surrounded by possible unexpected dangers on all sides, were to be given a map on which the true character of the country was clearly inscribed. With that means of accurate knowledge, they would no longer have reason to fear becoming forever lost.

The Bahá’í map describing the strange “country” which modern civilization has become makes it clear that a long historic trend, covering countless ages—the trend toward the separation of peoples into divided and antagonistic races and nations, has in our time come to an end. Throughout all recorded history, the movement of peoples has been one not merely of physical separation but also of emotional, mental and moral diversity. The isolation of social groups, large or small, has been the basis of man’s collective experience since the dawn of time. The result of this movement of separation and diversity was to establish firm and enduring differences of language, custom, belief and outlook upon every branch of the human race. Humanity has never really existed—what have existed were no more than separate and distinct tribes, nations and races, each denying to the other as far as possible the rights and privileges necessary to an ordered human life, even, in fact, the recognition of one common and universal God.

But now that vast and tremendous scattering of the peoples has come to an end. The movement toward separation [Page 101] and division has been completely reversed. The fundamental movement underlying this modern time is toward unity. For the totally unsuspected result of the new power of science has been to destroy the very source and cause of social isolation throughout the earth. The nations, races and peoples are today, whether they will or no, living together in one unitary physical environment, one supernational economic civilization from which no race nor nation nor people can possibly escape. “This handful of dust, the earth,” declares the Bahá’í teachings, “is one home. Let it be in unity. . . . Fellowship is the cause of unity, and unity is the source of order in the world.”

To this swiftly unified physical environment, however, each organized society has brought its habit of separation and its long established differences and antagonisms, the inevitable result of the tribal outlook developed during ages that are past. Can this new household of mankind, this firmly knit world wide society which science has produced, possibly survive disaster if the old tribal outlook, now in possession of armaments a millionfold more destructive than bow and arrow, sword and spear, continues to dominate the minds and hearts of men?

The menace of such calamity as would follow another explosion of the sinister power of modern armament is something entirely new to human experience. It stands as a universal problem before every people in the world. We live today under the menace of social disaster quite as real and far more portentous than the menace of physical disaster looming over those unfortunate people who dwell in towns beside a flood swollen river, who know not from day to day, from hour to hour, whether the embankment will hold the raging waters in check.

Thousands of anxious statesmen, economists, students and men of responsible affairs in all parts of the world realize this menace and bend every energy to find a solution. Yet the conflict of policies and interests rises higher year by year, the armaments increase, and no adequate basis for a universal understanding of the essence of the problem has been created.

Now let us turn again to the Bahá’í map, and note that it does not deal primarily with such external matters as political and economic policy, but with human attitudes and relations. “The most important principle of divine philosophy,” the teachings assert, “is the oneness of the world of humanity, the unity of mankind, the bond conjoining East and West, the tie of love which blends human hearts. . . . For thousands of years we have had bloodshed and strife. It is enough; it is sufficient. Now is the time to associate together in love and harmony . . . The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement. . . . Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness of mankind is the primary foundation of them all.”

Here, in this striking and altogether new truth, the “oneness of mankind,” we have the essential link between the social problem on the one hand, and man’s latent and innate, [Page 102] God-given powers on the other. It is to the degree, and only to the degree, that the race learns how to respond to this conception of underlying oneness that we can take the steps leading from strife to cooperation and peace. The Bahá’í teachings come to us as nothing else than a necessary re-education of the spirit of man in the divine art of unity. The conditions of the age are unprecedented, our traditions and established customs fail utterly to meet them, we require a new spiritual, ethical and social truth in order to transform the nations and races into a true mankind.

No parent would permit his child to grow up without education, or send it forth into this highly specialized industrial age with the unequipped and untrained personality of our primitive, savage ancestors. Why, then, since we are all but children in relation to the problem of world unity, should we so complacently trust that we can solve that problem and meet that emergency without preliminary training, without requisite knowledge of the destiny which has seized the reins of human affairs? We cannot retreat back into the simpler ways of our forebears. We cannot halt the vast movement of modern science. The world has become one home, we must somehow fit ourselves to live together in that home. And the first step is to attain the humility which is willing and eager to learn new truth when new problems are to be solved.

What has happened to us all is that a new age and cycle have dawned, even as the Bahá’í teachings make so clear: “This is a new cycle of human power. All the horizons of the world are luminous, and the world will become indeed a garden and paradise. It is the hour of the unity of the sons of men and of the drawing together of all races and all classes. You are loosed from ancient superstitions which have kept men ignorant, destroying the foundations of true humanity. The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion.”

Has it not been through the coming of new truth age after age that humanity developed from the primitive savage to its present state? With truth, man is superior to every difficulty, every menace, every disaster, but without truth we become lower even than the beast, inviting catastrophe by our failure to realize that spiritual truth, and not physical strength nor material wealth and comfort alone, makes us men. Therefore the Bahá’í teachings summon us to the attitude of seeking and recognizing truth. Imbued with that attitude, we can take the first step of realizing that the changes of this age are a clarion call to the soul and conscience of human beings everywhere on earth. These changes and perturbations mean that destiny has chosen this age for the race to learn greater lessons than any previous age was prepared to understand. When we come to behold our fellow men as bewildered searchers after truth, as bewildered as you and I, then we can make contact with them on levels raised high above the confusions which are but destroying the dead past so that a greater day can dawn.

[Page 103]

A STUDY OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION

G. A. SHOOK

ADMINISTRATION OF THE FUTURE • IV

EVERY religious institution, as it rises to its greatest heights, passes through rather well-defined stages. It begins as a spiritual brotherhood in the days of its Founder and the splendor of this period is never eclipsed by subsequent achievements. It is the period of Revelation and remains ever the source of inspiration. But the period of Revelation is not repeatable; it must be replaced by the apostolic age, the age in which the apostles go forth to spread the Faith. It is the beginning of expansion; in this age the new breaks with the old, the significance of the Prophet’s message, its comprehensiveness and its universality, begin to penetrate into the heart and mind. While the new vision brings joy and hope, it also causes confusion and conflict. But the heroic deeds of these early believers, who demolish the idols of the past, will sustain the church in its most perilous times.

As the church becomes cosmopolitan, problems of discipline and creed intrude. Without a great body of doctrine and well-established tradition it is not easy to bind a diversified people and so organization develops to meet the needs. We must not suppose, however, that the more spiritual aspect of the church, which is paramount in its apostolic age, is entirely absent in this formative period. The letters of Ignatius imploring the church to uphold the rule of the bishops, were written while he was on his way to the Colosseum in Rome to be martyred. Cyprian, who was responsible for sacerdotalism, also suffered a martyr’s death.

Great idealists from the Montanists to the Humanists have imagined a church free from the trammels of organization with its accompaniment of evil. Indeed, some have come to believe that organization is antipathetic to spiritual development; but historic facts demonstrate that a religion can not be spread by a spiritual brotherhood without the aid of some kind of administration. In the formative period, as we have seen, organization will be developed and when it reaches some degree of perfection, the church will attain power and then render greater service to humanity. But we have observed also that in the past when the church attained power the spiritual quality, which we witnessed in the apostolic age, seemed to be on the decline. A [Page 104] little analysis, however, will show that with a more perfect administration this condition need not exist.

IN our study of church organization we tried to get the viewpoint of the early church at different periods, for it is important to determine just what it thought was essential to the promotion of Christ’s teachings. We can not, of course, overlook the religious background of the first apostles nor the influence of contemporary religions after the dispersion of the Twelve. But whatever cause we may assign for the origin of the elements of the early organization, it is apparent that these elements were considered expedient for the exigencies of the time and, moreover, history seems to indicate that they did serve, though imperfectly, a real purpose.

After the state separated from the church the outlook of church order necessarily changed. For generations men came to believe that church and state were inherently different and incompatible if not mutually antagonistic. They believed that both could advance more rapidly if independent of each other. Having separated completely the secular from the spiritual, it is only natural that today we should associate the administration of a religious institution with the government of a modern state rather than that of an ancient church. But since the modern state sustains no relation whatever to religion, its administration necessarily lacks certain elements that were prominent in the early church and which, upon reflection, may be essential to church order. It is quite possible that the organization of the early church, though imperfect, was suited more nearly to its task (that of maintaining an institution for developing humanity spiritually and socially) than is the organization of the modern church. To illustrate, today the most pressing need is unity and yet there is no indication that one single church will unite all Christendom nor that the various churches (sects) will ever form an organic unit or even a federation. On the other hand, there is little evidence that the churches working separately will solve any of our major social or political problems such as unemployment or war. In contrast to this we should recall that when the Roman Empire started to collapse it was the church that prevented complete disintegration and chaos.

WE must look upon this primitive church in the light of what it accomplished. It was not so far removed from the days of Christ as we are, and its fundamental truths may assist us in determining what is really essential to church order.

In terms of experience, past and present, what then seems essential to church order, what should we retain, and what should be eliminated?

Since the world is rapidly disintegrating because of strife and conflict, perhaps our first concern is for unity. But the greatest divisions in religion have been over church validity. Catholicism claims to be the one true church of Christ, with some justification; while Protestantism maintains that this position does not rest upon [Page 105] unequivocal and explicit injunctions in the Gospels and with this view many will concur. A similar division exists in Islam between the Shi’ah and Sunni sects. All will agree, however, that a continuity of the Prophet’s authority through a material line of descent (a succession of some kind with recognized authority) would be invaluable.

It is also clear that it would be highly advantageous to have some infallible interpreter of the Sacred Writings. The reformers objected violently to any kind of episcopal authority but certainly they did not relinquish completely the idea of a court of appeal when they made the Bible infallible. Moreover, they soon discovered that a canonical scripture without an interpreter was not conducive to uniformity in doctrine. The condition of organized Christianity at the time of the Reformation naturally caused Protestantism to stress the independence of the individual Christian and to substitute religious experience for constituted authority but we are gradually awakening to the fact that a church may suffer quite as much from evangelistic authority as from ecclesiastical authority. Experience is not an infallible guide to spiritual truth; indeed it often leads to logical contradictions and inconsistencies.

Ritual, as a means of obtaining Divine Grace, will never hold the place it had in the past. Never again will mankind look upon sacraments as necessary or sufficient to salvation for we are living in a scientific age, a thinking world and not a believing world. Consequently things supernatural neither inspire reverence nor fear as in the past. As a symbol, ritual will have its place but men will understand the relation it sustains to the reality of religion. Had the church in the third century possessed an interpreter of Christ’s message or could it have pointed to explicit instructions in the Gospels regarding His succession, heretical doctrine could have been silenced and sacerdotalism would never have emerged or at least attained the position it did.

There must be some means for expressing the will of the people.

There must be safeguards for protecting the Faith.

FINALLY, new ordinances will be required from time to time to take care of new problems; problems that arise from ever-changing social conditions. There should be an institution with more than human authority or sagacity for legislating upon such matters, matters that are not explicit in the Revealed Word.

All this, if we are unbiased in our judgment, may be inferred from past experience.

When we turn to the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh we note first of all that it is an integral part of His message. The spiritual principles can not be accepted without the administrative principles.

During His lifetime Bahá’u’lláh appointed His eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as the expounder and interpreter of His word. While the full significance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s station could not be grasped, even by His (Bahá’u’lláh’s) followers, nevertheless the faithful did turn as a body [Page 106] to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for counsel upon all matters pertaining to the Faith. As a result no heretical doctrine nor schism, of any consequence, appeared during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s lifetime, that is, in the apostolic age. The historical fact is (and it is the most astounding fact in the annals of religious history), no enemy within or without was able to deter this vast body of firm believers from following implicitly the appointed Interpreter of the teachings of the Founder, Bahá’u’lláh.

In turn, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in His Will, appointed His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as the Guardian of the Faith and made provision for his succession. The believers again turned to the authorized successor for instruction and guidance. Today wherever you find Bahá’ís (and there are organizations in forty different countries) there is a unanimity of opinion regarding the succession. Every believer accepts implicitly but not blindly; their logic is incontrovertible. Bahá’u’lláh is the revealer of God’s Will to humanity for this day as Christ was in His day. All His injunctions are unquestionably for the benefit of mankind. The chances of schism are infinitesimal; sacerdotalism is impossible.

THE most striking thing about the Bahá’í apostolic age, therefore, is its freedom from division.

We have seen that diversity and heresy in the early church led to a strong central organization which in time became duly autocratic. No sooner had the bishops put down the heretics than they turned upon the schismatics. No sooner was the church free from persecution, in the time of Constantine, than it turned persecutor. Naturally we ask, what will happen to the Bahá’í Administrative Order in 500 or 1000 years?

The chances of absolutism and deterioration, as in the religious systems of the past, seem small indeed when we consider its unique history, but the safeguards for its future protection further diminish the probability of disintegration.

The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, because it was written in His own hand, will remain intact throughout His dispensation while the interpretations of His writings will be made by the Guardian alone.

In order to solve the multiplicity of problems that will inevitably arise in the future, a legislative institution called the Universal House of Justice was established by Bahá’u’lláh and definitely described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It will evolve with time, reacting to a changing environment, but its origin is divine, in the same sense that spiritual teachings are divine. Both are creations of the Revealer of the eternal Will of God.

The House of Justice can accomplish everything that was accomplished by the Episcopate or similar institutions, and infinitely more. To begin with, the Faith can not be divided on the validity of its Administration as it was established by the Founder in His lifetime, and in His own hand. Moreover, He has decreed that its enactments reflect the will of God. Again, unlike similar institutions, the House of Justice has a source of divine inspiration in the [Page 107] Guardianship, since the Guardian is its permanent head.

The Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice are the two component parts of the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh. They, through their united and complimentary functions, will insure the continuity of divine authority, and protect the Faith from division. This Administrative Order has the power to enact new laws or to legislate upon questions (in conformity with the exigencies of the time) that are not explicit in the teachings. Furthermore, there is no danger of an administration establishing laws that would not apply to a subsequent period, for any particular House of Justice may abrogate its own enactments or those of a preceding House because, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “. . . these laws form no part of the divine explicit text.”

Here we have all the advantages of the hereditary principle as in the Imamate. In the matter of the interpretation the Guardian’s decisions are as valid as those of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá but he can never usurp any of the rights of the House of Justice and this is understood by all believers.

On the other hand, while the institution of the House of Justice was established by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, its members will be elected by representatives who are elected by the people. Here the democratic element enters, but unlike any democracy the elected members are not responsible to the people who elect them. Moreover, they, and not those who elect them, have the promise of divine guidance. The will of the people is considered in that they choose the members of this legislative body.

In the past those systems which made the greatest claims for apostolic sanction have granted the least freedom to the individual in the matter of doctrine and inspiration; while those which have been the most liberal have not been able to establish any kind of authorized divine guidance. An intermediate position seems plausible but it has never been discovered. In the Bahá’í Faith one is assured of divine guidance and divine sanction but at the same time the rights of the individual are respected as never before for there is no professional clergy. Every believer can go directly to the revealed Word for instruction and inspiration.

ONE of the things that distinguishes a creation from a fortuitous combination is its uniqueness. This Administrative Order has no parallel in history and yet it embodies all the desirable elements that are found in the recognized systems of church order or government.

To illustrate, let us consider how this applies to the old question “Is the ministry different in kind from the laity?” As has been said, in the Bahá’í Faith there is no ministry nor ordination, and yet the wholesome effects of such an office have been retained. The affairs of the Faith are administered by Spiritual Assemblies, local, national, and (in the future) international. The members of the Assemblies are elected by the community. In the local community the believers give full expression to their opinions and convictions but they [Page 108] abide by the decisions of the Assembly. Questions that cannot be settled in a local Assembly can be referred to a national Assembly, and in turn the national Assembly can refer questions to the international Assembly (the Universal House of Justice). Since the members of the Assemblies are responsible always to a higher power and not to those whom they represent, they are in a position to render an unfettered decision. The decisions of the Universal House are final but here we have something more than human judgment. This Administration has the authority of the Guardian, who is under the protection of Bahá’u’lláh, and the promise of Bahá’u’lláh that, “God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth. . . .” and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s assurance: “that which this body, whether unanimously or by a majority doth carry, that is verily the truth and the purpose of God Himself.” The members of the Assemblies are not different in kind but the Assembly as a unit or an entity is different in that its decisions, and not those of any individual, are valid. On the other hand, episcopal authority is impossible and since there are no sacraments, there can be no professional priesthood with its attendant privileges.

In these days of turmoil and anguish when the foundations of present-day society are trembling, leaders of human affairs who are weary of the exploded theories of a materialistic civilization would do well to consider carefully those God-given institutions which are destined to resuscitate humanity.

(Concluded)

[Page 109]

“IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TODAY.”

ESTHER MATSON

SIDNEY HUDDLESTON made this remark about William Penn’s famous plan for international peace. But Penn was only one among many men who have written on the subject of war and peace in words that are startlingly á propos today.

Even in antiquity there was Empedocles claiming that souls guilty of bloodshed were doomed to a series of earthly sojourns far “thrice ten thousand seasons . . . . passing from birth to birth through every species of mortal” . . . . in order to expiate their sin.

Sophocles’ declaration that the toll of war falls heaviest on the young seems gruesome when we consider our World War record. As to the effect war has always had on human morale could anything be more modern than the words of St. Augustine, ——and this even though they come to us from the first century of our so-called Christian era? “What,” said Augustine, “What do we condemn in war? Is it the fact that men are killed who all one day must die? Only cowards would bring that accusation against war. What we condemn is the desire to harm, the implacable will, the fury of reprisals, the passion for dominion.”

Dante’s verdict was succinct: “Only in the last resort should the way of war be tried.” And although the fifteenth century Henry the Fifth left out the present-day menace of airplanes his description of the horrors of battle was sufficiently definite to be up-to-date: “War has three handmaidens ever waiting on her, Fire, Blood, and Famine.”

One is not surprised to find Milton equally realistic, writing of “ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded.” But it is astonishing to discover quaint old Dr. Erasmus Darwin at the end of the eighteenth century prophesying of “The flying chariot through the fields of air” and actually describing how from out it “. . . . warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd, And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.”

This new kind of warring makes the words of Elihu Burritt, that man who was proud to be a propagandist whether of lost causes or no, especially pertinent “. . . . it has come to this” said Burritt, “that if the gospel forbids all war, then there never was, and never will be, a period when its demands were more imperative than now. . . . If we perforate the great law of love, which is to cement and bind together in harmony all races of men, even with so much as a bodkin, [Page 110] we make a hole large enough to admit all the fiends of the pit and deluge with blood the whole face of this beautiful green earth. . . .”

Franklin’s opinion of the badness of war is so familiar as to be trite but his reference to taxation is interesting enough to bear repeating: “Wars are not paid for in war time; the bill comes later.” Obviously Franklin would look at any such problem from the common-sensical, economic viewpoint. It is more astonishing to see the metaphysical writer, Kant, stressing the practical importance of international good-will: “Peace,” wrote Immanual Kant, “Peace is a necessity of international law based on the interdependence of nations; war will be eliminated by reasonable men for economic reasons.”

The distressing fact is that even yet we are lacking in common-sense and reasonableness. Alexander Smith’s words are, indeed as poignant now as when they were written—in 1861. “. . . . Is not the public air which European nations breathe at this moment . . . . charged with thunder? Despots are plotting, ships are building, man’s ingenuity is bent, as it never was bent before, on the invention and improvement of instruments of death. . . .”

Then there is the question of honors. Interesting to see irascible old Thomas Carlyle, the arch hero-worshipper, (he who claimed that “all titles of honor came from fighting”), yet expressing his hope for a better time when “Not arms and the man, but tools and the Man are to furnish the Epic of the world.”

The idea that the new heroism implies something as different from fighting valor as the service required of the modern soldier differs from the service of a soldier in the war of ‘76 has gained many adherents since Carlyle’s time. We all know how the buttons on the back of a man’s coat are a “hang-over” from the day when they were of use to hold his sword. Why should not armaments, one of these days, be similarly no more than a hang-over from the past history of the nations?

It is the fashion to laugh at Quixotic John Ruskin. But what could be more up-to-the-minute than this? “If one could only consider it,” said Ruskin, “as much a victory to get a barren field sown, as to get an eared field stripped; and contend who should build villages, instead of who should ‘carry them’! Are not all forms of heroism,” he asked “conceivable in doing these serviceable deeds?”

We remember how the modern Edward Bok appealed to every single man and woman of us to “stop war.” Bok insisted in good round journalese that it is up to every individual to make his decision, and that each individual decision does count. This is worth comparing with what another enthusiast in this cause declared some fifty years or so ago. “One man,” wrote William Morris, “one man with an idea in his head is in danger of being considered a madman; . . . . ten men sharing an idea begin to act; a hundred draw attention as fanatics; a thousand and society begins to tremble. . . . Why not a hundred million and peace upon earth? You and I who agree together, it is we who have to answer that question.”

[Page 111]

CHANGING RACE RELATIONS

MAXWELL MILLER

IT is easier to discuss the brotherhood of man than to practice it. We are told that it exists in reality, that racial and other group prejudice have been eliminated. The reality, however, has not been translated into the fact of ordinary social intercourse. Only by the herculean efforts of minorities is mankind pulled, pushed, cajoled or castigated onward toward its goals.

If each new generation were born into a world freshly reconstructed according to the highest standards and noblest plans of its parents, progress would be a relatively simple and rapid matter. The aspirations of one generation would thus be realized in the next, and all the old errors disappear. Unfortunately, we hand on to posterity not only our achievements but also our mistakes.

Mencius once remarked that a man with a crooked finger knows his finger is crooked, but a man with a distorted mind does not know his mind is distorted. Here is the fundamental obstacle to the realization of humanity’s oneness. The accumulated mass of traditional and established folkways presses upon and channelizes us from infancy, so that by far the greater part of all our activities and thinking is ritualistic and automatic.

It is difficult to trace the influences bearing upon even such opinions and judgments as we form deliberately. At the same time, however, we are quick to defend our beliefs from critical analysis.

Perhaps such of our thinking as we are most eager and careful to justify when attacked, is the thinking which other people have done for us. The more insecure a basis of fact we have to support our convictions, the more readily do we rise to righteous wrath in their behalf. The stupendous literature of so-called racial sociology since de Gobineau, by and large consists of elaborate justifications of the white man’s history of world imperialism. The “white man’s burden,” his “civilizing mission,” the doctrine of Nordic supremacy, and manifold variations on the theme have served to sanctify the bloody subjugation of other peoples to the advantage of the European. Paradoxically, but inevitably, as the nations on the other side of the color line gain power, they voice similar protestations of divine guidance in their international piracies. At this point the devotees of pale-faced divinity—notably Oswald Spengler—gloomily prophesy the downfall of Western civilization. Nowhere, however, do they recognize [Page 112] the humor involved in the successful competition of a so-called inferior race against the divinely ordained Nordic.

Much of the literature on racial groups was in mystical phraseology, we suspect because of the authors’ own mystification on the subject. Certainly none of the much-vaunted assertions has been well substantiated by evidence even to this day, while the greater part has been discarded among careful social scientists. Outside the field of students of social science, however, the old, false notions hold sway. Regretfully on the part of some, aggressively on the part of many, the myths of racial inferiority are held up as demonstrations of the workings of the Divine will among men.

Similarly, racial prejudice has been commonly ascribed to some innate or instinctive trait, which inclines us toward members of one group, but away from members of another. The theory of instinctive social attitudes was strongly held until within the last decade, when researches indicated that probably all of our social attitudes originate in the conditioning influences of our environment. Thereupon the structure of instinct social psychology collapsed. In contrast to writers who hazarded guesses as to the number of instincts, which ranged from two or three in some cases to four or five hundred in others, there came the refreshing admission on the part of such earnest men as Garth to the effect that their measurement tests and hypotheses regarding racial inferiorities or superiorities were questionable. Most social scientists today are inclined to doubt the value of applying the same standards to groups of different cultural background, and they emphasized the question of individual differences rather than the elusive one of innate group differences.

THIS is not to say, however, that all groups of people could cope equally well with the living conditions of, say, New York City, if suddenly placed there. The education and general culture of an isolated Siberian tribe is not fitted for metropolitan life, nor is it meant to be. Each culture develops to meet the needs of the group environment. In this way to exchange the places of such a Siberian tribesman and a New Yorker would place them at a more or less equal disadvantage. In any one environment, however, that group has the advantage whose cultural background has developed to meet the needs involved. For this reason it has appeared even to sincere thinkers that aliens and others were inferior to Americans, since the native resident was so much better equipped to live in the United States. They fail to see what is indicated in the second generation of immigrants, that if these first had been brought up to deal with the conditions of our industrial society, they would be fully able to compete on the same terms with the native born. It is not necessary to point out in detail how many surmount even this difficulty to surpass the success of the average native American.

We are probably born with something like a skeletal psychological [Page 113] mechanism, capable of reacting to stimuli, but having no discernible predetermined complex social attitudes. It would be absurd to expect an infant to distinguish successfully between members of the various racial groups, as the supposition of instinctive racial prejudice would presuppose. To do this, that child would have to know the multitude of cultural and physiological indices by which adults attempt to classify mankind. Starting with the clean slate of the infant mind, however, we can observe how parents, friends, relatives, the church, school, newspaper, motion picture, etc., write on it the deeply-entrenched prejudices and traditional habits of previous generations.

Two instances in point can be taken from the Inquiry study “Racial Attitudes among Children,” edited by Bruno Lasker. One tells of a little girl of about five years of age who was traveling by train with her mother. The colored porter took a fancy to her and amused her with gifts and pleasantries. Finally he took her with him on a trip through the train, which she enjoyed immensely. Returning to her mother she said happily, “He’s a nice, nasty, dirty nigger, isn’t he, Mummy?” Here was no awareness of the significance of the words nor the racial antagonism involved; simply the repetition of the description familiar to her child mind, with her own grateful appreciation of his kindness.

A second example illustrates the influence of the motion picture in forming racial attitudes. A group of children were tested for their reactions to Chinese, and were found to have almost no adverse reaction. They were then shown the film “Son of the Gods,” a Chinese story, and subsequently re-tested. The results this time showed an overwhelming prejudice toward Chinese people. Eighteen months later, testing revealed that this prejudice was still strong.

Generally speaking, we spend most of our time thinking the thoughts of dead men. We come into a world which is ready-made, which demands conformity to its ways from us, and which penalizes originality. Even rebelling we must rebel along familiar lines. If unsuccessful we are rejected and passed over; if successful we sirnply change the brand of orthodoxy.

The desired change in race relations cannot be brought about simply by repeating one’s belief in the brotherhood of man. This phrase has been mouthed for several thousand years to no great avail. To continue in this way is sheer hypocrisy. The growing accuracy of social studies has displaced the shibboleths of racial inequalities, as the great religious teachings in the minds of those who truly understood cut through racial barriers as a sword. We must work singly and collectively to identify all our activities as individuals and to the disregard of group lines. Bahá’ís should be distinguished not by color, nationality, or race, but by the extent to which they fulfill in practice the teachings. We must learn to think straight, and to think as much as possible for ourselves. Having perceived the reality, we must immediately and without compromise translate the reality into social fact.

[Page 114]

THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF CREATIVE ART

H. RANZENHOFER

THE Lord created the arts, bestowing upon us the grace to talk through the medium of the arts, descending from His abstract divinity and all-embracing infinity down to our limited faculties of formation and creation, in which we again recognize the reflection of the spirit of the Master.

Art is the projection of the divine will into our human world, a manifestation of divine happenings, the creator being the very first artist who formed through the medium of “logos,” his master-piece, the world. Be it a tiny snow-crystal or the summit of a mountain, be it the small wings of a butterfly or a large-sized mammal, be it a little flower in the grass or one of the tallest cedar-trees there is, everything receives form and life by the divine will, a spark from the eternal fire. So has man, the crowning achievement of the Lord’s creation.

The history of mankind is also the history of creative art. The form of expression may have differed at different times; at times there may have been movements to drive away creative art from its seemly place and to supplant it by abstract conceptions, that cannot be experienced with one’s senses but can only be expressed in abstract thoughts; nevertheless creative art has again and again held its place, because art is religion in the best sense of the word, service for the Lord’s creation, struggle for truth.

Creative art is of paramount importance in the Bahá’í doctrine, since the underlying principles and the supreme thoughts contained in these teachings find their best expression in the medium of the arts. Creative art without submission to the voice of the Almighty cannot be realized.

The arts are a marvelous composition of heart and mind, of sentimental experience and intellectual understanding, a synthesis showing the road toward grasping the might of the Lord. Worth and value of creative art is demonstrable by practical tests, execution requiring obedience to the laws of divine harmony. Each artistic experience is a reflection of the “Cosmos,” in each work of art we experience the Lord anew, be it as a creator or as recipient of artistic happenings.

Creative art is dependant upon two component parts: diligence and genius, zealous application and talent. To work means to serve the Lord, genius being due to divine grace. The one without the other is just as useless as a bowl without the [Page 115] dew-drops of divine grace.

How manifold is the meaning of creative art. Its ultimate end is to lead to the Lord and to serve Him. Eternal struggle for truth, serving the Master and thanking him for his grace by unconditional devotion. Defeating our pride by deep humility, surrendering ourself to the Divine Will, to the honor and the glory of the Lord and for the joy of our fellow-beings. Synthesis of love and beauty. Happenings that lead you back to the Master, since the grace of God will not be bestowed upon you, unless you yourself have already turned your mind towards Him. Creative art means delivery from all want; it means help and redemption; very near to every-day life, and yet not far from the supreme and the divine.

Nature, our great teacher, combines both. It is a direct and immediate expression of the Lord’s might and power in each and every creation. Who erected pillars and columns and cathedrals as high as the trees in the majestic forest? Has there ever been a human artist capable of painting colors as beautiful as nature has made the flowers look? Through the thunders of the sea and in the roaring of the wind God the creator appears more powerful than in any symphony.

The glorious sun rises daily in the East, and from the East have gone forth the great Manifestations of the divine spirit, of creative art. Mankind, having arisen from the very first stage of its imperfection to the divine light, felt the divine impulse to create. The way led from architecture to sculpture, from painting to music and poetry. Each stage of advance has vestiges of a hot struggle, in each historical period one branch of this tree has developed to perfection.

AS one of the first manifestations of human intellect there arose architecture as an expression of creative desire. Architecture, in its shape an imitation of nature, in its ends service for the Lord, was destined to be the basis of the cultural achievement of mankind. Eternal values have been created, an immediate, clear expression of each age, giving evidence of a creative mind at each stage of successive struggle upon the path leading to the infinity of God.

The artist should be particularly conscious of his sublime mission, since he has been given the capacity of artistic feeling and artistic creation. The artist is a representative of the Lord. For, God’s omnipotence speaks through him. The thoughts in the mind of the Lord are reduced to earthly projection through him, being brought to the conscious mind of mankind in actuality, not dependant upon any special time or location.

For this reason a true artist creates his works of art with a deep sense of religion. The task of the artist is not easy, the way to perfection being steep and thorny; not a few have presumed to be capable of creative art, but have fallen down on the way. Many temptations approach the artist. The worthless and evil things lure him with false promises to deflect him from his true aim and even to battle against the Lord. The road of the artist demands from him unconditional obedience to the laws of divine [Page 116] harmony, humility and severe self-criticism. It is not easy to overcome one’s impulses and passions! But marvelous is the experience of victory; true art removes the veils from the eyes and ears of the artist, enabling him to meditate and to listen to the voice within him, thus hearing his magnificence. The artist is permitted to rise from sensual experience to the spiritual one, to arrive upon the heights wherefrom he may look down upon the valley of life. Each great artist has had to taste the bitter cup of misery, each has had to bear his cross and make his way to his Golgotha. It is not to be expected that an artist will remain normal like an average human being. Clearly, artists are often primitive beings like children and about to do many things subconsciously, when the grace of God has come over them; in practical life an artist is often inexperienced and useless, his soul and spirit longing to be freed from all his worldliness, and his reward being the immortality of his artistic creations. In different ages and among different nations there are many different ways to express the artistic happenings and yet all these different forms and ways can be reduced in their true essence to the same fundamental basic reflections of the human soul aspiring to the spirit of the Lord.

AT the very dawn of human history mankind had already produced works of art.

The architecture of ancient times consisted first of all in buildings raised to the service of God. These edifices carried in their proportions and measurements the symbols of profound secrets and traditions. In ancient sculpture we see the plastic presentation of divine symbols. Also the creative art of ancient times consisted primarily in architecture and sculpture, arts that fill the space in three dimensions. In the Christian era, in medieval times, the ascendancy of the two-dimensional art of painting occurred. Many churches were erected to the honor of the Lord, filled with marvelous paintings created by religious impulse. At the same time new religious ideas arose in the East bringing forth new conceptions of cultural life, which upon first sight may seem strange but are not unintelligible to the initiated believer in the unity of all religion.

With the passing of medieval times the concept of deity advanced from the naturalistic stage to the one of high intellectual and philosophical meditation. Simultaneously occurred the ascendancy of modern music and literature of our times, bringing us again divine harmony of movements and measures in over-dimensional sound. Our great master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says: “Music is most important, music is the heart’s own language. Its vibrations uplift the spirit, it is very beautiful and a great art.”

Indeed, music is a divine gift, that should talk to all humanity as a mediator of mankind, going directly to our hearts, divested of language differences and intellectual diversities.

But not all human beings have yet learned to listen to the voice of the Lord. It is for this reason that the Bahá’í teaching has come down to us as the latest divine Manifestation [Page 117] to prepare our souls and to open our minds for the new age to come. Destiny brought us our greatest name Bahá’u’lláh to open the world for the new order, the new manifestation formed after the Spirit of the Lord. Difiicult days are ahead of us, the time of transformation is coming; but there will be hard battles before the new world age will be here. There will be deep wounds from the great struggle, many hours of bitter despair; but creative art shall be our solace.

In erecting their Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, the Bahá’í’s have attempted to bring for us a great piece of architecture, as a perfect expression of spiritual creation and divine experience.

From the pyramids of Egypt by way of the Temple of Solomon in Palestine and the Sophia, the St. Stephens cathedral in Vienna, on and on we want to go to the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár and the Báb’s shrine; the sign of the new era that is to go on to infinity.

The Bahá’í spirit will spread over the whole world like the waves of the ocean, lovingly embracing the entire universe. Mankind is full of expectation for truth. The believers will solve the religious and social task through the creative mediums in order to lead mankind towards beautiful and noble ends. Edifices to house mankind and edifices for the worship of the Lord shall be erected in which peace, love and justice shall rule; paintings and sculptures shall recall the memories of heroes of the past; music and poetry shall sing the praise of the eternity of the Lord.

Mankind will be united by creative art; all frontiers will be removed and no dividing lines will stand between man and man or nation and nation, or continent and continent, for Art, being of divine origin, is universal. What comes from God will return to God. The light of eternal truth, the sun of the Glory of Bahá’u’lláh shall arise over mankind rejoicing in prayer to the Lord, as a prophetic presentiment of the great spirit has said: “All men shall become brothers.”

[Page 118]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Edited by BERTHA HYDE KIRKPATRICK

Apparent race differences, Professor Miller thinks, are no bar to the eventual merging, distant though it may be, of all peoples into a common brotherhood of humanity. The more we study the question of race, he says, the more difficult it is to tell what constitutes a race; the scientist is puzzled for an answer. There is no biological reason, Professor Miller holds, why, seeing that we originated from one race type, we should not finally return to a biological fusion of all peoples.—GUSTAVUS MYERS in review of “The Beginnings of Tomorrow” by Herbert Adolphus Miller.

The world of humanity is like unto one kindred and one family. Because of the climatic conditions of the zones through the passing ages colors have become different. . . . But in reality mankind is one race. Because it is of one race unquestionably there must be union and harmony and no separation or discord.—‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ.

One of the moral tragedies of our time is that the collapse of the league left the democratic world without a program and condemned it to the morally sterile policy of mere self-defense. There is no hope for democracy along these lines. Peace, in the political sense of the word, comes not from pacifism but from the establishment of common government. . . . an association of sovereign states can only successfully perform the duties imposed upon the League of Nations if its members are willing to pool part of their sovereignty and transfer it to a common federal authority.— MARQUIS OF LOTHIAN, in The Christian Century.

Although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has described will fulfill this sacred task with the utmost might and power. —‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, in Tablet written to the Committee on Durable Peace, in 1919.

Only when nations turn their backs on war can a true world league be established, based not upon force but upon recognition of a community of interest and readiness to make adjustments of mutual benefit.—FLORENCE BREWER BOECKEL, in Peace Action.

[Page 119]

While on a six-month, lonely vigil at Advance Base, the world’s last outpost, sickened almost fatally by poisonous gas fumes, . . . he (Admiral Byrd) wrote in his diary: “The distance and detachment of this place seem to soften some human follies, others take on added significance. But from here, the great folly of all follies is the amazing attitude of civilized nations toward each other. It seems a great madness. If this attitude is not changed, I don’t see how our civilization, as we know it, will survive. If I survive this ordeal, I shall devote what is left of my life largely to trying to help further the friendship of my country with other nations of the world.”—World Events.

The students of the world are tired of being students; they want to be disciples and look for masters and leaders. To live in this difficult world they need a sense of vocation and a sense of community. They seek a movement which binds men together in such a way that this particular loyalty becomes to them the greatest of all loyalties, the one that transcends all other forms of community. But so long as the Christian community recognizes differences of nation, race and does not turn itself resolutely against class and does not turn itself resolutely against “the world,” to use the biblical word, there will be no real Christian community in which young people of an age of mass movements can whole-heartedly believe. Such a community must live out its own inherent dynamic and must not borrow from the pseudo-religions; it must confront the world with one thing only—the gospel which is a power of renewal in every sphere of life.— Adapted from the Christian Century as the opinion of Dr. Visser ’t Hooft, general secretary of the World’s Student Christian Federation.

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.”

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.

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.”

[Page 120]

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[Page 121]

EDITORIAL PURPOSE

• WORLD ORDER MAGAZINE seeks to mirror forth the principles revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for the renewal and unification of society. These principles it recognizes as the impetus and the goal of all the influences making for regeneration throughout the world. It feels itself a part of the new world community coming into being, the commonwealth of mind and spirit raised high above the conflicts, the passions, the prejudices and the violences marking the passing of the old order and the birth of the new. Its aim is to maintain a meeting-place consecrated to peace, where minds touched with the spirit of the age may gather for calm and dispassionate discussion of truth. The scope of its content is best defined in the following summary of the Bahá’í Faith:—

• “The Bahá’í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search affer truth, condemns all forms of superstitions and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society. It inculcates the principle of equal opportunity, rights and privileges for both sexes, advocates compulsory education, abolishes extremes of wealth and poverty, exalts work performed in the spirit of service to the rank of worship, recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary agencies for the establishment and safeguarding of a permanent and universal peace.”

[Page 122]

TOWARDS THIS GOAL OF A NEW WORLD ORDER, DIVINE IN ORIGIN, ALL- EMBRACING IN SCOPE, HUMANITY MUST STRIVE