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[Page 295]

WORLD ORDER

THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE

December, 1941

• A World Language for a World Order . . . . Della C. Quinlan   297

• I Know Not What the Fire . . . . . . . . . . . Bahá’u’lláh   306

• A Bahá’í Pioneer in Paraguay, II . . . . . Elizabeth H. Cheney   307

• The Weakened Pillars of Religion . . . Shoghi Effendi   312

• Another Call to Man . . . . Jacqueline Siefert Summers   319

• Our Latin American Neighbors, Book Review . . . Garreta Busey   322

• Bahá’í Study Sources   325   • With Our Readers   330

FIFTEEN CENTS

[Page 296]

ALL NATIONS AND KINDREDS . . . WILL BECOME A SINGLE NATION. RELIGIOUS AND SECTARIAN ANTAGONISM, THE HOSTILITY OF RACES AND PEOPLES, AND DIFFERENCES AMONG NATIONS, WILL BE ELIMINATED. ALL MEN WILL ADHERE TO ONE RELIGION, WILL HAVE ONE COMMON FAITH, WILL BE BLENDED INTO ONE RACE, AND BECOME A SINGLE PEOPLE. ALL WILL DWELL IN ONE COMMON FATHERLAND, WHICH IS THE PLANET ITSELF.

—‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ

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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: Garreta Busey, Stanwood Cobb, Alice Simmons Cox, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Marcia Steward Atwater, Hasan M. Balyusi, Dale S. Cole, Genevieve L. Coy, Mae Dyer, Shirin Fozdar, Marzieh Gail, Inez Greeven, Annamarie Honnold, G. A. Shook.

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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.

DECEMBER 1941, VOLUME VII, NUMBER 9

[Page 297]

WORLD ORDER

THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE

VOLUME VII   DECEMBER, 1941   NUMBER 9

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A World Language for a World Order

Della C. Quinlan

A NEW SCRIPT, A NEW TONGUE

TO EXPRESS THE SOUL OF A NEW RACE

SOCIAL LIFE, whether it be that of the family, tribe, race or nation, depends upon language. Without language it could not exist. How did it come to be; and what is its history? The number of the languages of mankind is that of the families, tribes, races and nations which have lived and died upon this earth. What the actual number is we will never know, so many of them have left no trace behind them. But every time there has been a group of men living and working together there has been a language in which they could communicate one with another; a language adequate to the needs of that group, adapted to its size and social development. The diversity of languages over the earth has presented no serious problem up to the present time. Geographically separated as the nations were, separated in their social development, a sufficient incentive was lacking to break down the language barriers between them. Will this condition continue to exist? Today we see the world [Page 298] daily contracting into a geographic unit through the development in transportation, its peoples coming into closer and closer contact until they are veritably rubbing elbows, and yet unable to communicate with one another. The continuance of this condition does not seem likely.

From very ancient times there has been a vision which men have cherished, given to them by the Prophet which God sent to them from time to time. This vision was of a world order which embraced the whole of mankind. It was voiced in spiritual metaphor and its spiritual aspects stressed. Many and beautiful are the word pictures of that world order to be found in the Old Testament, Isaiah’s, perhaps, surpassing them all. But there is one in the Revelation of St. John that is most arresting. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” The words are few and succinct, but how impressive. A new heaven; a new earth. And the first heaven and the first earth—passed away!

In the turmoil and destruction of a war that is reaching truly world proportions it seems to many that that vision of St. John’s of the passing of the old world is taking place. To many others, who are known as Bahá’ís, it appears that the new earth is emerging through the setting up of the world order of Bahá’u’lláh. Announcing His Manifestation in the Orient in 1863 He gave the great and fundamental spiritual laws which provide an adequate earthly basis for the realization of all those old visions of the prophets and seers of the past, of a world unified at last and freed from war and destruction. The Guardian of His Faith gives us a picture of such a world in one of his writings:

“A world federal system, ruling the whole earth and exercising unchallengable authority over its unimaginably vast resources, blending and embodying the ideals of both the East [Page 299] and the West, liberated from the curse of war and its miseries, and bent on the exploitation of all the available sources of energy on the surface of the planet, a system in which Force is made the servant of Justice, whose life is sustained by its universal recognition of one God and by its allegiance to one common Revelation—such is the goal towards which humanity, impelled by the unifying forces of life, is moving.”

This is an inspiring picture! Its realization depends in the first place upon the will of man being strengthened by “the unifying forces of life.” But in the second it depends upon that will expressing itself concretely in ways that pertain to the exigencies of life upon this earth. Its realization will be an expression of social life. And so we come back to that tool of social life, language. A world federal system will need a world language in order that it may not be a beautiful dream but a social reality.

Bahá’u’lláh relates in The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf one of the occasions upon which He provides for this need which would arise with the establishment of His world order. He says:

“One day, while in Constantinople, Kamál Páshá visited this Wronged One. Our conversation turned upon topics profitable to man. He said that he had learned several languages. In reply We observed: ‘You have wasted your life. It beseemeth you and the other officials of the Government to convene a gathering and choose one of the divers languages, and likewise one of the existing scripts, or else to create a new language and a new script to be taught children in schools throughout the world. They would, in this way, be acquiring only two languages, one their own native tongue, the other the language in which all the peoples of the world would converse. Were [Page 300] men to take fast hold on that which hath been mentioned, the whole earth would come to be regarded as one country, and the people would be relieved and freed from the necessity of acquiring and teaching different languages’.”

Continuing, He refers to His own country putting this into effect.

“We fain would hope that the Persian Government will adopt it and carry it out. At present, a new language and a new script have been devised. If thou desirest, We will communicate them to thee. [addressed to the Son of the Wolf] Our purpose is that all men may cleave unto that which will reduce unnecessary labor and exertion, so that their days may be fittingly spent and ended.”

It is interesting to note that one of the reasons which He gives in both these quotations for the adoption of a secondary language is that it will free man from unnecessary labor. This is very pertinent to our life today, speeded up as it is to the point where every moment has more than one call upon it and the amount of new knowledge that we must acquire increases from day to day. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the eldest son of Bahá’u’lláh and the Exemplar of His Teachings, was traveling in Europe in 1913, He addressed the Esperanto Society of Edinburgh and forcibly expressed how great is the loss of time and energy in learning many languages. He said:

“It is a well-known fact that the Oriental student coming to the West, in his efforts to acquaint himself with the discoveries and achievements of Western civilization, must spend precious years of his life in acquiring the language of the land to which he comes before he can turn to the study of the special science in which he is interested. For example, let us suppose [Page 301] that a youth from India, Persia, Turkestan or Arabia comes to this country to study medicine. He must first struggle with the English language for four years, to the exclusion of all else, before he can even begin the study of medicine. Whereas, if the auxiliary international language were taught in all the schools during his childhood, he would learn the language in his own country, and afterwards, wherever he wished to go, he could easily pursue his specialty without loss of some of the best years of his life.”

This is the difficulty with which the student is faced, whether he is an American or a European, as well as those who come from the Orient. But this difficulty presents itself in every sphere of life, whether it be cultural or commercial. Years of one’s life must be given to acquiring the language of the people with whom one must communicate in order to carry on trade with them or to acquire some special knowledge or skill which they possess.

In the quotations from Bahá’u’lláh’s Words which are given here He appears to expect some one Government to take up this matter and by its efforts to bring about the general adoption of a secondary language. In the Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh it is implied, though not directly stated, that a secondary language will be chosen by a congress of the nations to be held in the future to which all governments will send representatives and which the kings of the earth will attend. No doubt there were moments when such a project might have been accomplished by a single government and no doubt there will be such a moment when the congress of nations is convened, to which Bahá’u’lláh refers. But in looking into other occasions when He spoke of the necessity for a universal [Page 302] language for the civilization which was fast coming to birth, we find that He enjoins upon the Trustees of the Universal House of Justice the establishing of this important social basis of world unity.

This last strongly suggests the way in which the choice of a secondary language will finally be made. It may seem a simple matter, when one has become convinced of the utility and necessity of such a language for the peoples of the world, to choose either one of the existing languages or one of the new created languages. But it is not so simple. Language is a very intimate thing. Many peoples have stubbornly clung to their native tongues when it was obviously to their advantage to discard them and take up the language of their conquerors. Force has seldom succeeded in erasing from a people’s life the memory of a language which contained its soul, strange as it may seem. It is not until such a people come into contact with the vivifying life flowing from the Word of God in the days when it is fresh and new, that their spirit expands and the old associations lose their power to inhibit entrance into other and unknown worlds. In such an atmosphere, old national rivalries and wrongs are forgotten. At such a time if it becomes the wish of the new world order to select a national tongue, no objection will be felt or indeed come into consciousness. On the other hand, no one will object to a newly created or artificial language through an inability to see that a language need not take centuries to grow naturally in order to be adequate for a world civilization. It will be realized that such a language, being created to fill a world need, may be arbitrarily molded to a fundamental language logic and so be well fitted for world use. In other words, when man has had the supreme good for [Page 303] tune to live in the early days of a Manifestation of God, he becomes conscious that he is living in a new world with new values. There is no possibility of his suffering any loss by the new commands that are laid upon him. For his world is expanding day by day, and these new commands are the means of its expansion.

One of the advantages which a secondary language will bestow upon the small nationalities will be to preserve their languages. With the development of European civilization, especially the present technological one, languages of small countries have tended to disappear. This tendency will be checked when the secondary language comes into use. There will then be no reason for the abandonment of a native tongue. They have all, those of the smallest and least important countries, embodied a culture. This culture is a contribution to the human whole and should not be lost. The secondary language will also take care of a difficulty which we experience in our large American cities. In all of them there are national groups who cling to their language and folkways. This is a hindrance to their complete entrance into our national life. In the future this difficulty will not exist, as they will never appear to us as strangers with whom we cannot communicate. Nor will we appear so to them. As Bahá’u’lláh has said in this connection, when this common language “is achieved to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home.”

On the other hand, the general adoption of a secondary language will mean that any important work that is of interest to humanity as a whole, will be written in the secondary language that it may be accessible to all. It may be noted in passing that much original work is buried in languages that are not [Page 304] usually studied even by educated persons. And thus it is lost to the world. Such an instance is the work of Rasmus Rask. Jesperson says of him that he “might well have been styled the founder of the modern science of language” had he written in one better known than Danish. Man is becoming conscious of these losses imposed upon him by an outworn mode of life and will tolerate them but little longer.

The choice of a secondary language which will be taught in all the schools of the world does not complete the solution of the language problem. A language is written as well as spoken. There are the related problems of a world script and a reformed alphabet. Whatever language becomes the world auxiliary language of the future it will be necessary to write it phonetically and in a script that is understood all over the world. Even the slight differences between the French and German script and our own present difficulties to American eyes. How much greater the necessity of a common script for Oriental and Occidental languages. We have also the necessity of reforming our alphabet to a phonetic system of writing. Unless we abandon many of the sounds we use, which we think of as letters, we must add quite a few to the twenty-six letters that make up our present alphabet to represent those sounds. Does this sound appalling? What, must I learn new letters of the alphabet at my age? If this seems too dreadful, think of the intrepid Turkish people who attacked an entire new alphabet and script a few years ago, and we understand with success. What man has done, man can do.

All these problems confront us when we consider the setting up of the world order of Bahá’u’lláh. Perhaps they seem but academic problems to many persons who regard “A world federal system, ruling the whole earth” as far in the future. But the time is close upon us when they will press for solution. [Page 305] In fact, that time has already dawned when we can read the following written in 1930:

“Take, for example, intellectual life. Every ‘intellectual’ today in Germany, England, or France feels suffocated within the boundaries of his country; feels his nationality as an absolute limitation. The German professor now realizes the absurdity of the type of production to which he is forced by his immediate public of German professors, and misses the superior freedom of the French writer or the English essayist. Vice versa, the Parisian man of letters is beginning to understand that an end has come to the tradition of literary mandarinism, of verbal formalism, and would prefer, while keeping some of the better qualities of that tradition, to amplify it with certain virtues of the German professor.”

Is this not a testimony that a new spirit is abroad in the world? At present, this spirit may be obscured by the national struggle to maintain itself. But as soon as that struggle abates a little, this spirit which testifies to a fundamental human brotherhood, will assert itself more strongly than ever. After all, the struggle has been precipitated by the fact that the world has been getting smaller and smaller until we have come to live in a world economic order without being conscious of what has happened to us. We have therefore allowed that order to come into being in a disorganized state. When the Divine Physician is allowed to administer the medicine which a disorganized world needs, this disorganization will have fallen into order and the “peace and tranquility” of the world have been established.

[Page 306]

I KNOW NOT, O my God, what the Fire is which Thou didst kindle in Thy land. Earth can never cloud its splendor, nor water quench its flame. All the peoples of the world are powerless to resist its force. Great is the blessedness of him that hath drawn nigh unto it, and heard its roaring.

Some, O my God, Thou didst, through Thy strengthening grace, enable to approach it, while others Thou didst keep back by reason of what their hands have wrought in Thy days. Whoso hath hasted towards it and attained unto it hath, in his eagerness to gaze on Thy beauty, yielded his life in Thy path, and ascended unto Thee, wholly detached from aught else except Thyself.

I beseech Thee, O my Lord, by this Fire which blazeth and rageth in the world of creation, to rend asunder the veils that have hindered me from appearing before the throne of Thy Majesty, and from standing at the door of Thy gate. Do Thou ordain for me, O my Lord, every good thing Thou didst send down in Thy Book, and suffer me not to be far removed from the shelter of Thy Mercy.

Powerful art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. Thou art, verily, the All-Powerful, the Most Generous.

—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

[Page 307]

A Bahá’í Pioneer in Paraguay

Elizabeth H. Cheney

II

THIS is the beginning of my second month in Paraguay. How I pray that it may mean the dawning of the Light of Bahá’u’lláh for these people. . . . We had our first Bahá’í class Tuesday evening, January 28, as planned. . .. . The Paraguayans who have any spiritual capacity have warm hearts and deep sincerity. The strangest thing to them at first among the Bahá’í teachings is the principle of regarding enemies as friends and wishing them well, not ill, for the hatreds among these people are as strong as their loves. . . .

Every problem to be found in North America also presents itself here, and many more besides, but with one notable exception. I have found that if I say of a person with a very dark skin, “He seems to show more of his Indian background than some others,” every Paraguayan will answer quickly, “He is not an Indian, he is a Paraguayan.” Every child born in Paraguay is considered a Paraguayan, regardless of the color of his skin or his background. In this matter the United States might well learn a valuable lesson from Paraguay. . . .

Oddly enough, in Paraguay the Negroes are exclusively of the wealthy class. They are descendents of 300 Negro slaves who were incarcerated as robbers near the Brazilian frontier. One night they escaped and settled on the Paraguayan side. Then they helped themselves to part of the herds of the great Brazilian cattle barons, who did not even know how many head they owned. They founded a settlement which became the [Page 308] wealthiest in Paraguay and their descendents are respected citizens, dark of skin but Paraguayans. The early beginnings of some of our western cattle barons are not so very different. . . .

This afternoon I walked across the Botanical Gardens. . . . It is evident that they must have been something unusual before the Chaco war, five years ago, so impoverished the country that it was no longer possible to keep the place up. It has reverted now to a natural park. There are long avenues of eucalyptus trees with their aromatic scent. On the branches of some of the trees orchids are growing, but only a few are in bloom, for spring is the time for them. . . .

Paraguay is one of the two inland countries in South America, lying about 1200 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean. It can be reached either by plane or by four and a half days of travel by river steamer up the La Plata, widest river in the world, and its tributary, the Paraguay River. It is about the size of Texas plus a slice of New Mexico, but has a population of only a million persons. One reason for the small population is the great wars, which have decimated the people. . . . The most recent was the attempt of Bolivia to seize the Gran Chaco, which comprises about two-thirds of the territory of this country. Paraguay is a gallant little country and each time has succeeded in defending herself against far superior numbers. . . .

The soil of Paraguay is very fertile and will readily raise any plants adapted to tropical and sub-tropical temperatures. Agriculture, carried on by archaic Indian methods, and cattle raising, are the two principle industries. There are no factories and no industries, such as we know in North America. All manufactured articles are imported from the United States or the Argentine and cost from two and a half to five times as much as they do at home. Some of the native women [Page 309] have created a little industry out of making hand-woven fabrics and quite lovely handmade lace.

February 1, 1941.

When this letter reaches you will you take a few minutes I to have some special prayers for Paraguay. People are being executed, banished or imprisoned right and left, and others are fearful of being in the streets after dark. No one knows where the next blow will strike and the hearts are filled with fear and confusion. Nothing appears in the papers about this for they also are under fear. . . .

Last night when our third meeting was held only four people had courage enough to come. These four were men of prominence, but nevertheless this means that the class must either manage to go ahead with renewed vigor or else die for the time being. Somehow I feel that, rather than to permit this effort to die, I would rather stand in an empty room and recite the verses of God until these troubles slacken and it is possible for people to come. Surely the power of God is in these teachings and He will somehow see it through. . . .

The government has forbidden the Theosophical Society to hold meetings any longer. If God wills, it is possible that they may be attracted to the Bahá’í Faith which is so much higher than their own concepts and yet not contrary to their beliefs. Four of the books in my little lending library are going to be difficult to trace, for those who borrowed them are now exiles. . . .

February 12, 1941.

Last evening Sra. Josefina Pla, Sr. Edourda Arrias and Sta. Elva Entwistle came to supper with me. I learned that Sra. Pla was a close friend of Maria Casati, the first Paraguayan Bahá’í who, she told me, had died of cancer shortly before my arrival [Page 310] here. This is why the letter written to her about my coming by Sr. Salvador of Buenos Aires was never answered. . . .

It is Sra. Pla who is known and loved for her beautiful poetry and for her many benevolences in this country. She is not a rich woman who gives of her surplus, but a poor one who shares the little that she has. . . .

This evening at six o’clock I am planning to attend a reception at the American legation. I don’t suppose there are more than a dozen Americans in this section of Paraguay, most of them being engineers in charge of construction of 170 kilometers of modern highway leading into the interior. A few are ladies who have married Paraguayans. Am sorry to say that a Bahá’í has difficulty in being proud of fellow countrymen in Paraguay in many cases. I have heard Americans in movie theatres being loud and boorish, and saying insulting things about the religion and culture of the Paraguayans, whereas it is evident that the religion and culture of these people is far superior to their own, for there are a few, here and there, who understand a little English and yet they do not retaliate.

Last Sunday la Sta. Morinigo invited me to go with her for a day in the country to visit her uncle in Ypacarai (pronounced “Eepacaree”). We started at five-thirty in the morning while the air was still fresh and cool, and a party of young people went along. After three hours by train we arrived and had breakfast at a Spanish country hotel. If one has never had such an experience, it is difficult to describe. Chickens stroll through the dining room and beg for crumbs. . . . There is no water except what is drawn with rope and bucket from an open well in the center of the patio. An American does not dare drink the water. . . . We were entertained at one of the fine Spanish homes which is very picturesque but has no modern conveniences whatever.

[Page 311] From Ypacarai we went by auto (an ancient Packard) to Caacupé (pronounced “Kah-koopay”). The driver said we would pass over the fine American highway. We did travel over eight miles of it, and then over fourteen miles of road that was merely roughly excavated, but the Paraguayans thought even this was marvelous, and for Paraguay it was. Caacupé is in the Cordellero Mountains, and the scenery is quite lovely. We visited the church of the Blue Virgin, patron of Paraguay, which is really the reason for the existence of Caacupé. It is a huge old church that would hold something like five thousand people. It is crowded once a year on December 8, when the people of Paraguay come to pay their vows.

During the year if a child is ill, the father will say, “If my son recovers, I will pay to the Blue Virgin” so many pesos or so much farm produce, as the case may be. Or, if crops look unfavorable, a farmer will promise so much to the Blue Virgin if he has a good crop. This is a national practice and on December 8, the day for all the vows to be paid, all the trains are crowded, with people even clinging to the windows in their eagerness to arrive on time. Pilgrimages are also made by the devout to the shrine of the Blue Virgin all through the year. It is believed to be the best place to pray and have one’s prayers surely answered.

Several of the young people on this trip asked me about the Bahá’í Faith and seemed much interested in what I told them. A couple took Bahá’í pamphlets and said that they would come to the meetings. May God grant that His Faith will grow rapidly in this country, and that His Light and His Love may heal the great difficulties of these people.

February 22, 1941.

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Excerpts from letters written by Miss Cheney to a friend in the United States. The first selection of excerpts was published in the November number.

[Page 312]

The Weakened Pillars of Religion

Shoghi Effendi

NOT ONLY must irreligion and its monstrous offspring, the triple curse that oppresses the soul of mankind in this day, be held responsible for the ills which are so tragically besetting it, but other evils and vices, which are, for the most part, the direct consequences of the “weakening of the pillars of religion,” must also be regarded as contributory factors to the manifold guilt of which individuals and nations stand convicted. The signs of moral downfall, consequent to the dethronement of religion and the enthronement of these usurping idols, are too numerous and too patent for even a superficial observer of the state of present-day society to fail to notice. The spread of lawlessness, of drunkenness, of gambling, and of crime; the inordinate love of pleasure, of riches, and other earthly vanities; the laxity in morals, revealing itself in the irresponsible attitude towards marriage, in the weakening of parental control, in the rising tide of divorce, in the deterioration in the standard of literature and of the press, and in the advocacy of theories that are the very negation of purity, of morality and chastity—these evidences of moral decadence, invading both the East and the West, permeating every stratum of society, and instilling their poison in its members of both sexes, young and old alike, blacken still further the scroll upon which are inscribed the manifold transgressions of an unrepentant humanity.

[Page 313] Small wonder that Bahá’u’lláh, the Divine Physician, should have declared: “In this day the tastes of men have changed, and their power of perception hath altered. The contrary winds of the world, and its colors, have provoked a cold, and deprived men’s nostrils of the sweet savors of Revelation.”

Brimful and bitter indeed is the cup of a humanity that has failed to respond to the summons of God as voiced by His Supreme Messenger, that has dimmed the lamp of its faith in its Creator, that has transferred, in so great a measure, the allegiance owed Him to the gods of its own invention, and polluted itself with the evils and vices which such a transference must necessarily engender.

Dear friends! It is in this light that we, the followers of Bahá’u’lláh, should regard this visitation of God which, in the concluding years of the first century of the Bahá’í era, afflicts the generality, and has thrown into such a bewildering confusion the affairs, of mankind. It is because of this dual guilt, the things it has done and the things it has left undone, its misdeeds as well as its dismal and signal failure to accomplish its clear and unmistakable duty towards God, His Messenger, and His Faith, that this grievous ordeal, whatever its immediate political and economic causes, has laid its adamantine grip upon it.

God, however, as has been pointed out in the very beginning of these pages, does not only punish the wrong-doings of His children. He chastises because He is just, and He chastens because He loves. Having chastened them, He cannot, in His great mercy, leave them to their fate. Indeed, by the very act of chastening them He prepares them for the mission for which He has created them. “My calamity is My providence,” He, by the mouth of Bahá’u’lláh, has assured them, [Page 314] “outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy.”

The flames which His Divine justice have kindled cleanse an unregenerate humanity, and fuse its discordant, its warring elements as no other agency can cleanse or fuse them. It is not only a retributory and destructive fire, but a disciplinary and creative process, whose aim is the salvation, through unification, of the entire planet. Mysteriously, slowly, and resistlessly God accomplishes His design, though the sight that meets our eyes in this day be the spectacle of a world hopelessly entangled in its own meshes, utterly careless of the Voice which, for a century, has been calling it to God, and miserably subservient to the siren voices which are attempting to lure it into the vast abyss. . . .

GOD’S PURPOSE

God’s purpose is none other than to usher in, in ways He alone can bring about, and the full significance of which He alone can fathom, the Great, the Golden Age of a long-divided, a long-afflicted humanity. Its present state, indeed even its immediate future, is dark, distressingly dark. Its distant future, however, is radiant, gloriously radiant—so radiant that no eye can visualize it.

“The winds of despair,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, as He surveys the immediate destinies of mankind, “are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably defective.” “Such shall be its plight,” He, in another connection, has declared, “that to disclose it now would not be meet and seemly.” “These fruitless strifes,” He, on the other hand, contemplating the future [Page 315] of mankind, has emphatically prophesied, in the course of His memorable interview with the Persian orientalist, Edward G. Browne, “these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come. . . . These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family.” “Soon,” He predicts, “will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.” “After a time,” He also has written, “all the governments on earth will change. Oppression will envelop the world. And following a universal convulsion, the sun of justice will rise from the horizon of the unseen realm.” “The whole earth,” He, moreover, has stated, “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.” “All nations and kindreds,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá likewise has written, “ . . . will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian antagonism, the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will have one common faith, will he blended into one race, and become a single people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself.”

What we witness at the present time, during “this gravest crisis in the history of civilization,” recalling such times in which “religions have perished and are born,” is the adolescent stage in the slow and painful evolution of humanity, preparatory to the attainment of the stage of manhood, the stage of maturity, the promise of which is embedded in the teachings, and enshrined in the prophecies, of Bahá’u’lláh. The tumult of this age of transition is characteristic of the impetuosity and irrational instincts of youth, its follies, its prodigality, its pride, its self-assurance, its rebelliousness, and contempt of discipline.

[Page 316]

THE GREAT AGE YET TO COME

The ages of its infancy and childhood are past, never again to return, while the Great Age, the consummation of all ages, which must signalize the coming of age of the entire human race, is yet to come. The convulsions of this transitional and most turbulent period in the annals of humanity are the essential prerequisites, and herald the inevitable approach, of that Age of Ages, “the time of the end,” in which the folly and tumult of strife that has, since the dawn of history, blackened the annals of mankind, will have been finally transmuted into the wisdom and the tranquillity of an undisturbed, a universal, and lasting peace, in which the discord and separation of the children of men will have given way to the world-wide reconciliation, and the complete unification of the divers elements that constitute human society.

This will indeed be the fitting climax of that process of integration which, starting with the family, the smallest unit in the scale of human organization, must, after having called successively into being the tribe, the city-state and the nation, continue to operate until it culminates in the unification of the whole world, the final object and the crowning glory of human evolution on this planet. It is this stage which humanity, willingly or unwillingly, is resistlessly approaching. It is for this stage that this vast, this fiery ordeal which humanity is experiencing is mysteriously paving the way. It is with this stage that the fortunes and the purpose of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh are indisolubly linked. It is the creative energies which His Revelation has released in the “year sixty,” and later reinforced by the successive effusions of celestial power vouchsafed in the “year nine” and the “year eighty” to all mankind, that have instilled into humanity the capacity to attain this final [Page 317] stage in its organic and collective evolution. It is with the Golden Age of His Dispensation that the consummation of this process will be for ever associated. It is the structure of His New World Order, now stirring in the womb of the administrative institutions He Himself has created, that will serve both as a pattern and a nucleus of that world commonwealth which is the sure, the inevitable destiny of the peoples and nations of the earth.

Just as the organic evolution of mankind has been slow and gradual, and involved successively the unification of the family, the tribe, the city-state, and the nation, so has the light vouchsafed by the Revelation of God, at various stages in the evolution of religion, and reflected in the successive Dispensations of the past, been slow and progressive. Indeed the measure of Divine Revelation, in every age, has been adapted to, and commensurate with, the degree of social progress achieved in that age by a constantly-evolving humanity.

“It hath been decreed by Us,” explains Bahá’u’lláh, “that the Word of God, and all the potentialities thereof, shall be manifested unto men in strict conformity with such conditions as have been fore-ordained by Him Who is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. . . . Should the Word be allowed to release suddenly all the energies latent within it, no man could sustain the weight of so mighty a Revelation.” “All created things,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá elucidating this truth, has affirmed, “have their degree or stage of maturity. The period of maturity in the life of a tree is the time of its fruit-bearing. . . . The animal attains a stage of full growth and completeness, and in the human kingdom man reaches his maturity when the light of his intelligence attains its greatest power and development. . . . Similarly there are periods and stages in the collective life of humanity. At one time it was passing through its stage of childhood, at [Page 318] 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.” “In every Dispensation,” He moreover has written, “the light of Divine Guidance has been focussed upon one central theme. . . . In this wondrous Revelation, this glorious century, the foundation of the Faith of God, and the distinguishing feature of His Law, is the consciousness of the oneness of mankind.”

---

The fifth in a series of excerpts from “The Promised Day Is Come,” by Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith.

---

O My Friend!

Thou art the day-star of the heavens of My holiness, let not the defilement of the world eclipse thy splendor. Rend asunder the veil of heedlessness, that from behind the clouds thou mayest emerge resplendent and array all things with the apparel of life.

[Page 319]

Another Call to Man

Jacqueline Siefert Summers

“IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” and “The Lord God formed man and man became a living soul.” Ever since man has been conscious of an existent God. God was a mystery to primitive man. He is a mystery to twentieth century man. In spite of what science has discovered and proved, the only phase of His nature we can be sure of is that upon Him depends the existence and workings of the whole universe. The different conceptions we give to Him are creatures of our own imaginations, for the created thing can never hope to comprehend its creator.

“God, singly and alone, abideth in His own Place, which is holy above space and time, mention and utterance, sign, description, and definition, height, and depth. He is without peer or equal, eternal in the past, eternal in the future, detached from all things, ever-abiding, unchangeable and self-subsisting.” Everything has been created by Him and is subject to His law.

Man was created by God. Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the primary purpose of God in creating man “has ever been and will ever be to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His presence. Of all created things, only man has the capacity to know God and reflect His glory.”

That is the ultimate goal of every man. It is not impossible— for God created us with that supreme purpose. But we must never imagine that we can know God directly, for the finite can never comprehend the infinite, nor can a lower plane comprehend a higher one.

[Page 320] God, the Creator, and man, the creation, must be linked together, and it is the Manifestation of God Who serves as that link by which man may be joined to God. The Manifestation is the Intermediary through which two extremes are brought into relation with each other. It naturally suggests a dual relationship. He serves as a Mediator between God, the infinite, and man, the finite. He has a divine relationship and a human relationship.

The Manifestation’s divine relationship “is born of the substance of God Himself, it is related to His innermost reality, representeth Him as One Whose voice is the voice of God Himself. To this testifieth the tradition ‘Manifold and mysterious is My relationship with God. I am He, Himself, and He is I, Myself, except that I am that I am, and He is that He is’.”

The human or physical relationship pertains to the world of matter. Each Manifestation was created in human form; a physical body, a rational soul, and a different name. He was born, administered to as any other child, depended on food, drink, rest and sleep, was subject to illness and endured pain.

Though the Manifestation came to the world in human form He differed essentially from man in His Divine Identity. His station of Prophethood is one which cannot be shared by man because it is beyond the realm of man. It is of the Divine World and has neither beginning nor end. It does not come into being with the declaration of Prophethood by the Manifestation, nor does it cease with the death of His physical body. It existed even before His physical birth.

There have been successive Revelations that have “linked the Manifestation of Adam with that of the Báb.” Each Manifestation has come from God bearing a specific Message and a divinely revealed Book. All of the Prophets of God are essentially [Page 321] one and the same spirit and there should be no distinction made among them, nor should One be considered greater than another. While each Prophet has His Distinct Message to give to mankind, fundamentally the Divine Messages are the same, and “God’s purpose in sending His Prophets unto men is twofold. The first is to liberate the children of men from the darkness of ignorance, and guide them to the light of true understanding. The second is to insure the peace and tranquillity of mankind, and provide all the means by which they can be established.”

The age in which every Manifestation of God lived was divinely ordained. This Day, the day of Bahá’u’lláh, “is unique and is to be distinguished from those that have preceded it. The Prophetic Cycle hath, verily, ended. The Eternal Truth is now come.”

Once again, this time more forceful than ever before, the call is sounded to man—“Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.”

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O Son of My Handmaid!

Guidance hath ever been given by words, and now it is given by deeds. Everyone must show forth deeds that are pure and holy, for words are the property of all alike, whereas such deeds as these belong only to Our loved ones. Strive then with heart and soul to distinguish yourselves by your deeds. In this wise We counsel you in this holy and resplendent tablet.

[Page 322]

Our Latin American Neighbors

BOOK REVIEW

Garreta Busey

THE PEOPLE of the United States have recently, through force of necessity if for nothing else, turned their attention to the Latin American countries, seeking their cooperation against physical force. The Bahá’ís of North America, in response to a command given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as long ago as 1917, have been seeking a spiritual alliance with these same people, in order to establish wherever possible the principle of human solidarity. For both these causes this little book by Philip Leonard Green provides many valuable suggestions. Its author has long been interested in the Latin American peoples, for no especial purpose, but simply because he was naturally attracted to them. Even in his high school days he founded the first Spanish student magazine in the United States. He specialized in Latin American studies at Columbia University, and later, as a business man, pursued those subjects and lectured on them, merely as an avocation. He is now serving as Latin American Specialist in the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Even in a long book, it would be impossible to treat in detail the twenty-one nations which we call, loosely, the Latin American countries. In geography, racial structure, natural resources, industrial and agricultural problems, and culture, they differ widely. This book is short, and although it contains a great deal of information on all those matters, it has space merely to touch on many of the things which it is necessary to know if one is to understand Latin America.

Anyone wishing to meet on friendly terms the people of South America, Central America, and Mexico, must keep in mind certain things: First, Latin America is many countries, not one, and within each of those countries there is a tremendous variety of racial and [Page 323] cultural background. To begin with, the Indian societies existing before the European conquest varied from savagery to the high level of civilization attained by the Mayans, whose artistic endeavors are considered by many to be superior to those of the ancient Egyptians. This is important, because in Latin America today there still exist more than 18,000,000 pure Indians, most of whom still speak their tribal languages. In some countries as many as 70% of the inhabitants are Mestizos (a blend of Indian and Spanish). Superimposed on the aboriginal inhabitants were the conquistadores, themselves a fusion of many races, including Muslims from Northern Africa, and Jews. More recently (during the last decade of the Eighteenth Century in particular) Negroes were imported at the rate of 74,000 a year. The cultures and the manners and customs of the Latin American countries reflect this variety of heritage.

A second point that must be kept in mind, if one would make friends with Latin Americans, is that they, like all people, prefer to be loved for themselves alone, not for the sake of some scheme to which they may become a party. They once looked upon their neighbors of the United States as a people to be admired and imitated, but when we extended our boundaries rapidly to the Pacific, slicing off a large piece of Mexico as we went, when the term “manifest destiny” was often on the lips of our statesmen, they began to look at us askance. Moreover, once we had become rich and powerful, the peoples of Latin America came to resent our attitude of patronage towards them, based on very little knowledge. Their culture is older than ours. The University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Santo Domingo, for instance, was founded over a hundred years before Harvard College, which dates from 1636. They have a number of institutions of learning older than any in the United States.

They suffer, to be sure, from political instability and corruption, but the cause of the difficulty they find in making democratic institutions work is to be found, not in their own incapacity but in their long colonial history and the insufficiency of their training along those lines. They have many problems to overcome which are quite unknown to us. And yet, in spite of these, they have preceded us in a number of social reforms. It may be added, by the way, that North [Page 324] Americans are not entirely free from political corruption themselves.

Perhaps the most fertile cause for misunderstanding between any peoples is difference of temperament and of customs. It is easy to see how misconceptions may arise between Anglo-Saxons of North America and the Latin American, as he is described by Mr. Green:

“The Latin American as a rule is genial, warm-hearted and kind. He is usually courteous in the extreme and practices a tolerance of other people’s views which many of us would do well to emulate. His hospitality is well known. . . .

“Friendships, once matured, are considered almost as sacred as matrimony. . . . But the Latin American is just as wholehearted in his enmities, especially where personal pride and honor are involved. He is keenly sensitive and inclined to take adverse criticism in a personal way. When aroused, he can become extremely bitter and vindictive. . . .

“Latin Americans are inclined to be rather ceremonious in their business and social relations. Outsiders who do not understand their customs would say that they lack directness and love procrastination.”

Even such small divergences of custom as this, that in Latin America a gentleman must recognize a lady first when he meets her in public, may give rise to serious misunderstanding.

There are certain larger considerations referred to in Mr. Green’s book, which will be of particular interest to Bahá’ís. The people there, for one thing, have less interest in material things than we do. They should, for this reason, be receptive to the spiritual teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. Race problems and barriers there are far less marked than they are here—in Brazil they are practically non-existent. Moreover, the youth organizations, which are very influential in Latin American countries, have been advocating, for a number of years, reforms, many of which are similar to the Bahá’í teachings: universal education, better labor conditions, protection of the Indian against exploitation, and equal rights for women. The youth organizations, on the whole, are on the side of internationalism but are exceedingly wary of the United States.

[Page 325]

Classification of Bahá’í Study Sources

By William Kenneth Christian

“Those who participate in such a campaign, whether in an organizing capacity, or as workers to whose care the execution of the task itself has been committed, must, as an essential preliminary to the discharge of their duties, thoroughly familiarize themselves with the various aspects of the history and teachings of their Faith. In their efforts to achieve this purpose they must study for themselves, conscientiously and painstakingly, the literature of their Faith, delve into its teachings, assimilate its laws and principles, ponder its admonitions, tenets, and purposes, commit to memory certain of its exhortations and prayers, master the essentials of its administration, and keep abreast of its current affairs and latest developments. . . . They must devote special attention to the investigation of those institutions and circumstances that are directly connected with the origin and birth of their Faith, with the station claimed by its Forerunner, and with the laws revealed by its Author.”—SHOGHI EFFENDI

I. Original Sources—those writings for which we possess the original written document and an authentic English translation.

WORDS OF THE BÁB

Quotations in The Book of Certitude (The Kitáb-i-Íqán)

Quotations in The Dawn-Breakers—Nabíl’s Narrative

Quotations in Translation of French Foot-Notes

Small blue prayer book

Quotations in The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh

The Báb’s Address to the Letters of the Living

[Page 326]

WRITINGS OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh:

Ṭarázát

Tajalliyát

Tablet of the World

Tablet of Paradise

The Glad Tidings

Ishráqát

Three Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh:

Tablet of the Branch

Kitáb-i-‘Ahd

Lawh-el-Aqdas

The Hidden Words

The Seven Valleys—The Four Valleys

Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

Prayers and Meditations of Bahá’u’lláh

The Kitáb-i-Íqán (The Book of Certitude)

Epistle to the Son of the Wolf (new translation by Shoghi Effendi)

Tablets to the Kings, and others, in Chapters 2 and 5 of Bahá’í Scriptures; plus Words of Wisdom, p. 156-9.

Bahá’í Prayers (First half of large blue prayer book.)

Three Obligatory Prayers

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Greatest Holy Leaf (Tablets Revealed in Honor of the Greatest Holy Leaf)

Quotations in Bahá’í Administration, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, The Advent of Divine Justice, The Spiritual Potencies of That Consecrated Spot, and The Promised Day Is Come.

Bright green prayer book.

WRITINGS OF ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ

Some Answered Questions

The Mysterious Forces of Civilization

Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—I—II—III. (Not all of the originals are in the archives.)

[Page 327]

The Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (selected passages)

America’s Spiritual Mission

The Bahá’í Peace Program (Tablet to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace at the Hague; Tablet to Dr. Auguste Forel.)

Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Greatest Holy Leaf (Tablets Revealed in Honor of the Greatest Holy Leaf)

A Traveler’s Narrative

Bahá’í Prayers (Second half of large blue prayer book)

Small blue prayer book

Bright green prayer book

Quotations in Bahá’í Administration, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, The Advent of Divine Justice, The Spiritual Potencies of That Consecrated Spot, and The Promised Day Is Come.

WRITINGS OF SHOGHI EFFENDI

Bahá’í Administration

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: Further Considerations

The Goal of a New World Order

The Golden Age of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh

America and the Most Great Peace

The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh

The Unfoldment of World Civilization

A Tribute by Shoghi Effendi to the Greatest Holy Leaf, written July 17, 1932, in The Bahá’í World, vol. V, p. 174-179.

The Advent of Divine Justice

The Spiritual Potencies of That Consecrated Spot

The Promised Day Is Come

The World Religion

Messages from the Guardian

The Dawn-Breakers—Nabíl’s Narrative (Introduction and Epilogue)

Cables and letters from the Guardian in Bahá’í News and early issues of The Star of the West.

[Page 328]

II. Reported Sources—those writings for which we do not possess the original document, or those sources which are an inadequate rendering of original documents.

Translation of French Foot-Notes (of Dawn-Breakers)

Wisdom of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London

‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Divine Philosophy

‘Abdu’l-Bahá in New York

The Foundations of World Unity

The Promulgation of Universal Peace (“As regards the Promulgation of Universal Peace; the original Persian of the book, as well as that of the talks of the Master in Europe, is available and constitutes the basis of all future translations.” Shoghi Effendi through his secretary, September 28, 1938)

III. Secondary Sources—those writings by authors other than the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, which quote from original and reported sources, and are partially or largely in the author’s own words.

The Dawn-Breakers—Nabíl’s Narrative

Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era

Security for a Failing World

The Promise of All Ages

The Heart of the Gospel

Portals to Freedom

The Bahá’í Revelation

The Glorious Kingdom of the Father Foretold

The Bahá’í Proofs

The Brilliant Proof

Bahá’í—the Spirit of the Age

The Coming of the Glory

The Bahá’í World—vols. I-VII

Whence Comes the Light?

Mysticism and the Bahá’í Revelation

Do’a, the Call to Prayer

[Page 329]

A World Faith

Divine Secret for Human Civilization

Lessons in Religion

My Pilgrimage to the Land of Desire

The Universal Religion

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s First Days in America

Ṭáhirih—Írán’s Greatest Woman

Bahá’í News

Bahá’í Magazines

World Order Magazine

Bahá’í Youth

IV. Compilations—any arbitrary selection and collection of quotations and references from original and reported sources.

Bahá’í Scriptures

Bahá’í Procedure

The Reality of Man

Bahá’í Teachings on Economics

Life Eternal

The Garden of the Heart

The Oneness of Mankind

V. Study Outlines—those adapted to a study of specific books.

Study Outline for the Dawn-Breakers

Study Outline for Kitáb-i-Íqán

Fundamentals of Bahá’í Membership

Deepening the Spiritual Life

Bahá’í Study Course of 36 Lessons

Twenty Lessons in Bahá’í Administration

Conditions of Existence, Servitude, Prophethood, Deity

The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh

The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh

Study Outlines and Aids for the World Order Letters of Shoghi Effendi

(For a complete bibliography of all Bahá’í literature, consult the latest volume of The Bahá’í World.)

This classification is revised to September, 1941.

[Page 330]

WITH OUR READERS

IT IS some time since we have talked with our readers about increasing our subscriptions. We believe that there are many Bahá’ís who do not really know what they are missing in not having the thrill of receiving the little magazine every month. You people who do enjoy it can do something to let others know about it. Three letters from Canada testify to its value. One from Vernon, British Columbia, says: “We all think World Order is a wonderful little book and would not be without it in our homes.” Another from Armstrong, British Columbia, contains this sentence: “Thank you for editing such an inspiring magazine. Keep up the glorious work.” Have you tried using the magazine to attract people to the cause or to warm the interest of some one attracted? A friend in Los Angeles Writes: “I feel I need the magazine each month, it is such a help in every way, especially in my efforts in teaching.” And here are some encouraging words from Tacoma: “The World Order magazine is a very big help in establishing contacts.” Can you not introduce the magazine to some new Bahá’í who perhaps does not know about it or to an isolated Bahá’í?

You who are working for the Cause can help us in another way too. Won’t you write briefly and simply an experience you may have had in winning others to the Cause? These little personal experiences are warm and helpful.

* * *

A letter to the National Teaching Committee from a new Bahá’í in Ottawa, Ontario, has been put into our hands. It states so tellingly the contrast between the life attitude of a Bahá’í and that of the average young person that we want to share a few sentences with you. The writer says: “We were discussing the personal value of the Faith somewhat to this effect. The average person and particularly the talented person is aware of certain abilities and certain weaknesses. As he looks for possibilities to use himself to best advantage he is apt to feel that nothing is worth it. If he is good enough he will rank at [Page 331] the top of a group in society but is not likely to look forward to any lasting results to his efforts. Why add one more novel to thousands that are read and forgotten —and go through the drudgery involved in learning the trade? Why be a politician in a chaotic world with no clear-cut goal to lead to? And so on. The Bahá’í sees from another angle. No matter how much ability he has it is not enough; no matter how little, it all helps, for we build not for this generation but for future generations. No matter how small or insignificant the result achieved it is a known value for we know that the possibility of the civilization they will know flows through us—not as individuals but as a community. I think this approach to life is one that particularly appeals to thoughtful young people who lack convictions and don’t know where to look for them. They have ability and energy to burn—and no direction for it other than the war which gives them, as many feel, something worth living for, worth dying for.”

* * *

A tribute to her mother-in-law, Mrs. Francis Carré, and a brief account of the visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in her mother-in-law’s home in Newark, New Jersey, comes to us from Mrs. Inglis J. Carré of Mariposa, California. She writes: “At the time of His trip to New York City, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was asked to visit several of the friends and turning to Mrs. Carré He said, ‘I will go to your home.’ He accordingly went to Newark where she had a group of the friends to meet Him and He gave a beautiful explanation of the origin and growth of man through the kingdoms, illustrating it with a plant growing on a nearby table. After resting there that night ‘Abdu’l-Bahá left but His few words and the blessings He conferred on several young people unacquainted with the Faith have never been forgotten.”

She tells us that Mrs. Carré for a long time had been aware that there was a great spiritual teacher somewhere upon earth and that she accepted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as soon as she saw and heard Him. It was Mrs. Carré who organized a Bahá’í group in Newark shortly after this visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Before she left that city a Bahá’í Assembly had been formed. The writer adds: “She taught and confirmed many and her whole heart was turned toward the effort of spreading the Cause. During her [Page 332] last illness she continually spoke of future work she planned but she never regained her health and in October, 1936 she died in Mariposa. The picture numbered 104 on page 219 of The Bahá’í World, volume VII, is Mrs. Francis Carré.”

* * *

And now as to the contents and contributors of our present issue. Mrs. Della Quinlan writes about an international language. Would an international language be simply a convenience or is it a necessity if we would have a unified world and lasting peace? Mrs. Quinlan writes from the point of view of an Esperantist and a Bahá’í. Her home is in New York City.

Jacqueline Seifert Summers who writes the article “Another Call to Man” is a second generation Bahá’í whose home is in Peoria, Illinois where she is secretary of the local Assembly.

The letters of Elizabeth Cheney from Paraguay begun in the November issue are continued this month. These letters are vibrant with the spirit of the Bahá’í Cause and draw us close to the new Bahá’í friends which Miss Cheney has led to the Cause in that far away land. They give us, too, a vivid picture of Paraguay.

In several recent issues of World Order we have printed excerpts from Shoghi Effendi’s momentous letter entitled “The Promised Day Is Come.” We conclude the selections in the next number. The complete volume may be obtained from the Bahá’í Publishing Committee.

Instead of the usual outlines for study lessons we are printing this month at the request of the National Spiritual Assembly a “Classification of Bahá’í Writings” which has been carefully worked out by Mr. William Kenneth Christian of Morrisville, New York. This classification should be studied and preserved by all Bahá’ís as it enables us to distinguish between absolutely authoritative Bahá’í material and secondary sources where errors may have crept in through oral tradition or other means.

THE EDITORS

[Page 333]

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. Bound in fabrikoid. 360 pages. $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 cloth. 186 pages. $1.50.

Kitáb-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. Bound in cloth. 350 pages. $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. 492 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. Bound in fabrikoid. 234 pages. $1.50.

BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING COMMITTEE

110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, ILLINOIS

[Page 334]

Words of Bahá’u’lláh

Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois

1. THE EARTH IS BUT ONE COUNTRY; AND MANKIND ITS CITIZENS.

2. THE BEST BELOVED OF ALL THINGS IN MY SIGHT IS JUSTICE; TURN NOT AWAY THEREFROM IF THOU DESIREST ME.

3. MY LOVE IS MY STRONGHOLD; HE THAT ENTERETH THEREIN IS SAFE AND SECURE.

4. BREATHE NOT THE SINS OF OTHERS SO LONG AS THOU ART THYSELF A SINNER.

5. THY HEART IS MY HOME; SANCTIFY IT FOR MY DESCENT.

6. I HAVE MADE DEATH A MESSENGER OF JOY TO THEE; WHEREFORE DOST THOU GRIEVE?

7. MAKE MENTION OF ME ON MY EARTH THAT IN MY HEAVEN I MAY REMEMBER THEE.

8. O RICH ONES ON EARTH! THE POOR IN YOUR MIDST ARE MY TRUST; GUARD YE MY TRUST.

9. THE SOURCE OF ALL LEARNING IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, EXALTED BE HIS GLORY.