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[Page 107]WORLD ORDER

TH E BAH/Stu’ MAGAZINE

July, 1942

Bahá’u’lláh as Protector - Mabel Hyde Paine - 109

Lauded Be Thy Name - Bahá’u’lláh - 118

Bahá’í to Jew - Louis G. Gregory - 119

Hear, O Israel! (poem) - Gertrude W. Robinson - 122

The First Opposers - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá - 123

City of Certitude - Bahá’u’lláh - 126

The Invisible Man - Roberta Christian - 127

“As the Days of Noah Were” - Olga Finke - 133

A Moral Order for Mankind, editorial - Horace Holley - 138

Bahá’í Lessons, index - 140

With Our Readers, editorial - 142

FIFTEEN CENTS

[Page 108]I 9. 3 '1

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 LONGAFFLICTED HUMANITY. ITs PRESENT sTATE, INDEED EVEN ITs IMMEDIATE FUTURE, IS DARK, DISTRESSINGLY DARK. ITs DISTANT FUTURE, HowEVER, I5 RADIANT, GLORIOUSLY RADIANT—so RADIANT THAT No EYE CAN vISUALIZE IT. —SHOGHI EFFENDI.

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: Garrcta Busey, Stanwood Cobb, Alice Simmons Cox, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Marcia Steward Atwater, Haszm M. Balyusi, Dale S. Cole, Genevieve L. Coy, Mae

Dyer, Shirin Fozdar, Marzieh Gail, Inez Greeven, Annamarie Honnold, G. A. Shook.

Editorial Oflic: 1109 WEST GIFT AVENUE, PEORIA, ILL.

Publication Ofic: 110 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, 11.1..

C. R. Wood, Business Manager Printed in U.S.A.

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, H0 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 194-2 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent Office.

JULY, 1942, VOLUME VIII, NUMBER 4

[Page 109]WORLD ORDER

I

THE BA}-IA’ I MAGAZINE

VOLUME VIII JULY, 1942 NUMBER 4

Bahc'L’u’llc'Lh as Protector

Mabel Hyde Paine

A MESSAGE TO A WORLD IN DIRE NEED OF A REFUGE IN THIS DAY

IN WHATEVER Way we View Bahá’u’lláh, awe and wonder and an inability to comprehend must loom large in our attitude. An early pilgrim wrote of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “As We gazed on Him I realized that we could in no Way comprehend Him; We could only love Him, follow Him, obey Him and thereby draw nearer to His beauty. I understand that we could not fathom the mystery of His being, We could only hope to be engulfed therein.” 1 How much more, even, is this true of Bahá’u’lláh.

Yet, as Bahá’ís, we are not shut out as by a veil from Him. We recognize in Him the living Word of God, that same Word of which St. John wrote: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word Was God. The same was in the beginning With God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men.

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. . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” 2 As Bahá’í's we have the enlarged conception of “the Only Begotten of the Father”, that it applies to all the great Messengers or Manifestations of God. As Bahá’ís, adoring Bahá’u’lláh, We adore Jesus the Christ, Muhammad, all those great Ones who come to this earth, but Who at the same time always abide in the heaven of the creative power of God.

God has willed that these great Ones, Who were with Him from eternity and to eternity will abide with Him, should come to earth and take up the human life and live it perfectly. They are the channels through which the power of God may come to us. They are our help in troubles and in peril, our sanctuary of protection. As Isaiah put it, “A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” 3

Among the ways by which we may come to an abiding sense of the reality of this protective power of the Manifestations is study of Their Words, which are deeply creative. Another way is a deep acquaintance with the lives They led while on earth.

NaMl’s Narrative, The Dawn-Breakers, gives us many glimpses into Bahá’u’lláh’s life. Let us study them all, gain a fuller understanding of His purity and strength, and thus learn to trust the protective power of God and His Manifestations.

Here is an incident told by Nabil that reveals Bahá’u’lláh as Protector. When the followers of the Báb were some of them besieged in the fortress of Tabarsi, Bahá’u’lláh visited them and promised to return. Some time after, He set out to fulfill His promise. Three other Babis accompanied Him,

[Page 111]Ba/m"u’llci/1 I 1 1

Mulla Béqir, Mirza jani, and Bahá’u’lláh’s half-brother, Mirza Yaḥyá. Bahá’u’lláh had signified His wish that they allow no pause in their journey and reach the fort that night, as guards were stationed by the enemy at different places to intercept any who might try to bring aid to the besieged. But His companions pressed Him to stop for a few hours of rest. Although He knew this would involve great risk He yielded to their request. They stopped at a deserted house, had supper, and His companions all retired to sleep. Bahá’u’lláh alone remained Wakeful. While He watched, guards appeared and, recognizing Him as the leader of the party, proceeded to put them all under arrest. Bahá’u’lláh assured the guards they were bringing no aid and advised them to act in such a way as to cause them no regret in the future. This Warning, uttered with dignity and calm, induced the guards to treat them with courtesy. But all were bade to mount their horses and proceed to the Governor of Amul.

In Amul they were brought before a conclave of the priests and religious leaders of the town and, after an unjust and insulting inquiry, were all sentenced to receive the bastinado. The first to receive the bastinado was Mulla Baqir. “I am only a groom of Bahá’u’lláh,” he urged, “I was on my way to Mashhad when they suddenly arrested me and brought me to this place.”

Bahá’u’lláh interceded for him and for the other two, saying that He was responsible for any charges brought against them. “None of them is guilty of any crime. If you insist on inflicting your punishment, I offer Myself as a Willing victim of your chastisement.” And so Bahá’u’lláh received the bastinado.‘

How true this story runs to human weakness and Divine strength, patience and protection. As we meditate on it we gain in wisdom and understanding. There was the right way

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pointed out by Bahá’u’lláh, His followers unwilling or unable to follow it, the trouble that ensued, the retribution, which would have been to a certain extent just, and Divine love intercepting it. Sometimes it is not intercepted, but We know that the love is still there.

Here is another story Nabil tells, revealing the compassion, the deep understanding and the strength of Bahá’u’lláh, that strength, understanding and compassion from which flow His protective power. '

After one of the followers of the Báb, crazed by the persecutions his friends and relatives had suffered, made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the Sháh, terrible persecutions came upon the Babis. Bahá’u’lláh, known as a Babi leader, was arrested. On foot and exposed to the fierce rays of the midsummer sun He was compelled to go bare-footed and bareheaded the whole distance from His summer home to a prison in Tihran. Several times He was stripped of His garments and was overwhelmed with abuse and ridicule. All along the route He was pelted and vilified by the crowd. The whole population had been persuaded that He was the enemy of their sovereign and his realm.

As he was approaching the dungeon, an old and decrepit woman came out from the crowd with a stone in her hand, eager to cast it at the face of Bahá’u’lláh. Her eyes glowed with a determination and fanaticism of which few of her age are capable. “I adjure you,” she pleaded, as she ran to overtake those into whose hands Bahá’u’lláh’a.h had been delivered, “give me a chance to fling my stone in His face.”

“Suffer not this woman to be disappointed,” were Bahá’u’lláh’s words to His guards, as He saw her hastening behind Him. “Deny her not what she regards as a meritorious act in the sight of God.”f'

How deeply He understood human nature, how careful

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He was not to interfere with the human conscience even when so undeveloped! How sublimely selfless!

These two stories often come to my mind as I seek to understand a little of the Divine compassion of Bahá’u’lláh.

Perhaps some others of the many in The Dawn-Breakers have

become revealing to you. Bahá’u’lláh’s life, as we meditate on it, is one way in which we may seek to “draw nigh to Bahá’u’lláh that He may draw nigh to us” and reveal to us His protective power.

The protection of Bahá’u’lláh involves also prayer and communion. Here again we are reminded of His life and of His experience in the dungeon in Ṭihrán. He and His fellow Babi prisoners were placed in two rows facing each other, their feet in stocks, the heaviest of chains galling their necks, the air they breathed laden with impurity. Bahá’u’lláh taught them to seek the protection of God. He taught them to chant, one row chanting, “God is sufficient unto me, He verily is the All—suflicing,” while the other would reply, “In Him let the trusting trust.” Thus they chanted with extreme fervor through the long night. Nabil says, “The chorus of their gladsome voices would continue to peal out until morning, filling the dungeon and piercing its massive walls.” 6 Thus did they find the protection of God.

This protection is our birthright, but We must seek it, find it and abide in it. In one of the prayers revealed by Bahá’u’lláh He shows us that such an effort is needed on our part if we are to benefit by God’s protection: “I have wakened in Thy shelter, O my God, and it becometh Him that seeketh that shelter to abide within the Sanctuary of Thy protection and the Stronghold of Thy defense.”

Perhaps our greatest need is to be protected from self. Bahá’u’lláh prayed, “Thou seest, 0 My Lord, how Thy

servants are held captive by their own selves and desires.

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Redeem them from their bondage, 0 My God, by the power of Thy sovereignty and might, that they may turn towards Thee when He Who is the Revealer of Thy names and attributes is manifested unto men.”7 Almost all our natural traits are selfish, our likes and dislikes, our lack of faith, hope and love, our pride, our coldness, our appetites and passions, our envy, our “habit of detraction”, the ascription to others of what we would not like to have ascribed to ourselves. From all these tendencies Bahá’u’lláh protects us and shows us how to gain, whether gladly and rapidly or painfully and slowly, the opposite characteristics, all present potentially in our higher selves, such as sincerity, faithfulness, wisdom, illumination, mercy and pity. This comes through centering our thoughts and our lives in God and His Cause rather than in ourselves. “Remembrance of Me cleanseth all things from defilement, could ye but perceive it.” 8

In another place He says, “I testify that if Thy servants were to turn towards Thee with the eyes Thou didst create in them and with the ears wherewith Thou didst endow them, they would all be carried away by a single word sent down from the right hand of the throne of Thy maj esty. That word alone would suffice to brighten their faces, and to assure their hearts and to cause their souls to soar up to the atmosphere of Thy great glory, and to ascend to the heaven of Thy sovereignty.” 9

The protection Bahá’u’lláh gives may be from temporal and material difficulties. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells how in a period of great difficulty in Persia Bahá’ís were all protected. Almost every Bahá’í could give an example of prayer for temporal protection which was answered. But not always. Sometimes the avalanche descends. Then our protection is spiritual. We

gain assurance, courage, spirit, which will sustain us Whatever comes.

[Page 115]Ba/m"u’lla’/L 1 1 5

Trusting Bahá’u’lláh as protector is not a passive state. Trusting Him means drawing nearer to Him, obeying Him, longing to have our will one with His. As one of the Hidden Words reveals, “My love is My stronghold; he that entereth therein is safe and secure, and he that turneth away shall surely stray and perish.” 1°

How does Bahá’u’lláh protect His Cause? Sometimes it seems that the Cause of God is not protected, such dire calamities does it sufl’er. Rather He would seem to have endowed it with such power that nothing can shake its invincibility. As Bahá’u’lláh said, addressing His countrymen: “Give heed to my warning, ye people of Persia. If I be slain at your hands, God will assuredly raise up one who will fill the seat made vacant through my death; for such is God’s method carried into effect of old, and no change can ye find in God’s mode of dealing.” “Should they attempt to conceal His light on the continent, He will assuredly rear His head in the midmost heart of the ocean and, raising His voice proclaim: ‘I am the lifegiver of the world!’ ”

When the fanatical clergy of Persia had used their power to do away with the Báb, to martyr with atrocious cruelty over 20,000 of His followers and finally to banish Bahá’u’lláh, it seemed that His Cause had been annihilated. But no power could stand in the way of its growth. The very banishment of Bahá’u’lláh was the means of the spread of the Cause. The personality of Bahá’u’lláh and above all the inherent strength of the Revelation which He personified gave His Cause a fresh impetus despite the calculations of its enemies. The Faith rapidly revived and spread to states beyond its previous confines. Bahá’u’lláh’s stupendous claims, their proclamation in challenging epistles to the crowned heads of the earth, the enthusiasm this proclamation aroused in the hearts of countless followers, the transference to the Holy Land of

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the center of His Cause; the gradual relaxation of the severity of His confinement which marked the closing days of His life; the lifting of the ban which had been imposed by the Sultan of Turkey on His intercourse with visitors and pilgrims who flocked from various parts of the East to His prison; the awakening of the spirit of inquiry among the thinkers of the West; the utter disruption of the forces that had attempted to effect a schism in the ranks of His followers; above all, the sublimity of those teachings with which His published works abounded, were among the chief factors which showed those who had attempted to kill this Cause that it was indestructible. It had proved itself able to rise phoenix—like from its ashes and press forward along the road leading to undreamt of achievements.”

Bahá’u’lláh is “the refuge of all”. That the world has not yet sought this refuge becomes startlingly clear as we witness humanity strayed so far from the path of God that its leaders could not recognize the face, the life and the message of His latest great Messenger. In a letter written in March, 194.1, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, has made it abundantly clear that Bahá’u’lláh’s message was brought to all the greatest leaders of the nineteenth century.

But What was the response? In the words of Shoghi Effendi: “Who is the ruler, may it not confidently be asked, Whether of the East or of the West, who, at any time, since the dawn of 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

[Page 117]Ba/uz"u’lla'/z I 17

Faith of God the benefit of his recognition or support? Which one of the multitudes of creeds, sects, races, parties, classes and . . . 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 socalled men of wisdom and insight can justly claim, after the lapse of nearly a century . . . to have considered impartially its claims, 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 21 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?” 13

Only slowly and painfully do the leaders of the world and the rank and file of the people come to see the truth that

Bahá’u’lláh is “the refuge of all and our great protection”.“

‘May Maxwell, “An Early Pilgrimage”, p. 27; 210/»; I:I—4,I4; 3[saia/z, 32:2; ‘The Dawn Breakers, pp. 368-372; 5See The Dawn Breakers, pp. 607, 608; “The Dawn Breakers, p. 632; 7Bahaf’u’l1:ih, Prayers and Meditations, pp. 251, 252; 3Gleam'ngs from the Writing: of Ba/m"u’lla'/z, p. 294; °Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations, p. 191; 1°Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words (Arabic) No. 9; “The Dispematian of Balm”:/Ila’/z, p. 16; 12Condensed from The Epilogue to The Dawn-Breakers, by Shoghi Effendi; 13Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day I: Come, p. 12; “‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

[Page 118]

LAUDED be Thy name, O my God and the God of all things, my Glory and the Glory of all things, my Desire and the Desire of all things, my Strength and the Strength of all things, my King and the King of all things, my Possessor and the Possessor of all things, my Aim and the Aim of all things, my Mover and the Mover of all things! Suffer me not, I implore Thee, to be kept back from the ocean of Thy tender mercies,

nor to be far removed from the shores of nearness to Thee.

Aught else except Thee, O my Lord, profiteth me not, and near access to anyone save Thyself

availeth me nothing. I entreat Thee by the plenteousness of Thy riches, whereby Thou didst dispense with all else except Thyself, to number me with such as have set their faces towards Thee, and arisen to serve Thee.

Forgive, then, O my Lord, Thy servants and Thy handmaidens. Thou, truly, art the EverForgiving, the Most Compassionate.

———Bahá’u’lláh

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[Page 119]Bahá’í' to Jew

Louis G. Gregory

THE POIGNANT sufferings of a people for ages, rising to crescendo in the terrific upheaval of today, bring grief to every normal human heart. It is however, one thing to weep , but quite another to act, pointing haven and relief. Here and now the Bahá’í's, among the Faiths of the earth, are well prepared to impart spiritual solace, guidance and freedom to the long aggrieved and widely scattered people of Israel. The Jewish religion and culture and the epic of B’nai lsrael’s life have made enduring gifts to civilization over great periods of time. Abraham, Israel, Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, like glorious Orbs of Light, have influenced not only Jews, but Christians and Moslems in vaster circles. The exaltation of these souls has been confirmed and assured by the most eminent authorities appearing amongst mortals. The Prophets and Founders of other religions, Jesus, Muhammad, the glorious Bab and Bahá’u’lláh have each in turn testified to the reality of the Sinaiatic Tree. The fame and wisdom of Hebrew seers, mystics, prophets, warriors and rulers has been woven into the world’s literature to influence countless currents of thought. The sacred books, Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah, although not preserved intact, have a fascination for scholars who explore sources of truth. ' Enlarging to heart, broadening to mind, is the ritualistic prayer for all mankind that ascends in every synagogue; likewise is the Jewish trend toward international brotherhood, natural outgrowth of their cosmic habitation. Jewish stimulus to Greece, Rome, the middle ages and modern life is clearly discernible. Jewish

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poets, artists, actors, journalists, physicians, advocates, jurists, industrialists, scientists and statesmen have made their power felt in almost every land. Admirable is their disposition, by philanthropy, to divide the products of their gains and achievements with others. Strength of will is seen in their tenacity in clinging to ancient usages, Whether of present value or outmoded.

What meat do people cat who have shown such amazing vitality as to survive the imprisonment of the Ghetto, the Inquisition with its torture chambers and execution by fire, perils of the desert and of the deep? They have grown in numbers although living long in foreign lands, and Whether facing hospitality or exile, educational privilege or its denial, tolerance or torture, favor or extermination? The unusual cleverness of this people (‘much the result of hard knocks), even their foes admit. Their linguistic accomplishments, services to labor, economics, aviation, the stage and world literature, put mankind under the tributes of praise, proved by acceptance if not by Words.

Their grim and stolid endurance of their present plight, their rapid development and modernization of the Holy Land, whither they have in recent years returned in numbers, to develop agriculture, exploit mineral resources and to make that land habitable for increasing numbers by improving the old and building new cities and establishing a new and great university, are among the many signs of the Day of God. Would now that our Jewish friends, brothers in the Path, might see with spiritual eyes and despite affliction, the bounties of God that are flowing their way. Assuredly it would give them a new fortitude amid their present trials. For the prophecies not only of their Torah, but of the Holy Books of all religions point unerringly to the appearance in this Day of their new Messiah and Deliverer, the universal Manifesta [Page 121]Bahá’í to few 121

tion, Bahá’u’lláh, Who is also the Deliverer and Unifier of all mankind. Carmel and Sharon have in this day seen His Glory and all the earth is increasingly flooded with His Light. One has only to investigate His spiritual station and universal program to be convinced of its reality and truth as well as its practical bearing upon world affairs. Herein lie freedom, happiness and safety for all Who, in meekness of spirit, would know the plan of God for all His wandering and desolate children.

Already notables of the world’s Jewish community have heard and heeded this Call. Awakened from the slumber of ages, they have discovered the Light of Unity signaling the denisons of a disrupted and disintegrating World. How impressive is that letter written by the Jewish Bahá’ís of Tihran, Iran, to the Christian Bahá’í's of Chicago, eloquently expressing the spirit of unity throughout the world! These enlightened Israelites, in words of sweetness and power, deplore the veils and shadows of past cycles and rejoice in the freedom and security which the majestic Revelation of His Holiness, Bahá’u’lláh bestows upon mankind. Not less impressive is the testimony of one of the most eminent scholars of all time, the late Arminius Vambery, traveler, linguist, student of all religions and anthropologist, who personally met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, accepted without reservations the Great Message, expressed in writing veneration and homage for its author, Bahá’u’lláh, and pledged his own talents to its spread.

Bahá’u’lláh, not unmindful of Israel’s griefs, conveys glad tidings to this stricken people: “Rejoice! Rejoice.’ O Children of Israel, in the graces of the Manifestation of the Glorious Lord} Thanks and praise he unto God, that the Sun of Truth has dawned upon the horizon of unity and it is dispersing and dispelling the darkness of diflerenee and oppression. . . .”

Thus may the Bahá’ís of every land, with minds broadened

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by knowing the reality of every faith, with hearts expanded by universal love, with hands unsullied by the oppression of people, Welcome the Jews to the ever widening fellowship of Baha which links mankind. The peaks of past civilizations are a glorious memory. But the Day that is now, with its living, surging, loving energy, creative of universal unity, is the Sun of all Glories! Awake, O Israel, to its values! Heed its transcendent Call! Drown sorrows in the Eternal Wine of Life!

‘Star of the West, Vol. IV, p. 282. “And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” Isaiah 40:5.

Hear, O Israel!

GERTRUDE W. ROBINSON

Hear, O Israel.’

Thy Lord is come, resplendent with great power; And Carmel thrills at mention of His name. Earth has dropped her shroud of mourning.

That which man conceived

Behind dense veils of fancy

Is now replaced by lightning Truth

In vivid, naked beauty.

Turn again to Him, 0 Israel.’

flnd read anew His Holy Word,

The promise of His grace.

The signs are there, with inner meaning

Unrevealed until today.

Thy Lord is come.’ H e speaks, thy Buchler and thy Shield.

Hear, 0 Israel.’

[Page 123]The First Opposers ‘Abdu’l—Bah(i

I LEARN from incidents here and there that some of the priests are giving vent to the utmost condemnation of us, that is the Catholic priests, that they attribute any sort of thing to us, pronounce anathema, and say we are the cause of misleading the people. We say nothing as regards them, nothing at all. But we shall mention this much, and this is to awaken you

that you may be aware that such conversations, such speeches, such calumnies and libels are not specialized to us. It has always been thus. In the time of Abraham, religious leaders, Pharisees Haran, anathemized His Holiness Abraham, saying, “This person is satan, He misleads the people , He misguides them, He pronounces evil words with regard to our idols; this person must be killed.” At best because the government was rather fair, the learned men assembled and decided that His Holiness Abraham should be rescued and they caused him to flee. Thus the alienation of Abraham from his native land was caused by the anathema of the priests. “Abraham,” they said, “is misguided and misguiding the people.”

i Then we come to the.period of Moses. All the priests of Egypt pronounced anathema regarding Moses, saying, “This person islthe cause of corruption and sedition and this person must be killed. He must be efiaced.”

Then we come to the time of Christ. When His Holiness Christ appeared, the first people who objected to His Holiness were the Jewish priests. They said, “This Christ is not the promised Christ, this Christ is an imposter.” They then pronounced the name which means in the Arabic The Ugly One,

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and according to the text of the Gospel the name of His Holiness was made to read Beelzebub, and this is an explicit text of the Gospel. That glorious personage was debased; that Heavenly Radiance they pronounced as darkness; that Guide of the nations was accounted as misguidance of the people, that personified Spirit they pronounced as sheer body. All the rabbis of the Jews assembled forming a great body of learned men famous among the Jews and they consulted together regarding the killing or martyrdom of His Holiness Christ. They left no calumny unapplied to Him. There was no word of detestation which they did not pronounce regarding Him. At last they pronounced His death sentence, saying that Christ is both misguided and misguiding the people and deserving of punishment or killing, that His blood should be spilled—but after due trial. The judgment was not to

bring Him all of a sudden and kill Him——no—but after due trial and judgment. Wherefore, they placed upon the blessed head of Christ a crown of thorns and paraded Him through the streets and bazaars, according to explicit texts of the Gospel, and these rabbis and [other] Jews, according to the Gospel, pronounced this death only regarding Christ. Their Chieftain was Caiaphas who was the chieftain or head of all the rabbis. In brief, His Holiness Christ was paraded through the streets and bazaars with a crown of thorns placed upon His head, and the Jews would come to Him, turn their back to Him and bow, saying: “Peace be to Thee, Thou King of the Jews!” That is, scornfully they would say it: “Thou art a King and for a King, a man should bow!” and backwards they would bow, scorning Him. According to the explicit text of the Gospel they accused Him, and even spat upon His face. They pronounced calumnies, they said scornfully; “This is the Savior of the world, save yourself.” Another would say: “He saved the world, but He Himself is not saved.” With

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such debasing attitudes they paraded His Holiness through the streets and bazaars, and eventually they crucified Him with the consent of the rabbis who were famous throughout the world, such men as Caiaphas who was the high priest or head rabbi and Annas who was one of the chieftains. Under their jurisdiction that assembly of the Jewish priests gathered and pronounced His death sentence and placed the same Beelzebub upon His Holy person. This is anexplicit text of the Gospel. This is not a tradition, that is to say, this is not a new account.

Even so has it happened in all centuries. In the age of Christ, the first opposers were the rabbis, and the first whose judgment was against Him were the high priests (Khakham). They are the spiritual leaders. This has always been so, and is not a new story. There is a cause for this: they see that all the people are imitating them blindly; are obeying them; are contributing to them. From every standpoint they fare well, and they imagine if the people’s eyes are open but a bit, if they are awakened at all, then they will not care for [the priests], they will not be kind to them, they will not give them money; hence, all the learned priests arise against the Manifestation of God. Even in Persia the first ones who arose against the Bahá’í’s were the mullas or priests, and the cause was that each one of them had one hundred thousand people [followers], and they lived on the produce of these people. The men kissed the hands of the priests, [they] revered them, and [the priests] said: “If a person becomes a Bahá’í, he will care nothing for us.” That is why they objected, why they denied, why they sentenced the Beloved to death, why they sentenced the Blessed Perfection to martyrdom, why they sent the Báb to death. The cause is this: they would see their shops closed, they would have no customers, and naturally the shopkeeper wants his customer, he wants to

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keep his client, and it is difficult for him to desert his clientele. That is why His Holiness Christ called them “vipers” in an explicit text of the Gospel.

His Honor Abu’l—Fadl has Written an epistle to the press of London, Which will be translated and printed, and each one of you should have a copy of it to read.

Hitherto unpublished address of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá given at Mrs. Champney’s, 309 West 78th Street, July 8, 1912.

CITY OF CERTITUDE

Wherefore, O my friend, it behoveth Us to exert the highest endeavour to attain unto that City, and, by the grace of God and His loving-kindness, rend asunder the “veils of glory”; so that, with inflexible stead fastness, we may sacrifice our drooping souls in the path of the New Beloved. We should with tearful eyes, fervently and repeatedly, implore Him to grant us the favour of that grace. That City is none other than the Vl/ord of God revealed in every age and Dispensation. In the days of Moses it was the Pentateuch; in the days of Jesus the Gospel; in the days of Muhammad the Messenger of God the Qur’án,- in this day the Bayan; and in the Dispensation of Him Whom God will make manifest His own Book—the Book unto which all the Books of former Dispensations must needs be referred, the Book which standeth amongst them all transcendent and supreme. I n these cities spiritual sustenance is bountifully provided, and incorruptihle delights have l7een ordained. . . . /1 ll the guidance, the blessings, the learning, the understanding, the faith, and certitude, conferred upon all that is in heaven and on earth, are hidden and treasured within these Cities.—Bahá’u’lláh (written before His Declaration).

[Page 127]The Invisible Man

Roberta Christian

IF A LITTLE child should ask “What am I”?, how would you answer him? What, exactly, is a man? He belongs to the animal kingdom, of course. But can we honestly say that man is an animal? He must have food and drink, as must the animal, he bears his young as the animals; he is subject to heat and cold as the animals, fire burns him, he sheds blood, his bones break——even as the animals. But still, there is something which makes him—more than an animal. We cannot say that his power to think elevates him from the animal world, for there are men who have spent their lives studying animals who will tell you that animals can and do think. We cannot say that he is more than an animal because he stands erect and walks on two legs instead of four, when we consider the orangoutang. Nor can we say that man is not a mere animal because he covers his nakedness from the sight of his fellow—men. What, then, is the mysterious something which makes a human being proud of his dominion over the world of animals and nature? What is it that has enabled him to fly in the air like the birds and move through the water like the fish? By what authority does he destroy what he thinks to be the lesser worlds to provide sustenance for himself? This mysterious “something” may be called “the invisible man”.

As there are irrevocable laws in nature and in science, so also are there laws in the world of man. Because man is a compound of the visible and the invisible, these laws must concern themselves with both. Where do laws come from? A scientist may break a twig from a cherry tree and tear apart

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each blossom and fully explain how it came about and how it may produce its fruit. But can he put it back together again? From whence came the very first cherry tree? Who or what originated the laws by which it grows and blossoms and bears fruit?

Down through the ages there have arisen, from time to time, great souls who cried out to men a Message. All of them have been persecuted by the world which they came to educate. But the Message has lived. They have been of great radiance-Beings who possessed a force and a power terrifying in its intensity, a force and a power so great that the things which They said have lived long years after They Themselves can no longer walk upon the earth, so great that whole civilizations have been born of Their teachings. They have brought the Message of a Creator and Giver of Laws. They have, one by one, each in His turn, opened men’s eyes and caused them to look inward; They have sung a song of Love and been the Bearers of Glad Tidings, and Their Message has been forever the same :—the story of the Unknowable, which man, in his limitation has called “Ja” and “Jehovah” and “The Great White Spirit” and “Allah” and “God”, and the story of the thing which He has created and which is called Man. These Great Ones, above the human kingdom as man is above the animal, have been channels for the Holy Spirit. Through Them, God has taught His creatures of Himself, and of themselves. Men have called these channels, these intermediaries, “Prophets” and “Messiahs” and “Manifestations”. Their first great purpose has been this teaching of man concerning God, and that Truth is without beginning and without end, eternally the same, addressed to the invisible in man; but They have also revealed to man certain Ways of living. They have instructed him in the social aspect of life. Only in this secondary, or visible, phase have They difiered. Men, in forgetting

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the invisible man, have seen clearly only the secondary message and thus have disagreed and set up prejudices one against the other, until all the world is separated by barriers more real than mountain ranges and deep oceans.

Because to most of us Christianity is a background, let us consider the things which Jesus, the Christ, taught to the people. He taught them to love one another, of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. But so had Abraham and Moses tried to teach men these things. The followers of Moses failed to recognize in Jesus the same Holy Spirit which had spoken to them through Moses, and to realize that Jesus changed only the secular laws of life to conform to the necessities of that particular era. How many Christians know that Muhammed taught His followers to accept Jesus Christ and changed only the outer customs and forms to conform to the necessities of His time, and that the Renaissance in Europe was due to the Holy Spirit —— revealed once again to man through Muhammed? None of the Manifestations of God has ever changed or abrogated the Message of His predecessor —the Message of Love addressed to the invisible man. The differences‘ have been only in those laws which They have revealed for the life of the outer man in his association -with his fellows.

Let us look for a moment at the world. Let us stand on a high hilltop and gaze upon the pageant of history. Let us read the front page of any newspaper with our hearts instead of with our eyes and brain. How does it make us feel? Of what are we conscious? Let us put our ears to the ground for a moment. What do we hear? The invisible man within each one of us, weeping and wailing, crying aloud in revulsion; sick unto death. He cringes away and hides in a dark corner. He squeezes himself up and attempts to annihilate himself, because he cannot bear the terrible chaos of this modern world!

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And what is the remedy for this deathly illness of our souls? Knowledge ! Understanding! Love!

Is it conceivable that a Creator would desert His creation in a time of need? Why are the laws which Jesus brought not functioning? What has happened? The world has grown much since the times of Jesus. It has spread over a globe. New continents have been discovered. Billions of people have been discovered. The Message of the Creator still is the same, but the material instructions Jesus revealed are no longer adequate. Christ promised to return, not as the man, Jesus of Nazareth, but as “He, the Spirit of Truth”. We remember that He said “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you.” (John XVI; 12-14)

The Spirit of Truth which was in Jesus, and Abraham, and Moses, and Zoroaster and Buddha, and Muhammed, did come as Jesus promised! He came as was foretold not only by Jesus, but by all the former Manifestations and Prophets of God, “like a thief in the night” and “they were sleeping and they knew him not”. He came at the promised time also, through one who was called “The Báb” (which means “the gate”) and Who heralded, in 184.4, the coming of The Promised One; and through the Channel of Bahá’u’lláh, Who, in 186 3, declared Himself to be that Promised One.

Once again the Holy Spirit came to dwell in a human temple Who assumed the title of “Bahá’u’lláh” (The Glory of God) just as the Holy Spirit dwelt in Jesus, Who used the title “Christ”. He revivified and renewed the unchanging and unchangeable Message of Love, and revealed to man cer [Page 131]Invisible M an I 3 1

tain new principles to be applied to the living of daily life. He added also, further knowledge. He brought, among other things, fuller knowledge of the invisible man. Because of this added knowledge of the dual nature of man, the principles which He set forth deal not only with the spiritual life, but with the social and economic as well. He prescribed the tenets of a “New World Order” a system of life which is based upon the spiritual, or invisible, and carries over into the material, or visible, establishing the perfect circle.

This is a New Day, and we have, in the principles revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, definite, clear and thorough instructions as to the Divine remedy for a dying world. And the first requirement to fulfill His instructions is the recognition and then the development of the invisible man within us. We must free those inner men and our outer personalities must become the servants and the instruments of our real selves. In this era, we must listen to the Word of God and the Revelation of the Spirit of Truth with the ears of our souls and see the world of our fellow-men with the eyes of our hearts. When we have learned to live this higher fuller life, then, and only then will our intellects become tools for us to use in the establishment of God’s true Kingdom upon this earth.

The principles of living in the New World Order, or Kingdom, must include the following according to Bahá’u’lláh:

Recognition that all races, classes and nations of men are the members of one great family.

The independent investigation of truth.

Acknowledgment of the One Divine Source of all true religion.

Promotion of the absolute accord of true science and true religion, inasmuch as science is factual knowledge by deduction, and thus truth, and religion is factual knowledge by revelation-—also truth.

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The establishment of equal rights and opportunities for men and women.

Abandonment of all superstition and prejudice.

Work done in the spirit of love and service.

Universal education, with emphasis laid upon the education of women, as they are the potential mothers of men, and as such, the first educators of the World citizens of the future.

Abolishment of extremes of unearned wealth and undeserved poverty.

The adoption of an international auxiliary language in addition to the native tongue, to facilitate free communication among men.

And, the establishment of universal peace through a federation of nations.

These great principles can be applied only when men have become altruistic in the highest degree—only when they lose themselves in service to their fellows—only when they'have come to love one another as brothers, irrespective of the particular part of the earth from which they originated———and only when their eyes are turned to their Creator as flowers to the sun. This can be accomplished not by men as we see them, but by invisible men!

The great glory of this magnificent day is the assurance of Bahá’u’lláh that these things will come to pass, and that we, in this century, are witnessing and taking part in the beginnings of the rebirth of a world—~a world which will be ruled and loved by the spiritually illumined soul: of men!

[Page 133]“As The Days of Noah Were” Olga Finlce

Do YOU realize that we are living in an epoch of the world’s history which is strikingly similar to the days of Noah? Let us open the Bible to the sixth chapter of Genesis. In the eleventh verse we read, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” I wonder whether the earth is not filled with even more violence today than it was in the days of Noah. Do we suppose that God who sees all things, and who sees also that the earth is corrupt just as He did in Noah’s time, is going to allow this condition to continue indefinitely? No! Have we not heard? The ark has already been built. It was God’s command to build this ark. What is even more alarming is that some of those who have found favor with God have already entered the ark. Our next thought will perhaps be: God established a covenant with man that “the waters shall no more become a floor to destroy all flesh”. These words are in the fifteenth verse of the ninth chapter of Genesis. God, however, did not make a covenant with man to the effect that if at any future time when the earth became corrupt and filled with violence, He would tolerate these injustices, even though they affected His loved ones. God never forsakes His own and the rainbow in the sky is to remind them of this.

Is God going to put an end to all the violence and corruption which we are witnessing today? If so, in what way? We may Well ask this question. Both Jesus and Isaiah prophesied a time of great trouble and both speak of it as the day of the coming of the Lord. Here are the exact words as recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah. . . .

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“Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

“Therefore shall all hands be faint and every man’s heart shall melt;

“And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another: Their faces shall be as flames.

“Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.”

Jesus prophesied that the coming of the Son of man would be as in the days of Noah. Ponder over these verses:

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

“For as in the days that were before the flood they were drinking and eating, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark.

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

(Matthew 24: 3 7-39)

No matter in What Way we may interpret those verses we must admit that God intends to’ rid the world of the evil ones. Now, the next problem that will confront you, no doubt, will be: if the ark has already been built in which the elect shall be housed during the period of the destruction of the corrupt ones, who built this ark? Surely, the Son of man cannot have come already. Was He not supposed to appear in the clouds of heaven so that all mankind could see Him. May it not be that some of us were too busy eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, to look for Him? The people who lived in Noah’s day did not know until the flood came.

[Page 135]Dey: of Noah 135

In the twenty—first chapter of St. Luke, the thirty-fifth verse, we read these significant words, “As a snare shall it come to all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Paul also tells us in the fifth chapter of first Thessalonians, the second verse: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” In the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, John also warns us. The fifteenth verse begins like this——“Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth. . . .” These and similar warnings are found scattered in different parts of the Bible, yet when the Lord returned most of us were asleep. Neither do we have the excuse that this or that person did not explain the true meaning of the Bible text. Jesus said, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” What is more, we even have a description in the Bible of what the Son of man would look like. We will find it in the first chapter of Revelation beginning with the twelfth verse:

“And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

“And in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

“His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

“And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice was as the sound of many waters.

“And he had in his right hand seven stars; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

“And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.”

What are we given to understand from the description which John has given us of the Son of man? Surely it does not answer to the description of the man Jesus as we ordi

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I 36 World Order

narily picture him. Does it not seem puzzling to you? Who is able to solve this mystery? In Daniel we also find many references to the time in which we are living. Daniel had visions of the great day of the Lord. Yet even Daniel was puzzled. Turn to the twelfth chapter of the Book of Daniel and see what he says.

“And I heard but I understood not; then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?

“And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

“Many shall be purified and made White and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand.”

If then the book has been sealed, is there any use trying to understand until the seal has been broken? When is the seal to be broken? Daniel said at the time of the end. Is there then nothing that we can do about it? Shall we sit back and rest assured that when the time comes it will be revealed to us? No, no, Jesus has commanded us to watch and not to be asleep. Moreover, he gave us the promise that if we seek we shall find. Turn to the next to the very last page in the Christian Bible, the twentieth chapter of Revelation, the twelfth verse. In this verse John tells of a vision which he had in which he saw the books being opened. And What is still more astounding, he said that another book Was opened. He called it the book of life. Can it be that the seal has already been broken, and that another book has been opened? In the second chapter, the seventeenth verse of Revelation we read:

“He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the Stone 21 new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

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There is prepared for the world some remarkable newsl There are many people living today who believe that the Son of man has already come, that the seal of the divine Books has been broken, that a New Book has been opened! They have been eating of the hidden manna and they know the new Name. Do We all want to eat of the hidden manna? Would we all like to know the new Name? Are we eager to read the New Book that has been opened? We can hardly expect any other than the Spirit of Truth Himself to break the seal and to write the Book. Jesus called himself the Son of God. When the Son of man appeared in this Day He called Himself the Glory of God. He is more commonly called by the Persian name Bahá’u’lláh, which translated is the Glory of God. Bahá’u’lláh has explained for us the mysteries of the Bible. All those who have studied His Book are able to understand the text of the Bible.

“The time fore-ordained unto the peoples and kindred: o f the earth is now come,” proclaims Bahá’u’lláh. “The promises of God, as recorded in the holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled. Out of Zion hath gone forth the Law of God, and Jerusalem, and the hills and land thereof, are filled with the glory of His Revelation. "Happy is the man that pondereth in his heart that which hath heen revealed in the Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self—Suhsisting. Meditate upon this, O ye beloved of God, and let your ears he attentive unto His Word, so that ye may, by His grace and mercy, drink your fill from the crystal waters of constancy, and become as steadfast and immovable as the mountain in His Cause.”

O Son or MAN!

Sorrow not save that thou art far from Us. Rejoice not save that thou art drawing near and returning unto Us. ——-BAH.«i’U’LLAH.

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I 38 World Order

A MORAL ORDER FOR MANKIND

CIVILIZATION is the expression and outworking of a common spirit which binds a people together and gives them the sense of a unified destiny. As long as this spirit remains vital, it impels the people to accept laws, justice, truth as essential disciplines identified with the supreme expressions of their will to live.

This creative spirit constitutes a moral order, and civilization can not exist when the moral order ceases to inspire people by its summons to unity in experience and unity in action. An individual man, as such, is inherently a denier and evader of law. His intelligence reinforces his animal instinct to make survival the supreme aim. It is only the civilized man, the man who has had the vital experience of a higher power, who can uphold a society and adapt himself to its general needs and impersonal aims.

The difference between uncivilized and civilized man is that the former finds his laws and principles in nature, while the latter accepts the authority of revealed truth. All civilization has developed from the impetus of faith in God, the faith which realizes that truth is man’s order, his world, as nature is the order and world of the animal.

Today the world is in the direst suffering because the spirit of faith has become identified with separate and distinct civilizations,

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A Moral Order for M zznkind 1 39

each an end to itself and a law to be imposed upon the world. Within the civilization, people sacrifice and die for one another, but this ac ceptance of oneness stops at the frontier.

How can the experience of unity which denotes the race or the nation be expanded to include the entire world? How can the spirit of sacrifice be enlarged to operate within peoples whose traditions make

them feel independent and distinct?

The teaching of Bahá’u’lláh initiates a moral order for mankind by revealing the oneness of the Manifestations of God. The origin of separateness lies in the assumption that one’s own Prophet desired a partisan victory for a creed or a church rather than contributed to the eventual attainment of the unity of mankind. From religious antagonism all forms of social prejudice inevitably flow. A civilization which armed Christian to eliminate the follower of Muhammad as antiChrist thereby acquires the habit of war, and from that original betrayal all later wars proceed.

The Bahá’í community, small though it still be in numbers and public importance, nevertheless constitutes the first proof that a universal moral order has been established on earth. In this community the followers of different Manifestations accept each other’s true status as servants of one God. This new and unprecedented historical fact stands as the great dividing line between the ages of ignorance and disunity and the age of world civilization. The Bahá’ís obey one code of law, accept one truth, serve one goal. In this new creation, and not in the efforts of the old creeds to survive, the man of faith finds the

renewal of his deepest powers, the vindication of his most hallowed

hopes.—H. H.

5%?‘

[Page 140]Bahá’í LESSONS The Divine Unity of Religions

1. Existence and Nature of God.

A. The first Cause, or Creator.

Dispensation of Moses: Gen 1:1 Is 42:5; 1: 45:12; Jcr 10:12.

Dispensation of Christ: John Izl-3; Heb 1:10; Cal 1216; Ram 11:36.

Dispensation of Muhammad: (Qur’án, Rodwell translation), Sfirih 40, verses 64, 66, 67, page 245; also 10:3 p. 275; 11:8-9 p. 216.

Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh: Cl 192-193 (“Bear thou . . .”); GI 61 (“A drop . . .”); 64 (“All-praise to the unity . . .”).

B. Only one God.

Moses (Dispensation of): Ex 3:6; Deut 6:4, 4:35; P: 86:10;

Is 45:5.

Christ: Mark 12:29; Efvh 4:6; I Cor 8-6; I Cor 12:6.

Muhammad: Qur’án 112:1-4 p. 29; 13:29 p. 336; 28:88 p. 254; 3:1 p. 385.

Bahá’u’lláh: Gl 192 (“Beware . . .”); 166 (“He is a true . . .”); 192 (“There is none other God . . .”).

C. God’s Reality beyond man’s understanding.

Moses: Ex 33:20; Job 11:7-9, 36:26; 23 :8-9.

Christ: I Tim 1:17; John 1:8, 5:37; I Tim 6:15; I John 4:20.

Muhammad: Qur’dn 19:94 p. 124; 4:152 p. 427; 6:102-3 pp. 326-7; 2:256 p. 366.

Bahá’u’lláh: Gl 193-4 (“Immeasurably . . .”); 3 (“Exalted, immeasurably . . .”); 5 (“Far, far . . .”).

D. God contains all: He cannot be contained.

Moses: Jar 23:23-24; I Kings 8:27; 1: 66:1; P: 139:7-8; II Chr 2:6.

Christ: dot: 7:49, 17:24.

Muhammad: Qur’cin 4:130 p. 425; 2:256 pp. 366-7; .3523‘) pp. 292-3.

Bahá’u’lláh: GI 46 (“To every . . .”); 49 (“Know thou of

14.0

[Page 141]Bahá’í Lesson: 14. 1

. . .”); 185 (“It should be remembered . . .”); 150 (“As to those . . .”).

II. The Manifestations of God (Prophets) and Their Func tions.

A. Sent to bring God’s Will to man—to bridge the gap between the world of God and the world of creation. Moses: Ex 3215, 4:11-12, 7:1-2; Deut 4:5. Muhammad: Qur’án 6:50 p 321; 72:24 p. 142; 40:78 p. 246; 3:138 p. 399; 7:157 p. 308. Bahá’u’lláh: G1 47 (“The door of knowledge . . .”); 54 (“Were any of . . .”); 59 (“‘Be ye assured . . .”); 70 (“The Person . . .”).

B. Mirrors of God’s attributes (Image of God).

Moses: Deut 34:10, 5:5; Ex 4:15-16, 33:14.

Christ: Matt 11:27; John 12:44-46, 14:9, 17:11,22,4.

Muhammad: Qur’zin 48:8-10 p. 461; 12:l08 p. 239; 4:82 p. 419; 33:21 p. 436. Bahá’u’lláh: Gl 66 (“And since there . . .”); 47 (“These sanctified . . .”); 54 (“Were any of the . . .”); 67 (“The essence of belief . . .”).

C. Only door to God and eternal life.

Moses: Deut 14:1; Lev 18:5; Deut 30:15-16, 30:19.

Christzfo/m 14:6, 11:25; 6:47-48; Matt 7:13-14; John 17:3.

Muhammad: Qur’án 7:5-6 p. 307-8; 43:68-71 p. 139; 65:11 pp. 430-1; 47:1-2 p. 382; 11:17: 17-26 p. 217.

Bahá’u’lláh: iqén 118 (“Such things have . . .”); iqzin 120 (“In every age . . .”); G1 67 (“From the foregoing . . .”); Iqrin 142 (“The knowledge of Him . . .”).

D. One in Their Reality although many and different in Name.

‘ Moses: Ex 3:14-15; 15 43:11-12; Deut 33:2. Christ: John 8:58, 17:5; Rev. l:8,22:13. Muhammad: Qur’án 13:38-39 p. 337; 10:38 p. 278; 2:285 pp. 370-1; 42:11 p. 271; 44:4-5 p. 89. Bahá’u’lláh: G2 50 (“The Bearers of . . .”); 52 (“It is clear and . . .”); 78 (“Know thou assuredly that the essence

. 3’).

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IN READING the Annual Bahá’í Reports we came across this sentence: “We find the Bahá’í Lessons in the World Order a great help and the understanding of the Faith seems to be deepening.” Do others find these lessons useful? We should like to hear what use is made of them. If kept for reference we believe they will furnish the beginning of quite a satisfactory index for Bahá’í books.

And by the way do we all realize what a wealth of inspiration and information is contained in these Bahá’í Annual Reports? For one thing we have all the messages from the Guardian for the year gathered in one place. Then we have not only information of the growth of the Cause in different sections, but the new methods used by new and older pioneers and teachers which are a real incentive to teach. If we have fallen behind in keeping abreast with the progress of our Faith these reports give us a quick way of catching up.

an at at One of Miss Helen Grifling’s

WITH OUR READERS

letters was crowded out of the June number on account of lack of space. It sheds such illumination on the true spirit of prayer and detachment that we do not wish to deprive our readers of its light:

March 9, 1938 Dear Garreta: I have had another tremendous experience, and I must needs share it with you.

I was awakened one Sunday morning very early by throbbing pain in my thumb. Knowing that no doctor was immediately available, I soaked my thumb and said the Healing Prayer many times. As soon as possible, I had medical attention; and this continued daily, as did the prayers, until such improvement showed that the doctor let me go three days before returning. Upon my return, the thumb was still progressing much better than the doctor had expected, and I was allowed another three days. I wept with sheer joy on the way home: the pain had been terrific, but combined prayer and medical attention had seen me through, and

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[Page 143]With Our Reader:

I was well on the way to recovery.

So on Monday, I returned for another dressing. The doctor frowned, probed deep, took an X-ray, scraped the bone furiously. Saying the Greatest Name is a great help in painful things like this. Fortunately, he was too busy to take care of me on Tuesday, but he told me to come in today, prepared to lose my thumb.

Tuesday a dear friend came to see me. When I told her about the unexpected turn for the worse, she asked me if I had not been praying. Why yes, of course I had; long and earnestly, and it had helped me immeasurablyuntil I suddenly realized that as soon as the thumb had got better, I had stopped praying. And so we talked of prayer, and of gratitude, and of utter and complete reliance upon God. Later she suggested that we ask Bahá’u’lláh if I could serve him more effectively without the thumb than with it—and only then did I realize that the thumb wasn’t such an important matter, after all. That service to the Cause of God was the primary consideration.

And so we asked to be worthy servants.

Wednesday-—-that’s today——my appointment with the doctor was at eight in the morning. I rose

14-3

early, praying for strength and courage. While my thumb was soaking in an antiseptic preparatory to the operation, the doctor was called out on an emergency, so there was almost a half hour of soaking and saying the Greatest Name. Upon his return, I was all ready for whatever might

happen, except what actually did

happen. Garreta, there was no operation. Not even a bone scraping.

Now that’s the surest proof in the world that I’m the sort of individual that requires to be knocked down (and nearly out) before I can learn a lesson. I Wonder if I have learned all the lessons implicit in this experience. I’m well, I’m cured, it’s just a matter now of healing. But I have learned how infinite His mercy—-have I, in words only, rededicated myself to God—have I learned to “lay all my affairs in His Hand” have I the slightest realization of utter Well, I can pray for these things: detachment, steadfastness, and

reliance?

above all, love for Him. >1: >:< *

Our contributors this month bear names which, with one exception, are familiar to our readers. Mrs. Mabel Hyde Paine

made the new compilation en [Page 144]

I44

titled “The Divine Art of Living”, which we published serially in volumes VI and VII. Her article, “Bahá’u’lláh as Protector”, was originally given as a talk on the day commemorating the birth of Bahá’u’lláh. Mrs. Paine’s home is in Urbana, Illinois, where she has long been a worker in the Faith. Mrs. Roberta Kaley Christian was one of the seven writers in the Youth Symposium which we published in February, 1941. She and her husband, Mr. William Kenneth Christian, are active in the re gional work of northern New York.

Again we print one of the hitherto unpublished addresses of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá given in 1912 here in the United States. These addresses are supplementary to and of the same authority as those published in the volume “The

Promulgation of Universal Peace”.

Mrs. Olga Finke in her article, “As the Days of Noah Were”, treats the ever fascinating theme of prophecy from a somewhat different angle than our previous articles on prophecy. This is Mrs. F inke’s first contribution to World Order. Her home is in

Atlanta, Georgia.

Our poem this month, “Hear, O Israel”, is sent by Mrs. Gert World Order

rude W. Robinson of Circleville, Ohio. Readers will remember her poems. Her most recent one was published in the February,

1942, issue and was entitled, “Go, Teach I ”

All Bahá’ís know Mr. Louis Gregory, veteran teacher of the Faith, who continues to serve on the National Spiritual Assembly as well as to travel and teach. His article, “Bahá’í to Jew”, offers a warm fellowship from one minority race to another.

Mr. Horace Holley, well known to all Bahá’ís as secretary of our National Spiritual Assembly, furnishes the editorial this month. The study outline on

“The Divine Unity of Religions” and this department complete our issue. The outline references were provided by Artemus Lamb, a California Bahá’í now pioneering in Salt Lake City. He led Youth study of this subject at Geyserville

1941. CORRECTION: Dr. AliKuli Khan tells us that the first

sentence in the second paragraph of his article in the May number

summer school in

of World Order should read:

“The name of this blood-thirsty high priest was Shaykh Baqir.

TH}: Enrrons

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[Page 146]

Words of Bahá’u’lláh

Inscribed Over the Nine Entrance: of the Home of War:/zijb, Wilmette, Illinois

1. THE EARTH IS BUT oNE coUNTRY; AND MANKIND ITS CITIZENS.

2. THE BEST BELOVED o1= ALL THINGS IN MY s1GHT Is ]USTIcE; 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; sANc'rI1'-‘Y IT FOR MY nEscENT.

6. I HAVE MADE DEATH A MEssENGER or JOY TO THEE; WHEREFORE DOST THOU GRIEVEP

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

8.0 RICH oNEs oN EARTH! THE POOR IN YOUR MIDST ARE MY TRUST; GUARD YE MY TRUST.

9. THE soURcE 01-‘ ALL LEARNING Is THE KNOWLEDGE 01-‘ Got), ExALTEn BE Hrs GLORY.