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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
June, 1941
• The Bahá’í Faith Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
• The Prophets of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bahá’u’lláh 86
• The Promised Day Is Come . . . . . . . . Shoghi Effendi 87
• From a Panama Diary, IV . Louise Caswell and Cora H. Oliver 96
• The Power of the Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . Compilation 101
• Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Norman Smith 107
• Part of Me, Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Clara E. Hill 110
• Bahá’í Answers to World Questions
- Does This Age Need New Standards? . . . . . . . . . . . 111
- Is Material Advancement Sufficient? . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
- What Leads to This Development? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
- Where Look for Pure Religion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
• Salvation, Book Review . . . . . . Gertrude D. Schurgast 114
• Bahá’í Lessons . . . . 117 • With Our Readers . . 119
FIFTEEN CENTS
THAT WHICH THE LORD HATH ORDAINED AS THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY AND MIGHTIEST INSTRUMENTS FOR THE HEALING OF ALL THE WORLD IS THE UNION OF ALL ITS PEOPLES IN ONE UNIVERSAL CAUSE, ONE COMMON FAITH. THIS CAN IN NO WISE BE ACHIEVED EXCEPT THROUGH THE POWER OF A SKILLED, AN ALL-POWERFUL AND INSPIRED PHYSICIAN . . . SOON WILL THE PRESENT-DAY ORDER BE ROLLED UP, AND A NEW ONE SPREAD OUT IN ITS STEAD.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS SHOULD BE REPORTED ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE
WORLD ORDER is published monthly in Wilmette, Ill., by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, EDITORS: Stanwood Cobb, Alice Simmons Cox, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Marcia Steward Atwater, Hasan M. Balyusi, Dale S. Cole, Genevieve L. Coy, Shirin Fozdar, Marzieh Gail, Inez Greeven, Annamarie Honnold, G. A. Shook.
Editorial Office
536 SHERIDAN ROAD, WILMETTE, ILL.
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SUBSCRIPTIONS: $1.50 per year, for United States, its territories and possessions; for Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America. Single copies, 15c. Foreign subscriptions, $1.75. Make checks and money orders payable to World Order Magazine, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. Entered as second class matter April 1, 1940, at the post office at Wilmette, Ill., under the Act of March 3, 1879, Contents copyrighted 1941 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent Office.
JUNE 1941, VOLUME VII, NUMBER 3
THE Bahá’í Faith offers to mankind the great glad-tidings that the glorious age of world peace and unparalleled human advancement which has long been prophesied by all scriptures is now at hand. In its position as a new Revelation from God it asserts that mankind, after centuries of evolutionary development under the guidance of successive Prophets, has arrived at the age of maturity. The present world-wide ordeal of suffering, it declares, is a purifying, transition experience, from which nations will arise to create together a fairer civilization than the world has yet known. This they will do in recognition of the divine law of human oneness and in obedience to the concept of human brotherhood. World turmoil and agony is a signal of the death of an old era that has lost its spiritual power, and the birth of a Golden Age animated by the teachings of a new Prophet of God.
Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, Who Himself lived in this world from 1817 to 1892, like the Prophets of all the past, gives to men a body of spiritual, humanitarian and social teachings designed to meet the needs of the new humanity. In essence His precepts and counsels are the same as the teachings of previous Prophets, arising as they do from the same Source of Divine Revelation. Like these preceding Prophets, including Moses, Jesus, Buddha and Muḥammad, each of Whom founded a brilliant civilization through the creative impulse breathed into human souls and the gift of a divine message brought to earth, Bahá’u’lláh, also as a Divine Educator, brings to mankind now struggling on the threshold of a world society, the Love and the Guidance it seeks. In His Spirit men will find unfailing power for the unfoldment of latent potentialities—spiritual, mental and physical—and in His Word divine direction for the establishment of an enduring commonwealth of nations which will give to all peoples, nations and classes the encouraging and assisting environment necessary for the growth and expression of sacred human capacities.
THE PROPHETS OF GOD should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. To none is given the right to question Their words or disparage Their conduct, for They are the only ones who can claim to have understood the patient and to have correctly diagnosed its ailments. No man, however acute his perception, can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom of the Divine Physician have attained. Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the Physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that which He prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy? In like manner, every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of the Day Star of Divine knowledge, They have invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which They appeared. . . . These are not the days of prosperity and triumph. The whole of mankind is in the grip of manifold ills. Strive, therefore, to save its life through the wholesome medicine which the almighty hand of the unerring Physician hath prepared.
—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
VOLUME VII JUNE, 1941 NUMBER 3
The Promised Day Is Come
Shoghi Effendi
- THE GUARDIAN OF THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
- EXPOUNDS THE MEANING OF WORLD UPHEAVAL
A TEMPEST, unprecedented in its violence, unpredictable in its course, catastrophic in its immediate effects, unimaginably glorious in its ultimate consequences, is at present sweeping the face of the earth. Its driving power is remorselessly gaining in range and momentum. Its cleansing force, however much undetected, is increasing with every passing day. Humanity, gripped in the clutches of its devastating power, is smitten by the evidences of its resistless fury. It can neither perceive its origin, nor probe its significance, nor discern its outcome. Bewildered, agonized and helpless, it watches this great and mighty wind of God invading the remotest and fairest regions of the earth, rocking its foundations, deranging its equilibrium, sundering its nations, disrupting the homes of its peoples, wasting its cities, driving into exile its kings, pulling down its bulwarks, uprooting its institutions, dimming its light, and harrowing up the souls of its inhabitants . . .
[Page 88]
Dear friends! The powerful operations of this titanic
upheaval are comprehensible to none except such as have recognized
the claims of both Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb. Their
followers know full well whence it comes, and what it will
ultimately lead to. Though ignorant of how far it will reach,
they clearly recognize its genesis, are aware of its direction,
acknowledge its necessity, observe confidently its mysterious
processes, ardently pray for the mitigation of its severity,
intelligently labor to assuage its fury, and anticipate, with undimmed
vision, the consummation of the fears and the hopes
it must necessarily engender . . .
This judgment of God, as viewed by those who have recognized
Bahá’u’lláh as His Mouthpiece and His greatest Messenger
on earth, is both a retributory calamity and an act of holy
and supreme discipline. It is at once a visitation from God and
a cleansing process for all mankind. Its fires punish the perversity
of the human race, and weld its component parts into
one organic, indivisible, world-embracing community. Mankind,
in these fateful years, which at once signalize the passing
of the first century of the Bahá’í Era and proclaim the opening
of a new one, is, as ordained by Him Who is both the Judge
and the Redeemer of the human race, being simultaneously
called upon to give account of its past actions, and is being
purged and prepared for its future mission. It can neither
escape the responsibilities of the past, nor shirk those of the
future. God, the Vigilant, the Just, the Loving, the All-Wise
Ordainer, can, in this supreme Dispensation, neither allow the
sins of an unregenerate humanity, whether of omission or of
commission, to go unpunished, nor will He be willing to abandon
His children to their fate, and refuse them that culminating
and blissful stage in their long, their slow and painful
[Page 89]
evolution throughout the ages, which is at once their inalienable
right and their true destiny.
“Bestir yourselves, O people,” is, on the one hand, the ominous warning sounded by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, “in anticipation of the days of Divine Justice, for the promised hour is now come.” “Abandon that which ye possess, and seize that which God, Who layeth low the necks of men, hath brought. Know ye of a certainty that if ye turn not back from that which ye have committed, chastisement will overtake you on every side, and ye shall behold things more grievous than that which ye beheld aforetime.” And again: “We have fixed a time for you, O people! If ye fail, at the appointed hour, to turn towards God, He, verily, will lay violent hold on you, and will cause grievous afflictions to assail you from every direction. How severe indeed is the chastisement with which your Lord will then chastise you!” . . .
“The whole earth, Bahá’u’lláh, on the other hand, forecasting
the bright future in store for a world now wrapt in
darkness, emphatically asserts, “is now in a state of pregnancy.
The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest
fruits, when from it will have sprung forth the loftiest trees,
the most enchanting blossoms, the most heavenly blessings.”
“The time is approaching when every created thing will have
cast its burden. Glorified be God Who hath vouchsafed this
grace that encompasseth all things, whether seen or unseen!”
“These great oppressions,” He, moreover, foreshadowing
humanity’s golden age, has written, “are preparing it for the
advent of the Most Great Justice.” This Most Great Justice
is indeed the Justice upon which the structure of the Most
Great Peace can alone, and must eventually, rest, while the
Most Great Peace will, in turn usher in that Most Great, that
[Page 90]
World Civilization which shall remain for ever associated with
Him Who beareth the Most Great Name.
Beloved friends! Well nigh a hundred years have elapsed since the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh dawned upon the world— a Revelation, the nature of which, as affirmed by Himself, “none among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed degree, hath ever completely apprehended.” For a whole century God has respited mankind, that it might acknowledge the Founder of such a Revelation, espouse His Cause, proclaim His greatness, and establish His Order. In a hundred volumes, the repositories of priceless precepts, mighty laws, unique principles, impassioned exhortations, reiterated warnings, amazing prophecies, sublime invocations, and weighty commentaries, the Bearer of such a Message has proclaimed, as no Prophet before Him has done, the Mission with which God has entrusted Him. To emperors, kings, princes and potentates, to rulers, governments, clergy and peoples, whether of the East or of the West, whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Zoroastrian, He addressed, for well-nigh fifty years, and in the most tragic circumstances, these priceless pearls of knowledge and wisdom that lay hid within the ocean of His matchless utterance. Forsaking fame and fortune, accepting imprisonment and exile, careless of ostracism and obloquy, submitting to physical indignities and cruel deprivations, He, the Vicegerent of God on earth, suffered Himself to be banished from place to place and from country to country, till at length He, in the Most Great Prison, offered up His martyred son as a ransom for the redemption and unification of all mankind. “We verily,” He Himself has testified, “have not fallen short of Our duty to exhort men, and to deliver that whereunto I was bidden by God, the Almighty, the All-Praised. Had they hearkened unto Me, they would have beheld the earth another earth.”
[Page 91]
How—we may well ask ourselves—has the world, the
object of such Divine solicitude, repaid Him Who sacrificed
His all for its sake? What manner of welcome did it accord
Him, and what response did His call evoke? A clamor, unparalleled
in the history of Shí‘ih Islám, greeted, in the land of
its birth, the infant light of the Faith, in the midst of a people
notorious for its crass ignorance, its fierce fanaticism, its barbaric
cruelty, its ingrained prejudices, and the unlimited sway held
over the masses by a firmly entrenched ecclesiastical hierarchy.
A persecution, kindling a courage which, as attested by no less
eminent an authority than the late Lord Curzon of Kedleston,
has been unsurpassed by that which the fires of Smithfield
evoked, mowed down, with tragic swiftness, no less than twenty
thousand of its heroic adherents, who refused to barter their
newly-born faith for the fleeting honors and security of a
mortal life.
To the bodily agonies inflicted upon these sufferers, the charges, so unmerited, of Nihilism, occultism, anarchism, eclecticism, immorality, sectarianism, heresy, political partisanship —each conclusively disproved by the tenets of the Faith itself and by the conduct of its followers—were added, swelling thereby the number of those who, unwittingly or maliciously, were injuring its cause.
Unmitigated indifference on the part of men of eminence
and rank; unrelenting hatred shown by the ecclesiastical dignitaries
of the Faith from which it had sprung; the scornful
derision of the people among whom it was born; the utter
contempt which most of those kings and rulers who had been
addressed by its Author manifested towards it; the condemnations
pronounced, the threats hurled, and the banishments
decreed by those under whose sway it arose and first spread;
the distortion to which its principles and laws were subjected
[Page 92]
by the envious and the malicious, in lands and among peoples
far beyond the country of its origin—all these are but the
evidences of the treatment meted out by a generation sunk in
self-content, careless of its God, and oblivious of the omens,
prophecies, warnings and admonitions revealed by His Messengers. . . .
No wonder that from the Pen of Him Who bore this anguish with such sublime patience these words should have been revealed: “He Who is the Lord of the seen and unseen is now manifest unto all men. His blessed Self hath been afflicted with such harm that if all the seas, visible and invisible, were turned into ink, and all that dwell in the kingdom into pens, and all that are in the heavens and all that are on earth into scribes, they would, of a certainty, be powerless to record it.” And again: “I have been most of the days of My life even as a slave sitting under a sword, hanging on a thread, knowing not whether it would fall soon or late upon Him.” “Twenty years have passed, O kings!” He, addressing the kings of Christendom, at the height of His mission, has written, “during which We have, each day, tasted the agony of a fresh tribulation. No one of them that were before Us hath endured the things We have endured. Would that ye could perceive it! They that rose up against Us have put Us to death, have shed Our blood, have plundered Our property, and violated Our honor. Though aware of most of Our afflictions, ye, nevertheless, have failed to stay the hand of the aggressor. For is it not your clear duty to restrain the tyranny of the oppressor, and to deal equitably with your subjects, that your high sense of justice may be fully demonstrated to all mankind?”
Who is the ruler, may it not be confidently asked, whether
of the East or of the West, who, at any time since the dawn of
[Page 93]
so transcendent a Revelation, has been prompted to raise his
voice either in its praise or against those who persecuted it?
Which people has, in the course of so long a captivity, felt
urged to arise and stem the tide of such tribulations? Who is
the sovereign, excepting a single woman, shining in solitary
glory, who has, in however small a measure, felt impelled to
respond to the poignant call of Bahá’u’lláh? Who amongst
the great ones of the earth was inclined to extend this infant
Faith of God the benefit of his recognition or support? Which
one of the multitudes of creeds, sects, races, parties and classes
and of the highly diversified schools of human thought, considered
it necessary to direct its gaze towards the rising light
of the Faith, to contemplate its unfolding system, to ponder
its hidden processes, to appraise its weighty message, to
acknowledge its regenerative power, to embrace its salutary
truth, or to proclaim its eternal verities? Who among the
worldly-wise and the so-called men of insight and wisdom
can justly claim . . . to have taken sufficient pains to delve into
its literature, to have assiduously striven to separate facts
from fiction, or to have accorded its cause the treatment it
merits? Where are the preeminent exponents, whether of
the arts or sciences, with the exception of a few isolated cases,
who have lifted a finger, or whispered a word of commendation,
in either the defense or the praise of a Faith that has
conferred upon the world so priceless a benefit, that has suffered
so long and so grievously, and which enshrines within
its shell so enthralling a promise for a world so woefully battered,
so manifestly bankrupt? . . .
After a revolution of well nigh one hundred years what is
it that the eye encounters as one surveys the international scene
and looks back upon the early beginnings of Bahá’í history?
A world convulsed by the agonies of contending systems, races
[Page 94]
and nations, entangled in the mesh of its accumulated falsities,
receding farther and farther from Him Who is the sole Author
of its destinies, and sinking deeper and deeper into a suicidal
carnage which its neglect and persecution of Him Who is its
Redeemer have precipitated. A Faith, still proscribed, yet
bursting through its chrysalis, emerging from the obscurity of
a century-old repression, face to face with the awful evidences
of God’s wrathful anger, and destined to arise above the ruins
of a smitten civilization. A world spiritually destitute, morally
bankrupt, politically disrupted, socially convulsed, economically
paralysed, writhing, bleeding and breaking up beneath the
avenging rod of God. A Faith Whose call remained unanswered,
Whose claims were rejected, Whose warnings were
brushed aside, Whose followers were mowed down, Whose
aims and purposes were maligned, Whose summons to the
rulers of the earth were ignored, Whose Herald drained the
cup of martyrdom, over the head of Whose Author swept a sea
of unheard-of tribulations, and Whose Exemplar sank beneath
the weight of life-long sorrows and dire misfortunes. A world
that has lost its bearings, in which the bright flame of religion
is fast dying out, in which the forces of a blatant nationalism
and racialism have usurped the rights and prerogatives of God
Himself, in which a flagrant secularism—the direct offspring
of irreligion—has raised its triumphant head and is protruding
its ugly features, in which the “majesty of kingship” has been
disgraced, and they who wore its emblems have, for the most
part, been hurled from their thrones, in which the once all-powerful
ecclesiastical hierarchies of Islám, and to a lesser
extent those of Christianity, have been discredited, and in
which the virus of prejudice and corruption is eating into the
vitals of an already gravely disordered society. A Faith Whose
institutions—the pattern and crowning glory of the age which
[Page 95]
is to come—have been ignored and in some instances trampled
upon and uprooted, Whose unfolding system has been derided
and partly suppressed and crippled, Whose rising Order—the
sole refuge of a civilization in the embrace of doom—has been
spurned and challenged, Whose Mother-Temple has been
seized and misappropriated, and Whose “House”—the
“cynosure of an adoring world”—has, through a gross miscarriage
of justice, as witnessed by the world’s highest tribunal,
been delivered into the hands of, and violated by, its implacable
enemies.
We are indeed living in an age which, if we would correctly appraise it, should be regarded as one which is witnessing a dual phenomenon. The first signalizes the death-pangs of an order, effete and godless, that has stubbornly refused, despite the signs and portents of a century-old Revelation, to attune its processes to the precepts and ideals which that Heaven-sent Faith proffered it. The second proclaims the birth-pangs of an Order, divine and redemptive, that will inevitably supplant the former, and within Whose administrative structure an embryonic civilization, incomparable and world-embracing, is imperceptibly maturing. The one is being rolled up, and is crashing in oppression, bloodshed, and ruin. The other opens up vistas of a justice, a unity, a peace, a culture, such as no age has ever seen. The former has spent its force, demonstrated its falsity and barrenness, lost irretrievably its opportunity, and is hurrying to its doom. The latter, virile and unconquerable, is plucking asunder its chains, and is vindicating its title to be the one refuge within which a sore-tried humanity, purged from its dross, can attain its destiny.
“Soon,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself has prophesied, “will the present day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.”
From a Panama Diary
Louise Caswell and Cora H. Oliver
IV
THE mango trees are laden with fruit. The long stems hang down from the branches allowing the fruit to penetrate the thickness of the foliage and get the warm ripening sun. At a distance one is reminded of a decorated Christmas tree with ornaments hanging from the branches, and now with the fruit changing from an apple green to various shades of yellow and orange they are still more beautiful. Even so those who hear the Message for this day penetrate the thick veils of unbelief until they stand out for all the world to see.
On the evening of April 13th, a great fire swept through the heart of Colon, the largest center on the Atlantic side, destroying the extensive but least desirable section of the city. Only the assistance of the United States Army, who fought the flames with dynamite, saved the rest of the city. Louise fortunately was in a safe area and later was able to assist the Red Cross in distributing clothing to the hundreds of homeless who are now being sheltered in “Tent City” which the Army built for them. For a short time one morning I was able to be there and even that gave me a glimpse into another field which Louise can tell us about—the West Indians who constitute a large portion of the population in Colon.
Six weeks in the Port City of Colon. March 27, May
12, 1940. (Notes of L. C.) “The time for the destruction of
the world and its peoples hath arrived.” (Bahá’u’lláh) Here
of a population of 29,834 the majority are Jamaican Negroes
with a sprinkling of Hindus, Europeans and Mestizos (Spanish
[Page 97]
and American Indian). The city was established about
1850 by the Panama Railroad as its Atlantic terminus on
filled-in land leased from the Panamanian government.
When John Stearns, lone pioneer to Ecuador, spent nine days in Panama he came to Colon twice. Cora crossed the Isthmus several times during the six weeks of my stay and altogether the three of us made twenty-four trips across. During this time meetings were held at the Cristobal Y. M. C. A. with John Stearns speaking, at La Boca, La Escuela de Artes y Oficios, the Imperial Literary and Social Club in Silver City, Cristobal, La Universidad Nacional, and informal meetings in a home in New Cristobal. At one of these meetings we had Mrs. Adolphsen of Honolulu who took a message from the study group to the National convention at Wilmette.
Cora and I did all we could to keep John Stearns in Panama longer because his services were so valuable there but he was inflexible in his determination to hasten to Ecuador and teach the Faith in that virgin territory.
Crossing the Isthmus by rail is a beautiful experience, at dawn when the light is breaking over the water, in the heat of noon, or again, riding on the late scooter when the Canal winds like a piece of ribbon in the moon’s rays. You see a white heron against clouds, a thatched hut in the jungle, bright flowering trees. Each month brings a new spring with new flowers. Everywhere are signs of the beauty of God. Only man with his ugliness has created the prejudice that separates whites from blacks in first and second class—“gold” employees from “silver” employees. But the Bahá’í, who lives already in the world of divine justice, can transcend this. On our trips we remember that Bahá’u’lláh tells us the very movement from place to place when undertaken for the sake of God has its effect.
[Page 98]
A friend in New Cristobal is already promoting the Faith
through offering her home for a study class, telling her friends
about it, providing a room for Cora on her teaching trips, and
establishing a Bahá’í library in her home. Through her we
have met members of the Little Theater Group.
Through Colonel Olmedo Alfaro and his wife I have met other interesting people in Panama and Colon and have had an invitation to visit Ecuador.
The great fire of 1940 is a story in itself but afterward I helped at the Red Cross distributing clothes to the 10,000 homeless. However, I found out from the Reverend Bell that most of the Jamaicans are too proud to ask for clothes. When I watched the children going to his Sunday School I could see why they would not care for second-hand garments— their bright suits and dresses all looked brand new, as if they had not even been sat in. Those who did come to the Red Cross seemed to be only the very poor, who live in little shacks near the water. I remember one old woman who came looking for a pair of shoes at a time when our supply was low. She kissed the cross hung round her neck and talked to Jesus and Holy Mary; and sure enough before long she had a fine pair of shoes.
The six weeks in Colon and Cristobal yielded many new friends of the Faith and brought hope to many a discouraged heart. I had seen the great fire, I had seen Colon and the bay from the stratoplane, and I now saw eyes that had been lifeless glow with the promise of the new day.
(Last week in Panama City.) The day I left Colon for
Panama City I received a cable from Portland telling me
that my old house—a white elephant—had been sold, at a
loss of course; but it was a great relief and assured me funds
for returning to Central America after my trip to the United
[Page 99]
States. A phone call from Teresa Comber telling me that
she had found a suitable Panamanian family for me to live
with also augured well for my future work in Panama.
The week of May 12-19 was spent in saying goodbye to my friends and working on the Bahá’í Summer School project with Cora, preparing pictures and information for would-be pioneers in the United States. Information on the various countries of Latin America poured in from every side; nearly everyone I met told me something of value, and a professor who is one of the few recognized authorities on social and political conditions in these countries gave me several of his theses, which constitute a great treasure of material for those interested in settling in these republics. So many people take an airplane trip through Hispano-America and then go home and write a book; how can they possibly set themselves up as authorities on such a basis.
This last week I was again impressed with the lovely
fruits and flowering trees. I have always loved cashew nuts
and was amused to see that the nut sits on top of a small orange
fruit which is edible; it sits most invitingly, but is poisonous
until it has been boiled. Although there is so much fruit, I
am coming away hungry for it, because the market is too far
for me to go and the fruit stands seldom have just what I
want. Mrs. Williams took me again to see the blossoms of
the month, such as the golden shower tree, with its flat yellow
blossoms that hang like showers of coins. We drove out the
Amador Causeway and Mrs. Williams told me that it had
been filled in with the dirt taken from Culebra Cut. The
dirt was offered to the Panamanian Government but refused
by them, so the United States Army built this road and made
possible the Fortified Islands. It has been said that Panama’s
coral reef and jungle were her best protection but the construction
[Page 100]
of this road to Amador is a greater protection as
munitions are taken to the islands along this route.
Aboard ship, May 20-30, 1940. (L.C.) The City of Baltimore quietly slipped out of Balboa harbor at 7:50 p.m. She turned out to sea passing on the way Fort Amador and the Causeway leading to the Fortified Islands where I had been with Mrs. Williams on Sunday. Even the sea breeze was hot but it brought relief from the shore heat. As the lights of the city disappeared the full moon on the calm glassy water lit the night. Thin clouds rising made the moon seem to be falling towards us through the black sky. I sat on deck completely engulfed in a sense of peace and communion. It seemed strange for a pioneer to be heading northward but I experienced no inner struggle such as that prior to my decision, and felt aware of a new function in attending the Bahá’í Summer Schools of the United States and thus arousing others to join the pioneer workers in foreign fields.
The first morning I chose a deck chair next to a party of Costa Ricans who are delightful families, de Pinto and de Herrero. We have become good friends and talked much Spanish. I also talked Spanish to a young Hollander en route to Mexico. He was in the war with Spain and now he is going to work in an orphan home for Spanish refugee children. He sees something good coming out of the war, and I gave him the Bahá’í message with a pamphlet. He said that the men who are dying are not afraid of death and realize that there is something beyond this life.
To Be Concluded
The Divine Art of Living
A Compilation
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
THERE are five divisions of the spirit: First the vegetable spirit. . . . After this is the animal spirit. . . . The human spirit has the power of discovery; it encompasses all things. . . . The fourth degree of spirit is the heavenly spirit; it is the spirit of faith and the bounty of God; it comes from the breath of the Holy Spirit, and by the Divine power it becomes the cause of eternal life. It is the power which makes the earthly man heavenly, and the imperfect man perfect. It makes the impure to be pure, the silent eloquent; . . . it makes the ignorant wise.
The fifth spirit is the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit is
the mediator between God and His creatures. . . . As the pure
mirror receives light from the sun and transmits this bounty
to others, so the Holy Spirit is the mediator of the Holy Light
from the Sun of Reality, which it gives to the sanctified
realities. . . . Every time it appears the world is renewed, and
a new cycle is founded. The body of the world of humanity
puts on a new garment. It can be compared to the spring;
whenever it comes the world passes from one condition to
another. Through the advent of spring the earth becomes
verdant and blooming, and all sorts of flowers and sweet-scented
herbs grow; the trees have new life, new fruits appear,
and a new cycle is founded. The appearance of the Holy
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Spirit is like this. Whenever it appears, it renews the world
of humanity and gives new spirit to the human realities: it
dispels the darkness of ignorance and causes the radiation of
the light of perfections. Christ with this power has renewed
this cycle; the heavenly spring with the utmost freshness and
sweetness spread its tent in the world of humanity and the life-giving
breeze perfumed the nostrils of the enlightened ones.
In the same way, the appearance of Bahá’u’lláh was like a new springtime which appeared with holy breezes, with the hosts of everlasting life, and with heavenly power. It established the Throne of the Divine Kingdom in the center of the world, and by the power of the Holy Spirit revived souls and established a new cycle. (Some Answered Questions, pp. 165, 166)
It is evident that the souls receive grace from the bounty of the Holy Spirit which appears in the Manifestations of God, and not from the personality of the Manifestation. (Idem, p. 146)
The spirit of man is in need of the protection of the Holy Spirit. Just as he advances by progressive stages from the mere physical world of being into the intellectual realm, so must he develop upward in moral attributes and spiritual graces. In the process of this attainment he is ever in need of the bestowals of the Holy Spirit. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit he is lifeless. Although physically and mentally alive he is spiritually dead. His Holiness Christ announced, “That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit,” meaning that man must be born again. As the babe is born into the light of this physical world so must the physical and intellectual man be born into the light of the world of divinity. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 282)
ITS POWER
Unless the Holy Spirit become intermediary, one cannot attain directly to the bounties of God. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 591)
When Christ appeared with those marvelous breaths of the Holy Spirit, the children of Israel said, “We are quite independent of Him; we can do without Him and follow Moses; we have a book and in it are found the teachings of God; what need therefore have we of this man?” Christ said to them, “The book sufficeth you not.” It is possible for a man to hold to a book of medicine and say, “I have no need of a doctor; I will act according to the book.” . . . This is sheer ignorance. A physician is needed to prescribe. Through his skill, the principles of the book are correctly and effectively applied until the patient is restored to health. Christ was a heavenly physician. He brought spiritual health and healing into the world. Bahá’u’lláh is likewise a divine physician. He has revealed prescriptions for removing disease from the body-politic and has remedied human conditions by spiritual power. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 243, 244)
To gain control over physical bodies is an extremely easy
matter but to bring spirits within the bonds of serenity is a most
arduous undertaking. This is not the work of everybody. It
necessitates a Divine and holy potency, the potency of inspiration,
the power of the Holy Spirit. For example, His Holiness
Christ was capable of leading spirits into that abode of serenity.
He was capable of guiding hearts into that haven of rest. From
the day of His manifestation to the present time He has been
resuscitating hearts and quickening spirits. . . . In this century
of the “latter times” Bahá’u’lláh has appeared and so resuscitated
spirits that they have manifested powers more than human.
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Thousands of His followers have given their lives and
while under the sword, shedding their blood, they have proclaimed
“Yá-Bahá’u’l-Abhá!”[1] Such resuscitation is impossible
except through a heavenly potency, a power supernatural, the
Divine power of the Holy Spirit. (Promulgation of Universal
Peace, p. 271)
A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth; and yet none hath discovered its cause or perceived its motive.
The vitality of men’s belief in God is dying out in every land; nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society; what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and revive it? Is it within human power . . . to effect in the constituent elements of any of the minute and indivisible particles of matter so complete a transformation as to transmute it into purest gold? Perplexing and difficult as this may appear, the still greater task of converting satanic strength into heavenly power is one that We have been empowered to accomplish. (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, pp. 196, 200)
We understand that the Holy Spirit is the energizing factor in the life of man. Whosoever receives this power is able to influence all with whom he comes in contact.
The greatest philosophers without this Spirit are powerless, their souls lifeless, their hearts dead! Unless the Holy Spirit breathes into their souls, they can do no good work. No system of philosophy has ever been able to change the manners and customs of a people for the better. . . .
An humble man without learning, but filled with the Holy
Spirit, is more powerful than the most . . . profound scholar
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without that inspiration. He who is educated by the Divine
Spirit, can, in his time, lead others to receive the same Spirit.
(Wisdom of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 153, 154)
The power of the Holy Spirit, enlightening man’s intelligence, has enabled him to discover means of bending many natural laws to his will. He flies through the air, floats on the sea, and even moves under the waters. . . .
The Holy Spirit will give to man greater powers than these, if only he will strive after the things of the Spirit, and endeavor to attune his heart to the Divine Infinite Love. . . .
Only the Divine Light can give us sight for the invisible things, and enable us to see truths that will only be visible to the world thousands of years hence.
It was the Divine Light which enabled the prophets to see two thousand years in advance what was going to take place and today we see the realization of their vision. Thus it is this Light which we must strive to seek, for it is greater than any other. . . .
By the help of this effulgent Light all the spiritual interpretation of the Holy Writings has been made plain, the hidden things of God’s universe have become manifest, and we have been enabled to comprehend the Divine purpose for man. (Idem, pp. 32, 33, 62, 63)
Those souls who are not vivified and attracted by the Holy Spirit are accounted among the dead, because their souls are deprived of the breath of the Holy Spirit, and these persons after physical death . . . have feeling and discernment in their environment, but in comparison with the pure souls who have been vivified by the Holy Spirit, they are as dead and deprived. (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá p. 670)
I beg of God that the power of the Spirit will cause in
thee such an ecstasy and attraction that thou mayest be the
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cause of everlasting life to the seekers; that thou mayest
exhilarate the souls, awaken the heedless, bring the ignorant
to consciousness, make the blind seeing, quicken the dead,
enkindle the faded souls and refresh the withered ones. (Idem,
p. 721)
HOW TO ATTRACT THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Know thou that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is always manifest but ability to receive it is more in some and less in others. After the Crucifixion the apostles had not in the beginning the ability to witness the Messianic reality; for they were agitated. But when they found firmness and steadfastness, their inner sight became opened and they saw the reality of the Messiah.
A soul who is firm will become a son of the Kingdom of God and will be confirmed with the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit speaketh to the pure hearts and to the good and righteous souls in every spot of the earth . . . Turn thyself wholly to it—thus thou shalt be enabled to ascertain its influence and power, the strength of its life and the greatness of its confirmation.
Do not look at your weakness, nay, rely upon the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. Verily, it maketh the weak strong, the lowly mighty, the child grown . . . and the small great.
The Holy Spirit breathes in this day unto the hearts which are moving, beating, pure and attracted by the love of God. (Idem, pp. 193, 343, 705, 274, 601)
- ↑ O Thou Glory of the Most Glorious!
Speech
Norman Smith
SPEECH, one of the attributes of God, is the name of the fourteenth month of the Bahá’í calendar.
A story is told about a great and famous Persian scholar, who, whenever spoken to, or whenever he had to speak himself, closed his mouth so as not to utter any word that might offend his listener. Through years of practice of such a desirable habit, he acquired great poise and self-confidence, and attracted the hearts as well as the minds of his hearers. His speech was of the very essence of tact and wisdom.
A true story is told by a fine young man “afflicted” with stuttering that, in reality, his affliction is a blessing to him. He explained that often-times while he would be speaking, his impediment would give him an opportunity to reconsider what he was trying to say and how it would affect his listeners, and would allow him to speak without offending anyone. The truth of Bahá’u’lláh’s statement, “My calamity is My providence” is certainly understood by this young man. He includes stuttering as one of his blessings.
How often do we, who have normal speech, wish that we
had left unsaid things that brought only sorrow and grief!
We feel sorry, but what can we do? Once the words get past
our lips we never can bring them back. We should and must
practise one of the first principles of Speech, which is, “Close
your mouth, before opening it.” Practice of this principle
prepares one for speaking, produces poise, calmness, and
serenity without which we can not speak as our Persian scholar
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speaks. Our speech reveals what we really are. “For out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Bahá’u’lláh
says, “The treasury of man is his speech, and a kindly tongue
is the lodestone of the hearts of men.” The great American
philosopher, Emerson said, “What you are, speaks so loudly,
that what you say I cannot hear.”
Bahá’u’lláh says, “How great the multitude of truths which the garments of words can never contain! How vast the number of such verities as no expression can adequately describe, whose significance can never be unfolded, and to which not even the remotest allusions can be made! How manifold are the truths which must remain unuttered until the appointed time is come! Even as it hath been said: ‘Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it.’”
Words were given us to communicate our ideas and the idea that should be uppermost in our minds is the praise of God. In Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh says: “O Emigrants! The tongue I have designed for the mention of Me, defile it not with detraction. If the fire of self overcome you, remember your own faults and not the faults of My creatures, inasmuch as every one of you knoweth his own self better than he knoweth others.” Again He says: “O Son of Being, Make mention of Me on My earth, that in My Heaven I may remember thee, thus shall Mine eyes and thine be solaced.”
It is beyond the power and ken of man to understand how
the Prophets of God are able to spread Their teachings of
supernal truths in the ordinary words of human experience.
Christ spoke to the multitudes in parables, but to His disciples
He explained the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven for it
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was given to them to understand. For the disciples had ears
to hear. The multitudes “seeing, see not: and hearing they
hear not, neither do they understand.”
Man has built up his chief means of communication, language, through long years of experience. He has made definite and fixed adjustments to his words so as to make himself feel more secure in this world. Any attack upon his kinesthetic sequence is like an attack from Mars. Man counters such attacks by the use of more words and more words to preserve his feeling of security. In the long run, however, his defense weakens and crumbles under his very eyes until he accepts the Truth. When man accepts the Truth his words have a power that nothing can stop.
The Prophet appears in the midst of a people and must re-create them with their language. He must create new concepts, rekindle the power of the eternal truths, and bring a new consciousness to them. What a tremendous task! How else could the Prophet spread His Message without relating His teachings to the experience of the people through the medium of their own language? The Prophet must speak on their level in order to raise them to a higher level of consciousness. So powerful must be His words that man will aspire to experience the Reality which the Prophet has clothed in the limitations of language.
“Tn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.” His Holiness, Christ, said:
“. . . the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:
but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” He
was not merely proclaiming certain truths, but was spreading
the Word of God. The motivating power of the Creative
Word is the power of the Holy Spirit, which fulfills God’s
immutable purpose for mankind. In this day, it is the unification
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of the entire human race into one common, one universal
Faith.
“This is the day in which to speak. It is incumbent upon the people of Bahá to strive, with the utmost patience and forbearance, to guide the peoples of the world to the Most Great Horizon. Every body calleth aloud for a soul. Heavenly souls must needs quicken, with the breath of the word of God, the dead bodies with a fresh spirit. Within every word a new spirit is hidden. Happy is the man that attaineth thereunto, and hath arisen to teach the Cause of Him Who is the King of Eternity . . . Say: O servants! The triumph of this Cause hath depended, and will continue to depend, upon the appearance of holy souls, upon the showing forth of goodly deeds, and the revelation of words of consummate wisdom.”
PART OF ME
Clara E. Hill
- This leaf shaken against the sky
- Stirs me like an army marching by.
- The quietness on the water’s face
- Falls on my spirit like God’s grace.
- And the wild bird’s wailing cry
- My heart answers, sigh for sigh.
- The flaming stroke of sunset’s brush
- Holds all nature in a breathless hush.
- All these things are part of me—
- Bird, wave, sky and windblown tree.
BAHÁ’Í ANSWERS TO WORLD QUESTIONS
WHY DOES THIS AGE NEED NEW STANDARDS?
THERE are periods and stages in the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through its stage of childhood, at another its period of youth, but now it has entered its long-predicted phase of maturity, the evidences of which are everywhere apparent. . . . That which was applicable to human needs during the early history of the race can neither meet nor satisfy the demands of this day, this period of newness and consummation. Humanity has emerged from its former state of limitation and preliminary training. Man must now become imbued with new virtues and powers, new moral standards, new capacities. New bounties, perfect bestowals, are awaiting and already descending upon him. The gifts and blessings of the period of youth, although timely and sufficient during the adolescence of mankind, are now incapable of meeting the requirements of its maturity. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 433)
IS MATERIAL ADVANCEMENT SUFFICIENT?
Man has two powers, and his development two aspects.
One power is connected with the material world and by it he
is capable of material advancement. The other power is spiritual
and through its development his inner potential nature
is awakened. These powers are like two wings. Both must be
developed, for flight is impossible with one wing. . . . We must
strive unceasingly and without rest to accomplish the development
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of the spiritual nature in man, and endeavor with
tireless energy to advance humanity toward the nobility of
its true intended station. (Idem, p. 57)
WHAT LEADS TO THIS DEVELOPMENT?
The . . . pathway is that of religion, the road of the divine kingdom. . . . This pathway is conducive to the progress and uplift of the world. It is the source of human enlightenment, training and ethical improvement; the magnet which attracts the love of God because of the knowledge of God which it bestows. . . . True religion is the source of love and agreement amongst men, the cause of the development of praiseworthy qualities; but the people are holding to the counterfeit and imitation, negligent of the reality which unifies; so they are bereft and deprived of the radiance of religion. They follow superstitions inherited from their fathers and ancestors. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 174)
WHERE CAN WE LOOK FOR PURE RELIGION?
The fundamental principles of the prophets are correct
and true. The imitations and superstitions which have crept in
are at wide variance with the original precepts and commands.
His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has revoiced and re-established the
quintessence of the teachings of all the Prophets, setting aside
the accessories and purifying religion from human interpretations.
He has written a book entitled Hidden Words. The
preface announces that it contains the essence of the words
of the Prophets of the past clothed in the garment of brevity
for the teaching and spiritual guidance of the people of the
world. Read it that you may understand the true foundation
of religion and reflect upon the inspiration of the Messengers
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of God. It is light upon light. We must not look for truth in
the deeds and actions of nations; we must investigate truth at
its divine source and summon all mankind to unity in the
Reality Itself. (Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 83)
In our solar system, the center of illumination is the sun itself. Through the will of God this central luminary is the one source of the existence and development of all phenomenal things . . .
Likewise in the spiritual realm of intelligence and idealism there must be a center of illumination, and that center is the ever-lasting, ever-shining Sun, the Word of God. Its lights are the lights of reality which have shone upon humanity, illuminating the realm of thought and morals, conferring the bounties of the divine world upon man. These lights are the cause of the education of souls and the source of the enlightenment of hearts, sending forth in effulgent radiance the message of the glad-tidings of the Kingdom of God . . .
The Sun of Reality is one Sun but it has different dawning-places, just as the phenomenal sun is one although it appears at various points of the horizon . . . Souls who focus their vision upon the Sun of Reality will be the recipients of light no matter from what point it rises . . . (Idem, pp. 90, 91)
Salvation
BOOK REVIEW
Gertrude D. Schurgast
In “SALVATION,” a historical novel, Sholem Asch, the author of the “Nazarene,” takes us into a small Jewish community of a hundred years ago in an isolated town in Poland. As we follow spellbound the life and doings of these strange people we learn a great deal about the background of the orthodox Jew.
To me, coming from a German-Jewish background, this book was like a revelation. For the Jews in Germany were separated from their eastern brethren by a high wall of culture and arrogance. I wished I had read such a book many, many years ago. Then, perhaps, I would not have been so loath to admit that some of my own ancestors might have come from just such a little town and might have lived among just such people as Sholem Asch brings to life; and it would have taught me a little love and understanding and reverence for people who lived in such misery and yet had something which we “cultured Jews” in Germany lacked: spirituality.
The Jews living in the East of Europe did not form an integral part of society. To the end of the 19th century there existed in Russia and in Poland two classes only: the land-owners and the peasants, their serfs. The Jews, still more miserable and poverty-stricken than the peasants, lived on the mercy of both classes, were treated with contempt by both. Persecuted, humiliated, in constant fear of their lives, they eked out a meager living as trades-people or in similar occupations and formed a minority group representing a state of existence inconceivable to civilized man.
Small wonder then, that their religion was the only thing that lent significance to their miserable lives. Sholem Asch very beautifully describes the Jewish Sabbath-day, the one day of the week, wholly devoted to God. Forgotten is the struggle and drudgery, the poverty and misery of the weekday. On that day the downtrodden slave has restored his dignity, has become man again. His soul has renewed its sacred covenant with God.
The hope of salvation through the coming of the Messiah lived
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strongly in these people. It was the ambition of every Jew to have
a famous Rabbi, a holy man, in the family who would enlighten the
people and pave the way for the coming of the Great Messiah. Things
spiritual mattered more than material possessions. Men, especially
those who belonged to the sect of the Chassidim, left the irksome task
of making a living to their brave wives and found it more important
to spend their days at the Synagogue, studying the holy texts and insisted
that their sons do the same. Fathers of eligible daughters felt
it a duty to accumulate a certain amount of worldly possessions so
that their sons-in-law would not have to work but would be free to
study the Law. Through vicissitudes and suffering we follow Jechiel,
the hero of our story, to great heights of spirituality. Quoting from
the book: “Jechiel learned that the greatest joy could only be obtained
by communion with God, by vanishing into Him like a drop into the
sea, clinging to Him like a lost child to its mother’s knees. This union
with God could only be achieved by prayer that was freed of all earthly
desire so that it became nothing but a deep and torturing longing for
His presence. Then one’s prayer soared highly, borne on the pinions
of love, to the highest Heaven.”
He stays poor and humble in spite of the fact that he has become a famous Rabbi, a holy man, ministering with great love and humility to all the wretched, trouble-laden people who flock to him from far and wide. For all he has a word of help, of consolation, of encouragement. To some he quotes words from the Psalms; to others he gives pearls of Jewish wisdom: “The only way to God is the way of love. We must be sick with love for God as a man is sick with love for a beloved.” (the same simile as used by Bahá’u’lláh.)
Another passage from Jewish writings which Jechiel quotes to some of his petitioners sounds to Bahá’ís strangely familiar: “The Spirit does not descend unless it is first attracted from beneath . . .” In the “Hidden Words” Bahá’u’lláh says: “Love Me that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee . . .”
This only bears out the fact that all true knowledge has the same source. It comes from God.
In a masterful way Sholem Asch makes us familiar with Jewish
thinking and Jewish life. Thus prepared we come to understand the
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tragic conflict which takes place in the heart of a Jewish girl who
loving a gentile has decided to forfeit the faith of her fathers so that
she may become his bride. “This same conflict when confronting a
Jew of today often means a serious, almost unsolvable problem to him.
Seen in the light of the past this is no longer surprising. For the
traditions prevalent among those Jewish masses, exiled and enslaved
as they were, told them that the Jews alone were the Chosen People
of God. But what accounted for all the non-Jewish races? Were
they not creatures of God, too? To those Jews in Eastern Europe
they were, as Sholem Asch, puts it “merely God’s instrument of oppression,
a rod for the back of Israel when it fell into sin. . . . They
lived only for the sake of the Jews dispersed among them.” During
centuries of persecution the Jews had built this belief around themselves
like a fortress as a means of self-defense.
Thus in the most dramatic scene of the book, the conversion of a Jewish soul; and the Jews are sitting in their synagogue in deep mourning, while the village priest and the Rabbi wrestle in prayer for the lost soul using identical words, for they read the same psalm, the poor girl Reisel who is spending the night in a convent paces up and down her narrow cell in desperation. She knows her father would rather see her dead than married to a Gentile and yet she loves the man. There are two warring armies on either side of her and she does not know which way to turn! There is only one way out. In leaping to her death from the convent window, she sees the gates of Heaven open and Jews and Christians walking together on the white clouds. There is the Rabbi hand in hand with the priest and over yonder her lover beside her parents.
Where is the way to Salvation? The author leaves this question open, but we Bahá’ís want to shout it to the world: The way of salvation has been found. For the Messiah has come. The time for race prejudice and persecution is at an end, the “Most Great Peace” will come and with it the fulfilment of the age-old Jewish New Year’s prayer, “that all might make a covenant together to do His Will wholeheartedly.”
BAHÁ’Í LESSONS
Prayer and Meditation
I. Need and Purpose of Prayer and Meditation.
- Chief and indispensable means of spiritual nourishment, P-M 195; Tab I 98; B News 102:3; B-NE 110-111.
- Life-giving source of civilization, BN 102:3.
- Increases capacity of soul, S of W VIII 44-45 (BS Par 945).
- Approach to Truth, to God, Seven V 21-23; Wisdom 163 (see Prom 319 ff.); Tab III 694-5, 683-4; B-NE 110.
- Only means of attainment to deepest spiritual understanding, SV 29-30; HW(A) 14-15, (P) 21; Wisdom 163; B-NE 111.
- Prayer, fundamental element of every Revelation, Íqán 39.
- Prayer, commanded, Íqán 38-39, 194 (Gl 265); HW(A) 16; Tab III 683; B-NE 114-115.
II. Reality of Prayer.
- All things pray potentially, Prom 241-2.
- Prayer and meditation, faculties of human spirit for discovery of Truth, Tab III 692.
- Prayer, an attitude of heart: turning to God, P-M 159-160; Íqán 194 (Gl 265); Tab III 683, 692, 720; Wisdom 164; B-NE 115.
- Prayer, both entreaty and communion, P-M 159-160; SV 21; Tab II 287, III 683-4 (BS Par 869); B-NE 110-111.
- Love for God (Light), impetus of prayer, meditation, SV 7-10; HW(A) 4-9, 14; Gl 185-6, 237-8; Tab III 524-6; SAQ 218-19; Prom 46-47, 319 ff.; B-NE 116-17.
- Bahá’u’lláh’s Word awakens this love, Íqán 59-60; P-M 82-83; Wisdom 168; S of W VIII 42.
- His prayers are bounty to souls, Gl 295; P-M 283.
- Devotional attitudes, Tab III 522, 628; BN 134:2; B-NE 112.
- Recognition of God’s sovereignty, P-M 88-91.
- Confession of human weakness, P-M 90-93; HW(A) 42.
- Yearning for God’s favor, P-M 93, 157-8, 159-60, 317.
- Realization of need for Mediator, P-M 94; Tab II 337, 410-11, III 592-3; Wisdom 51-53; BN 118:2, 89:1; B-NE 113-14.
- Statement of particular needs, P-M 94.
- Submission, P-M 318, 319; HW(A) 18.
- Service is prayer, Wisdom 165; B-NE 101.
- Highest prayer, P-M 94, 161.
- Obligatory prayers, P-M 314-323; Procedure 1:1.
III. Bounties of Prayer (see also “Prayer,” index, P-M.)
- God answers prayer, SV 21; Gl 295; P-M 13, 249-50; Prom 241-2; B-NE 120-1.
- Ocean of bounties, Gl 323; Tab 593, 621, 628, 637, 723, Prom 155.
- Light to soul, Íqán 39; SV 21, 23; Tab III 599; B-NE 115.
- Power and guidance, SV 21, 48-50, 52-53; Wisdom 152-5.
- Love and light for others, Tab III 639, 505, 627, 640, II 243.
- Steadfastness, Tab III 589-90.
- Protection, Tab I 54-55, 67, 73, III 684.
- Healing, Tab III 629, 688; Wisdom 15-16; B-NE 134-9.
- Alteration of divine decree, Gl 133.
- Rising of true self, Gl 4-5; HW(A) 4, 11; SV 46-48; B-NE 108.
- Intercession, B-NE 232, 235-7.
IV. Reality of Meditation.
- Spiritual function of rational soul, Wisdom 162; Tab III 692, I, 208; SAQ 244, 245.
- Activity of the intellect, Tab of Bahá’u’lláh, 58; Wisdom 162.
- Reveals realities of things, Wisdom 163-4; Prom 46-7, 411-13.
- As human faculty, limited, Gl 317-18; Tab I 164-6, III 645; Wisdom 164; Prom 19-20.
- Holy Spirit increases capacity of human understanding, Gl 65-68; Wisdom 162-3; SAQ 252-3; Prom 297.
- Meditation opens doors of mysteries, Wisdom 163-4, 13, 51-53, 61-63, Tab III 692 (Cf Gl 164, 194-5).
- Method of meditation, Wisdom 162-4; Prom 238.
WITH OUR READERS
LAST year in our June number we printed a most interesting and comprehensive article about our three Bahá’í Summer Schools. We shall not have such an article this year and so we hope you will hunt out your old June number and read it, for like so many of our articles it is just as timely now as a year ago or even longer. Those who have attended one of these schools know how helpful they are in many ways. They deepen us in the understanding of the Teachings; they give us an opportunity to become acquainted with other Bahá’ís outside our own community or area; they give us an opportunity to find out how others are working; best of all they inspire us to go home to study and teach. Do you remember that on page 45 of the Advent of Divine Justice the Guardian says “every one without exception is urged to take advantage of attending it” (i.e. a summer school)? Why not begin now to plan for it and pray that the way will open to carry out the plans? The full programs of all three schools are printed on one leaflet and sent to each believer with the May Bahá’í News. We suggest that you study these programs quite carefully. We suggest, too, that you invite your non-Bahá’í friends who are interested in the Teachings to attend some one of these schools. There are special programs for young people.
Appreciative letters continue to come with new or renewed subscriptions to our business office. Here is a particularly enthusiastic one from one of our Montreal friends: “I think World Order is more and more interesting with each number. It is positively outstanding and arresting in its presentation of the things that are vital! . . . I congratulate with all my heart the management and editorial staff.”
But please remember that the editors and management can take only part credit. We depend upon you all for contributions. Please send us both articles and suggestions and try again if your first one is not used.
We are printing this month
excerpts from a highly important
and most weighty letter from
[Page 120]
Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the
Bahá’í Faith. This letter is being
sent to the National Spiritual Assembly
in installments and will be
published in pamphlet form when
all have arrived. All thoughtful
and open-minded people, whether
Bahá’ís or non-Bahá’ís, will be
illumined by this letter which
contains many words of Bahá’u’lláh
not before translated, accurate
translations of others which have
long been a part of Bahá’í Sacred
Writings and the Guardian’s
words of interpretation. Is there
any other writing, whether sacred
or secular, which gives an adequate
understanding of present
world conditions?
Norman Smith, whose first contribution is printed in this issue, has for many years been active in the Bahá’í community of Teaneck, has served in the youth activities of the New York metropolitan area and also at the Green Acre Bahá’í School.
The fourth installment of “From a Panama Diary” is printed this month. In these notes our two pioneers in Panama, Mrs. Louise Caswell and Mrs. Cora Oliver, have given us pictures of Panama life and their own work there which bring both them and Panama nearer to us.
The book review this month is by Mrs. Gertrude D. Schurgast of Cincinnati. Our readers will remember Mrs. Schurgast’s previous contribution, “What Is Secure?” which appeared in our July, 1940, issue.
We are glad to welcome Clara E. Hill again, with one of her distinctive poems. Her previous contribution appeared in June, 1940.
Our usual departments, “The Divine Art of Living” compiled by Mrs. Mabel Hyde Paine of Urbana, Illinois, “Bahá’í Lessons” compiled by Mrs. Alice Simmons Cox of Peoria, Illinois, and “Bahá’í Answers to World Questions” compiled by Mrs. Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick of Olivet, Michigan, complete this issue.
—THE EDITORS
BAHÁ’Í LITERATURE
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’í teachings on the nature of religion, the soul, the basis of civilization and the oneness of mankind. $2.00.
Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, translated by Shoghi Effendi. Revealed by Bahá’u’lláh toward the end of His earthly mission, this text is a majestic and deeply-moving exposition of His fundamental principles and laws and of the sufferings endured by the Manifestation for the sake of mankind. Bound in fabrikoid, $1.50.
Kitab-i-Íqán, Translated by Shoghi Effendi. This work (Book of Certitude) unifies and coordinates the revealed Religions of the past, demonstrating their oneness in fulfillment of the purpose of Revelation. Bound in cloth. 198 pages. $2.50.
Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated by Shoghi Effendi. The supreme expression of devotion to God; a spiritual flame which enkindles the heart and illumines the mind. 348 pages. Bound in fabrikoid. $2.00.
Some Answered Questions. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of questions concerning the relation of man to God, the nature of the Manifestation, human capacities, fulfillment of prophecy, etc., $1.50.
The Promulgation of Universal Peace. In this collection of His American talks, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the basis for a firm understanding of the attitudes, principles and spiritual laws which enter into the establishment of true Peace. 467 pages. Bound in cloth. $2.50.
Bahá’í Prayers, a selection of Prayers revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, each Prayer translated by Shoghi Effendi. 72 pages. Bound in fabrikoid, $0.75. Paper cover, $0.35.
The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, by Shoghi Effendi. On the nature of the new social pattern revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for the attainment of divine justice in civilization. $1.50.
BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE,
110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
The Nature of the Bahá’í Faith
THE REVELATION PROCLAIMED BY BAHÁ’U’LLÁH . . . IS DIVINE IN ORIGIN, ALL-EMBRACING IN SCOPE, BROAD IN ITS OUTLOOK, SCIENTIFIC IN ITS METHOD, HUMANITARIAN IN ITS PRINCIPLES AND DYNAMIC IN THE INFLUENCE IT EXERTS ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF MEN.
THE MISSION OF THE FOUNDER OF THEIR FAITH . . . TO PROCLAIM THAT RELIGIOUS TRUTH IS NOT ABSOLUTE BUT RELATIVE, THAT DIVINE REVELATION IS CONTINUOUS AND PROGRESSIVE, THAT THE FOUNDERS OF ALL PAST RELIGIONS, THOUGH DIFFERENT IN THE NON-ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF THEIR TEACHINGS, “ABIDE IN THE SAME TABERNACLE, SOAR IN THE SAME HEAVEN, ARE SEATED UPON THE SAME THRONE, UTTER THE SAME SPEECH AND PROCLAIM THE SAME FAITH.”
His CAUSE . . . STANDS IDENTIFIED WITH, AND REVOLVES AROUND, THE PRINCIPLE OF THE ORGANIC UNITY OF MANKIND AS REPRESENTING THE CONSUMMATION OF THE WHOLE PROCESS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION.
THIS FINAL STAGE IN THIS STUPENDOUS EVOLUTION . . . IS NOT ONLY NECESSARY BUT INEVITABLE . . . IS GRADUALLY APPROACHING . . AND NOTHING SHORT OF THE CELESTIAL POTENCY WITH WHICH A DIVINELY ORDAINED MESSAGE CAN CLAIM TO BE ENDOWED CAN SUCCEED IN ESTABLISHING IT.
