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WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
August, 1943
• Our Heritage from Bahá’u’lláh . William Kenneth Christian 145
• Greater Than Equality, Editorial . . . . . Horace Holley 156
• Prayers Revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá . . . . . . ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 158
• Common Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G. A. Shook 163
• In the Ocean of Thy Love, Poem . . . Mary McClennen 168
• This New World Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shoghi Effendi 169
• His Gift of Mystery, Poem . . . . . . . . . . Horace Holley 171
• Unity Among Individuals . . . . . . Elizabeth P. Hackley 172
• Awakening . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . Kathleen M. Runnell 176
• With Our Readers . . . . 178
FIFTEEN CENTS
GOD’S PURPOSE IS NONE OTHER THAN TO USHER IN, IN WAYS HE ALONE CAN BRING ABOUT, AND THE FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF WHICH HE ALONE CAN FATHOM, THE GREAT, THE GOLDEN AGE OF A LONG-DIVIDED, A LONG-AFFLICTED HUMANITY. ITS PRESENT STATE, INDEED EVEN ITS IMMEDIATE FUTURE, IS DARK, DISTRESSINGLY DARK. ITS DISTANT FUTURE, HOWEVER, IS RADIANT, GLORIOUSLY RADIANT—SO RADIANT THAT NO EYE CAN VISUALIZE IT.
—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, Alice Simmons Cox, Horace Holley, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick.
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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 1943 by Bahá’í Publishing Committee. Title registered at U. S. Patent Office.
AUGUST, 1943, VOLUME IX, NUMBER 5
WORLD ORDER
THE BAHÁ’Í MAGAZINE
VOLUME IX AUGUST, 1943 NUMBER 5
OUR Heritage from Bahá’u’lláh
William Kenneth Christian
BAHÁ’U’LLÁH HAS PROVIDED A FRAMEWORK FOR ALL KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH
MORE THAN half a century has now passed since that day in 1892 when the physical presence of Bahá’u’lláh was removed from us. In the interval which separates us from that date, His Faith has encompassed the planet. “From Iceland to Tasmania, from Vancouver to the China Sea spreads the radiance and extend the ramifications of this world-enfolding System, this many-hued and firmly-knit Fraternity, infusing into every man and woman it has won to its cause a faith, a hope, and a vigor that a wayward generation has long lost, and is powerless to recover. They who preside over the immediate destinies of this troubled world, they who are responsible for its chaotic state, its fears, its doubts, its miseries, will do well, in their bewilderment, to fix their gaze and ponder in their hearts upon the evidences of this saving grace of the Almighty that lies Within their reach—a grace that can ease their burdens, resolve their perplexities, and illuminate their path.” (World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 201)
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Might it not profit us to regard briefly certain aspects of
the heritage which Bahá’u’lláh has left us? For such reflection
can bring us nearer to His Spirit and deepen our appreciation
for the great vistas of understanding which He has
opened to the human heart and mind.
It is appropriate to mention first the great beauty and truth which His Pen has unfolded. In a letter which Bahá’u’lláh wrote to His youngest son we can see how the basic truths of human relationship have been clothed in moving poetic imagery. “Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. . . Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. . . . ” (Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 285)
The very titles of many of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings are indicative of the inner beauty which permeated His mind— The Book of Certitude, The Hidden Words, and The Seven Valleys. In The Seven Valleys is depicted dramatically the story of the spiritual struggle and search of every soul to find the underlying reality and purpose of life. Man is the lover in search of His Beloved. He journeys over great mountains of difficulties and, descending, crosses deep valleys of tests and trials. The names of the various valleys indicate the growth in consciousness of the individual—Search, Love, Knowledge, Unity, Contentment, Wonderment, and True Poverty. And Bahá’u’lláh symbolizes the inner experience by showing how the individual travels in each valley—as on “the steed of patience”, on “the steed of pain”.
Many of us have wondered how great was the extent of
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the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, knowing that His pen was prolific
during the years of enforced imprisonment and that much
remained to be translated into English. The Guardian gave
us an answer to this in a recent letter, when he wrote: “In a
hundred volumes, the repositories of priceless precepts, mighty
laws, unique principles, impassioned exhortations, reiterated
warnings, amazing prophecies, sublime invocations, and weighty
commentaries, the Bearer of such a message has proclaimed,
as no Prophet before Him has done, the Mission with which
God had intrusted Him.” (The Promised Day Is Come, p. 4.)
Those who have arisen in any way to promulgate these truths have experienced the confirming power of assistance which Bahá’u’lláh promised to His sincere servants. “Verily, We behold you from Our realm of glory, and shall aid whosoever shall arise for the triumph of Our Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high and a company of Our favored angels.” (Gleanings, p. 139)
Reestablished in human consciousness is the truth upheld
by every Manifestation in every Dispensation: that God confirms
those who obey and serve Him. And Bahá’u’lláh has
made clear that the confirming power of God surrounds every
humble act of servitude, as readily as those deeds of glamorous
achievement. “Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the
place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the
refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the
sea, and the island, and the meadow where mention of God
hath been made, and His praise glorified.” (The Advent of
Divine Justice, p. 70) The firm and radiant faith of the
thousands of early martyrs, the patience and joy with which
the believers in the Near Eastern countries have suffered
periods of imprisonment, the audacity of the believers in upholding
the oneness of mankind in areas of the earth where
racial prejudice is rampant, the steady devotion in spite of
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fewness of numbers, the constant stream of pioneer teachers
and their triumphs over tremendous obstacles—these are some
indications of the confirming power of Bahá’u’lláh which is
part of our heritage. And surely we should add the experiences
in the life of all Bahá’ís who become, as they grow in
understanding of the Faith, living witnesses to the power of
God in this age.
As we approach the intellectual elements in the Faith, we find a basis for true education. A truly educated man is a person of deep compassion, of ready understanding, of universal vision—a person who seeks and obeys truth, humble before God, dedicated to divine justice, and animated by the spirit of service. (But how rare such people are!) The modern emphasis on materialism and the constant increase in specialization have caused our educational system to produce fewer and fewer people who can be called “educated”. We have substituted a narrow “training” for education.
But the Prophet of God in every age of history is the real Educator, for He trains the character and spirit; and this training results in the courtesy, the ethics, the social idealism, the arts and sciences which have been the intellectual and spiritual glory of every culture and civilization. Bahá’u’lláh, as the Chosen Messenger of God in our time, stands in relation to the entire modern world as the real Educator. He has restored a dynamic belief in God, made clear again the foundations of morality, and given us a universal vision transcending racial, religious, nationalistic, and class bounds.
In fact, the scope and depth of Bahá’u’lláh’s writings is
such that He has established a framework for all knowledge
and truth. This last is a tremendous claim which only a careful
study of the Bahá’í writings will make clear. But one or
two points will illustrate it. In spite of some liberalism, for
all practical purposes the older faiths of the world push ruthlessly
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aside all beauty and truth which has not come exclusively
from their own Revelator. Rarely do the exponents
of any culture seek for values outside their own limitations.
The vision of human evolution which Bahá’u’lláh has set forth
takes into account, and gives fair appraisal to, every religion
and every culture. And His Faith acclaims science as a co-partner
with religion in alleviating the problems of man’s life
upon this planet.
But this is not all. The object is not solely to recognize “good” in other faiths, but to bring to social fruition the vision of a Great Society held commonly by all the Prophets. “The Faith standing identified with the name of Bahá’u’lláh disclaims any intention to belittle any of the Prophets gone before Him, to whittle down any of their teachings, to obscure, however slightly, the radiance of their Revelations, to oust them from the hearts of their followers, to abrogate the fundamentals of their doctrines, to discard any of their revealed Books, or to suppress the legitimate aspirations of their adherents. Repudiating the claim of any religion to be the final revelation of God to man, disclaiming finality for His own Revelation, Bahá’u’lláh inculcates the basic principle of the relativity of religious truth, the continuity of Divine Revelation, the progressiveness of religious experience. His aim is to widen the basis of all revealed religions and to unravel the mysteries of their scriptures. He insists on the unqualified recognition of the unity of their purpose, restates the essential verities they enshrine, coordinates their functions, distinguishes the essential and the authentic from the non-essential and spurious in their teachings, separates the God-given truths from the priest-prompted superstitions, and on this as a basis proclaims the possibility, and even prophesies the inevitability, of their unification, and the consummation of their highest hopes.” (The Promised Day, p. 112)
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Bahá’u’lláh has given us an understanding of the progressive
revelation of religious truth—by unfolding the spiritual
significance of all the symbols in the various sacred scriptures;
by showing the identity of purpose in the Mission of all the
Prophets of God; and by restating, for our time, the essential
purpose of religion.
Bahá’u’lláh has given us the means to understand the religions of the past. Questions which have puzzled many generations of sincere men, which have been the cause of sectarianism and religious bitterness and bloodshed, He has made clear by expounding for us the meaning of progressive revelation. “In every age and century, the purpose of the Prophets of God and their chosen ones hath been none other but to affirm the spiritual significance of the terms ‘life’, ‘resurrection’, and ‘judgment’.” (Íqán, p. 120) Especially in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Bahá’u’lláh shows how the spiritual symbols of all religions, if taken literally produce confusion and delusion, if understood as means for conveying spiritual values and universal principles, produce a significant oneness in the whole panorama of religious history.
Beginning with the simple and unchallengeable premise
that there is but one God, Bahá’u’lláh cuts through the mouldy
crusts of superstition and reveals the essential purpose for
which each Prophet taught humanity. “God’s purpose in sending
His Prophets unto men is twofold. The first is to liberate
the children of men from the darkness of ignorance, and
guide them to the light of true understanding. The second
is to insure the peace and tranquility of mankind, and provide
all the means by which they can be established. The Prophets
of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster
the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the
spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided
humanity.” (Gleanings, pp. 79-80) With piercing clarity,
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Bahá’u’lláh shows how each Prophet reshapes the social principles
and laws to make them suitable for a new age, restates
the elements of faith and obedience to the will of God, upholds
a single and high standard of moral conduct, is always
denied by the grasping literalness of the priesthood, and
triumphs through the influence in human lives of the confirming
power which God has bestowed upon Him.
The restatement of the purpose of religion for the individual can be found in a sentence from one of Bahá’u’lláh’s prayers: “I bear Witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to Worship Thee.” The knowledge of God comes through the Manifestation acting as the divine Intermediary. To follow the teachings of the Manifestation is to obey the will of God and “to know” Him. To worship God, the individual must strive to reflect in all the actions of his life the divine attributes which the Manifestation has taught. And Bahá’u’lláh has disclosed great perspectives in emphasizing this spiritual purpose of life; for death, He explains to us, is the real birth into the worlds of God. We need to acquire in this life the attributes of God since these are the sense organs of the spiritual existence.
Writing of the social purpose of religion, Bahá’u’lláh
declared: “Religion is the greatest of all means for the establishment
of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment
of all that dwell therein. The weakening of the pillars
of religion hath strengthened the hands of the ignorant and
made them bold and arrogant. Verily I say, whatsoever hath
lowered the lofty station of religion hath increased the waywardness
of the wicked, and the result cannot be but anarchy.”
(The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 186.) Two specific
methods have been followed by Bahá’u’lláh to insure the
social fruition of His Message. First, He has established a
Covenant with us, emphasized and explained the principle
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of unity, and provided for the institution of interpretation,
through which the unbroken unity of the Faith is assured.
Thus the tragedy which engulfed Christianity and Islám,
where no clear-cut basis for continuity and unity existed, has
been averted. By creating a definite point of unity, Bahá’u’lláh
set up a form through which His Spirit could function in the
evolution and triumph of His Faith.
The second method used by Bahá’u’lláh is the prototype for World Order outlined in His teachings. We find here a new pattern for a community center. The House of Worship, beautiful as the people can afford, expressive of the unity of religion, a place of beauty for the meditation and prayer of all, without the elaborate ritualism and spiritual domination of a professional priesthood—such an edifice, He declared, should be the spiritual heart and center of each community. Associated with this are to be the buildings of community service and education—the application of religious values— hospitals, schools, scientific laboratories and the like. What a practical, new vision for a humanity jaded by strife, sore poisoned by hatred!
Fruitless would be the search for a set of principles better suited to the world’s needs than those basic principles of Bahá’u’lláh emphasized by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And the majestic, embracing principle of justice! And the Houses of Justice, freely elected, whose members are called to conduct themselves “as the trustees of the Merciful among men”!
Reborn in the hearts of Bahá’ís is the belief in the Will of
God. In the triumphant days of Christianity, the vision of
God’s Kingdom upon the earth was the theme of heroic living
and ardent endeavor. But slowly this belief faded and other,
lesser goals were substituted as the end of human striving.
Bahá’u’lláh has re-established, as the consummation of human
life, the creation of a civilization which will reflect the glory
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of the attributes of God. It is this social goal—a New World
Order, “divine in origin, all-embracing in scope”—for which
Bahá’ís labor and which they are supremely confident constitutes
“the coming of age of the human race”.
From dedication to this belief springs a joy in the heart that softens the blow of sorrow, lights up this night of fear and hatred, and knits together all the elements of being.
In the life of Bahá’u’lláh we find an example of triumph in suffering. It is as if He bore and triumphed over the sufferings which were, not long after His earthly life had ended, to afflict countless millions in this modern world madness. He knew the pangs of hunger, calling it “divine nourishment”. He knew the loss of loved ones. Exile and imprisonment, jeering, stoning mobs, torture, betrayal, disgrace, the destitution that follows mob-pillage—these were His lot for years. Yet He knew and proclaimed, with sovereign boldness while a helpless prisoner, that “God is greater than every great one”, that the Hand of God is over all things. The needle of His heart pointed unerring to the pole of God’s Will. Even as He judged the world, so also He offered it redemption.
As if the world’s ingratitude had not been amply repaid in love and knowledge, Bahá’u’lláh bestowed yet another gift, extending in earth-time and in consciousness certain features of His unique and divine mission. He appointed His eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as Center of His Covenant, designated Him as the Interpreter of His Teachings, and the Exemplar of the Faith.
From a childhood and early manhood linked intimately with
the calamities thrust upon His Father through forty years
of imprisonment, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá demonstrated the victory of
the Faith over all obstacles. Whether as a boy facing jeering
and hostile crowds or the companion of His Father Whom He
early recognized as God’s Promised Messenger; whether as
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the servant of the sick in ‘Akká’s prison-barracks, the defender
of the unjustly accused, or the denouncer of evil; whether as
the friend of Haifa’s poor or the guest of the wealthy and
renowned; whether in prison or in the capitals of the west—
in all the varied circumstances of modern life—‘Abdu’l-Bahá
showed us, by deed and word, the beauty, the unifying and
transforming power of the Bahá’í life.
As He clarified the meaning of the inner life in this great Faith, He also labored to erect that framework of the new society, set forth by Bahá’u’lláh and bringing into actuality the principle of divine justice. Crowning more than seventy years of active service, stands ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament. This is the seal of perpetual unity in God’s unbreakable Covenant. It directs the believers in the erection of the Structure designed by the Divine Architect. It appointed the first Guardian of the Faith—Shoghi Effendi.
In these twenty-one years of unparalleled leadership, the Guardian has been the expander-of-horizons for the believers, leading us away from the simple idea of the Cause as a type of liberal church to the dynamic conception of the Bahá’í Faith as the ultimate foundation for a world civilization. He has been a balance wheel, checking extreme tendencies in one direction or another.
He has given us a demonstration of applied justice, mercilessly exposing evil whether it be the quality of an individual, a group, or a nation; upholding and championing truths which a self-centered world has trampled underfoot. And in this justice, we can see the over-shadowing guidance of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Whose principles and laws constitute the blue-print for the Guardian’s herculean labors.
He has been an example of patience, always acknowledging
the value of services rendered and constantly encouraging
us to develop the inner capacity for greater achievement. And
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how understanding he has been, shedding a warm love upon
us in our perplexities and sorrows!
He has effaced his own personality and turned us steadily to the Source of God’s Will; year by year, letter by letter, he has deepened us in a knowledge of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings. “This is the Day in which God’s most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things.” (Gleanings, p. 6)
“The time fore-ordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the earth is now come. 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 the land thereof, are filled with the glory of His Revelation. Happy is the man that pondereth in his heart that which hath been revealed in the Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Meditate upon this, O ye beloved of God, and let your ears be 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.” (Gleanings, pp. 12-13)
Greater Than Equality
REPETITION and coincidence appear in the course of history, not because events and situations duplicate themselves, but because attitudes persist, and the persistence of an attitude, whether for good or evil, marks a certain similarity upon situations, as the wind, blowing from the same direction and with the same force, produces the same wave pattern upon the sea.
Thus the man of truth can consider history less as actions done and facts recorded than as opportunities which are presented more than once, or as punishments which in our blindness we repeatedly incur.
There are days in human destiny which focus conflicts of forces which have been gathering momentum and acquiring direction for a generation, for a century, even for a cycle of time. The hard and ironlike conventionalized process of society becomes, in such days, a molten, a malleable mass laid upon the anvil of man’s collective will, to be shaped anew ere it harden again when the day has gone.
That meeting of nations, races and civilizations which took place, in the persons of the representatives of many governments, after the European War, in 1918, to conclude a war and establish a peace, expressed such an occasion when the doors of fate swing open for men to enter and determine their own future. The message itself lay like an island in the sea of time, immersed in five conditions and five influences. First, the agony and destructiveness of the war itself; second, the class revolutions proceeding in eastern Europe; third, the rise of imperialistic power and policy in the Far East; fourth, the supra-national character of industry; fifth, the widespread yearning for peace and justice on earth.
This combination of forces made possible any solution of the social problem which that meeting might have wished to adopt in general agreement. The hour was fluid, responsive to whatever mold could emerge from the soul of man.
What actually happened was an indecisive arrangement not
sufficiently firm to resist the implacable will of groups whose decision
was not a matter of rational agreement but an act of desperation
divorced from any sources of spiritual hope. While the nations
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temporized, minority classes seized the initiative and entered upon
a course of predatory action aimed at the overthrow and ruin of the
society which had caused these classes to suffer want, ignominy and
oppression. Their predatory action seized three powerful governments
in Europe, and made of the function of government a system for the
expropriation of the property of its own citizens as the first step toward
the extension of the system to the world.
The second and greater war signalizes the degree to which the world has been compelled to combine in resistance to that threat.
Meanwhile, on December 17, 1919, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in a letter addressed to a group of prominent Europeans_organized under the title of “Central Organization for a Durable Peace”, brought into human consciousness the spiritual truth which alone could have prevented the sinister trend in government culminating in universal war.
“Among the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh,” He declared, “is voluntary sharing of one’s property with others among mankind. This voluntary sharing is greater than equality, and consists in this, that man should not prefer himself to others, but rather should sacrifice his life and property for others. But this should not be introduced by coercion so that it becomes a law and man is compelled to follow it. Nay, rather, man should voluntarily and of his own choice sacrifice his life and property for others, and spend willingly for the poor, just as is done in Persia among the Bahá’ís.”
Here stands the formula of the Spirit, the way of the soul, the meeting of mystical and social truth in the heart of man. It is the formula which has preserved the basis of human existence in the family from the beginning of time. In this world, under divine destiny, what we sacrifice for we can retain, and what we exploit falls to ruin and drags us in the dust. Our conception of property is evil, not because property is evil but because our hearts are evil. Property we have made a weapon in a war of classes rather than an instrument for the manifestation of one spirit of confidence and fellowship among all races and peoples. Now soon the day of greater social readjustment will come. The future will cry out with the voices of the dead and the voices of the unborn. May the world this time go the whole way of peace, and not try to cut a path through a jungle as we did in 1918.—H. H.
Prayers Revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
PRAYERS FOR AMERICA
O THOU KIND LORD! This gathering is turning to Thee. These hearts are radiant with Thy love. These minds and spirits are exhilarated by the message of Thy glad tidings. O God! Let this American democracy become glorious in spiritual degrees even as it has aspired to material degrees, and render this just government victorious. Confirm this revered nation to upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity, to promulgate the “Most Great Peace”, to become thereby most glorious and praiseworthy among the nations of the world. O God! This American nation is worthy of Thy favors and deserving of Thy mercy. Make it precious and near to Thee through Thy bounty and bestowal.
O God! O Thou Who art the Confirmer of every just power and equitable empire in eternal glory, everlasting power, continuance, steadfastness, firmness and greatness! Strengthen by the abundance of Thy mercy every government which acts rightly towards its subjects and every dominion under whose flag the poor and weak find protection.
We ask Thee by Thy holiness and bounty to pour out Thy blessing upon this government, which has stretched its tent over citizens from every land, that its inhabitants, its industries, its territories may be penetrated by justice.
O God! strengthen its executives, give authority and influence
to its word and utterance, protect its territories and dominions,
guard its reputation, make its ideals to echo throughout
the world, . . . and exalt its principles by Thy conquering
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power and wonderful might throughout the kingdoms of
creation.
Thou art the Confirmer of whomsoever Thou willest. Verily Thou art the Powerful and the Mighty!
PRAYERS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
In the Name of the Lord!
O Lord, my God and my Haven in my distress! My Shield and my Shelter in my woes! My Asylum and Refuge in time of need and in my loneliness my Companion! In my anguish my Solace, and in my solitude a loving Friend. The Remover of the pangs of my sorrows and the Pardoner of my sins!
Wholly unto Thee do I turn, fervently imploring Thee with all my heart, my mind and my tongue, to shield me from all that runs counter to Thy will, in this, the Cycle of Thy Divine Unity, and to cleanse me of all defilement that will hinder me from seeking, stainless and unsullied, the shade of the tree of Thy grace.
Have mercy, O Lord, on the feeble, make whole the sick, and quench the burning thirst.
Gladden the bosom wherein the fire of Thy love doth smolder and set it aglow with the flame of Thy celestial love and spirit.
Robe the Tabernacles of Divine Unity with the vesture of holiness and set upon my head the crown of Thy favor.
Illumine my face with the radiance of the Orb of Thy bounty and graciously aid me in ministering at Thy holy threshold.
Make my heart overflow with love for Thy creatures and
grant that I may become the sign of Thy mercy, the token of
Thy grace, the promoter of concord amongst Thy loved ones,
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devoted unto Thee, uttering Thy commemoration, and forgetful
of self but ever mindful of what is Thine.
O God! my God! Stay not from me the gentle gales of Thy pardon and grace and deprive me not of the wellsprings of Thine aid and favor.
’Neath the shade of Thy protecting wings let me nestle, and cast upon me the glance of Thine all-protecting eye.
Loose my tongue to laud Thy name amidst Thy people, that my voice may be raised in great assemblies, and from my lips may stream the flood of Thy praise.
Thou art, in all truth, the Gracious, the Glorified, the Mighty, the Omnipotent!
Lord! Pitiful are we, grant us Thy favor, poor, bestow upon us a share from the ocean of Thy wealth; needy, do Thou satisfy us; abased, give us Thy glory. The birds of the air and the beasts of the fields receive their meat each day from Thee, and all beings partake of Thy care and lovingkindness.
Deprive not this feeble one of Thy wondrous grace, and vouchsafe by Thy might unto this helpless soul Thy bounty.
Give us our daily bread and grant Thy increase in the necessities of life; that we may be dependent on none other but Thee, may commune wholly with Thee, may walk in Thy ways and declare Thy mysteries.
Thou art almighty and loving and the Provider of all mankind.
O my Lord! Thou knowest that the people are encircled
with pain and calamities and are environed with hardships and
troubles. Every trial doth attack man and every dire adversity
doth assail him like unto the assault of a serpent. There is
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no shelter and asylum for him except under the wing of Thy
protection, preservation, guard and custody.
O Thou the Merciful One! O my Lord! Make Thy protection my armory, Thy preservation my shield, humbleness before the door of Thy Oneness my guard, and Thy custody and defense my fortress and my abode. Preserve me from the suggestions of myself and desire and guard me from every sickness, trial, difficulty and ordeal.
Verily, Thou art the Protector, the Guardian, the Preserver, the Sufficer, and verily Thou art the Merciful of the Most Merciful!
O Lord! I have turned my face unto Thy kingdom of oneness and am drowned in the sea of Thy mercy! O Lord, enlighten my sight by beholding Thy lights in this dark night and make me happy With the wine of Thy love in this wonderful age! O Lord! make me hear Thy call and open before my face the doors of Thy heaven, so that I may see the light of Thy glory and become attracted to Thy beauty!
Verily, Thou art the Giver, the Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving!
He is the Compassionate, the All-Bountiful!
O God, my God! Thou seest me, Thou knowest me; Thou
art my Haven and my Refuge. None have I sought nor any
will I seek save Thee, no path have I trodden nor any will
I tread but the path of Thy love. In darksome night of
despair, mine eye turneth expectant and full of hope to the
morn of Thy boundless favor, and at the hour of dawn my
drooping soul is refreshed and strengthened in remembrance
of Thy beauty and perfection. He Whom the grace of Thy
mercy aideth, though he be but a drop, shall become the
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boundless ocean, and the merest atom which the outpouring
of Thy lovingkindness assisteth, shall shine even as the radiant
star.
Shelter under Thy protection, O Thou Spirit of Purity, Thou Who art the All-Bountiful Provider, this enthralled, enkindled servant of Thine. Aid him in this world of being to remain steadfast and firm in Thy love and grant that this broken-winged bird may attain a refuge and shelter in Thy Divine Nest, that abideth upon the Celestial Tree.
Intone, O My servant, the verses of God that have been received by thee, as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him, that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul, and attract the hearts of all men. Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb. Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise its influence upon his soul. Thus have the mysteries of the Revelation of God been decreed by virtue of the Will of Him Who is the Source of power and wisdom.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH
Common Prayer
G. A. Shook
PRAYER is apparently a very simple matter but the history of religion shows that, like the concept of God or the belief in immortality, it has slowly evolved.
Its development might be divided into three stages.
1. Primitive prayer is free, spontaneous and vigorous but it is always dominated with the idea that man can change God’s will.
2. Highly civilized man realizes that God’s will is more important than his own but he still believes that man knows how to approach God through prayer. In this stage man discovered that formulated prayers of highly gifted people are more effective for public worship than spontaneous prayers. Since the Reformation, however, there has been no uniformity of belief on this critical point.
3. As we study the revealed prayers in the Bahá’í writings we become cognizant of a much higher stage of devotion. Man’s approach to God in this day is through the revealed Word. “Intone, O My servant, the verses of God that have been received by thee, . . .” (Gleanings, p. 295)
REVEALED PRAYER
Revelation never destroys but rather fulfills the deepest aspirations of man and yet it is never eclectic. The Bahá’í writings are replete with prayers which cover the entire range of human longing and devotion. As we read and meditate upon these prayers we are forced to admit that we, the creatures of God, do not know how to supplicate to God. In the obligatory prayers, which are recited daily, we find affirmations like the following:
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“Too high art Thou for the praise of those who are nigh
to Thee to ascend unto the heaven of Thy nearness, or for the
birds of the hearts of them who are devoted to Thee to attain
to the door of Thy gate.”
The most effective supplication is manifestly that which has been revealed for us.
“I render Thee thanks, O Thou who hast lighted Thy fire within my soul, and cast the beams of Thy light into my heart, that Thou hast taught Thy servants how to make mention of Thee, and revealed unto them the ways whereby they can supplicate Thee, through Thy most holy and exalted tongue, and Thy most august and precious speech.” (Prayers and Meditations, p. 283)
If we are unable to express ourselves adequately in our private devotions how can we presume to offer a public prayer?
ORIGIN OF COMMON PRAYER
Before the Babylonian exile public worship in Israel was not unlike that found among primitive peoples but prophets like Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah were constantly demanding reforms. Restricting the offering of sacrifice to Jerusalem eliminated polytheism but it did not do away with the old sacrificial cult, instead it emphasized it. When, however, the Israelites found themselves in a foreign land far removed from their beloved city with its central sanctuary, the offering of sacrifice was out of the question. But the desire to worship the God of their fathers was no less great. Out of this apparent calamity emerged a pure spiritual congregational worship free from ritual.
This simple service consisted of the reading of Scripture and prayer.
To be sure, after the exile there was a return to ritual,
more complicated than before, but the idea of a “house of
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prayer” in which the common prayer was central was never
lost. For a time then the old sacrificial cult and the new
spiritual worship existed side by side.
The early Christians worshiped in the Synagogue but they also had their own eucharistic service in the houses of the believers. The break with the Palestinian church finally led to a Christian liturgy. The Scripture reading and prayer were combined with the eucharistic meal and out of this fusion came the Christian mass.
The early Christians were, however, not bound by formulae.
THE IDEA OF COMMON PRAYER
It is interesting to note here that in this common prayer of the primitive church one member of the congregation prays and the rest follow with devotion. That is, the prayer is recited by one person.
At first anyone might offer the prayer and the prayers were free and spontaneous. However, the personal religious experience of an individual can never be valid for the group. Only a very few gifted people ever approach the ideal of pure and spontaneous prayer and so in time, officials, bishops and presbyters, recited the prayer in the name of the assembled congregation. Here again, in the beginning the prayer of the official or liturgist was quite free and spontaneous, but fixed forms began to appear in the third century and by the fifth century we find obligatory forms of prayer.
But the spirit lived on for many centuries, for these fixed
forms were really very effective and they awakened in the
devout soul the feeling of fellowship. As mentioned above
the spontaneity which the individual feels in his private devotions
cannot be carried over to the group. For as individuals
we are not pure channels of divine revelation and our
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enthusiasm, unless it is the result of careful thought and meditation,
is not necessarily valuable for the group. Under great
stress, of course, many members of a group may be inspired
but we are speaking here of a form of worship. We have
discovered as the early church discovered that the personal
experience even of those “possessors of the spirit”, those endowed
with charismatic gifts, cannot be the raison d’être for
regular meetings of prayer. The experience gradually weakens.
The liturgical prayer, however, after it has become a
part of the religious life of the community, has great stability.
We should observe another point about common prayer in the early church. The reading of Scripture and the sermon were to prepare the congregation for the prayer. When public worship became a matter of education and instruction, prayer became secondary.
Common prayer, like the private prayer, is a communion with God. It is something more than the combined prayers of the many. The congregation is in communion with God. Every member of this spiritual brotherhood is an integral part of an ideal fellowship and it is the fellowship that is calling upon God. And yet, in its effect upon the individual it is something more than a collective religious experience.
The main purpose of common prayer was edification or awakening and this was accomplished by expressions of adoration, praise and thanksgiving. The congregation, however, is not only grateful for the blessings of God, it is even mindful of His majesty and power.
COMMON PRAYER AND THE REFORM MOVEMENTS
Every reform movement has tried to recapture the spontaneity
of the early church. The Reformation naturally rebelled
against prescribed rules for prayer and the English
Independents went so far as to maintain that a formulated
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prayer was blasphemous. The Evangelical sects did, of course,
free public worship from all sensuous symbols but the sobriety
and austerity of many of these reformers, unwittingly, perhaps,
did about as much to “imprison the spirit” as did the
statutory liturgy.
After all the return was not so much to the primitive church as to the synagogal worship of Judaism.
The reform sects overlooked two important points.
1. The average individual needs something objective to uplift him. Devotion, while not prayer, is necessary to prayer, and lofty, majestic architecture, the most impersonal of all the arts, is a great stimulus to devotion. Images must go but not temples.
2. Again the spirit of man, which they desired to free from formulated prayer, needs discipline and guidance and these must come through the revealed Word.
This brief sketch may help us to realize that for a long, a very long time, man has been struggling to establish an ideal of congregational worship. In general there are two schools. One believes that we should adhere to the liturgy of the church Fathers, which has been hallowed by tradition, and the other stands for free, spontaneous prayer.
How can we have a common prayer that is free from the sterility of formulization and the apathy that invariably results from unrestrained spontaneity?
THE IDEAL OF COMMON PRAYER
As we observe the unfoldment of the Bahá’í dispensation
we see that it is progressing toward an ideal of public worship.
In the Bahá’í temple the “house of prayer” has been realized.
In this temple only the revealed Word will be heard. Even
now in the Bahá’í communities all over the world the revealed
prayers from the Bahá’í writings are used exclusively in the
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group meetings. One member of the group reads while the
rest follow with devotion.
The creative Word of the prophet of God is the highest source of edification and awakening and naturally it is free from all those elements that have engendered apathy and indifference.
“None can befittingly praise Thee except Thine own self and such as are like unto Thee.” (Prayers and Meditations, p. 297)
IN THE OCEAN OF THY LOVE
Mary McClennen
- In the ocean of Thy love, Oh Lord, my adored One,
- I am cradled tonight. Thy love contains me.
- I am helpless, held in the winged waves of Thy love.
- Oh let me never be washed to the shores of dry sand!
- Oh let me never feel the weight of my body again!
- Thy bliss has overcome me—My whole is given over to Thee.
- No limbs have I to hate or to desire or to possess with,
- But am held in the depths of Thy waters,
- Moved by Thy will.
- In the ocean of Thy love, Oh Lord, my adored One,
- I am cradled tonight.
- Tomorrow on the dry sands, far from Thy loving Name
- I may stand and long with an aching breast
- To reach Thee,
- To hurl myself into the midmost heart of Thy Bounty!
This New World Order
THE CONTRAST between the accumulating evidences of steady consolidation that accompany the rise of the Administrative Order of the Faith of God, and the forces of disintegration which batter at the fabric of a travailing society, is as clear as it is arresting. Both within and outside the Bahá’í world the signs and tokens which, in a mysterious manner, are heralding the birth of that World Order, the establishment of which must signalize the Golden Age of the Cause of God, are growing and multiplying day by day. No fair-minded observer can any longer fail to discern them. . . He can, if he be fair in his judgment, recognize in the chain of events which proclaim on the one hand the irresistible march of the institutions directly associated with the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and foreshadow on the other the downfall of those powers and principalities that have either ignored or opposed it—he can recognize in them all evidences of the operation of God’s all-pervasive Will, the shaping of His perfectly ordered and world-embracing Plan. . .
This New World Order, whose promise is enshrined in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, whose fundamental principles have been enunciated in the writings of the Center of His Covenant, involves no less than the complete unification of the entire human race. This unification should conform to such principles as would directly harmonize with the spirit that animates, and the laws that govern the operation of, the institutions that already constitute the structural basis of the Administrative Order of His Faith.
No machinery falling short of the standard inculcated by the
Bahá’í Revelation, and at variance with the sublime pattern ordained
in His teachings, which the collective efforts of mankind may yet
devise can ever hope to achieve anything above or beyond that “Lesser
Peace” to which the Author of our Faith has Himself alluded in His
writings. “Now that ye have refused the Most Great Peace,” He,
admonishing the kings and rulers of the earth, has written, “hold ye
fast unto this the Lesser Peace, that haply ye may in some degree
better your own condition and that of your dependents. Expatiating
on this lesser Peace, He thus addresses in that same Tablet the rulers
of the earth: “Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no
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more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your territories and
dominions . . . Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby will the
tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find rest,
if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take
up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught
but manifest justice.”
The Most Great Peace, on the other hand, as conceived by Bahá’u’lláh—a peace that must inevitably follow as the practical consequence of the spiritualization of the world and the fusion of all its races, creeds, classes and nations—can rest on no other basis, and can be preserved through no other agency, except the divinely appointed ordinances that are implicit in the World Order that stands associated with His Holy Name. In His Tablet, revealed almost seventy years ago to Queen Victoria, Bahá’u’lláh, alluding to this Most Great Peace, has declared: “That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and the mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error. . . .” “It beseemeth all men in this Day,” He, in another Tablet, asserts, “to take firm hold on the Most Great Name, and to establish the unity of all mankind. There is no place to flee to, no refuge that any one can seek, except Him.”
—SHOGHI EFFENDI, 1936
This is the fifth in a symposium being conducted in this magazine on the
general subject of “The Evolution of Peace.”
His Gift of Mystery
HORACE HOLLEY
- Lift high your head above this sodden earth,
- O self-contemptuous, abject friend!
- Have you been too envious of the queenly rose
- And sought in ruin a hiding place
- To thrust an undistinguished waste of weed?
- Have you thought to publish in moving dust
- An indictment of God, since by your miscreated self
- You feed your envy and renew your pain?
- Such is the essence of your self-contempt:
- That it is God and not yourself despised.
- At your creation did His purpose fail?
- Are you alone betrayed? Hence the sharp goad
- Impelling you to creep in darkness, with things forgotten,
- To things undone.
- The death of faith is darkness where eyes go blind.
- Lift high your head to the heavenly vision!
- Where the sun shines serene search deeper
- The ancient anguish, the tangled path,
- The gloomy flight.
- He has not wasted your capacity for grief;
- The chemistry of His love transmutes
- An outworn sorrow to a new delight.
- Even from this abyss, your degradation,
- He will uncover
- His gift of mystery purposed for your soul:
- For God the most joyous artist
- Adores to paint His beauty upon the rose,
- And God the tenderest Physician distills
- His healing medicine within the nameless herb.
Unity Among Individuals
Elizabeth P. Hackley
PERHAPS there is nothing in human experience more difficult to achieve than unity. We know how hard it is to keep the spirit of harmony continually with any one individual no matter how much we may love that person. This being true how much more difficult it is to achieve unity with persons for whom we have little love and understanding, who may have had a different training and environment from our own. We wonder why this difficulty exists, since we believe God has destined that man should achieve unity with his fellows. Probably it is because man has not yet reached his spiritual maturity. His spiritual qualities are just beginning to function, and it is these qualities of love, selflessness, and altruism which will prepare him to live with others in harmony.
One thing which stands in the way of unity is man’s ego.
Each individual has a tendency to feel himself superior to
others in his ideas and conduct. It is love more than any
other factor that can help to overcome this attitude. Love
makes us see the true worth in other people. It can even
make us humble before them. “Unity is love”, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
writes. “It can not be established without love. Therefore try
as far as possible to be filled with love.” (Star of the West,
Vol. VIII, p. 121) But this love must be of a high order; it
must be based on understanding. We can not have intelligent
love without understanding, and we can not have understanding
without knowledge. We must know a great deal about a
person before we can truly understand him. We must know his
background, his problems, his limitations and handicaps, as
well as his gifts. Only with such knowledge can we be fair
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in our judgment of him and give him intelligent love. So we
might say that knowledge of, and understanding of a person
strengthens our love, but we can also turn it around and say:
to love a person helps us to understand him. We know from
experience that we usually understand best the people we love
most. So there is a kind of interaction between love and understanding.
Humility too is an important quality in the realization of unity. In fact all spiritual qualities seem to have a part in the development of any one quality such as unity.
Although we think of love as the prerequisite for unity we soon realize that love on a personal level is not sufficient to guarantee it. There is a gulf between the souls of men. This fact has been recognized throughout the ages. There are many expressions in art and literature of man’s effort to bridge this gulf. Perhaps some of you have seen Lorado Taft’s beautiful sculptured group called “The Loneliness of the Soul”. The figures have their faces turned away from each other; only their fingers touch. In those clinging fingers there is the great desire for unity though their souls stand apart. Many years ago a great Bahá’í said something like this: The souls of men strain to reach across the gulf which separates them; sometimes it seems like a wall. Many things go to make up this wall, such as selfishness, egotism, and misunderstanding. Our very desire to surmount the wall seems to make it higher for we often seek unity with others for purely personal reasons. It is only when we turn away from ourselves and turn to God that we find a common meeting place. It is only in our love for God and for His divine qualities that we forget ourselves and our own limitations. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has written: “Real love is impossible unless one turn his face toward God and be attracted to His Beauty.” (Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 505)
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But it is not easy for most of us to turn to God because we
do not know where to find Him. We can not love Him because
He is not a living presence in our lives. Where then
can We seek Him? Bahá’ís believe that God is manifest in a
limited degree in all His creation but the fullest revelation
of His Spirit is found only in His Perfect Manifestation, the
High Prophet. In the past it was Moses, Christ, Muḥammad
and other Divine Messengers who brought this realization of
God to mankind. Today Bahá’ís believe that Bahá’u’lláh is
the channel of God’s grace and truth for our age; so we find
God by turning to Him.
Bahá’u’lláh tells us how we can attain unity by looking to the High Prophet. He says: “Beware lest ye prefer yourselves above your neighbors. Fix your gaze upon Him who is the Temple of God amongst men. He, in truth, hath offered up his life as a ransom for the redemption of the world. He is verily the All-Bountiful, the Gracious, the Most High. If any differences arise amongst you, behold Me standing before your face, and overlook the faults of one another for My Name’s sake and as a token of your love for My Manifest and Resplendent Cause. We love to see you at all times consorting in amity and concord within the Paradise of My good pleasure and to inhale from your acts the fragrance of friendliness and unity, of loving-kindness and fellowship. Thus counselleth you the All-Knowing, the Faithful. We shall always be with you; if We inhale the perfume of your fellowship, Our heart will assuredly rejoice, for naught else can satisfy Us.” (Gleanings, 315)
There are also certain practical ways of utilizing spiritual
laws to develop unity in our every day contacts. The most
effective of these methods is prayer. Between personalities
there is apt to be friction at times, but if people can pray together
a kind of miracle happens. We have all had experiences
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of this kind. In prayer the individual spirits and individual
wills are merged in the all-encompassing will and
love of God. Small personal differences melt away and the
love of God enters our hearts. When our hearts are overflowing
with devotion to God, all other things assume their
proper proportions in our lives, and we feel a great nearness
to other human beings.
But if people have not learned how to pray together, they can try to work together. Work done in the spirit of service is, according to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, a form of worship. If people try to work together for some cause greater than themselves, for some cause which has great material or spiritual value, they will be more forgetful of self and will more easily reach understanding and harmony with each other. Certain kinds of work by their very natures require close cooperation between the workers,—team work we sometimes call it. This training is very valuable to all of us both mentally, and spiritually. Even the war effort has yielded some benefits because it has forced people who may have little in common with each other, to work together.
Today the world is suffering and dying from lack of unity. Perhaps our efforts to develop harmony and good fellowship in our personal relationships will contribute a few drops of that salutary remedy so greatly needed to heal the sad sick body of humanity.
Awakening
Kathleen M. Runell
I HAD gone to be amused, stubborn, argumentative and completely skeptical. The Bahá’í Faith meant nothing to me, for I had never before heard the name. It was through a friend of mine—a Roman Catholic—that I stumbled upon this amazing truth, but of course I didn’t realize the truth at the time.
Always delighted at the opportunity of meeting someone different, even if a little peculiar (and I felt sure of this point), I went to the room of the Bahá’í teacher. There were a number of us present of varying age and type. We were all made to feel at once completely necessary to the happiness of the Bahá’í lady and were encouraged to make ourselves as much at home as possible in the limited confines of an hotel room. I followed this lead as much as my inherited British instincts would permit me, and decided to at least be comfortable even if I definitely would not agree with a thing the instructress said.
She began to talk. She read a little and then she talked again. She was seated the while on a low stool so that we could see every expression of her face and catch every inflection of her voice—a lovely face and a charming voice. Even I had to concede this much. Her talk continued in a soft unfaltering flow of words.
It was when she spoke of the unity of races and creeds
that I found myself sitting near the edge of my chair, but
when she talked of the equality of the Prophets I very nearly
fell off. You see, these had been unformed ideas in my own
mind since my adolescent days. They had caused me considerable
worry and misery because they didn’t line up with the
orthodox teachings with which I had been plied since childhood.
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To find that they held a grain of truth, and had been
put in writing by someone of tremendous authority was too
much to assimilate at one sitting.
At the conclusion of the gathering, I said a few words to the kind lady herself, and mentioned that my views and those she had spoken of seemed to be pretty much in tune. She offered to lend me one of her books but to my utter consternation refused to sell me one. Furthermore, and I had been waiting for this, she didn’t suggest that we could buy from her nice concise volumes at a very small cost, nor did she distribute the customary tracts, and what is more she didn’t take up a collection, in fact she wouldn’t have it if we offered it to her.
I wanted most desperately to get away by myself and mull over all these things. Eventually I did, and after a sleepless night began my study of the borrowed book (The New Era). I couldn’t leave it alone once I had started. With each succeeding chapter I knew more and more that I had found what I had sought for so long—Light!
Having discovered the light, what to do about it? Something must be done and quickly. Something was. Ten days after hearing for the first time the name Bahá’í', I signed a membership card. I was glad that this decision could be reached before the teacher went away, not only to give her pleasure in having found another recruit, but that she might, if she wished, laugh secretly at me, just as I had gone secretly to laugh at her.
WITH OUR READERS
WE ARE sharing with our readers this month excerpts from a letter from Flora Hottes, our pioneer in Bolivia. Although written several months ago, these paragraphs will help us understand our Bolivian friends and draw us nearer to our pioneer:
“At this cool height progress of many kinds is comparatively slow, although this country and city are seeing an awakening which it is enheartening and inspiring to witness and to share. Outsiders who have been here for ten years or less say that the development is wonderful, even if it might seem gradual. In the same way the consolidation of the Cause here may appear very deliberate.
“The first Bahá’í in Bolivia was Yvonne de Cuellar, whose great enthusiasm and capacity have made her a spiritual dynamo for quickening other minds and souls. The next three Bahá’ís were personal friends of hers, two of whom Mrs. Adler met in her home. By now many people here have heard the Message, and are continuing to hear it—not only those who were contacted last year, but constantly new persons, whom we meet, talk with, and give reading material. Some of those who already know of the Cause may be uninterested or even antagonistic to it now; others maintain an interest perhaps, albeit mild, and these we keep in touch with in a friendly way, and the teaching moves ahead by line and precept and is kept alive in their hearts. Everyone here testifies to the loveliness and charm of Elinor Adler and her devotion to the Cause which she served so well.
“There are people here who
have been forced from their own
lands, whose faith in the ideal,
long loved and served, is wavering.
To them the Faith speaks
a word of hope and courage;
there are people of intelligence
and vision who are sincerely trying
to raise the condition of the
indigenous races, and to them we
speak of the unity of humanity
and the great Bahá’í teaching of
education for all; there are
progressive women, usually educated
abroad, who, returning to
their country here, see the secondary
position of women, and rebel
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against it, and to them the Message
of Bahá’u’lláh for equality
of the sexes, is a reinforcement
of their belief; and there are
people who have studied Theosophy,
for whom the spiritual
beauty of the divine utterance
holds the accent of truth. I believe
somewhere in the writings
it is said that even the journeys
to and fro, if used for the sake
of the Cause, have their value.
And so, when we had the wonderful
opportunity of twice visiting Warisata,
the indigenous Indian
school out on the altiplano,
almost at the foot of giant
Illeampu, we spoke a little to the
fine principal and his wife who
are devoting their lives to this
really sacrificial work, and left
them copies of the New Era and
the Sabiduria in Spanish; and
then we also spoke to the gentleman
in charge of the government
department of indigenous education,
and gave him a New Era.
“We have made the acquaintance
of the public librarian, a
cultured person, have left him
some pamphlets, and shall go
again when the new Bahá’í
World arrives. We try to share
our Message rather than drive it,
for high pressure does not usually
make for a welcome a second
time, and South Americans are
more deliberate and less direct in
their approaches than we are.
One does not hurry them. And
one can see their point of view
when one remembers that too
often the northerner has had
some ax to grind either in or out
of sight. Organization is not
their fort as it is ours, but they
understand and appreciate the
language of sincere friendliness
and an interest in their country,
their customs and their future.
Group meetings are not as easy
or as profitable here as small
intimate gatherings over a cup of
tea. We Bahá’ís ourselves meet
every Monday afternoon for
study and discussion, and we all
feel that we need this spiritual
power-house for our own growth,
inner and outer. The life on
the outer plane may seem uneventful,
alternating between the
intense joy of serving, ever so
humbly, a Kingdom to come, and
the sadness that will come because
one realizes so greatly the
need, and one’s personal and
human inadequacies to meet it.
But then the hours of prayer
reinforce one with a strength
that never fails one, even though
one may fail it; this becomes the
reality of life, and one knows
beyond all doubt that the promises
will become actualities. One
only cries to God that the instrument
may grow constantly more
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worthy to transmit the waters of
life to the thirsty world. Pray
with us that this may be so.
• • •
William Kenneth Christian, who furnishes our leading article this month and whom we all know, is now living in Syracuse, N. Y. where he is teaching history in Syracuse University to some of our young draftees. He tells us that life there is very strenuous just now so that he has been obliged to be relieved from service on the regional committee where he has served so efficiently for a number of years.
Glenn Shook’s article entitled “Common Prayer” is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the changes in attitude in regard to prayer during the centuries. It also helps us to understand Bahá’í teachings in regard to prayer. Professor Shook teaches physics at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts and has long served the Bahá’í Cause with his writings, talks and in many ways. It is some time since we have printed one of his articles. The last previous one was “Science and the Open Mind” in our February, 1942, issue.
Elizabeth Hackley of Urbana, Illinois, sends us at intervals both prose and poetry. We think our readers will find that this contribution of Miss Hackley’s, “Unity Among Individuals” contains food for thought and for practice. In October, 1942, we published her paper entitled “The Purpose of Affliction”.
“Awakening” by Kathleen Runnell speaks for itself and for herself as a new believer in Edmonton, Alberta.
The compilation of “Prayers Revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá” is continued this month. The work of compiling was done by Mabel Hyde Paine with the thought of gathering together prayers especially suitable for use in meetings and for the general public.
“Greater Than Equality”, our editorial for this month, comes from the pen of Horace Holley.
We regret that through an oversight we did not mention the name of Sydney Sprague with the other contributors to the July number of World Order where his poem “O Blessed Door” was published. Older believers know Mr. Sprague as one of the early believers who made an historic teaching trip through India in 1905. An account of his experiences is contained in his book published a few years later. Mr. Sprague’s home is now in Los Angeles.
—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. 262 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
Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Inscribed Over the Nine Entrances of the House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois
1. THE EARTH IS BUT ONE COUNTRY, AND MANKIND ITS CITIZENS.
2. THE BEST BELOVED OF ALL THINGS IN MY SIGHT IS JUSTICE, TURN NOT AWAY THEREFROM IF THOU DESIREST ME.
3. MY LOVE IS MY STRONGHOLD; HE THAT ENTERETH THEREIN IS SAFE AND SECURE.
4. BREATHE NOT THE SINS OF OTHERS SO LONG AS THOU ART THYSELF A SINNER.
5. THY HEART IS MY HOME; SANCTIFY IT FOR MY DESCENT.
6. I HAVE MADE DEATH A MESSENGER OF JOY TO THEE; WHEREFORE DOST THOU GRIEVE?
7. MAKE MENTION OF ME ON MY EARTH THAT IN MY HEAVEN I MAY REMEMBER THEE.
8. O RICH ONES ON EARTH! THE POOR IN YOUR MIDST ARE MY TRUST, GUARD YE MY TRUST.
9. THE SOURCE OF ALL LEARNING IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, EXALTED BE HIS GLORY.