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WORLD
ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
August, 1942
• A Calendar for a World Faith . . . . . . Horace Holley 145
• How Can I Choose to Sleep . . . . . . . . . . . Bahá’u’lláh 152
• The Heavenly Forces Will Overcome . . ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 153
• Illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Felipe Madrigal 156
• The Source of Freedom, Editorial . . Bertha Kirkpatrick 159
• Why Pray? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Etta D. Steckler 161
• My Experience With Prayer . . . . . . . . . Etty Graeffe 165
• In the Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benjamin Kaufman 170
• Color and Human Nature, Book Review . Garreta Busey 173
• Acknowledgment, Poem . . . . . . Virginia Moran Evans 175
• Bahá’í Lessons . . . . 176 • With Our Readers . . . . 178
FIFTEEN CENTS
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.
—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: 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.
Editorial Office
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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 1942 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent Office.
AUGUST, 1942, VOLUME VIII, NUMBER 5
WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
VOLUME VIII AUGUST, 1942 NUMBER 5
A Calendar for a World Faith
Horace Holley
RENEWAL AND MATURITY FOR MAN
HISTORY HAS no record of any society which has ever, for any
considerable period, followed a calendar established by civil
authority. The French revolution produced an abortive
scheme which soon fell into oblivion, and we need not anticipate
any greater success for the chronology of more recent
revolutions. The testimony of human experience has without
exception proved that human beings measure time and record
dates according to a calendar based upon the coming of the
Manifestation of God. Just as our space world is a higher
creation, so is the time world in which our lives unfold and
our cultures evolve. The Jew lives by his calendar, the
Christian’s time world is according to the “year of our Lord”,
and the Muslim dates all affairs from the journey of Muḥammad.
In cosmopolitan cities like Constantinople, where men
of different faiths established permanent communities, intercommunity
contacts involved at times the translation of dates
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from one calendar into five or six different chronologies. The
survival of these community calendars into the modern world
is one of the great and majestic signs of the creative power of
Revelation. Man’s world is in essence nothing else than a
projection of the Divine will and a remembrance of the fire
of His love.
The persistence of these different chronologies is likewise a sign and indication that Revelation was never fulfilled for any people in the past. A world of humanity divided into creeds and cultures and traditions is a world which has never realized its true identity. These races, these clans, these nations and self-assertive artificial sovereignties are still to become men, since only they are men who know the reality of Man.
Now an era has dawned whose Revelation is not merely
one more step of progress along an historical path marked
out ages ago. In the Báb, in Bahá’u’lláh, Revelation closed
the chapters of the Book of Prophecy and opened a new and
greater Book for the maturity of humanity and the union of
men in Man. The standard now is oneness and the scale
worldwide. One of the significant signs is the folding up of
all the ancient calendars. Their time has run out and their
span is ended. “The world is a new world.” “A new creation
hath been called into being.” The people of the new day
know that the year One of a World Calendar dawned at that
holy time which the West miscalled 1844, and the East by
relative dates in chronologies running from Prophets whose
cycles are no more. What an overwhelming victory the
Divine power won for man in that renewal of time, symbol of
the renewal of the spirit of life itself. All who can attest
that today, now, is of the year 99 of the coming of the Lord
to earth, and not of a twelfth or nineteenth or fiftieth century,
share in that victory because they themselves have also, like
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time and the spirit, been renewed. All debts of former times
are annulled and cancelled by the Supreme. No race need
he hated and no people need fall into hate because of deeds of
their ancestors or because of sufferings recorded in the ancient
books, provided they drink the healing waters of the new
Well Spring of Eternity. Within a time world which has
been created by the Divine will, the souls of men are safe
and secure. Therein are rewards, bounties and spiritual prizes,
while in the times of illusion there is but penalty and pain for
those Who worship their ancestors but deny God.
THE BAHÁ’Í YEAR
In this renewal of time when “the world's great age is born anew” the cycle of the year coincides with the cycle of the sun. The Bahá’í year begins at the vernal equinox, when the physical earth enters its season of renewal and spring. One sees here a sign of the fundamental oneness of truth, when a spiritual reality and an astronomical fact can be harmonized. Moreover, the Bahá’í day begins at sunset and not at midnight, ending with the going down of the sun twenty-four hours later. Here again is the rhythm of spirit and organism identified. How can the unit of human experience begin at midnight, when nothing of the cosmic or spiritual world has its beginning?
Nineteen months of nineteen days each, plus four intercalary days,
complete the full cycle of the earth’s revolution
around the sun in the Bahá’í chronology. This division of the
days into months inaugurates a new social rhythm whose full
implications can not yet be realized. The gods of Greece and
Rome that lingered on in our Januaries and our Junes no
longer have even twilight existence. They have become one
with the dark that can never return. In their place we have
the radiance of the attributes of God: Splendor, Glory, Beauty,
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Grandeur, Light, Mercy, Words, Perfection, Names, Might,
Will, Knowledge, Power, Speech, Questions, Honor, Sovereignty,
Dominion, Loftiness. The truth Whose Revelation
sustains this plan of months will, as the cycle unfolds, reorder
not merely the names and designations of days, months and
years, but also the rhythm of our lives and of our society.
The Bahá’í recalls the blessed teaching that “work performed
in the spirit of service is worship”. The new calendar connotes
a new economics, a new and better way of life.
Imbedded in the Bahá’í year as a revealed truth and not dogma or convention of human origin is the month consecrated to fasting. This is the last month of the year, ‘Alá’, month of Loftiness, its nineteen days culminating in the great and glorious Feast of Naw-Rúz, the New Year of the Bahá’í and of the physical earth. During those days, from sunrise to sunset, the Bahá’í abstains from both food and drink. Thus by an act of specific self-denial the believer is prepared to realize the deeper implications of death and renewal. Like the earth itself he has had his winter of dearth, that he may have the spring of ecstasy.
The Bahá’í’ month is signalized throughout the year by the special observance of its first day. At that time the believers in their local communities gather together for their Nineteen Day Feast. They receive in humility the supreme Feast, the holy and creative Word, the message revealed by the Manifestation for His cycle and age. They consult and discuss on matters pertaining to the Bahá’í community and service to their Faith. They break bread together, Bahá’ís of different races and peoples, all those who have found the way of union and agreement in the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. The fulfilment of all holy communion is here, as the fulfilment of the Word in the coming of the Glory of God.
BAHÁ’Í ANNIVERSARIES
The Bahá’í year, moreover, re-enacts the scenes of the greatest spiritual drama of the ages. The Bahá’í year contains Anniversaries of events of soul-shaking import. Attending them, the Bahá’í draws near to the very essence of that Love and Sacrifice on which human existence is established.
The Feast of Riḍván, the Anniversary of the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh, falls through the period April 21-May 2. The first, ninth and twelfth days of this Festival are observed as holy days. In 1863, in the garden of Riḍván outside Baghdád, Bahá’u’lláh, a prisoner and an exile, revealed His Station to the followers of the Báb, and became the Promised One of all the Revelations.
May 23, 1844, the Declaration of the Báb, is observed by the Bahá’ís of the world in profound reverence. Then was the Dawn of the true Day. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was born on that very date, May 23, 1844, but that event, great as it is in the annals of the Faith, is submerged within the significance of the Báb’s Declaration.
May 29, 1892, marks the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, and its Anniversary, observed as it is by believers at the same hour, moves as a beam of prayer around the whole world, just as time itself is not simultaneous for this sphere but continuous from East to West.
The Martyrdom of the Báb on July 9, 1850, in the public square of the medieval city of Tabríz, gives the Bahá’ís an Anniversary characterized by a most poignant realization of how Revelation returns to a darkened world through the Crucified Ones and the Anointed Ones of the Supreme Will. The Báb’s Words reverberate out again in their eternal majesty. Devoted hearts lift themselves up to be filled like cups with the wine of sacrifice.
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October 20, 1819, signalized the birth of the Báb; and
November 12, 1817, signalized the birth of Bahá’u’lláh.
These Anniversaries prepare the Bahá’ís to understand more
reverently the unfoldment of the higher Will through a
human temple.
On November 26 the Bahá’ís celebrate the Day of the Covenant, held in honor of the unique Station bestowed by Bahá’u’lláh upon His eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. At this time a spirit of joyous intimacy characterizes the gathering of the friends. For there still live and serve faithfully many blessed believers who were seen by the Master, who were addressed by Him in converse and in written Tablet. They were gathered more closely in the arms of spiritual affection. Such Bahá’ís have ecstasy and priceless experience to share with the newer believers. Two days later, on November 28, the Bahá’ís observe ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Ascension, their moving sorrow mitigated only by His Will and Testament wherein He gave to the Bahá’í’s the world-surpassing treasure of the Guardianship and the comfort and inspiration of the Plan of Bahá’u’lláh’s new world order.
Nine days in the Bahá’í year are holy days when if possible work is to be suspended and the individual believer is to withdraw into meditation and prayer. These are: the first, ninth and twelfth days of Riḍván; the Anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb; the Anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh; The Anniversary of the Birth of the Báb; The Anniversary of the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh; The Anniversary of the Martyrdom of the Báb; The Feast of Naw-Rúz.
Shoghi Effendi, through his secretary, has given some
definite information about the Bahá’í calendar: “The Bahá’í
day starts and ends at sunset. . . . The Guardian would advise
that, if feasible, the friends should commemorate certain of
the feasts and anniversaries at the following time: The anniversary
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of the Declaration of the Báb on May 22, at about
two hours after sunset. The first day of Riḍván, at about
3:00 p.m. on the twenty-first of April. The Anniversary of
the Martyrdom of the Báb on July 9 at about noon. The
Anniversary of the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, on May 29 at
3:00 a.m. The Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on November 28,
at 1:00 a.m.”
Through this new Calendar, the procession of the days, the months and the years has been hallowed and sanctified for the believer. The great Anniversaries, like acts in a new type of social drama, purge and purify his soul, socialize his feelings and prepare him for life in a unified world. The Bahá’í is surrounded by influences from the supernatural realm; and these influences, with their extreme purity, surround him with an atmosphere through which the darts of psychic suggestion and spiritism can not penetrate. Whatever his local conditions and circumstances, whether he be a member of a large and active Bahá’í community or be an isolated believer, he knows that on the occasion of the Anniversaries and Festivals of his religion, he is not spiritually solitary, unaided, alone. To him in the clear light of imagination, there comes the thought of how the Anniversary is observed by the Guardian on Mount Carmel. He feels the descent of guidance and acceptance from on high in that sacred spot. A mighty wave of consecration rolls out across the earth. Each Bahá’í has the blessedness of access to that world experience, that unifying element operating in the spirit of mankind. “The Word of God hath set the heart of the world afire; how regrettable if ye fail to be enkindled with its flame! Please God, ye will regard this blessed night as the night of unity, will knit your souls together, and resolve to adorn yourselves with the ornament of a godly and praiseworthy character. . . .”
HOW CAN I choose to sleep, O God, my God, when the eyes of them that long for Thee are wakeful because of their separation from Thee; and how can I lie down to rest whilst the souls of Thy lovers are sore vexed in their remoteness from Thy presence?
I have committed, O my Lord, my spirit and my entire being into the right hand of Thy might and Thy protection, and I lay my head on my pillow through Thy power, and lift it up according to Thy will and Thy good-pleasure. Thou art, in truth, the Preserver, the Keeper, the Almighty, the Most Powerful.
By Thy might! I ask not, whether sleeping or waking, but that which Thou dost desire. I am Thy servant and in Thy hands. Do Thou graciously aid me to do what will shed forth the fragrance of Thy good pleasure. This, truly, is my hope and the hope of them that enjoy near access to Thee. Praised by Thou, O Lord of the worlds!
—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
The Heavenly Forces
Will Overcome
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
FROM THE DAY when God created Adam to our day, the
present, there have ever been in the world two peoples, one
the materialists and the other the spiritual people. The materialists
strive to discover the mysteries of nature but the
spiritual or divine people endeavor to discover the mysteries
of divinity. The materialists attain to the betterment of material
affairs, but the divine people exert their efforts towards
the morality of the people. The materialists traverse subterranean
passages like unto insects and worms, but the divine
people, like unto birds, ever soar upward in infinite space of
the Lord. The materialists are the captives of the world of
nature, but the divine souls are free from these fetters. They
are ever in the utmost state of sanctification and glorification.
The materialists ever hate and are subject to their egotistic
desires, but the divine people ever seek the good pleasure
of the Lord. The materialists are submerged in the darkness
of the world of matter, but the divine people are ever radiant
through the lights from above. . . .
Between the two peoples there has always been dissension
or warfare. The materialists, looking at the spiritual, divine
people, consider them supernatural or rather attached to
things supernatural. The materialists deny the power supernatural,
whereas the divine ever explain that it is supernatural.
The materialists count man as belonging to the animal species,
but the divine people consider man originally to belong to the
divine. The first, or materialists, find strength through physical
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means, through eating and drinking, but the divine are
ever stimulated through the breaths of the Holy Spirit. In
the long ages the divine people ever overcame the materialists.
Their lights shone; their banner was unfurled; their tabernacle
was ever established; their tree was ever growing; their
garden was ever adorned, like His Holiness Christ, like the
disciples, like Abraham, like Jacob, like all the prophets, like
His Holiness Muḥammad, like His Holiness the Báb, like His
Holiness Bahá’u’lláh. These were all Divine. These were
ever the Conquerors. Consider history and you will find ever
the materialists were divided and the divine overcame them.
Their flag was hoisted, whereas the banner or flag of the materialists
was ever dethroned.
This was so until the divines among the people forgot
the essence, were deprived of the spiritual forces, and the
religionists, like unto the materialists, were contaminated with
gross matter. Just as the materialists directed their attention
to naught but the material state, the leaders of religion like
unto them were entirely directed or engrossed in material
things, spiritual susceptibilities did not remain, the breaths of
the Holy Spirit did not have effect, the lights of heaven did not
remain and the materialists found strength; day by day they
were strengthened, and day by day they were growing and
religion is thereby growing weaker. Why? Because the
leaders of religion are precisely as the materialists. The divine
prophets were ever sacrificing. The disciples were hastening
to the blessed martyrdom. They forsook life and lost sight
of things material. They forfeited their interests to the
physical type, they sacrificed themselves entirely. Neither in
this world did they desire rest, nor did they have sleep at
night, nor did they seek possessions, nor were they possessed
of station. They sacrificed all for God’s sake. Day and night
their thought was this: that they might be divine; that they
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might be lordly, that they might be merciful; that they
might emulate the steps of Christ, that they might follow
the steps of all the prophets. Hence they overcame the materialists.
But then the materialists day by day advanced,
and the spiritual leaders were engrossed in the world; hence,
they were defeated.
Now, inasmuch as this century is a luminous one, again the lights of spirituality have dawned. The stars of spirituality are shining. The breaths of the Holy Spirit are stimulating. The bestowal of God is day by day in manifestation. Therefore rest ye assured that heavenly forces are again to overcome the earthly forces. The spiritual forces will overcome the physical forces. The forces of divinity will defeat the forces of animality. Again, like unto the time before, the prophetic star shall shine, and the flag of the prophets shall be hoisted, and the ark of safety shall sail over the sea of security, and the confirmations of God will successfully obtain, and the reality of force will become revealed, even like unto the sun will they become manifest.
The material principles are to be likened to a house built of wood which can be set aflame with a spark, but the foundation of the prophets is a solid foundation in the utmost state of solidity, in the utmost state of loftiness, in the utmost state of spaciousness. Lapse of days will not destroy them. Eternally will they stand. They will not receive any blow because they are insured by the confirmations of God and beneath the protection of One Almighty.
Hitherto unpublished address given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on July 15, 1912, at 309 West 78th Street, New York.
Illumination
Felipe Madrigal
ONE of these nights when insomnia tenaciously attacked me
as it has done on several sad occasions in my life, I took in
my hands the book, “Wisdom of Abdu’l-Bahá”, and with
skepticism I went scanning through its pages without paying
much attention to what was said on them. However, upon
reaching page one hundred, I found an article the title of which
attracted my attention; it was bound to call my attention due
to particular circumstances which confronted me. The article is
entitled: “Pain and Sorrow”. It was taken from conferences
given by Abdu’l-Bahá in the year 1912.
I found in this article two paragraphs which mostly called my attention: those which made the fibres of my soul vibrate the strongest, and such was the reaction which I felt in that moment, that I could not resist the urge to get up and write this little but heartfelt and frank commentary.
The paragraphs of which I speak are the following—the first one says: “In this world we are influenced by two sentiments, joy and pain. Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded. We seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness. But when sadness visits us we become weak, our strength leaves us, our comprehension is dim and our intelligence veiled. The actualities of life seem to elude our grasp, the eyes of our spirits fail to discover the sacred mysteries, and we become even as dead beings.”
I confess that never before in my life had I found a truth
more wise or more clearly expounded. Upon reading it, we feel
as though a bandage were taken off of our eyes and it makes
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us see with the eyes of the spirit that it is only the confusion
produced by our sadness which makes us feel incapable, useless,
weak and even many times—detrimental to humanity. But if,
as the article continues to say, we make a supreme effort and
detach ourselves from matter, if we understand that all that is
material is transitory and without any importance, if we elevate
our mind toward that Superior Force which guides the destiny
of the universe, if we can feel the little reflection of this Force
which we all have within us, that Divine spark which is the
only thing that should have real value for us, our spirit is
strengthened, our comprehension is cleared and our intelligence
becomes keener, we feel once again a strong desire to live, an
immense anxiety to share the destiny of our fellowmen, an indomitable
force to fight for supreme goodness, for the peace
and happiness of humanity.
The second paragraph, or rather, part of it, to which I make reference, says:
“I, myself, was in prison forty years—one year alone would have been impossible to bear—nobody survived that imprisonment more than a year! But, thank God, during all those forty years I was supremely happy! Every day, on waking, it was like hearing good tidings, and every night infinite joy was mine.”
I will not go into analyzing the irrevocable faith of this
Being; nor do I feel that I even have the courage to think of
what a faith so deep and so holy represents; I analyze only the
following: We, the larger part of the mortals, live constantly
full of grudges, concentrated hates, unharnessed passions. For
the least little thing, we want to take revenge; for the most
insignificant pettiness, we feel rancor; we live guided by the
law of retaliation, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth”; while
this Man who had been unjustly imprisoned for forty long
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years, who had borne unspeakable sufferings at the hands of
His fellowmen, who had been humiliated, ill treated and
abused, left His prison diffusing love to all humanity and pardon
for his offenders, and preaching love and fraternity toward
every human being.
My God! He Who can penetrate what this means, who can appreciate the magnitude of His nobility, who can realize the immensity of His kindness, will have to exclaim from the depths of his being the same exclamation which at this moment I cry out from the depths of mine: ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, BLESSED BE THOU!
OPEN THE HEARTS
Know thou that We have annulled the rule of the sword, as an aid to
Our Cause, and substituted for it the power born of the utterance of men.
Thus have We irrevocably decreed, by virtue of Our grace. Say: O people!
Sow not the seeds of discord among men, and refrain from contending with
your neighbor, for your Lord hath committed the world and the cities thereof
to the care of the kings of the earth, . . . He hath refused to reserve for
Himself any share whatever of this world’s dominion. . . . The things He
hath reserved for Himself are the cities of men’s hearts, that He may cleanse
them from all earthly defilements, and enable them to draw nigh unto the
hallowed Spot which the hands of the infidel can never profane. Open, O
people, the city of the human heart with the key of your utterance.
—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.
The Source of Freedom
ONCE AGAIN liberty has become the watchword and freedom the
battlecry. Religious freedom, freedom of expression, freedom from
fear and freedom from want have been specifically named as the
goal for which the United Nations are fighting. More recently a
spokesman has added that these freedoms must be for all nations and
that peace and these freedoms must be lasting. Throughout history
has this struggle for liberty taken place, again and again has liberty
been gained and as often has it been lost. Can it be obtained for all
people on this planet, and once obtained can it be held permanently?
Schools of philosophy have found it difficult to agree upon the kind of freedom which will really liberate man. Perhaps the best thought is that to have true liberty one must be freed from one’s lower appetites and animal nature and one must be intellectually free to search for truth in any and every field, scientific, spiritual or other. Both of these freedoms would seem to rest upon freedom from fear and want and upon true and full education.
For the most part the outstanding champions of liberty while insisting on religious freedom for all, have held that religion itself is a fetter which prevents true freedom of thought and expression. No one will deny that this has been true of religion as commonly understood, that is, of institutionalized religion. But the great Prophets Who have shown us what pure religion is have taught quite otherwise —that the highest freedom and the freedom which will abide is rooted in obedience to Their commands. They say, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” And uncompromisingly they state that their own words are truth. Imagine, if we can, what a free world this would be at present if mankind had been obedient to Christ’s words.
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God is very patient yet very insistent, and since these precepts
have not been followed and since mankind is not yet free He has
sent another Messenger Who has brought us a fuller revelation of
truth, has pointed more exactly the way to freedom. We have long
known the basic truth of loving one’s neighbor, one’s brotherman.
Bahá’u’lláh gives us specific application of this truth. We must be
free from all prejudice—racial, national, religious, class. There
must be granted to all the kind of education which will insure that
every individual shall develop to the limit of his capacity, physically,
mentally, spiritually. There must be economic security and work for
all. Do not these instructions alone carry us a long way on the road
to freedom? We need here go no farther into Bahá’u’lláh’s plan for
world justice and peace which insures true freedom. But the point is
that these laws of Bahá’u’lláh are God’s laws, not man’s, and are
based on the great law of love of mankind. Can and will man obey?
Man is a free being; God does not coerce man into obedience, though man suffers for his disobedience. These same Prophets Who reveal God’s laws to us teach us through Their own lives of love and sacrifice to love God and to obey His laws because we love Him. Doubtless few will deny that this free obedience to God’s laws would bring all the freedoms to all the people. They deny, however, that enough people are capable of this obedience. But when the Messenger comes He brings not only the message but the creative and life-giving breath which awakens us to God’s love. Thousands have already listened to the renewed message brought by Bahá’u’lláh and been stirred to loving obedience by such words as these: “The liberty which profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.”—B.H.K.
Why Pray?
Etta D. Steckler
THE TRINITY for achievement given to us by a kind God is
Intellect, Power, Matter. Edison symbolizes intellect; Niagara,
power; the steel turbines, the copper wire, and the delicate
fiber inside the electric bulb represent matter. The outcome is
light. Underlying this trinity for achievement is a remarkable
darkness that causes man to become aware how small a part he
really plays in the scheme of things.
Man achieves miracles with electricity, but he has no idea what electricity really is. Man does not know what matter is. He does not know what he himself is. He declares: “Matter and force are my servants. My intelligence guides matter against power and brings about everything.” And he discovers that his accomplishment is not his own. God’s command goes before all man’s progress, and all that man can do in any circumstances is to obey or disobey. He does not really bring into existence anything. All starting points, or causes, are with God.
To realize progress then, a link is necessary between God, the source of all activity and power, and man, the servant. That link is true prayer. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Exemplar and Interpreter of the Bahá’í Faith, declares: “Prayer causes a connection between the servant and the True One.”
It is well for us to realize from the beginning that prayer
is a natural function of human life. Can it be that throughout
the ages men have been engaged in seeking help from a silent
world from which no answer comes? According to Carlyle,
“Prayer is and remains the native and deepest impulse of the
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soul of man.” And ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says: “The impulse to pray
is a natural one, springing from man’s love to God.”
In times of war men, however unbelieving, feel the call to pray. So always a crisis awakens the inclination to pray. Have we not all had some such experience, when in anguish of soul we sought aid from God to help us lest we perish, and then in a moment the assistance was granted. The agony of soul passed into a quiet calm, as over the whole being there crept the awareness of a Divine Presence linking us again with God, the source of construction, power, hope, and progress.
The natural turning of the soul to a “Power not of man” is often felt, not alone in emergencies, but in the face of great responsibilities for which man, unassisted, feels inadequate. Lincoln said: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go; my own wisdom and that of all around me seemed insufficient for the day.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes the following: “There are many subjects which are difficult for man to solve. But during prayer and supplication they are unveiled and there is nothing that man cannot find out.”
The fact that prayer is a natural function of life accounts for one hazard in our use of it; that is, we permit prayer to remain simply a tendency and therefore fitful, irregular, and unskilled.
What is prayer? When a man begins to be serious in
prayer, determined to see what can be done with it in his life,
he discovers that one of the first necessities is a reasonably
clear idea of what praying means. Prayer is not beggary. It
is not a way of getting God to do our will. Many people
believe in only one aspect of God, His love. Thinking of
that alone, they believe that they can coax God to give them
whatever they want. They do not really believe in God’s
wisdom—in His insight or plan for the advancement of mankind.
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“The prayer of the true lover of humanity,” writes Dr.
Esslemont, “is not that he as an individual may be benefited
but that humanity as a whole may be saved from ignorance
and error and the ills that inevitably follow from them.”
Prayer is not beggary but rather communion with God. This thought puts the center of the matter where it ought to be. The supreme gift of God in prayer is Himself and whatever else He confers is subordinate and incidental. Recollect St. Augustine’s supplication in the Fourth Century: “Give me thine own self without Whom, though Thou shouldest give me all that ever Thou hadst made, yet could not my desires be satisfied.” Recall Thomas á Kempis in the I 5th Century praying, “It is too small and unsatisfactory whatsoever Thou bestowest on me, apart from Thyself.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “In the highest prayer, men pray only for love of God, not because they fear Him or hell, or hope for bounty or heaven.”
God Himself is the power behind all achievement. There is no substitute for prayer because it puts the Holy Spirit in full power in the world. It is man’s realization of Divine Love, or Holy Spirit, which makes him sensitive to the wellbeing of his fellow men. Contact with Holy Spirit procreates man’s love for God. This love between God and man procreates love between man and man.
There can be no substitute for prayer; it stands singly as
the great spiritual force; and this force must be continuous.
It cannot be dispensed with during one generation nor held
in subordination for the advance of any great movement. We
cannot conduct our spiritual work on the prayers of a past
generation. A small number of people have anything but a
vague conception of the power of prayer; fewer still have
any real experience with that power. Prayer is our most
powerful weapon, but the one in the use of which we are the
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least trained, the one we are the most unwilling to use. The
most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.
It is not a simple matter to pray. To go through the forms of prayer is not difficult. But to pray really, this is hard work; yet it is God’s work and man’s greatest achievement. Prayer in the Old Testament is referred to as conflict and skill, exhaustive effort, wrestling. In the New Testament we find the terms striving, labouring, agony. Today ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells us, “Efforts must be made.” “Man must work and strive for communion with God. The greatness of prayer, involving as it does the whole man, in the intensest manner, is not accomplished without spiritual development.”
We must strive to attain to the condition of true prayer by caring less for the material and more for the spiritual. Prayer and a holy life are one; they mutually act and react. The stream of praying can never rise higher than the fountain of living. We must give God that place in our lives which He actually occupies in the universe. He is all in all. So far as we conform to the Psalmist’s command to his soul, “My soul wait thou only upon God,” so far have we attained to the condition of true prayer. It is relatively easy to wait upon God, but to wait upon Him only—to know that so far as our strength, usefulness and happiness are concerned, we are alone in the universe with God, is a rare and difficult achievement. But only to the degree that we attain it are we useful instruments for the working out of God’s plan.
As servants of God, ours is the task of working out that Divine plan, as it has been given to us for this age by Bahá’u’lláh. Ours is the duty to build the bridge that links heaven and earth, to bring in universal peace and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. This is the real purpose of prayer.
My Experience With Prayer
Etty Graeffe
ALTHOUGH I was bred in a religious home and have never been
an atheist, I have not, from the time I was a young girl until
very recently, believed in prayer.
Do we really believe in one God, I argued. No, we each have our own petty little conception of a personal God Who has nothing to do but to patiently listen to our selfish prayers —and to respond to them no matter how contradictory they may be to some other good Christian’s prayers. How preposterous to imagine that the world’s Creator who keeps in balance and order the whole universe could in any way be influenced by the wish, the whim, of less than a sandcorn! What illusion to suppose that God would stop the interminable flow of His laws of destiny just because an ignorant mortal had a personal desire! What lack of confidence in the all-wisdom, the knowledge of God to wish or pray for anything else than what He in His grace and bounty intends for and bestows upon us! What miserable weakness to lay at His threshold our daily little pains and anxieties, praying, imploring for ease and relief, instead of joyfully and gratefully accepting His trust in us when He gave us our own responsibility and free will, and recognizing that it is somehow up to us when things in life go wrong.
Prayers? No! To me they definitely meant a lack of faith and trust in Him Who knoweth best. “Thy will be done.”
That was my conception of prayer until not very long ago.
Then something occured, something seemingly trivial and insignificant.
[Page 166]
Something like a challenge. “How do you know
that you do not miss prayers? You have never tried!”
A short conversation, the present of a little prayer book, the positive affirmation: “Prayers do work.” Then a challenge, “You try and see.” To be challenged to pray is somewhat confounding, but I agreed that I would keep up and try until Christmas.
And I did see, long, long, before Christmas: prayers do work!
At first it was nothing but lipreading; the content of the prayers was so far away that the oriental expressions of Bahá’u’lláh, which began disturbing me later on, didn’t even enter into my consideration. In trying to get the meaning I sometimes read sentences three or four times without any understanding and without any apparent response in my soul. But I kept on, morning, noon and night.
Then I began taking a pencil and underlining the very, very few thoughts that I did understand and to which I could honestly say, Amen. And, wonder of wonders, nearly every day one or two new pencil marks adorned my little prayer book. I began praying:
“Create in me a pure heart, O my God, and renew a tranquil conscience within me.” (There had been a bad load on my mind, which, in the meantime, has turned into deep happiness.)
And I prayed: “My God, my God, Thou art my hope, my intended aim and desire!”
“O God, refresh and gladden my spirit, purify my heart, illumine my powers.”
“Make my heart overflow with love for Thy creatures.”
“Make my heart to be a receptacle of Thy love and remembrance of Thee.”
[Page 167]
“Nearness to Thee is my hope.”
And I kept repeating: “No God is there but Thee, Who hearest and art ready to answer.”
All the while I was very aware that my praying was a one-sided conversation, and God, the All-Knowing and Powerful was far, far away and beyond my reach.
But I kept on repeating: “Thou disappointest no one who hath sought thee, nor dost Thou keep back from Thee any one who hath desired thee.” And: “O God, Thou art wont to answer the prayers of all men,” until it began slowly to grow in me as a belief.
I think if you very ardently want to believe a spiritual truth and keep up fervently repeating the Creative Word, that is what always happens: it becomes for you!
From then on I knew God would hear me and would answer me—how? when?—I could wait.
Then came a day when I tried: “I lay all my affairs in Thy hand.”
I remember a friend having told me how prayers had helped him in a very critical business conflict, so I thought I too might try. This was my very first praying for a worldly good, something which did not mean life or death for me, but did mean a turning point in my life. As I set out to look for a job I said, “I have left my home trusting wholly in Thee, and committing myself to Thy care.” The matter clicked; it couldn’t have run more smoothly. But the tragi-comical part of it was that it never once occured to me that this success was due to or had anything to do with my prayers. To me this was simply good luck.
Only much later did I reflect: what had I prayed for over
and over again? “I beg of Thee to bless my affairs and satisfy
my needs.”—“I beseech Thee to aid and assist me at all times
[Page 168]
and under all conditions.”—“I lay all my affairs in Thy
hands. I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let
trouble harrass me. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge.”
And what had happened to me? My affairs had been blessed and my needs satisfied and I was happy and joyful. Was it really only good luck and just by pure chance that I had received the exact answer to what I had prayed?
Since then I have had other experiences with prayer. We are by nature often careless, not quite pure, in seemingly unimportant, trivial, every day things, bad habits like omitting to put one’s things tidily away, or answering an important but disagreeable letter, or “finding” things which do not belong to one, or telling little untruths to ease things in life. Such things never used to bother my conscience. There was no difficulty in pushing them aside and even justifying them by arguing to myself.
But when you want to talk to God you must be clean, with not ever so small sin, that you can, but do not want to change, on your mind. Otherwise the way to God is blocked. “My trespasses have kept me back from drawing nigh to Thee, and my sins have held me far from the court of Thy holiness.” I have had to get up and tidy up “inside affairs” before I was able to say my prayers. And I suddenly realized why Bahá’u’lláh advised: Whosoever wisheth to pray, let him wash his hands. . . .” Some very bad habits that I had nurtured for years, even though they might have ruined my whole life, I have thrown completely off, simply because they stood between me and prayers. I would never have imagined what deep, deep joy and happiness results from feeling clean inside and ready to talk with God.
Do I still feel my prayers as monologue? No, I do not.
Because though I do the talking, He accomplishes, He fulfills.
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Daily I become more aware of His Presence in my life. Not
as I figured and imagined, voicing His answers in commands
and advice. He voices them indeed in His Books, His Prayers,
His Hidden Words, which slowly but gradually are unveiling
their wealth and sublimity to my growing ability to understand
spiritual things. Yes, this increasing capacity, too, is His answer
to my prayers.
But even more I feel His Presence and His Guidance: every little selfishness, or impatience, or carelessness He brings to my consciousness with the desire and the prayer to overcome it.
Prayers do work. I can testify to that. I would like to put that challenge that converted me to all who do not believe in prayers: Try—and see!
“No God is there but Thee, who hearest and art ready to answer.”
LIGHT OF JUSTICE
We hope that thou wilt cause the light of justice to shine more brightly. By the righteousness of God! Justice is a powerful force. It is, above all else, the conqueror of the citadels of the hearts and souls of men, and the revealer of the secrets of the world of being, and the standard-bearer of love and bounty.
—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.
In The Army
Benjamin Kaufman
UPON HIS induction into the United States Army the recruit
furnishes a complete record of his background and qualifications.
At the same time he is asked his religious preference.
When I replied “Bahá’í Faith” at the Reception Center in
Fort Dix, N.J., eyes were raised and ears perked for it was
the first time many of them had come in contact with the
Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. As I waited in line, a young second
lieutenant beckoned to me. I approached and saluted in the
usual recruit manner. He was seated behind a desk upon
which lay the papers comprising my official record; three
privates were grouped about him. All were gazing curiously
at me. Of course I immediately realized what was in their
minds. They wished to know about my “Faith”. I was prepared
for this and so outlined the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh to
them, including the great principles He advances. The young
officer nodded and as I turned away, I heard him remark to
the privates, “Sounds O.K., men.” Already I felt that I was a
marked man and was content.
Later in the barracks quite naturally the new men inquired about the religious denominations of those whom destiny had assembled from many parts. My explanation of the Faith was favorably received. Keen interest and enthusiasm were not manifested, but the general comments led me to conclude that the average soldier welcomes the concept of universality and everything that promotes it.
A few days later, on March 14, I was ordered to Camp Livingston, Louisiana, for thirteen weeks of basic training.
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Living in a tent with five other men breeds an atmosphere
similar to that which exists in a college dormitory. When
periods of leisure arrive, or during the half hour before taps
are sounded, the conversation moves across the entire scroll
of human history. Sandwiched between sex and war, the subject
of religion finally bobs up.
Almost every soldier has some form of belief in divinity. An athiest is rare and I have yet to discover one in this camp of eighty thousand. Generally speaking, every revelation is respected, although criticism frequently is keen and brisk. As expected, I have received my full quota of it and have not lacked opportunity to present the message. There are many persons here who will not look blankly when the word “Bahá’í” is pronounced in their presence. Although the average man in Uncle Sam’s Army swears profusely and with relish, it safely can be stated that divinity is not referred to in meaness or derision. It is merely a bad habit which a simple order from the proper authority can easily and quickly break.
I have found most men here to be clean and up-right, with a sense of responsibility and justice. Revenge and hate are not uppermost in their thoughts, although the Pearl Harbor episode rankles deeply. They have accepted war with stoic resignation and a comprehension amazingly clear and balanced. They understand the role assigned to, and being played by, the United States and it would not be difficult to convince them of the Guardian’s statements in regard to the vortex into which we finally have been engulfed. Each man is aware of the great stakes being played and instinctively knows that the world will be a finer place to live in after the course of events has been resolved. From all walks of life they are in agreement on universal peace and justice.
One instance remains vivid in my memory. In my regiment
is a man who was a beggar on the lower East side of
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New York prior to his induction. When his official record was
being made up, he was asked his business. Bluntly he replied,
“Panhandler”. He speaks English poorly and writes none at
all. Through some unknown reason we struck up an acquaintance
and in writing letters to his mother back in Brooklyn,
whom he has not seen for twelve years, my hand often has
guided his. Yet this illiterate person plays an active role when
we discuss world affairs. He firmly believes that great social
and economic changes are bound to come after the war, that
they will follow chaotic conditions which in time will be
settled by some wise international arrangement, and that a
permanent solution must rest upon the brotherhood of all
mankind.
This man confesses his cultural ignorance, claims that he is evil and worthless, stoutly admits his indifference, yet what a well of knowledge he unconsciously has drunk! The Army is replete with individuals such as he.
FERTILIZING WINDS
Glorified be this Power which hath shone forth and compassed the worlds! This act of the Causer of Causes hath, when revealed, produced two results. It hath at once sharpened the swords of the infidels, and unloosed the tongues of such as have turned towards Him in His remembrance and praise. This is the effect of the fertilizing winds, . . . The whole earth is in a state of pregnancy. The day is approaching when it will have yielded its noblest fruits, . . .
—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.
Color and Human Nature
BOOK REVIEW
Garreta Busey
IN 1863 Bahá’u’lláh established His authority as the Physician of
the body politic throughout the World. He diagnosed its illness as
lack of love, pointing out unerringly the many ways in which that
illness manifests itself, and prescribing general and specific remedies.
One such remedy is the elimination of race prejudice.
In 1863 the Negroes in America were emancipated, and since that time they have made an almost incredible advance in education and achievement. But the greater their achievement, the more critical does the race problem in America become.
“Color and Human Nature”[1] makes this point apparent. The book is a scientific study of the effect of color on personality among the Negroes of Chicago, conducted by means of interviews (by colored interviewers) with 2000 adult men and women of all degrees of Negroidness in all classes within the racial group. Eight hundred cases are given in the volume, and they are intensely interesting, not only for the main conclusions which they support, but also because, as human documents, they make us understand the feelings about race held by the Negroes themselves and show us concretely the criteria set up by race barriers among them. The book should, therefore, be of great value to those who wish to bring the Bahá’í teachings to members of the colored race.
The studies made by the authors of “Color and Human Nature” lead to certain general conclusions:
1. The hard line drawn between the races, sharper now in Chicago than formerly, demonstrates the existence of an American caste system and has a perceptible effect on the personality of the Negroes in that city.
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2. Within Negro society itself, the question of color is thrown
into unnatural prominence. It plays a predominant part in class distinctions
within the race.
“The ironic conclusion of all this”, the authors point out, “is that color becomes more acute and painful in its consequences the closer the individual approximates those behavior traits and general standards of the larger society for lack of which the race is usually reproached. It is as if American society wished not only to condemn Negroes as inferior beings with unacceptable, if picturesque, modes of living, but also to punish those who change their ways and most completely accept traditional American values. The more intelligent and sensitive, the more cultured and refined a Negro may be, the more completely he assimilates and transmits the national ideals, the more seriously is he made to feel that his race, and race alone, bars him from enjoying the full rights of American citizenship. The paradox is made explicit for him in the disparity he cannot help observing between what he is taught in school about democracy and the ‘American dream’, on the one hand, and the actual discrimination with which he is confronted on the other.
“Perhaps no graver challenge than this paradox could be made to the national faith in the supremacy of individual merit or to the traditional claim that in America, if nowhere else in the world, humble origin need offer no insuperable barrier to complete success and social glorification. In other words, the significance of color in the last analysis is fateful for the dominant race in the American social scene as well as for the Negro; it places an ominous question mark after the most cherished national ideals.”
There, in the last sentence of the book, its authors point out a danger to America, now brought to a critical point by the development of the colored race. Before that development had begun, Bahá’u’lláh foresaw race prejudice as a grave danger to all mankind. The remedy which He prescribed is drastic, so drastic that none but a Divine Physician could command it and give courage to obey it. And yet there are many communities throughout the nation even now striving devotedly to achieve fuller obedience to that command, recently restated by the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith:
“A tremendous effort”, the Guardian writes, in “The Advent of
Divine Justice”, “is required by both races if their outlook, their manners,
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and conduct are to reflect, in this darkened age, the spirit and
teachings of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Casting away once and for
all the fallacious doctrine of racial superiority, with all its attendant
evils, confusion, and miseries, and welcoming and encouraging the
intermixture of races, and tearing down the barriers that now divide
them, they should endeavor, day and night, to fulfill their particular
responsibilities in the common task which so urgently faces them. Let
them . . . call to mind the warnings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and visualize,
while there is yet time, the dire consequences that must follow if this
challenging and unhappy situation that faces the entire American
nation is not definitely remedied.”
- ↑ Color and Human Nature, by W. Lloyd Warner, Buford H. Junker, and Walter A. Adams . . . American Council on Education, Washington, D. C., 1941.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
VIRGINIA MORAN EVANS
- Lord God Who madest me
- One with each wind that blows,
- One with each swaying tree,
- One with each rain-bowed rose:
- Kind God Who drew my form
- From out the pregnant clay,
- Kith of the wildest storm,
- Kin of the mildest day:
- Strong God Who cast my soul
- Into this fragile shell,
- Into this earthy howl,
- This paradise—this hell:
- My thanks for the right at last
- To stand in Thy sight and be
- One with the deathless past,
- One with eternity!
BAHÁ’Í LESSONS
The Promised Day Is Come
(A Study Outline of the Guardian’s Letter)
I. Introduction: The Promised Day of world ordeal is come, 1-16.
- A. Tempestuous nature of world calamity, 1.
- B. Impending approach prophesied, 1-2.
- C. Significance: a judgment of God, 2-5.
- 1. Only Bahá’ís understand meaning, 2.
- 2. Both divine retribution and discipline, 2-4.
- 3. Delayed through a divine respite of near a century, 4.
- 4. Primary cause: failure of mankind to heed the Message of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation, 4-16.
- a. Infamous treatment accorded the new Revelation, 5-14.
- 1. General reaction to the Faith, 5-6.
- 2. Persecution of Its three central Figures, 6-14.
- 3. Failure of mankind to protest or to acknowledge, 12-13.
- b. Dual phenomenon of the world scene: death and birth, 15-16.
- a. Infamous treatment accorded the new Revelation, 5-14.
II. World’s religious and secular leaders are primarily responsible for this retributive calamity, 16-115.
- A. Absolute sovereignty—as basis of this responsibility, 16-19.
- 1. Self-interest in own authority: cause of their denial of Bahá’u’lláh, 16-17.
- 2. Ascendancy over subjects: reason for their selection to receive direct Message, 18-19.
- B. The Call to the Kings, and the results, 20-76.
- 1. Appeals and warnings to sovereigns collectively, 21-27.
- 2. Appeals and warnings to individual rulers, 27-44.
- 3. Torrential majesty of Bahá’u’lláh’s Word, 44-48.
- 4. Dire consequences of refusals to heed Call, 48-72.
- a. Immediate reactions of rulers, 48-49.
- b. Catastrophic process of the fall of kings and kingdoms, 49-72.
- 5. Eulogy of the principle of kingship, 73-76.
- C. The Call to religious leaders, and the results, 76-115.
- 1. The accelerating process of deterioration in religious orthodoxy, 76-77.
- 2. Primary responsibility of divines of Persia, 77.
- 3. Appeals and warnings to all religions, 78-87.
- 4. Appeals and warnings to Muḥammadan divines, and results, 87-104.
- 5. Appeals and warnings to Christian clergy, and results, 104-111.
- 6. The cardinal Bahá’í truth of Progressive Revelation, 111-115.
- a. Unity and continuity, 111-114.
- b. Blessedness of goodly divines, 114-115.
III. Perversity of all mankind, is, in lesser degree, a cause of this divine retribution, 116-119.
- A. Ignoring and assailing of redemptive Message, 116.
- B. Subverting of spirit and forms of old religions, 117-120.
- 1. Enthronement of three false gods, 117-118.
- a. Incurs wrath of God, 118.
- b. Contrasted with pregnant truth of unity, 118.
- 2. Other evils and vices, 119.
- 1. Enthronement of three false gods, 117-118.
IV. Conclusion: Divine purpose of tribulations is to usher in the Golden Age, 119-129.
- A. Flames of divine justice both cleansing and creative, 119-120.
- B. Coming Golden Age: the maturity of mankind, 120-126.
- 1. Present dark stage a transition, 120-121.
- 2. Climax of process of integration in organic evolution, 122-3.
- 3. Progressive Light of Revelation as directing social evolution, 124-127.
- a. Mission of Christ, 124; b. Of Muḥammad, 124; c. Of Bahá’u’lláh, 125-7.
- C. The world moving on to its destiny, 127-129.
- 1. Interdependence an accomplished fact, 127.
- 2. Adversity hastens consummation of human unity, 127.
- 3. Consummation a gradual process through Lesser Peace to New World Order, 128-9.
- 4. Bahá’í duty: to labor, confidently, 129.
WITH OUR READERS
DID YOU all read about World
Order in our Annual Bahá’í Reports?
Over a hundred more subscribers
than a year ago. That is
good, but can we not redouble our
efforts? How fine it would be to
double our subscription list this
year. This might be one of our
teaching goals. Glancing through
the contents of last year’s World
Order we find material invaluable
to Bahá’ís which is available
in no other place and much other
stimulating material designed to
interest those who are just becoming
acquainted with the Faith. Is
not increasing our subscription list
one way of increasing our teaching
efforts?
Among the articles to appear soon in this magazine is one in which Philip Sprague tells of his mission to the grave of May Maxwell in Buenos Aires, a precious and tender record. During the next few months we plan to print a series of articles on the way in which the Bahá’í Administrative Order actually works out in Bahá’í community life. These should be most helpful to all Bahá’í communities, especially the younger ones.
Referring again to our Annual Bahá’í Reports did you also read this sentence?—“The National Spiritual Assembly of India and Burma renewed their yearly order of 70 copies monthly, by cabled instructions to New York Bankers, this while Burma was undergoing bombing by enemy forces.” And now our business manager tells us that an order for 30 additional copies has come from this same National Assembly. These orders were sent just in time for after this, she says, “We may not accept foreign orders for the duration.” Will these hundred copies of our little magazine reach their destination for another year? Let us pray that they will.
* * *
A member of one of our very
young assemblies sends this suggestion
for increasing interest in
the Bahá’í community library:
“Most people do not seek books
as their chief source of satisfaction.
To be able to awaken a
person’s curiosity about Bahá’í
books and to help him develop a
sustained interest in them is an
art that needs to be cultivated by
[Page 179]
all Bahá’ís who are trying to
spread the Cause of God. An
important technique in awakening
a person’s curiosity about
Bahá’í books is the use of an annotated
reading list. This enables
a person to select the book which
satisfies his particular need. Several
members of the ________
Spiritual Assembly are compiling
such a list, describing the contents
and style of writing in each
of the forty Bahá’í books in their
lending library.”
* * *
What is a Bahá’í? The following sentences are selected from the statement which a new believer made in her application for membership in a local community:
“I recognize that God’s grace and mercy flows continuously to mankind by progressive revelation. I believe in Bahá’u’lláh as a Manifestation of God and in His Divine Revelation; and in the Báb as His Forerunner and Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of God; and in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Son of Bahá’u’lláh, the divinely appointed Interpreter and perfect Exemplar. I am ready to accept and submit to whatsoever has been revealed by their pens. I confess that there are many things that at first sight I do not understand, but I firmly believe that the Teachings are of divine origin and therefore perfect, . . . I certainly will endeavor to acquire a more profound and thorough knowledge of the Bahá’í Teachings through reading and studying, through mingling with other Bahá’ís, participating at their meetings and through praying for enlightenment. . . . I recognize and accept the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as the Charter of the New World Order and give loyal and steadfast adherence to every clause, and unconditional obedience to the Guardian’s instructions and the decrees of the House of Justice. I am willing and eager to obey the Master’s sacred commands: ‘not to utter slander, to show forth peace and amity, rectitude of conduct, straightforwardness and harmony with all the kindreds and peoples of the world, to obey and be the well-wisher of the government of the land, regard disloyalty unto a just king as disloyalty to God Himself, and wishing evil to the government a transgression of the Cause of God.’
“It is also my desire to fulfill
the requirements of servitude in
the Bahá’í Faith and I pray for
enlightenment and efficiency so
as to, in time and with the help
of God, be able ‘to promote and
[Page 180]
teach the Cause’ of Bahá’u’lláh.
I will also abide by His laws,
such as fasting, obligatory prayers,
avoidance of alcoholic drinks,
etc.”
* * *
Our leading article this month about the Bahá’í calendar is of interest to all who are concerned about the New Age and all the changes that come as humanity begins its new life, its real life. The author, Horace Holley, has contributed many valuable articles to this magazine on various phases of the Bahá’í Faith, he has served as secretary of our National Spiritual Assembly for a number of years and was engaged in literary work before he gave all his time to the Bahá’í Cause.
Benjamin Kaufman who went from the East Orange, New Jersey, Bahá’í community to Camp Livingston in Louisiana sends us this brief account of some of his army experiences. We should like to hear from more of our young Bahá’ís.
Felipe Madrigal has his home in San José, Costa Rica, but has been visiting in the United States for some time. Such contributions as this help to link us together as Bahá’ís regardless of native land.
We hope that the two articles on prayer will be of special interest to new readers. Mrs. Etty Graeffe of Chicago, who wrote “My Experience With Prayer”, is a new Bahá’í who studied at Louhelen Bahá’í School in the summer of 1941. Mrs. Etta Steckler, a Bahá’í of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in presenting the subject of “Why Pray?” brings together a number of the teachings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Different members of the editorial staff contribute the rest of the contents of this issue. The book review by Miss Busey is most timely since the book, Color and Human Nature, recently published, sheds light on one of our country’s most urgent problems as it has developed in one of our largest cities. Miss Busey is professor of English in the University of Illinois.
Mrs. Virginia Evans, whose poetry is known to our readers, is a Dayton, Ohio, believer.
Bahá’í Lessons this month is furnished by the Study Outline Committee through Mrs. Alice Cox, who states that she had the assistance of John Ashton, a believer at Yale University, in the framing of this outline, which is simply a skeleton of the Guardian’s thought in The Promised Day Is Come, rather than a complete study aid. Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who writes the editorial, lives in Olivet, Michigan, an isolated believer at present. —THE EDITORS
BAHÁ’Í LITERATURE
Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, selected and translated
by Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’í teachings on the nature of religion,
the soul, the basis of civilization and the oneness of mankind. 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.
The Kitáb-i-Íqán, translated by Shoghi Effendi. This work (The Book of Certitude) unifies and coordinates the revealed Religions of the past, demonstrating their oneness in fulfillment of the purposes 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
The Bahá’í Faith
RECOGNIZES THE UNITY OF GOD AND HIS PROPHETS,
UPHOLDS THE PRINCIPLE OF AN UNFETTERED SEARCH AFTER TRUTH,
CONDEMNS ALL FORMS OF SUPERSTITION AND PREJUDICE,
TEACHES THAT THE FUNDAMENTAL PURPOSE OF RELIGION IS TO PROMOTE CONCORD AND HARMONY, THAT IT MUST GO HAND IN HAND WITH SCIENCE, AND THAT IT CONSTITUTES THE SOLE AND ULTIMATE BASIS OF A PEACEFUL, AN ORDERED AND PROGRESSIVE SOCIETY. . . .
INCULCATES THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES FOR BOTH SEXES,
ADVOCATES COMPULSORY EDUCATION,
ABOLISHES EXTREMES OF POVERTY AND WEALTH,
EXALTS WORK PERFORMED IN THE SPIRIT OF SERVICE TO THE RANK OF WORSHIP,
RECOMMENDS THE ADOPTION OF AN AUXILIARY INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE, . . .
PROVIDES THE NECESSARY AGENCIES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT AND SAFEGUARDING OF A PERMANENT AND UNIVERSAL PEACE.
—SHOGHI EFFENDI.