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[Page 305]

WORLD ORDER

THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE

VOLUME VI   DECEMBER, 1940   NUMBER 9

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Civilization and Culture

Helen Bishop

THIS AGE MAKES A BEGINNING OF

A SCIENCE OF MAN AND SOCIETY

MAN AS A CREATION

THE modern loses some arrogance by the findings of social science. Since the Declaration that announced the beginning of this Cycle, new sciences have come to birth and are growing full-bodied, although each of these, to be sure, was long concealed within the framework of classic science. History was the starting-point for research at the middle of the last century.

The accumulated experience of man’s long past induced the stress of maturity. Advanced historians were burdened by a passion for synthesis. They willed to gauge the forces of history and perceive its laws. By such mastery of the past they hoped to control the present and forecast the future. As a science of probability history would have transcended itself: instead it brought forth new sciences also concerned with man and his universe.

[Page 306] One of these new sciences, economics, uncovers man’s struggle with nature—or with other men—for possession of all forms of wealth. Politics observes the method of human government or breakdown of law. Other specializations may be defined, but they do not bear upon our theme as do two that have given intimate knowledge of human nature: anthropology, which has for its subject-matter collective man as a physical creature and a social animal; psychology, which is concerned with individual man as mind, that is to concede, man as an animal become rational.

Inasmuch as cultural anthropology’s concern is with man himself, it may claim to be the valid synthesis of modern knowledge about the works of man: his religious and psychological awareness, language, art, economic order, political system, forms of marriage and the family, all other social institutions.

Unlike history, anthropology does not begin with that which has been recorded. This social science introduces man living in pre-history, for whom as for us there stands revealed the verse: “All things of the world arise through man and are manifest in him through whom they find life and development . . .”

Collective man as a physical being, a creature in creation, sets the stage for the field worker in anthropology. To those scientists who abandoned the armchair of speculation and took residence among primitives amid the overwhelming evidence of fact, moderns owe the contradiction of many traditional formulae and the vista of a changed perspective.

One of these pre-modern illusions stated: “Man is many, civilizations are one.” Under this view the races of mankind [Page 307] were held to be separate creations; whereas their civilizations were accepted as a single achievement. That is to say: invention of culture took place only once—in Egypt, perhaps—then was carried, although not uniformly, to all parts of the earth.

Such an error fell into line with Christian theology, which drew its arbitrary line between the natural man, “Children of Adam,” and the heirs of Christ. This world-view exaggerated the short achievement of western civilization as against the long creativeness of the Eastern peoples and dark-skinned Mediterraneans. It satisfied other demands of egoistic comfort. Whatever it did, this view is bankrupt now. No cultivated mind would subscribe to it today.

The reverse holds true: “Mankind is one; civilizations are many.” By measurement and classification of skulls, with the help of statistics and tests of blood composition, the view is established that differences of height, complexion, hair, nose and jaw structure make for variations in race—but not of species. Only one species of animal is human. Mankind is one.

Ah, yes, man’s civilizations are many! They were cultures wherein there took place a planting—in of his consciousness, the awareness of himself and of his world at that time. Men evolved all of those distinctive cultures, changed and exchanged the earth’s wealth, made and unmade the states, married in manifold ways and gave in marriage, counted his family under maternal or paternal kinship, and called in worship upon the Name or Names of the Supreme.

Sometimes under individual and again under collective inspiration man created the forms of culture. And when man is weary he allows them to die. The forms disintegrate, but man remains. Not the individual and not even the peoples and races. They, too, die—but the human species dies not. Even as a [Page 308] physical creation man reflects in some measure the attribute “eternal.” So much from anthropology.

MAN HAS A MIND

How much from psychology? Our second science is less concerned with collective than with individual man, necessarily, inasmuch as the individual has a brain and nervous system which is an adaptive mechanism for the exercise of personality. Experimental science became familiar with this body-mind; and by tracing the pattern of sensations, percepts, reflexes, habits and ideas, has accumulated data on human behavior. Analysis penetrates “complexes” or fixed patterns of psychological organization and sets forth the first principles of motivation.

From literature we learned that birth and death, father-mother relationships, pleasure and pain, love and work are the honored fabric of earthly life. From psychology we are to learn that the individual partakes of his share in these mighty enigmas as determined by the operation of psychological law.

That is because higher consciousness is in partnership with happiness, notwithstanding Byron’s romantic musing:

“The eye of melancholy hath a fearful look;

It feeds on knowledge.”

The cure for Byronic pessimism is not less learning but more self-knowledge.

If we can step out of “the half-light of our own motives” and gain more consciousness or maturity of mind, then the response to life is increased and heightened. Unless this stride is made the going-backwards movement prevails, and by dwarfing of subjective development through non-awareness, fear, or immorality, endless frustration and unhappiness is entailed.

[Page 309] Of a person afflicted by illness pre-moderns said, “As she was ill, she is unhappy now.” Our stage has challenged what appears to be obvious, and the thorough-going modern says, “She was unhappy, therefore she is ill now.” Such a functional illness cannot be differentiated from a genuine organic illness by the sufferer, and certainly not by a friend blinded with sympathy unless that friend be a physician of insight and medical skill.

As Thomas Mann has pointed out, it is to Sigmund Freud that our time owes the posing of the question, “What purpose does the illness serve?”

Or what purpose does drinking serve? “He is ill because he drinks” is a statement of outer fact but not of psychological formula. The latter reads: “He drinks because he is ill.”

All individual behavior is purposive because man has a mind that is, either actively or blindly, engaged to a conscious or subconscious will. However deviously, the self is at work even though its devious motivation proves to be self-defeating ultimately.

Why? Simply because our “primitive” or self-motivation is merely personal in its goal. A mortal suffers boredom if not a profound and unquiet dissatisfaction with all that is temporal and flatly mundane. To exist without testing one’s calibre of mind in constant perception of truth and to fail to exercise one’s will towards human relations that show some permanence is the way towards disintegrated personality.

The gregariousness of café society or other one-sided cooperativeness does not suffice. As Conversation at Midnight would have it: “Man will never be such a good ant as an ant is.”

[Page 310] Besides the self-will there is the human will to reach the higher concepts of truth and love, for upon them do we build mental health and happiness in “the good life.” In oneness with others we live. There is “the will to believe” and “to know that even our sorrows have an immortal significance.” To give meaning to our life here below we demand the concept of a life beyond.

MAN IS A SPIRIT

This inner need for the absolute and eternal is fulfilled by a third science—Divine Revelation. This is “the science of the Love of God.” Its first category is the appearance of a Perfect Man, Who is the Manifestation of God the Eternal.

As logic is a science that began and ended with Aristotle, so Divine Revelation is a science that began with the Prophets and is demonstrated only by these Manifestations of God. It has no end. Finality does not apply to knowledge that is other than human learning.

Revelation has valid proofs, but they are not the proofs of rational science. Demonstrable proofs they are, too, but demonstrable in their own way. The Apostle Paul found that out for he said, “Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.”

Akin to this was the advice given by the blessed Father Zossima to the society woman who asks how to remove doubts of the immortality of the soul: “By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbor actively and indefatigably. Insofar as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and the immortality of your own soul.”

The understanding of the Apostle and the Monk came through the Manifestation of the Christ who promised: “And [Page 311] if any man shall do the will of My Father, he shall know My doctrine.”

Today that promise is sustained through the Word of Bahá’u’lláh: “The benefit of the utterance of the Merciful One goes to those who practise.”

Would we know if the life of man is eternal? Then must we live as if we and our moral choices were deathless: choose the attributes of God the Eternal that stand revealed in the mirror of His Glory, Bahá’u’lláh. And respond to His plea: “Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee.”

That we are free to believe in Him by exercise of our God-given will is some evidence of our immortality, but this is more—that we can love. To those who love Him, the Beloved reveals that man is born for eternal life: and from the natural to become spiritual by traveling the path illumined by the Glory of God.

To those Who make collective man or society their all in all Bahá’u’lláh affirms that the world was created for the individual: “Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things.”

And to those who make the individual man or self the center of their world He says: “All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.”

The contemporary conflict which divides men and their thought does not divide in the new Kingdom. Therein conflict is resolved by the potency of the Word. In its acceptance man the eternal comes to birth endowed with the sense of an everlasting life that begins now.

[Page 312]

BAHÁ’Í ANSWERS TO WORLD QUESTIONS

IS HUMANITY IN ITS GREATEST CRISIS?

THERE ARE periods and stages in the life of the aggregate world of humanity which at one time was passing through its degree of childhood, at another its time of youth but has now entered its long presaged period of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere visible and apparent. . . . From every standpoint the world of humanity is undergoing re-formation. The laws of former governments and civilizations are in the process of revision, scientific ideas and theories are developing and advancing to meet a new range of phenomena, invention and discovery are penetrating hitherto unknown fields revealing new wonders and hidden secrets of the material universe; industries have vastly widened in scope and production; everywhere the world of mankind is in the throes of evolutionary activity indicating the passing of the old conditions and advent of the new age of re-formation. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 433, 434)

Justice is, in this day bewailing its plight, and Equity groaneth beneath the yoke of oppression. The thick clouds of tyranny have darkened the face of the earth, and enveloped its peoples. Through the movement of Our Pen of Glory We have, at the bidding of the omnipotent Ordainer, breathed a new life into every human frame, and instilled into every word a fresh potency. All created things proclaim the evidences of this world-wide regeneration. This is the most great, most [Page 313] joyful tidings imparted by the pen of this wronged One to mankind. (Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 92)

SHOULD RELIGION KEEP PACE WITH THESE CHANGES?

HUMANITY has emerged from its former degrees of limitation and preliminary training. Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moralities, new capacities. . . . New bounties, bestowals and perfections are awaiting and already descending upon him. . . . This is the cycle of maturity and re-formation in religion as well. Dogmatic imitations of ancestral beliefs are passing. They have been the axis around which religion revolved but now are no longer fruitful, on the contrary, in this day they have become the cause of human degradation and hindrance. Bigotry and dogmatic adherence to ancient beliefs have become the central and fundamental source of animosity among men, the obstacle to human progress, the cause of warfare and strife, the destroyer of peace, composure and welfare in the world. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 434)

The ocean of Divine mercy is surging, the vernal showers are descending, the Sun of Reality is shining gloriously. Heavenly teachings applicable to the advancement in human conditions have been revealed in this merciful age. This re-formation and renewal of the fundamental reality of religion constitute the true and outworking spirit of modernism, the unmistakable light of the world, the manifest effulgence of the Word of God, the divine remedy for all human ailment and the bounty of eternal life to all mankind. (Idem, p. 434)

The counterfeit or imitation of true religion has adulterated human belief and the foundations have been lost sight of. [Page 314] The variance of these imitations has produced enmity and strife, war and bloodshed. Now the glorious and brilliant twentieth century has dawned and the Divine bounty is radiating universally. The Sun of Truth is shining forth in intense enkindlement. This is verily the century when the imitations must be forsaken, superstitions be abandoned and God alone worshipped. (Idem, p. 147)

The teachings of His Holiness Christ have been promulgated by His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh who has also revealed new teachings applicable to present conditions in the world of humanity. . . . Through the power of His words the hearts of the people of all religions have been attuned in harmony. (Idem, p. 283)

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VISION

GERTRUDE W. ROBINSON

Victorious Christ! Why should we mortals keep

Thy tortured body hanging on a cross?

Why should our blindness drive the nails so deep,

Demanding of Thy blood a greater loss?

Beneath the clouds of doubt and discontent,

Of restless seeking in the hearts of men,

The dawning of a newer day has lent

Resplendor to God’s worlds. The Mighty Pen

Has once more written, dipping in the fount

Of all Eternity. Earth is kissed

By heaven’s rays, and eager souls can mount

To heights that loom serene above the mist.

Across the earth Divinity has trod

Once more in this, the Judgment Day of God!

[Page 315]

The Divine Art of Living

A Compilation

CHAPTER NINE

DETACHMENT AND SACRIFICE

DETACHMENT

MATERIAL progress alone does not tend to uplift man. On the contrary, the more he becomes immersed in material progress, the more does his spirituality become obscured. (Wisdom of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 98)

Strip thyself from the unclean garment of attachment to this drossful world. (Tablets of ‘‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 650)

O Son of Being! Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants. (Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words)

O Son of Earth! Wouldst thou have Me, seek none other than Me, and wouldst thou gaze upon My beauty, close thine eyes to the world and all that is therein, for My will and the will of another than Me, even as fire and water, cannot dwell together in one heart. (Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words)

O Befriended Stranger! The candle of thine heart is lighted by the hand of My power, quench it not with the contrary winds of self and passion. (Idem)

O My Servant! Free thyself from the fetters of this world, and loose thy soul from the prison of self. Seize thy chance, for it will come to thee no more. (Idem)

[Page 316] (The) seeker must at all times put his trust in God, must renounce the peoples of the earth, detach himself from the world of dust, and cleave unto Him who is the Lord of Lords.

(He) should also regard backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion, inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul. He should be content with little, and be freed from all inordinate desire. He should treasure the companionship of those that have renounced the world, and regard avoidance of boastful and worldly people a precious benefit. . . . He should consume every wayward thought with the flame of His loving mention, and, with the swiftness of lightning, pass by all else save Him. . . . He should not hesitate to offer up his life for his Beloved, nor allow the censure of the people to turn him away from the Truth. . . . Our purpose in revealing these convincing and weighty utterances is to impress upon the speaker that he should regard all else beside God as transient, and count all things save Him, Who is the object of all adoration, as utter nothingness. (Bahá’u’lláh, Íqán, pp. 193-195)

DETACHMENT NOT ASCETISM

Disencumber yourselves of all attachment to this world and the vanities thereof. . . .

Know ye that by the world is meant your unawareness of Him Who is your Maker, and your absorption in aught else but Him. The “life to come,” on the other hand, signifieth the things that give you a safe approach to God, the All-Glorious, the Incomparable. Whatsoever deterreth you, in this Day, from loving God, is nothing but the world. Flee it that ye may be numbered with the blest. Should a man wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear [Page 317] its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him. . . . Render thanks and praise unto Him, and be of them that are truly thankful. (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, p. 276)

The pious practices of the monks and priests among the people of His Holiness the Spirit (i.e. Christ) are remembered before God; but in this Day they must abandon solitude for (the society of men), and engage in that which may profit both themselves and other men. (Tablets of BBahá’u’lláh, p. 86)

It is made incumbent on every one of you to engage in some one occupation, such as arts, trades, and the like. We have made this—your occupation—identical with the worship of God, the True One. Reflect O people, upon the mercy of God and upon His favors, then thank Him in mornings and evenings. (Idem, p. 89)

As to the fact that man must entirely forget himself, by this is meant the disappearance of blamable morals, and not that the physical health should be changed into weakness and debility. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 244)

Man must become evanescent in God . . . to such a degree that if he sleep, it should not be for pleasure, but to rest the body in order to do better, to speak better, to explain more beautifully, to serve the servants of God and to prove the truths. (Idem, p. 460)

THE MYSTERY OF SACRIFICE

The mystery of sacrifice is a most great subject and is inexhaustible. [Page 318] Briefly it is as follows: The moth is a sacrifice to the candle. . . . The sincere lover is a sacrifice to the loved one. The point lies in this: He must wholly forget himself. . . . He must seek the good pleasure of the True One, desire the face of the True One; and walk in the Path of the True One. . . . This is the first station of sacrifice.

The second station of sacrifice is as follows: Man must become like unto the iron thrown within the furnace of fire. The qualities of iron, such as blackness, coldness and solidity which belong to the earth disappear and vanish, while the characteristics of fire, such as redness, glowing and heat, which belong to the Kingdom, become apparent and visible. (Idem, p. 354)

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

It is incumbent upon thee, since thou hast attained the knowledge of God and His love, to sacrifice thy spirit and all thy conditions for the life of the world, bearing every difficulty for the comfort of the souls, sinking to the depth of the sea of ordeals for the sake of the love of faithfulness. (Idem, p. 65)

(Another) meaning of sacrifice is this: If you plant a seed in the ground a tree will become manifest from that seed. The seed sacrifices itself to the tree that will come from it. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 446)

Know thou that when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to God the whole creation wept with a great weeping. By sacrificing Himself, however, a fresh capacity was infused into all created things. Its evidences, as witnessed in all the [Page 319] peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee. The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit. (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, pp. 85, 86)

FRUITS OF DETACHMENT AND SACRIFICE

Verily, I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion. . . .

O my servants! Sorrow not, if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes. You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will no doubt attain. (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, pp. 328, 329)

O Son of Dust! . . . Blind thine eyes to all save My beauty, stop thine ears to all save My word, empty thyself of all learning save the knowledge of Me, that with a clear vision, a pure heart and an attentive ear thou mayest enter the court of My holiness. (Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words)

O Offspring of Dust! Be not content with the ease of a passing day, and deprive not thyself of everlasting rest. Barter not the garden of eternal delight for the dust-heap of a mortal world. Up from thy prison ascend unto the glorious meads [Page 320] above, and from thy mortal cage wing thy flight unto the paradise of the Placeless. (Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words)

PRAYERS FOR DETACHMENT

O Lord, help me to be meek and lowly and strengthen me in severing myself from all things and in holding to the hem of the garment of Thy Glory, so that my heart may be filled with Thy love and leave no space for the love of the world and the attachment to its qualities. . . . Verily, Thou art merciful and, verily, Thou art the Generous, the Helper. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 51, 52)

Blessing and peace, salutation and glory, rest upon Thy loved ones, whom the changes and chances of the world have not deterred from turning unto Thee, and who have given their all, in the hope of obtaining that which is with Thee. Thou art, in truth, the Ever-Forgiving, the All-Bountiful. (Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations, p. 316)

. . . O God, my God! Look not upon my hopes and my doings, nay rather look upon Thy Will that hath encompassed the heavens and the earth. (Idem, p. 318)

I bear witness, this very moment, to what Thou hast testified for Thine own Self, ere Thou hadst created the heavens and the earth, that Thou art God, and that there is none other God besides Thee. Thou hast from everlasting been potent, through the Manifestations of Thy might, to reveal the signs of Thy power, and Thou has ever known, through the Day-Springs of Thy knowledge, the words of Thy wisdom. No one besides Thee hath ever been found worthy to be mentioned before the Tabernacle of Thy unity, and none except Thyself hath proved himself capable of being praised within the hallowed court of Thy oneness. (Idem, p. 329)

[Page 321]

For Him Who Would Find God

Alta M. Gaines

REVEALED religion stresses selflessness for him who would find God, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells us that to be pure is to be selfless. Christ taught that only the pure in heart shall see God.

In The Dawn-Breakers, numerous concrete instances are given showing the absolute necessity for purity of motive or intention if the individual is to develop and help others to develop.

When the Báb talked with the Letters of the Living, sending them out to teach in this Day of God, He said: “The days when idle worship was deemed sufficient are ended. The time has come when naught but the purest motive, supported by deeds of stainless purity, can ascend to the throne of the Most High and be acceptable unto Him. The good word riseth up unto Him, and the righteous deed will cause it to be exalted before Him.”

There is the story of the conversation which took place between the Báb and the governor of Ishfahan one day as they sat in the latter’s garden. The governor, like many of us, was full of enthusiasm and ambition to be “doing things.” He spoke of his riches and of his desire to aid the revelation of the Báb, to consecrate all of his possessions to the spread of its fame. His enthusiasm mounting, the governor proceeded to outline his plan. “First,” said he, “I shall with your permission go to Teheran and win to the Cause the Shah of Persia who has great confidence in me. I am certain that he will arise to promote it far and wide. Next, I will strive to obtain for You the hand of one of the sisters of the Shah, and [Page 322] will myself undertake the preparation for your nuptials. Finally I hope to be enabled to incline the hearts of the rulers and kings of the earth to this most wondrous Cause and to extirpate the corrupt ecclesiastical hierarchy.”

The Báb, always loving, appreciative and considerate, replied; “May God requite you for your noble intentions; so lofty a purpose is to Me even more precious than the act itself. . . . However, not by the means which you fondly imagine, will an almighty Providence accomplish the triumph of His Faith. But through the poor and lowly of this land, and by the blood which these shall have shed in His path, will the omnipotent Sovereign insure the preservation and consolidate the foundation of His Cause.”

The Dawn-Breakers picture to us the glorious record of those men and women, both high and low, who sacrificed their lives and shed their blood for the Cause of the Báb. And this Cause has gone on, even as the Báb said, without intermarriage with the royal family or the sanction of the kings of the earth.

It is necessary to learn to live for the Faith as well as to die for it. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains the many meanings of sacrifice, chief among them the triumph of man’s spiritual nature over his animal traits. Envy, jealousy, prejudice, personal ambition carried to excess, avarice, possessiveness, self-glorification even in little things, and self-seeking, belong to the world of nature and kill all the nobler sentiments of which man is capable. These attributes prevent men and women from attaining to tranquillity and peace of mind and detract from the usefulness and unity of whole communities and neighborhoods. They make purity of motive impossible.

Dr. Alexis Carrel, writing in Reader’s Digest on “Do You Know How to Live,” says: “We should impose upon our [Page 323] inner self strict rules of daily physical, moral and mental effort, of honesty and selflessness. It is a striking fact that the code of mental hygiene is almost identical with the moral code.”

As the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith has written over and over again, it is not through the force of our numbers, nor the worldly prominence or brilliance of those numbers, not by an organized campaign of teaching, no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character, that we can hope to vindicate the supreme claim of the Abhá. revelation. “One thing and only one thing,” declares Shoghi Effendi, “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 the eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh.”

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INFINITUDES

HENRY C. BEECHER

Oh deeps of blue, which shield from human eyes

The infinitudes of boundless time and space,

Inspire my soul that it too may embrace

The calm repose which on thy bosom lies.

The angry surge of wind and storm shall cease,

The useless strifes, the hollow hates, of men;

Out on the fathomless ocean of thy peace

My soul shall seek and find itself again.

Waft me the message of the immortal spheres,

Oh silent spaces of infinity;

Nor war nor lust nor hate nor pride nor fears

Shall mock the peace of that sublimity

Where hover truth and love and faith and prayer.

At last my soul shall rest—for God is there.

[Page 324]

The Highest Stage In Man’s Collective Evolution

THE REVELATION OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH, whose supreme mission is none other but the achievement of this organic and spiritual unity of the whole body of nations, should . . . be regarded as signalizing through its advent the coming of age of the entire human race. It should be viewed not merely as yet another spiritual revival in the ever-changing fortunes of mankind, not only as a further stage in a chain of progressive Revelations, nor even as the culmination of one of a series of recurrent prophetic cycles, but rather as marking the last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man’s collective life on this planet. The emergence of a world community, the consciousness of world citizenship, the founding of a world civilization and culture . . . should . . . be regarded as the furthermost limits in the organization of human society, though man, as an individual, will, nay must indeed as a result of such a consummation, continue indefinitely to progress and develop.

SHOGHI EFFENDI

[Page 325]

Beauty and Conduct

Florence DeBell Keemer

I HAVE in mind to set down a few conclusions I have arrived at through a somewhat circuitous route. All my life, the subject of Beauty (with a capital “B”) has loomed as large in my immediate aesthetic horizon as the problem of Evil has in my theological one. You will note that each of these capitalized words belongs to a class for which there is no specific object in the visible or sensible world. This fact no doubt is at the root of much nebulous thinking, and requires something besides words to settle. However that may be, some results that have issued from study and reflection, and latterly from classes in adult education, have given me new assurance regarding the basic human hunger for beauty—what it means to satisfy it, and one way in which occasional gleams or flashes of insight have given evidence that the path is worth following. In brief, the story:

The present popularity of gardens and flowers is as widespread as the nation, and is a healthy reaction against the artificialities of the indoor bridge, cocktail party, movie, etc. The fast-growing number of books on the art of flower arrangement for shows, clubs and more especially for home beautification, offers ample evidence of a wide-spread desire on the part of the women, at least, not only to become familiar with the various types of floral decoration and landscape design, but to understand the principles of art underlying them.

This is a very healthy indication in our practical and technical world, where the most of our needs are supplied by mass production, and individual creation is more or less smothered [Page 326] by lack of necessity. But, as “man may not live by bread alone,” the very lively and growing interest in creating beautiful gardens and flower arrangements for the home is visible evidence of a new art coming into existence. It is comparable in a way to the art of music, which is created anew with each repetition. With the flowers, each creation fills a need of the moment with a medium which is also ephemeral, like the harmonies disappearing on the air. This fact is its salvation: both the artist and the medium momentarily change and therefore can never become crystallized or set, and the art must always remain fluid—the expression of the individual to fill a momentary need, which may very easily be universal as well. This fulfillment is aesthetic and spiritual satisfaction, which is a necessity of every individual’s development, but which has been choked and all but destroyed by the dust of mass production. The desire for the beauty of creation, in order to be developed in each individual, must come from instruments and mediums which he habitually handles, produces himself, and loves, such as the protective weapon in the hands of aboriginal man. The very act of handling and working engenders love of one’s medium, not only because one projects so much of one’s self into it, but because certain inherent physical rhythms are set into motion, which aesthetically produce results in a pattern, and what is a rhythmic pattern but Art?

Again, the, urge to perpetuate beauty, or to imitate it must spring from an inner zest of appreciation, or love (emotion) which sets the creative powers into action. What universal beauty, other than flowers, satisfies all these conditions? Flowers appear at the psychological moment when the imagination is most prepared for them. After the snows and storms of winter, the dullness of skies, the grayness of earth, the [Page 327] flowing of waters, behold the fields are transformed with their green and a thousand tints of the wild flowers; the old moss-covered branches burgeon into magic whiteness, the fat bulbs we have tucked into the earth last autumn burst into yellow, blue, white and red of the most entrancing odors, and like children, we skip around and gloat over them a dozen times a day, and when they become more plentiful, pick them by the armful to adorn our homes and those of our friends, use them to enhance the most festive occasions, as an act of worship, or send them as solace to the sorrowful.

Flowers, again like music, express what may not be said. To perform these services, they must be exactly suitable for the purpose designed. Every work of art is the conversion of an idea into an image. It is an essential accompaniment of human life, as intimated above—not only in its useful illustrative and depicting powers, but also, and especially, for its pleasure-giving qualities—its power of awakening and stimulating the observation and sympathy with the moods of nature, its power of touching the emotions (which is the starting point or “first cause” of all art), and above all, of appealing to our sense of beauty. Nature, of course, is our first and most beloved teacher; and then, as Aristotle intimates, we must “improve on nature.” Shakespeare, too, makes Polixenes remind Perdita:

“This is an art which does mend Nature,

Changes it rather, but

The art itself is Nature.”

Now and finally, after all these steps have been taken, there is a deeper, a higher, a more far-reaching implication that surrounds the question of the effects of beauty in general, and of the study and love of flowers in particular. Perhaps this implication is the harder to isolate and run down, because [Page 328] it surrounds and upholds the whole question as the air we breathe supports us, but of which we take little account, unless we are deprived of it. I refer to the question of the artistic life or love of the creative gifts or faculties, no matter how primitive, in its relation to conduct. Many philosophers hold that art has no relation to, or that art is independent of, morals. (We make the rather unusual assumption here, that morals being the collective wisdom of its time, therefore has something of Beauty in it.)

On the contrary, if we are to believe our great Exemplar, and the testimony of the Gospels, we must see there the continual assertion of the imagination as the basis of all spiritual and material life. Not only that, but to the Christ imagination is a form of love—the only lever strong enough to actually change the dispositions of mere mortals: Because the emotion to start things changing must be desire strong enough not only to move the inanimate medium for creative art, but ideas, tedious orthodoxy, worldly success, gross materiality, one’s own egotism.

Among Bahá’ís, these obstacles to spirituality, designated by Bahá’u’lláh as “the lifeless heart,” the “ocean of misbelief,” or “wrapt in the veil of self,” or “bed of heedlessness fast asleep,” “dust-heaps of a mortal world,” “garment of vainglory” and a thousand others, are the inertia of our hearts, and He designates the exact remedy, can we but read the signs, in His “O, Son of Dust! All that is in Heaven and earth I have ordained for thee, except the human heart, which I have made the habitation of My beauty and glory; yet thou did’st give My home and dwelling to another than Me; and whenever the Manifestation of My Holiness sought His Own abode, a stranger found He there, and, homeless, hastened [Page 329] unto the sanctuary of the Beloved. Notwithstanding, I have concealed thy secret and desired not thy shame.”

This Hidden Word explains exactly why one’s own self, or heart is such an enigma to each individual: When with our lips we profess our faith in God, yet “repose in the realm of negligence,” with envy in our hearts, instead of kindliness and radiance, egotism instead of abounding trust and love, discontent instead of the happy consciousness that “My work is perfect and My command binding,” if we would only let the Light shine in, what could be clearer than the command to so fill our hearts with radiant acquiescence that there is room for naught else.

“I have breathed within thee a breath of My own Spirit, that thou mayest be My lover. Why hast thou forsaken Me, and sought a beloved other than Me?” (Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words)

Bahá’u’lláh likewise describes for us (Bahá’í Scriptures, p. 164) our wayward selves, who place material things and selfish desires first in the heart, thus obscuring the Light of Beauty:

“Thus, some of the weak souls, having enclosed the ground of knowledge within the wall of self and desire and within the veil of heedlessness and blindness, are therefore screened from the effulgence of the Sun of Significance and the Mysteries of the Eternal Beloved—are kept afar from the gems of wisdom of the manifest religion of the Lord of the Messengers, deprived of the sacred home of beauty and separated from the Ka’aba of glory. This is the state of the people of the age.”

Here we see the picture of the ground of knowledge being enclosed within a wall and obscured by a veil so that the Sun of Significance (or Reality) cannot shine upon it, so the gems [Page 330] of wisdom are obscured, the manifest religion cannot be imparted, and we are thus “deprived of the sacred home of beauty.”

These words are a promise that if the human heart be selfless, serene, taking heed of the divine commands, and divesting itself of desire, the Eternal Beloved will shed effulgence upon this soul, and in it will be reflected some mysterious share of Sacred Beauty. How else can we explain in certain faces and deeds of people we know, the manifest shining out of that spirit?

Not only Beauty is thus acquired, but another bounty infinitely appealing: (Bahá’í Scriptures, p. 302) “Life is eternal, but the individual human consciousness is not inherently so. It can only gain immortality by uniting with the pure Divine Essence. This union man may reach by a pure life and love for God and his fellow men. When in the course of evolution the stage of thought and reason has been reached, the human mind acts as a mirror reflecting the glory of God.

“The face of nature is illumined, the grass, the stones, the hills and valleys shine; but they shine not of themselves, but because they reflect the rays of the sun. It is the sun which shines. In the same way, our minds reflect God. Those who live thinking good thoughts, doing good deeds, and with love in their hearts—the minds of these become ever clearer, reflecting more and more perfectly the love of God, while the minds of those who live in ignorance and desire are clouded and obscured, and give forth His light but meagerly. The great Masters and Teachers so purified their minds by the love of God and of men that they became like polished mirrors, reflecting faithfully the Glory of God.”

As a glorious example of the great “Masters and Teachers” mentioned by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the above paragraph, let us [Page 331] refer to the “Phaedo,” Plato’s eloquent discourse on the immortality of the soul (P. 134 Everyman’s Edition of “Five Dialogues of Plato”). The philosopher here puts into the mouth of Socrates (his teacher) words that might well have been uttered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, upon this very subject. This mental attitude does not appear to be Greek in its origin, for the Greeks were wont to glorify bodily beauty in all of its aspects. There is no question that the Oriental philosophies giving rise to these similar statements are derived from the same sources, though separated in utterance by more than twenty-four hundred years:

“. . . because as long as we are encumbered with the body, and our soul is contaminated with such an evil, we can never fully attain to what we desire. . . . For nothing else but the body and its desires occasion wars, seditions, and contests; for all wars amongst us arise on account of our desire to acquire wealth; and we are compelled to acquire wealth on account of the body, being enslaved to its service; . . . And while we live, we shall thus, as it seems, approach nearest to knowledge, if we hold no intercourse or communion at all with the body, except what absolute necessity requires, nor suffer ourselves to be polluted by its nature, but purify ourselves from it, until God himself shall release us. And thus being pure, and freed from the folly of body, we shall in all likelihood be with others like ourselves, and shall of ourselves know the whole real essence, and that probably is Truth, for it is not allowable for the impure to attain to the pure.”

These words were spoken by Socrates among his last to his friends, before he drained the fatal hemlock. The following occurs at the end of the “Phaedrus,” the disquisition on Beauty. It is the prayer to Pan (God of Nature, Everywhere), uttered by Socrates under the plane tree as a simple [Page 332] act of worship, the expression of a great and illumined man, a martyr to his vision of Beauty:

“Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who here abide, grant me to be beautiful in the inner man, and all I have of outer things to be at peace with those within. May I count the wise man only, rich, and may my store of gold be such as none but the good can bear.”

It seems no other inference can be drawn than this: The love of Beauty is as inherent in every heart as the love of God for which He created us. If we do not crowd out Beauty and the creative arts with selfishness, greed and lust, we shall thereby be pure and see God, and in turn be blest with our share of creative or artistic power which is part of our joy of worship.

Flowers are fair above everything else nature gives us, and become the tokens among men, of tenderness and devotion. This overflow of love divinely planted, which spreads from persons to things, beautifies the very soil we tread upon, reaches at last to the divine fury of creative art. Having once known such beauty, man is on the way to advance through the ages to an ideal beauty of behavior that binds into one vision the partial perfections of the rest.

---

Before the face of all men I have arisen, and bidden them fulfill My pleasure. My object is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established. This unity can never be achieved so long as the counsels which the Pen of the Most High hath revealed are suffered to pass unheeded.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

[Page 333]

ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION

BOOK REVIEW

Robert Gulick, Jr.

THIS small volume comprises addresses given in the Terry Lectures series at Yale University by Professor Peter Buck of the Anthropology department at Yale. These lectures deal with “Religion in the light of Science and Philosophy” and have featured important contributions to human thought by leaders in various fields irrespective of the particular beliefs or disbeliefs of the speakers.

Professor Buck has specialized in study of religion among the Polynesians. His treatment of the subject is characterized by a combination of sound scholarship and profound spiritual insight.

In the Polynesian pantheon, spirits which had departed for another world could readily return. To establish a link with the supernatural realm, the Polynesians recalled the spirits of illustrious ancestors to help in the solution of problems beyond the power of man. These selected and deified spirits were the gods which the people of the South Seas created for themselves. The medium who established contact with the departed spirit became a priest of high standing. As the family expanded into a tribe, the family god became a tribal god, perhaps ultimately becoming a major god, worshipped by an entire island or group of islands. The Polynesians adopted quite a pragmatic view of their gods, the fortune of a god’s followers having much to do with the status of the god. There were various gods for different needs. The gods finally achieved the position of creators. Immortality was accepted, the domain of souls of ancestors being the spirit land of Hawaiki.

Was this belief in gods of their own creation productive of good or ill? Can desirable ends be realized through belief in superstition? The record speaks for itself. By faith, the Polynesians removed mountains of doubt and fear and achieved happier and more abundant living than would have been possible without the gods. This faith, assisted by innate courage and daring, enabled them to cross the thousands of [Page 334] leagues of ocean separating Polynesia from South America which the author accounts the most marvelous Odyssey the world has ever known.

The Christian religion finally challenged the Polynesian god. It was in part successful by reason of the good fortune of its adherents in defeating their enemies in battle. The new religion replaced old taboos by new restrictions. The native culture was destroyed and native arts and crafts such as the carving of wooden idols were disorganized. Attractive native garments were laid aside for “Mother Hubbards.” In time readjustment satisfactorily solved the cultural and ethical problems although it was a bit hard for the simple folk to see why there should be one standard of morality for them and quite another for American sailors.

Professor Buck has some very important things to say concerning the essential part religion plays in the culture of any people. “A system of ethics may be sufficient for the intellectual minority, but it is devoid of the feeling and emotion that appeals to the masses of the people. The belief in the supernatural and in the immortality of the soul must be accepted as real facts that have led to action and results. . . . The belief in immortality is a living, vital fact that has brought and still brings comfort and happiness to large masses of people. . . . The death of the Christian Gods would mean the collapse of the culture to which they belong just as surely as the death of the Polynesian gods led to the end of Polynesian culture. . . . Faith to those who have it is a vivid reality.” “Could we but restore that faith, we might be able to say to a sick world in the words of the Great Master, ‘Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole’.”

We agree with Professor Buck that Faith in things divine is the most urgent need in the world today. Pure religion is the most potent cohesive force in society; it is not the cohesiveness of inaction which results from an improper separation of religion from life but the sublime unity which is attained when spiritual attitudes are translated into action. In religion words are but symbols leading to reality. It is patently true that in religion meaningless or even repulsive words often lead to glorious reality while in politics, for instance, beautiful phrases can lead to despicable results.

But a backward trek to institutionalized Christianity, regardless of the good it may do in its sphere, is as unthinkable for world citizens as [Page 335] would be the desertion of Christianity for the old gods by the Polynesians. Unity of the diverse sects within the Christian fold, desirable though it may be, is not enough, Jesus has told why: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” As a result of the Bahá’í influence, Muhammadans, Jews, Zoroastrins, and Buddhists are hearing the voice of Jesus and are being brought into one fold. The Bahá’í communities throughout the world unite the diverse nations, races, creeds, and classes, everywhere dispersing prejudice. They are “like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” They are potentially the Kingdom of God which Jesus said “lies among you.”

But I do not believe that the greatest good for the greatest number will be accomplished by reversion to superstition. The independent investigation of reality can and must be the most powerful helper of religion. To eliminate the supreme economic affliction it will be necessary not merely to have beautiful thoughts and aspirations but to make full use of statistical methods in the formulation of a planetary plan. Transforming the world of earth into the world of heaven requires all of our spiritual and intellectual resources. “And unto this I call you, praying to God to strengthen and bless you.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Vol. II, page 467.)

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Through the power of the words He hath uttered the whole of the human race can be illumined with the light of unity, and the remembrance of His Name is able to set on fire the hearts of all men, and burn away the veils that intervene between them and His glory. One righteous act is endowed with a potency that can so elevate the dust as to cause it to pass beyond the heaven of heavens. It can tear every bond asunder, and hath the power to restore the force that hath spent itself and vanished.

—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

[Page 336]

BAHÁ’Í LESSONS

Material and Divine Civilization

I. Material Civilization

Arises from knowledge of reality of things, SAQ LXXXIV, 344.

Man can discover mysteries of phenomena, Promulgation, 412.

Science, a foundation of progress, Prom 27, 46-48, 342-5.

Material civilization is incomplete, Prom 370, 100, 57.

Carried to excess brings own destruction, Advent 68-69.

Man may become nature’s slave, Wisdom 98-99, 112-113.

Cannot prevent hatred, disunity, war, Wisdom 92, 57, 97-98.

Must be combined with divine civilization, Prom 9, 97-99, 105-6, 133, 160, 320-1; Wisdom 37, 98; BS par 757.

East and West must commingle, Prom 160; Wisdom 117-118.

Purpose of all civilization, well-being of humanity, Mysterious Forces of Civilization, 69.

II. Divine Civilization

Arises from knowledge of God, SAQ LXXXIV, 344; Wisdom 106.

Animated by love of God, Idem 345-6; Prom 164, 251.

Fruit of spiritual consciousness, Idem 344, 348-9; HW(P) 80.

Man created for divine civilization, Gl 215; MFC 5-8, 26; Prom 296-9, 319; Wisdom 99.

Manifestations inaugurate through Holy Spirit, Gl 64-68, 46-47; SAQ XXXVI, 165; Prom 315.

Sources of moral and spiritual values, Íqán 120, 153-160, 33-34; SAQ XLII (185-7), XL (181-2), III (11-13); Prom 90-91, 10, 324, 462-4; MFC 109-111.

Creators of new life, material and spiritual, Gl 141-2, 157, 161; Prom 272-4, 370; MFC 106-108; D-Br 131.

Religion, fountain-head of civilization, MFC 82, 86, 91, 95; Prom 337.

[Page 337]

III. Present—Day Materialism

Material civilization unprecedented, Prom 135, 319-20.

World materialistic, Wisdom 112; Prom 329, 179; WOB 79.

America, Prom 9, 296; Advent 16, 24. Europe, MFC 69-73.

Morals, politics, economics, Gl 118, 200; WOB 30-33, 180-1, 186-190.

Minds confused, deluded, Gl 6, 97.

Leaders unillumined, Íqán 29-30; Gl 213, 254-5; WOB 36.

How leaders cause decay of civilization, Íqán 29-32; MFC 115-116, 89-91, 98.

Sovereign remedy, WOB 186-8, 60-61, 163, 47-48.

Pangs of death and birth, WOB 168-171, 79.

IV. Divine Civilization Arising

Primary mission of Bahá’í Faith, WOB 3.

Divine Light creating it, Gl 29-35; Advent 64-67; WOB 161.

Unparalleled in history, Prom 35; WOB 163.

Central principle of oneness, Gl 288-9; WOB 42-45.

Dependent on spiritual character, Gl 92-7; MFC 53; Prom 6-7.

Bahá’í Faith creating new humanity, Gl 267-8 (Íqán 196-7); Prom 35-6; WOB 47-48, 107-116; Advent 13-16, 26, 71-72.

Spiritual attributes of new race, Gl 86-87, 39, 143, 7-8, 201-5, 215, 232-5, 270-1, 285, 288-91, 294-6, 299, 305, 315-17, 320, 329, 330-4, 336-8, 340; Will and Testament, par 17-18; MFC 8-9, 42-69, 77, 82; Advent 19-28.

Principles, Wisdom 117-155; New Era 164-191.

Justice, Light of civilization, Gl 218, 342; Advent 23-24.

Liberty, the highest object, MFC 84. (Gl 260, 336); Prom 49.

Moderation, Gl 216, 343-3; MFC 68-69, 121-126.

Covenant, safeguard of unity, integrity, New Era 158-161.

A Divine Economy, Prom 127-8; WOB 9-10, 18-24, 152-4, 156-7.

Charter of the New World Order, WOB 144.

Key position of America, Prom 17, 64, 100, 33-34, 117; WOB 74-79, 89; Advent 5, 52, 61-2, 72-77.

World-Embracing Commonwealth, WOB 196-204.

[Page 338]

WITH OUR READERS

THIS column is being written just after the bi-monthly meeting of the board of editors of World Order. (See inside front cover for names of members.) Your manuscripts are read by each member of the board, usually before we get together, and then carefully considered at the meeting. Nothing goes into the waste basket. If material is not found usable it is returned to the writer. Some manuscripts are held for a long time after they are accepted, waiting for just the right time to fit them in. Comparatively few manuscripts have come to us during the last two months, but a rather larger proportion of them is usable.

Please remember that we can use short experiences that will be helpful to others in this department.

Mrs. Marzieh Gail sends this breezy letter with so many valuable points about writing that we are giving most of this month’s space to it:

Dear Writers:

After several difficult years as a contributing editor for this Magazine, during which time I have read and unfortunately rejected unnumbered manuscripts which were submitted from practically all over the planet, I should like to unbosom myself on this subject once and for all. My opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of this Magazine. Furthermore the editors, and not I, have the final say-so on all material that is submitted. However, I think that a heart-cry from me may not be out of place; besides, I may be able to clear things up a bit, and make the going easier for our contributors, would-be or otherwise.

In the first place, no matter what you think, we do not like to reject your manuscripts. Rejecting a manuscript is a more complicated procedure than accepting one, especially as this Magazine is a Bahá’í institution and we therefore have to use more tact and care in returning your work than do non-Bahá’í publications.

Well, here are a few suggestions which may help, next time you sit down to write:

For one thing, we want this Magazine to sell. We want it [Page 339] to pay for itself. And we can’t force people to buy it, as a disagreeable but righteous act; to make it self-supporting we have to publish readable, popular articles. Obviously, if such articles don’t come in, we can’t publish them.

Now we can’t use any “stuffed-shirt” articles. I notice that a number of contributors feel duty-bound to intellectualize at any price. We do not expect our contributors to set up in business as intellectuals—we want them to be writers. We want life and color and common sense. We want them to write down their own experiences or their own opinions in plain, every-day language.

Here’s another thing. Write what you know about. It is true that the Bahá’í teachings refer to every phase of human activity, but that does not mean that the individual Bahá’í' knows everything. Your study of the Teachings, however earnest, does not give you the authority to hold forth on subjects you have never investigated. For example, no matter how well you know the Teachings, don’t write us an article on medicine unless you have an M.D. or other valid degree. Write what you know about —your kitchen, your office or your aunt in Bad Axe, Mich. Build your Bahá’í article around things you have experienced, whether in books or everyday living.

As for style, write the way you sound when you talk. There are of course as many styles as people, and every writer may have several styles which vary with his purpose; his laundry list, will and testament, and farewell note pinned to the pincushion will all sound different. Style doesn’t have to be simple, because many writers aren’t simple—but it does have to be clear, because otherwise it doesn’t transmit anything and so fails in its purpose. Generally speaking, use Anglo-Saxon words in preference to those from the Latin. The Anglo-Saxon ones are the short ones with all the consonants, that you learned when you were a child. Use “help” and “room” and “drink” instead of “assist” and “chamber” and “imbibe.”

As for length, pretend you’re writing a telegram and have to pay for every word. This will make you cut your article down till it’s really good. Remember, they say genius is knowing what to omit. (It’s like being a sculptor —you buy a block of marble and chip off what you don’t want.)

[Page 340] Oh, and about poetry. Just because a thing rhymes, or is written in short lines, one under the other, it isn’t poetry.

Well, dear Writers, that about covers the subject, and I’m glad I’m way off in California where most of you can’t get at me. Anyhow, I love you. I’ve got to. We can’t have a Magazine without you.

—MARZIEH GAIL

* * *

OUR leading article this month, Civilization and Culture, is based on the talk which Mrs. Helen Bishop gave in the Temple at the Sunday evening public meeting following the 1940 annual Bahá’í Convention. Whether or not you heard the talk we think you will be glad to have it available in print. Readers will remember that Martha Root’s South American Diary which ran in our August, September and October issues was edited by Mrs. Bishop. Her home is in California.

Florence DeBell Keemer who sends us the article Beauty and Conduct lives in Sacramento, California. She tells us that this article was inspired or suggested by her experience at the Geyserville Summer School. This is her first contribution to World Order.

From California, too, comes this month’s book review by Robert Gulick, Jr., one of the younger Bahá’ís who lives in El Cerrito. He tells us that he has recently done graduate work at the University of California in education and English. This is his first contribution to World Order. He writes: “In common with many others I strongly approve the new form of World Order.”

The Study Outline of Bahá’í Lessons this month is compiled by Mrs. Alice Cox of Peoria, Illinois. Many are finding these most helpful in conducting study classes or working up talks. You may not always have all the books referred to on hand, but often the thought is the same in two or more different references, so that it is quite possible to use the Lessons with fewer books than are referred to.

Alta M. Gaines, of Urbana, contributes the interesting comment For Him Who Would Find God. We are happy to include the two sonnets, Vision, by Gertrude W. Robinson of Circleville, Ohio; and Infinitudes, by Henry C. Beecher of the famous Henry Ward Beecher family.

The regular features, Divine Art of Living and Bahá’í Answers complete our December number.

—THE EDITORS